A Feast For Ben Butcher

Benjamin Michael Butcher was born on 1 July this year.A month later, the immediate family, joined by other relatives and friends, celebrated this occasion by gathering at the residence of one of Ben's grand-uncles. The must-have food for such joyous occasions is the red tortoise, or the ang ku in Fujian dialect (above image), which symbolises celebration, promise and longevity. The outer shape of this Straits Chinese delicacy has a mould that represents a round tortoise - and inside is a yellow bean mix you may recognise, once you bite into it.

Above: the savoury yam cake, garnished with fresh shallot rings, chili bits and deep fried garlic. It is best eaten with a chili sauce.

Below: Singapore styled chicken curry, with potatoes and kick, from one of Ben's grandmothers.

Below: More variety of sweet dessert time cakes.

Like during an Orthodox Christmas, hard boiled eggs are made with coloured shells to signify fertility in southern Chinese practice, adopted by immigrants to South-east Asia and beyond. These eggs are not consumed plain, they are accompanied by vinegar-soaked ginger condiments. (above)

Vinegar is also a main ingredient to marinate pork with fatty layers (below), a much yearned traditional Cantonese dish that does not get made much these days because of its cholesterol and health effects.

I found this delicious dark soy sauced stir fried noodles (above) at this party for Ben. Made famous by street vendors in the Chinatown heart of the Malaysian capital city of Kuala Lumpur, I first encountered this as a university student and actually ate it beside a stinking open drain - and despite that fact, I can recall it was truly tasty.

Newtown, Old Town

"Ghost Valley" was written in chalk on the pavement, reminiscent of "Eternity" in other parts of Sydney not too long ago. This was Newtown in Sydney on a rainy, windy and chilly night. The suburb is a unique haven of the blending of cultures, lifestyles, demographics, cuisines and village life. Many encountered scurrying in the rain are twenty something in age, but the range of bright and sunken eyes, glee or obsession, smartly dressed and down trodden, did make me wonder, what in Newtown attracts all this wide range of all sorts to gather here, not just for a meal, but also for a browse in a bookshop, do some late night wardrobe shopping, enjoy a chill out time at the cinemas and more.

The character of Newtown along its main thoroughfare of King Street can be decided by the nature of business or operation of the shopfront or facility.  In the evenings, schools tend to be in the shadows, restaurants are brightly lit and everything else can be in between.  We spotted an old familiar name of Prasits in  a Thai restaurant on the side leading to Wollongong - and I recalled the excellent quality of food served in the nineties from a well done two-storey place along Crown Street in Surry Hills in inner city Sydney.  This Prasits encountered at the end of the first decade of the new millennium was different - the food served tended to be sweet but still had a down-to-earth approach to customers like the original Prasits.

After a quick dinner, and when the bite of the night air had arrived outside, we amused ourselves with casual drop-ins to check out heritage hand me down pieces, sip organic coffee at a trendy joint, feel the atmosphere in the Kiwi Burger Fuel outlet and admire glassed up displays of knick-knacks and clothes.  The bricked-up side roads, alleyways and lanes added to an old London town charm, but what stood out were the modern concoctions of bookshops, poster retails and bright coloured shoes from the likes of Platypus.  In the passing human traffic, we encountered buffed up gym guys, lesbians proudly holding hands, office workers going for retail therapy, babes-in-the-arms of parents, Asian students, matronly types venturing out from other suburbs and middle aged couples who seemed to be on their first dates after the children have flown out of the nest.

I sensed an increase in the number of hairstylist shops along King Street. The cinema hub with surrounding cafes and book shops still thrived in vitality, and so was the human traffic coming out of the rail station. May be every type of European and Asian cuisine is represented in Newtown. If one can find street side parking, one is considered blessed.  Many patrons of the businesses there do live nearby within walking distance.  Newtown may have an old town feel but it has accommodated new trends and possibilities since the mid-nineties, adding to its continuing economic revival. The suburb may truly be a microcosm of the larger entity called Sydney. Tattoo parlours, old self-help laundries and quick takeaway cafes are giving way to fancy concepts. It may lack the night clubs, bars and music joints available in competing suburbs of Paddington and Darlinghurst, but you never know - Newtown's character even changes between day and night, and who knows what actually goes on in the hidden so-called ghost valleys away from King Street.

Childhood on Christmas Island

Lee Fong is fair-skinned and looked typically of southern Chinese origin, but little did I know at first her Christmas Island, Indian Ocean roots until she captivated us with accounts of her childhood and early teenage years. Having come from another tropical isle, Penang, I was soon caught up with vistas and vibes of her experiences on another isle where time seemed to stand still and where the rhythm of life was almost magical, compared to the pace demanded of the denizens of Australia's capital cities.

