My mother's favorite Penang dessert (and mine too!)

The famous Swatow Lane ais kacang
that's got far more than just
ais (ice) and kacang (bean(s)) in it!

Greetings again. I'm actually now back in Hong Kong and *sob* in just a little more than 12 hours, I have to get back to work once more. But knowing that some people are eagerly awaiting photos of Penang food... well, I know there's just one photo in this entry but hope that it -- and this blog post as a whole -- satisfies for a time at least!

When my mother was a schoolgirl, she took to patronizing a particular hawker's stall whose offerings included quintessential Malaysian treats known as ais kacang (in Malay) or ang tau s'ng (in Hokkien) -- either way, it literally translates = "ice bean(s)! -- in Penang (but air batu campur (ABC for short; literally translated = "ice mix") in such as Kuala Lumpur) and ice ball(s) over in Swatow Lane.

She continued to go there to get icy treats during her working days and over the years, introduced her husband, children and many friends to the delights of eating at that particular stall whose offerings are particularly appreciated on hot, thirst-inducing days.

Even in the time that I've known it, the stall has undergone quite a few changes. For one thing, the two uncles who I first encountered manning the stall have passed away as well as passed on their culinary talents to a new generation of that family whose expertise has actually seen them representing Penang at food fairs in Singapore, Adelaide (the twin city of George Town, Penang's capital) and elsewhere. For another, its location has moved from one side of Swatow Lane to another and most recently into the New World Park Hawker's Centre (located on the site of a former amusement park whose attractions included striptease queen Rose Chan).

Fortunately, amidst all these changes, I haven't detected any significant decrease in the quality of its colorful specialty dish... whose integral ingredients are a small mountain of shaved ice (that melts really quickly) coated with syrup (rose is the norm but the Swatow Lane stall also has a sarsi (aka sasparilla) option), underneath which lies some kidney-type red beans mixed with sweetened sweet corn and cincau (black grass jelly).

Many people like a further topping of sweet condensed milk on the shaved ice but my mother and I are not fans of that. At the same time, I'm about the only person I know who likes an extra topping of bananas in the mix. Furthermore, I looove that the Swatow Lane ais kacang also counts atap chee (palm fruit seeds) among its ingredients -- and reckon that when taken as a whole, you've got a pretty cool (in more ways than one) culinary combination that I like best during the part of the day that the British and Anglophiles like to reserve for afternoon tea! ;b

Here In My Home

The 22nd Malaysian Film Festival awards ceremony were held last night, with Talentime up for eleven prizes. Unlike Sepet, the bitter-sweet inter-ethnic romance that majorly contributed towards making Yasmin Ahmad a household name in her home country, it was named Best Film. However, it finally garnered the late filmmaker the Best Director prize that eluded her in previous years, even that which saw her offer up the sublime Mukhsin.

For many of her fans, including myself, the award feels like "too little, too late". Still, better late than never, I suppose. And I really hope that the country's powers and denizens alike will remember what Yasmin Ahmad stood for along with her creations -- all of which offered up a vision of a Malaysia which all of its citizens can truly feel they belong in as well as are proud and privileged to be a part.

As a reminder of that vision, here's a music video that she co-directed with fellow Malaysian filmmaker Ho Yuhang (whose admirable Rain Dogs she had a Cantonese-speaking role; and who also appeared in a Malay-speaking role in Yasmin's Mukhsin!):-



Entitled Here In My Home (what I was tempted to entitle my previous post...), the song's written by Pete Teo, who also produced the music video. Made as a project by a group of Malaysian Artistes For Unity, featured performers include individuals whose faces will be familiar to those who've watched Yasmin's movies... and, also, a smiling Yasmin herself.

Seeing Yasmin in that video is, to say the least, a bitter-sweet experience capable of evoking smiles as well as tears. Just like pretty much all of her work, actually. So once again, I have to say (write): thank you, Yasmin. And may you rest in peace.

