24 Hours In Kuching; Food, Work And Politics Abound!

I was in Kuching on a slightly more than 24 hour visit on company business last week. One great thing about being in the Retail business is the food culture that you could immerse yourself in as part of work! Actually, anytime also can makan la, but the obese need excuses...

The above green house, known literally as Rumah Hijau, is a Cafe where we had lunch at, enjoying a nasi lemak Ayam Penyek, followed by Roti Pisang Coklat, hence having a taste of both Malay and Neo-Indian cuisine in Kuching. l already had my Laksa Sarawak fix for Breakfast and was 'forced' to enjoy a variety of barbecued meats at the Carvery at Abel Hotel the night before! I was well and assuredly stuffed even before the seafood dinner (with sayur bilin) that was my send off!

In the midst of all this food, and of course quite a bit of work, I did discover that TMI's Jahabar Sadiq was also wrong in his shortlist of items troubling DS Najib Tun Razak into postponing PRU13. He forgot the Pehin Sri Abdul Taib Mahmud departure, or rather continued hold on power, issue! This is very much in the forefront of many Sarawakian minds and with the 'fixed deposit' potentially already 8 Parliamentary seats short, should this not be a worry?

(Actually, I was also surprised that Jahabar's list was so short with 5 items... and with one item being not too important really to the common electorate. Perhaps further evidence of his writting being conjecture more than insider!)

One would have hoped with his 'Besan' or In-Law, Tan Sri George Chan's departure from the leadership of the Sarawak United People's Party (SUPP) that PS Taib would busy planning a cruise with his old school-chum. Unfortunately, PS Taib is instead rumoured to have been meddling in the SUPP elections, not favouring current President DS Peter Chin, and then rumpured to be active in 'other ways' too. Maybe it's the new wife?

Anyway, it was a good, fruitful, 24 hour trip... 

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Discovering A Lighter (Cooler?) Side To A Leader In Muar

I just came back from Muar following a company Chinese New Year do that was held at an excellent venue called Oasis in Jorak, near Bukit Pasir (GO SOUTH!!!). For safety' sake and as giving my wife a rare overnight break from the kids is a great idea, whether she agrees or not, I talked my wife into staying on for the night after the event.

It turned out to be a great idea, not so much due to the limited shopping or sightseeing that could be done at 8pm when we came back to Muar from the event, and only partly from the extra sleep my wife enjoyed. What turned the trip from good to great was us being introduced to the famous Mee Bandung Abu Hanifah and what locals call 'cendol TPM'.

Each has a story, but as with any Malaysian stories involving food, the Mee Bandung, eaten with Satay, FOR BREAKFAST(!), OK, OK, maybe it was late enough for it to be brunch, was just plain GREAT! Check out the picture and validate why don't you! Look out anyone going to Muar! However the story related to me on the cendol by our area company rep was even better!

Cendol TPM is actually an unpretentious, anonymous, stall near the Mee Bandung place. The owner of the stall dishes out cendol efficiently but is famously equally sour-faced to all his customers. The owner gets away with this of course for the only reason Malaysians would tolerate a sourpuss cendol man, his cendol is GREAT, or so my wife would testify. I don't take cendol due to obesity...

Anyway, his attitude probably explains why there are no photos to verify local legends, that our TPM, TS Muhyiddin Yassin, loves this guy's cendol so much, that he would do a short stop by this roadside and sit on the bench slurping down cendol any time he gets to swing by Muar town! Or so our area rep swears to have witnessed himself.

Thought it worth sharing not just so more can try out the cendol, but lighter stories of our many storied leaders are cool to share, for many reasons... and it much cooler when it isn't 'manufactured' for TV etc.

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Food War With Singapore? Long Overdue I Say...

I was rather pleased to see this bit of news today, at last, someone in our government has decided to go to war with Singapore on something really important... their incessant claiming of bits of our most Malaysian and beloved cultural heritage, FOOD! And just because the same someone then seemingly chickened out, doesn't mean the rest of us should lay down arms!

Malaysians don't really mind seeing our cuisine being showcased all over the world, and very often confused with not just Singaporean, but Indonesian, Hong Kong, Indian, hell, even Australian fusion cuisine these days! In fact, Malaysians rather pragmatically enjoy the idea of getting half-decent copies of the original at least in these countries. And the Singaporean copies are at least spelled correctly in the menu!

What we do mind is when people rather blatantly go around claiming our food is theirs! I mean, I get it, Singapore doesn't really have much of its own culture, but there seems to be a section of its society that just feels a massive enough inferiority complex that it has to proclaim much of other cultural heritages their own. Pretty hard to 'sapu' the culture of other neighbours... besides, they are bigger and are more 'aggressive'. So, why not steal a bit more from Malaysia!

Unfortunately, Singapore is not very good at this 'sapu' business. Unlike the Australians or indeed the Americans, who do also 'sapu' a lot, Singaporeans are a bit inept at the innovation needed to make borrowed heritage their own! I don't see any Arabs upset over the very Australian Sticky Date Pudding. And I also find it silly when some Singaporeans claim food is not 'heritage', ask the English if Spotted Dick or even Stilton Cheese is not what they consider their heritage?

Then again, it was a Singaporean company that mistakenly presented a Balinese dance as a Malay Malaysian dance in the Discovery channel, resulting in the Indonesians getting all upset about us after all! What do you expect from a nation that apparently doesn't even appreciate how heritage permeates all that touches a community over its evolved anthropological history. And for Malaysians, food permeates EVERYTHING! Hmmm... maybe they are too young as a nation?

But enough with the Singapore bashing. Perhaps some evidence should be presented no? So, what better place than Wikipedia to showcase how blatantly our Malaysian food heritage is easily claimed to be 'Singapore Cuisine'. And this isn't bad... considering there is 'Ampang Yong Tau Foo', and many others, readily touted as Singaporean cuisine also in food channels by the ignorantly Singapore-educated global media!

Finally, whilst we pursue fair claims of our food heritage, let us nevertheless revel in the continued growth and superiority of Malaysian food... that is ever innovative and wondorous to the palate... even whilst others still try, and fail, to 'sapu' our golden oldies... enjoy surfing through friedchillies!