Shantou Synergy - Life at the Grassroots

The Monkey King is popular.   China followed a one child policy for many decades until this was changed in 2016.

The Gu Chai Kueh or dumplings with chives.  Chinese cuisine consists of eight main regional flavours, with Guangdong; Shandong;  Beijing;  Anhui and Fujian;  Sichuan and Hunan; Zhejiang; and Jiangsu.   Teochew culinary dishes are a sub-set of the Guangdong tradition.

Sunday morning at the park, beside the thoroughfare of Hai Pin Lu.   Shantou enjoys a coastal climate and is geographically close to Hong Kong in Southern China.    The Tropic of Cancer crosses just north of the city.

The iconic fish balls.   Fishcakes, bean sprouts, lettuce and noodles often make a yummy piping hot soup, popular in Singapore, Thailand, Malaysia and Cambodia as well.

The Carousal ride at the Shipaotai or Stone Fort Park.

Goose liver slices at dinner time.   The Lion Head goose variety is much appreciated here for roasting and steaming.

The classic Orh Lua or oyster omelette, with which tapioca starch is utilised to bind the eggs and raw oysters.  Other iconic dishes are the Chai Tau Kueh, a savoury stir fried white radish and rice flour cake, served with eggs, bean sprouts, soy sauce, spring onions and dried shrimp;  the Orh Nee or taro paste dessert; the Kueh Chap, a savoury mix of flat and broad rice noodles, dark soy sauce, braised duck meat, various bean curd slices, pig intestines and slices of preserved eggs;
the Mee Pok, stirred with sauce, mushrooms, dumplings, minced pork and garnish;  the Kiam Chai Ark Thng, duck served in a soup with tomatoes, preserved plum and vegetables; and the Ngo Hiang, deep fried spring rolls with a dash of five spice powder, minced pork and crab or prawns wrapped in a bean curd wrap.

Some thing I have never come across at lunch  - can some one please let me know what this is.

At the river front.   This promenade also has an interesting display of stone creatures, pavilions, ships and fishing boats along the walk path.

Street vendor all dressed up!

Chicken ready to be bought at the Shantou wet markets.

https://kindlyyours.blogspot.com.au/2017/02/shantou-synergy-markets.html

Summer Garden Food Bistro Penang

Salted fish curry with veg and Tofu puffs.

Jee Hoo Char - that veg and cuttle fish combination that is easy to eat but more challenging to make.

Prawns marinated in tamarind juice before deep frying.

Summer Garden is located at 2 Lorong Lembah Permai 3, at the corner with the Vale of Tempe Road, Tanjung Bungah, Penang island.
Opening hours are from 11am to 11pm every day.
Contact   +604 890 0977

The restaurant offers a bar and a varied menu, including Japanese, Western and Straits Chinese dishes.

Wollongong and the Illawarra Coast - Perspectives in Art

The Lake Illawarra, from another era.

Lee & Me, along lower Crown Street, Wollongong city centre.

That lighthouse!  Wollongong Harbour NSW.

Wentworth Street, Port Kembla NSW.

Pool by the ocean, Austinmer NSW.

Coastal walk, a lifestyle choice.

Belmore Basin and the escarpment, Wollongong NSW.




The art pieces are copyright of their owners and creators.  You can view them in March 2017 at the Wollongong Art Gallery, at 46 Burelli Street, at the corner with Kembla Street.

Europe's Migration Challenge and Opportunity

The islands of Greece lie as close as only five kilometres from the shores of Bodrum peninsular in western Turkey. The typical price paid to people smugglers is USD 1200 to arrange passage to cross this divide.  2015 and 2016 witnessed a huge movement of people, mostly ordinary folks, escaping the continuing and unresolved conflict in Syria.   However, there have been individuals and families from the north western corner of the Indian sub-continent, sub-Saharan Africa, the Middle East and Central Asia all joining the persistent urge to get into Europe through difficult physical, regulatory and health conditions.    

In the biggest movement of people not seen since the end of the second World War last century, Germany, Sweden and Italy accept most applications to stay, with Romania the least.   Increasingly there is an emphasis to differentiate refugees from other migrants when deciding on acceptance by Germany. Many of these people on the move last year may not have validated identity documents with them, but most of them have cell phones with which they could communicate with relatives and friends already settled in the West.

There have been so many unselfish acts by German families voluntarily inviting refugee families to share their homes for several days instead of having to live on the streets.