Home in Penang

Penang town scene (complete with blue skies,
low buildings and a narrow road laden with
private vehicles -- in other words, one that's
a far cry from that of Hong Kong's in so many ways!

Greetings still from Penang! As some of this blog's regular readers have already surmised, the primary reason why I've returned to my home state for a short visit is to see for myself how my mother's doing. Thus far, I have to say -- touch wood but so far, so good. In fact, my mother appears to be doing better than I dared to have hoped: not only eating well and but also fit enough to do such as go on short walks (up to four short circuits around the neighborhood as of yesterday) each evening.

One activity that she rues still being unable to do though is to drive a car. Unlike Hong Kong, private cars are what you really need to get around town in a part of the world with a much vaunted highway system but whose public transportation is neither considered reliable nor "prestigious" enough for most people to want to make use of. (I've taken to trying to count the numbers of taxis and buses I pass by whenever I travel around town but many a time, I don't spot even a single taxi or bus on a car ride from one place to another!)

The truth of the matter, though, is that whenever I return to Penang these days, I actually spend the bulk of my time back within the confines of my family home -- almost only venturing out to do such as go foraging for good food (and, to be fair, also to book stores -- as for all of it often seeming like a kampung (Malay for village) relative to Hong Kong, it actually does have a wider range of English language books on sale than "Asia's World City").

One way of looking at it is that it goes to reason that I'm a homebody in my home state. Another less cheery way to view the way things are, however, is that what with my having spent more years outside of than in Penang, there often can feel as though there's not much left for me here besides family. On a more positive note, accentuated no doubt by my parents' presence here, Penang is a place where I can go home to "chill", de-stress and relax for a bit before returning to the hustling, bustling, fast-paced Hong Kong -- whose pulsating energy usually invigorates but also can, admittedly, occasionally drive one to exhaustion!

Low (This week's Photo Hunt theme)

As regular visitors to this blog know, I enjoy hiking in Hong Kong. Since one of my criteria for selecting the hiking trails I go on is that they show me a different part of the Big Lychee from where I've previously been, I tend not to hike in the same area more than once -- with one notable exception: Tai Tam Country Park on Hong Kong Island; which is not only conveniently accessed from where I live but, also (as I trust that this week's Photo Hunt photos show) has some truly beautiful sections to boot (including around its reservoirs).

More specifically, this week's pair of Photo Hunt photos are of the bridge over a river near the Tai Tam Byewash Reservoir that I've walked over on one hike and spied on two different others. The first time I did so, it was during the dry, winter season; whereas the two subsequent spottings have been during the current wet, summer season. Consequently, whereas the water level is still on the low side in the second (and later) photo, with a few feet to go before the water would reach to the top of the bridge, it still is markedly lower in the first (and earlier) photo.

All told, what a difference a few rainy months and inches of water can make! Still, either way, the combination of bridge, water and green surroundings do make for a pretty sight, don't you think? :b

Polyglot Penang

A commercial establishment in Penang that,
as can be seen by its signage, caters to
a clientele that speaks Malay, Tamil,
at least one Chinese dialect or English

A joke about languages I heard some years back goes like this: "What's someone who speaks three languages called?" "Tri-lingual." "What about someone who speaks two languages?" "Bi-lingual." "How about someone who speaks only one language?" "American!"

Although Hong Kong is a predominantly Cantonese-speaking society, one also can get by in Asia's World City knowing just English. At the same time, and increasingly, one hears Mandarin being spoken on the street, in MTR trains and stations and elsewhere by people ranging from tourists to business folks.

Still, for all of the Big Lychee also being home and work place for a diversity of linguistic groups (including those whose ancestors hail from Shanghai, Swatow and elsewhere in China besides the Pearl River Delta, India, Nepal, Britain, Australia, the Philippines, Indonesia, Japan and elsewhere), it still can make for a shock to return home to Penang -- where I'm currently visiting for a week -- and see a truly multi-lingual (as well as -cultural) society in glorious action.