Foong talked about the Governor's residence on Christmas Island, a usual focal point of authority and elegance in most far flung British colonies, a symbol of London's presence occupied by a distinguished government servant. What caught my imagination better was the episode when a cousin sister had her
boat swaying on heavy ocean waves, the contraption pitted against the nearby rock faces and how Fong and her sibling atop the cliffs could sense the rising risk and danger below.  Fong reminded  us that her parents did not know of this particular incident. Those on the land side did eventually rescue their relatives floating on the turbulent sea.

There were so many bright red crabs prowling on the land, that no human being on Christmas Island could avoid, and which many took for granted. It was a pitiful sight when many of such crustaceans found themselves inevitably overturned, stuck in a position that neither meant forward not backward.  I was reminded of lemmings and the instinctive push to migrate and cross over the path of others.  Fong reiterated that these crabs did not look attractive enough to be eaten by humans, but what a spectacle they caused intruding on to compounds, houses and roads.

Christmas Island is also a transit point for migrating birds flying between the Australian sub-continent and the varied landscapes of South-east Asia.  This made me finally realise why the place had so much phosphate reserves - it was the biggest travel terminal in the life cycle of such winged creatures. An isle in the middle of seemingly nowhere, it still held a strategic role not just for those travelling by air, but also for humans venturing out south from India and Indonesia. Now we know why this island played a role in recent times in the arrival, containment and processing of human boat cargo trying to reach Australia.

Foong has long migrated to the suburbs of Perth, having gone to attend senior high school there, plucked away from the relatively carefree days under coconut palms and a sense of real adventure.  She does recognise that her parents had to work hard, but as part of the group of children then, it was an enjoyable time of life, to soak in the salty air of ocean breezes, equatorial rainy downpours and a whole world to explore after school hours.  Do children in the suburbs of Australian conurbations really have a better life?

Delicacies of the Straits Chinese

This glutinous rice based dessert (above), with the fanciful name of pulut tai tai, is dyed with the natural colours of the butterfly pea flower petals (bunga telang), to produce an overall pleasing marine blue effect, before applying an egg-based coconut flavoured jam, called kaya, to spread over the savoury pieces. Also refer to image below, foreground.

The diverse and delectable variety of kueh from the Peranakan or Straits Chinese tradition.

With demands in attention to detail, emphasis on texture, presentation and making use of natural ingredients from home and garden, this cuisine requires lots of experience, practice and heart to produce palate sensations that demonstrate personal rigour, patience and art. Families from Malacca, Singapore, Penang, Medan and Phuket now have members spread out across a diaspora across the main Anglo-Celtic nations of the United Kingdom, New Zealand, Australia, the United States of America and Canada, which now may serve as the next possible vehicles to continue this cuisine.

The seri muka, or literally smooth face, an afternoon dessert that is cut to bite -sized slices when served. The resulting slices have a white underlay beneath the thinner green top, and reminds one of flavours wrung from the pandanus leaves common in the equatorial belt. The image above was taken from the kitchen of Susan Chan in Carlingford, Sydney.

Tapioca-based savoury cakes, or the chu chu kueh, is best relished with a crunchy top over a moist body, and best complimented with Chinese tea. The above image shows the chu chu kueh courtesy from the kitchen of Susan Chan in Carlingford, Sydney.

Influenced heavily by the Malay denizens of South -east Asia, and rooted steeply in Chinese and Indian immigrant traditions, this cuisine covers all stages of the meal cycle in a home, from breakfast to dinner. The nasi lemak of Straits Chinese inspiration is modified from its Malay cousins. Although the coconut milk flavoured white fluffy rice continues to be the foundation of this dish, the Straits Chinese chose a lighter approach to accompany the rice - instead of curries, we now have lightly toasted peanuts, fresh cuts of cucumber, crunchy anchovies, hard boiled eggs, aromatic fried pieces of crispy fish and the compulsory dash of chili and lime juice enhanced condiment called the sambal.

The kow chan kueh (above) or nine-layered cake, is essentially made of rice flour, and topped off with pink and orange-red colouring, lovingly set with coconut milk and flavoured with knotted pandan leaves. This cake brings particularly poignant memories to me of growing up and living on Penang Island.

The yogurt cake (above) may look on first impressions to be a cousin of the jelly cake (below) , but requires ingredients of instant coffee and cocoa.

An Australian Market Day

The tropical jackfruit - above.

Image above - organic bananas on offer.

Image above - Lebanese cucumbers.

Image above - Aussie-grown paw paws.

The sights above were captured at Belconnen Markets on a winter's day in the Australian Capital Territory on 18 July 2010.