A Gallup poll in 2016 indicated that as high as 13 per cent of Earth's human population would like to move to another country, especially to the USA.    The benefits to a receiving nation are offsetting declining population in the host country, fostering innovation and boosting entrepreneurship.

The flow of such migrants is so obviously skewed and headed in one way, to Western societies. It has been rare for Asian, South American, Central American and Eurasian nations putting up their hand to accept such migrants.

The second half of 2015 witnessed the beginning of masses of human beings literally and desperately walking for long distances in south-eastern Europe to their hoped for destinations, despite fences, prejudice and fatigue.

WhatsApp and Google maps have been guiding stars in the 21st century version of the exodus. The smart phone recharger has turned out to be critical when making this journey.

Many are just children, who increasingly made this sojourn alone without family. Casualties have included the drownings of would be migrants crossing the seas between Libya and Italy or Malta, and between the Turkish coast and Greek isles.

Those making this trek westwards are not only from Iraq and Syria, but also from Pakistan, Iran, Eritrea and Afghanistan. The risks have culminated in one tragic image last September, when the world learnt of the drowning of three year old Alan Kurdi, whose body, bereft of a life vest, washed ashore on a Greek beach. In reality, many family members have not made it despite having paid their borrowed or saved monies to smugglers arranging their illegal transit to Europe.

Overcrowding of boats, money lost to fraudulent people smugglers, dramatic separation of family members and having to leave everything behind of the past add to the tensions and dangers for such controversial migrants.

Many of those from Syria are well educated. Yet an individual on the migrant trek was later involved in committing the horrendous killings in the November 2015 attacks on the streets of Paris, when around 120 innocent people were shot and killed.

Turkey currently hosts the largest number of refugees, around 1.9 million. One of every four persons residing in Lebanon is a refugee from Syria.   The demographic background of refugees in this recent movement not only belong to the Muslim cohort, but include people of different faiths.


An immediate impact on the social-political landscape of several members of the European Union has been the rise of parties looking inwards and moving towards the political far right in popular sentiment and pressure.    This has also weakened the bonds between nations in the EU, especially after the still unresolved question of financial debts chalked up by some members and the increasing incompatibility of different rates of economic maturity amongst such member states.

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Penang Island - Outside George Town

The making of the Kueh Kapek  - traditional craft in preparing one of Penang's most liked festive snacks.

The winding and narrow road past the beaches did not seem to be so potentially treacherous now.  However, I could still smell, in my mind, the diesel belching form the Hin Bus Company coach of old, with the driver turning his steering wheel non-chalantly as scenery whizzed by of forested slopes and solid rocks half submerged in the calm sea side below.   That was many years gone by.  Today, in a more stable automobile, we could see residential houses on the deforested hills, although the seaside looked quiet as usual.   


We were outside the metropolitan limits of George Town on Penang Island.  I know of more mates moving out here on the island's north-eastern corner from its southern suburbs.   The beach resorts at Foreigner's Rock or Portuguese Rock look dated, the significant impact of unforgiving tropical weather showing as mould on its outer walls.   Several generations of Europeans, Japanese and Aussies - to name a few - had taken the ritual of lying on the sand and deck chairs in such surrounds.   I recall young blue eyed and blonde haired couples walking in a romanticised sunset below the casuarina trees.

Striking wall mural, one that emphasises village livelihood in the regional hub of Balik Pulau, on the western side of Penang Island.

So now there are some new sea water activities -  Escape - to feed the abilties and daring of newer generations, apart from all those tired and tried parasailing and rafting recreational options.   I wondered as to what the quality of those waters are these days.  Cruise ships can be seen on the horizon, but the local fishermen's boats do still hang around and are being used, albeit less and less.     The Penang Channel between Butterworth and Weld Quay ports on the island is surely and gradually silting up  - and the Government is helping accelerate this by making more land reclamations accordingly.

We stopped at a durian stall round a bend on the round island road and I did not regret this.

   Having eaten mostly frozen durians from Thailand for the past 20 years, it was a rare treat to dive into the fresh custard like flesh of the opened fruit.   A boisterous and engaging lady  said this was an off season harvest.   The durian is a tricky option - you either love it or not, there is no assurance of the contents of this football sized King of Fruits and there are so many breed varieties these days.   They say Malaysian grown durians are much more rewarding in taste and texture than those form Thailand, but they are also priced more.

The hills of central island grace the edge of the Kek Lok Si Temple complex in Air Itam.

People from George Town may still view Balik Pulau (literally the "Back of the Island") as a remote hideaway, but when I am used to Australian distances in travel, this town is much of a pleasure to me, retaining some of the rustic lifestyle and much of its charm.   