On a visual level, there are all these commercial signs in different languages (and scripts). And even though the road signs tend to only be in the national language, the names on them (e.g., Lebuh Macalister (Macalister Road), Jalan Ramanathan (Ramanathan Road) and Jalan Lim Lean Teng (Lim Lean Teng Road)) bear witness to Penang's history being multi-lingual and -ethnic.

But whereas written forms often stand separate from one another, the ears will discern how poly-lingual and -glot things really can get over in this part of the world. For one thing, Penangites tend to be like other Malaysians in having a tendency -- propensity even -- to switch languages mid-conversation (sometimes even mid-sentence).

For another, what with Penang being an Hokkien majority state -- in fact, the only such linguistic entity -- in Malaysia, it is quite likely that ethnic Malay, Indian (usually Tamil but also such as Sikh or Ceylonese) and Eurasian Penangites can and will converse with an ethnic Hokkien Penangite in Hokkien as well as the more usual (in Malaysia) Malay or English.

Thus it is that if the joke I told at the beginning of this entry were told about Penangites, it'd have to be reversed -- except since a fair few Penang folks actually know more than "just" three languages, it'd have to go as follows: "What's a person who knows one language called?" "Mono-lingual." "Two languages?" "Bi-lingual". "Three or more languages?" "Penangite"... ;b

From Shek Pik Reservoir to Tai O, Part III (Photo-essay)

I hiked some 20 kilometers from Shek Pik Reservoir to Tai O back in February 22. (And, for the record: yes, it's the longest hike I've embarked on in Hong Kong to date.) A lot has happened since then. And a lot has happened as well since I put up my second photo-essay of that hike just a little over two weeks ago. But, finally, here's the third -- but not yet final! -- photo-essay chronicling that hike; one which effectively chronicles part of the route, albeit in reverse, that makes up Stage 7 of the Lantau Trail (which, more than incidentally, is relatively flat yet listed as "very difficult"!):-

Before anything else: here's another look at
part of what remains of Fan Lau Fort

A view of part of Fan Lau Fort and
the surrounding area that I got
as I sat and had my lunch that day

The Fan Lau Peninsula also is home to
a Tin Hau temple -- one, alas, that we didn't visit
but, instead, only saw from up hill

This is Hong Kong? Yes, indeedy --
its southwestern corner, to be exact!

I wasn't kidding when I said that the air cleared
and things got brighter and more beautiful
as we went along the hike that day! :)

The last of that day's mist lying over a hill top

A shrine in Fan Lau Sai Wan that is far more
approachable from the sea than land -- and which
I suspect was established, and remains
largely patronized, by local fisher folk

Even in this remote part of Hong Kong, there are
signs of civilization and continued inhabitation

To be continued -- at least once more!

Entertainment (This week's Photo Hunt theme)

If you read the About Me section on this blog, you'll find that being a Hong Kong film fanatic and culture vulture are pretty high on my descriptive list. And for all the derogatory talk that Hong Kong cinema is dying (well, yes, it's not currently experiencing a golden age but it really does still make, and is the setting for, more movies than a territory the geographic size of Rhode Island and the population size of North Carolina has a right to!) and Hong Kong being a cultural desert, I really do think that there's a lot of entertainment of a cinematic and cultural nature to be had in the Big Lychee.

As an example, last weekend's activities included my viewing two movies (one current and one at the Hong Kong Film Archive) and also attending the A Cross-Rhythms Concert at the University of Hong Kong's Loke Yew Hall that featured percussion performances by an African drumming master, an Indonesian gamelan troupe and a Korean percussion group, among others.

While the performances were enjoyable enough, the icing to the cake (and why I chose this particular event to highlight for this week's Photo Hunt) was the event's venue. A friend who is more culture vulture than film fan complains that it's acoustics are not great.

I see his point but don't care too much because of its Lust, Caution connection. Put another way, it turns such as attending a trans-cultural concert into yet more confirmation that I really do live in Movie Mecca... ;b