There is a central area in this former village, where the main road towards Air Itam Village (in the centre of Penang Island) and  another heading south-east going towards the Airport, merge.    Here you find the markets, huge wall murals, the unique Penang laksa ( available in both tamarind juice and creamy coconut milk versions) and more.    I had omitted to call a friend from Queensland who hailed from here and she found out from Facebook that I had visited her home base.

Going down the start of the world's steepest funicular railway at Penang Hill.    Doppelmayr-Garaventa of Switzerland built these cabins,as it did for the Rapid Transit of San Francisco Bay and the Liner Transit of Las Vegas.

Penang Hill is, and has been always, close to my heart.   I put it on par with my experiences on my first really exotic tropical island, Phuket, in southern Thailand.  As we sat on an electric buggy driven by an Indian guy,  my memories rose up and all those adolescent days spent up this hill station filled my inner joy.   The gangling class mates  and I all growing up, with misty evenings on the patio of a bungalow, or walking amongst the monkey cups and cool shade of hill top flora.   There were moments of discovery, bonding, laughter, self managed cooking and chatting late into the night.  Guitar strumming filled the air whilst we looked at the city below which began to show their man made lights.....something akin to what I can do these days on top of Mount Keira looking out over the Wollongong coast.


I recalled how we dragged food and other supplies from down town up to various Penang Hill bungalows.    In those days, the slower speed funicular train (still Swiss made)  did stop for passengers, by prior arrangement, at footpaths and lanes leading nearest to your bungalow of stay.   There were those cooks and staff resident in those houses, mostly of Hainan descent.  I can still see those pantry shelves, wardrobe doors and bed frames, always made of wood, suggesting of ghost infested stories and cool temperature evenings.  

Detail for tall pillar supporting roof of the pavilion honouring the Goddess of Mercy.

There was a group of wide eyed and eager young men, hailing from Europe and Brazil, who were with us on same carriage of the funicular train.   One of them said visiting Penang Hill was on the bucket travel list for them.  We saw them again at the nearby significant and huge temple complex built on the foothills  - Kek Lok Si, or the Temple of Supreme Bliss.   This complex is smaller than Angkor Wat in Cambodia but is a unique institution and place to visit in south-east Asia.  It was developed over forty years from 1890.


Visitors are left behind with impressions of unique archways, pagodas, ambient halls, shrines and gardens.    A ninety-nine foot bronze representation of the Goddess of Mercy (Kuan Im) was completed in 2002 and is located just above the main temple area.   A pavilion was built as well supported by sixteen columns.  The Goddess therefore overlooks George Town and Penang island, looking towards the peninsular mainland.


The other captivating feature of the Kek Lok Si is a seven storey pagoda - the Ban Po Thar or Ten Thousand Buddhas.   If you study this pagoda carefully, you can see that the octagonal base has Chinese features, the middle portion is Thai and the spiral dome has Burmese architectural characteristics.  The foundations for this pagoda was laid by the Thai King Rama VI.     I recall a movie or two  had location shooting in this complex when I was growing up in Penang.   George Town itself had streets transformed for the shooting of movies such as "Beyond Rangoon" and "Anna and the King".    Penang Hill was selected to represent Simla in northern India in the mid 20th century for the UK television series "Indian Summers".
 

To me, one of the best moments was looking over the ramparts near the Pavilion of the Goddess of Mercy, taking in the sea breeze and soaking in the views from the hills to the Penang Channel.

Lemak Laksa, Thai influenced and with more coconut milk than tamarind juice.Can be a healthy dish as it contains shredded fish, herbs and spices.

So there you have it, it was a wonderful experience for me re-visiting some of the highlighted places outside the city centre.   It takes about a day and you are transported from suburbs to seaside, hills and forests, before you return to a hill station and a cultural icon to wind up the day.   We did not stop at the Spice Plantations, useful for viewing in person a collection of the main spice and tropical herb plants in the world.  Nor did we take the bush walking trail past forest, swamps and lagoon to have a taste of an equatorial island landscape.   


During the durian harvesting season (June and early July in Penang), many visitors participate in the durian trail, stopping by at plantations and eating a variety of durian types and hybrids.    The role of nutmegs has not always been emphasised in the development of Penang commerce  - and you need not go to the Caribbean to view such trees.    The name of the island itself is based on the betel nut, though christened by the British colonists as the Prince of Wales Island.

Durian fruit off season at a roadside stall on the way to Balik Pulau.