Tag: food

Staying competitive and popular at all times

Value for money :  Makes Chinese New Year celebrations more joyous.
Jan 19, 2023
By Foong Pek Yee
One big bottle of nga ku chips is priced at RM35, and a small bottle at RM15.
The big bottle has at least three times the amount of that of the  small bottle.
Roadside stall trader Loh See Hoi’s  sales pitch certainly resonates with discerning shoppers these days.
Festive snacks:  Varieties and  value for money.
At 75, Loh is brimming with enthusiasm as he goes about serving customers at his roadside stall in Tanjung Tualang New Village, Perak recently.
Hardworking :  Loh showing a laminated photo of him cooking  his famous sambal sauce at home in Gopeng Perak.
His core  business is homemade sauce and he has been in this business for over three decades.
He sells some snacks during festive seasons.
Loh says his  stall opens  on Saturday and Sunday – almost a 12 hour stretch starting about 9 am.
He says he  chose to set up stall in Tanjung Tualang New Village some 30 years ago as  the village -a haven for seafood dishes-  draws many tourists over weekends and public holidays.
 Tanjung Tualang is also known as Tiger Prawn Town.
On weekdays, Loh and his wife, in her 60s, are at home  in Gopeng, Perak preparing  their sauces.
“I have recipes for over 20 types of sauce,” he says, adding that he likes to experiment and come up with his own recipes.
A bottle of his popular sambal sauce is priced at RM10 .
While cost of doing business keeps going up, Loh says  quality goods and competitive pricing  help  keep business afloat .

Where chickens are free to roam

A day in the life of a healthy free range chicken.
By Foong Pek Yee
The chickens need to eat, move and sleep well.
Three meals a day,  exercise and a good night’s sleep is a must .
Free range chicken (zou di ji in Chinese) farmer Ling Kok Seng also known as  Chicken King, says customers can tell the difference when chickens are well bred.
The Chicken King : Ling Kok Seng is synonymous with quality free range chickens in Manjung, Perak.
The chicken meal  comprises corn and  chopped vegetables mixed with chicken feed.
He fenced up two acres 0f his four-acre oil palm holding for his chickens to roam all day long.
The chickens are released to  the fenced up area in the morning.
They are rounded up to a secured section in the evening to protect them from predators like wild boars at night.
While a two months old chicken is ready for the market, Kok Seng says he keeps his chickens for another month.
According to him, a three  months old chicken is at its prime – in terms of meat texture.
“An extra month of exercise enhances the meat texture,” he shares.
Healthy : A good diet makes a difference
Kok Seng who learned chicken rearing while working for a relative says passion for the job and experience is important.
“I am happy when my customers are happy with their purchase,”  says Kok Seng from  Jering Village in Ayer Tawar.
His customers are mostly regulars  from Ayer Tawar and Sitiawan in Manjung, Perak.
Kok Seng will be in the market in Ayer Tawar and Sitiawan thrice a week to sell his chickens.
On market days, he will wake up 4.00am to make his way to the market early.
He says he enjoys market days – mingling with traders, friends and customers.
Kok Seng had taken up different jobs before he became a chicken farmer six years ago.
He was a construction worker in Singapore for four years  before he returned to his village for good in  2004.
Kok Seng, 40 and his wife Ting Ping Ping, 38,  have  a five-year-old son Ling Ke Yong.
While his zou di ji (free range chicken) business can be hectic, Kok Seng says it is not stressful and that he has time for his family and friends in between work.

Proud to be Foochows

It is more than good taste
By Foong Pek Yee
foongpekyee@gmail.com
A bowl of red wine chicken mee sua  is not just another dish.
This authentic Foochow noodle dish brings to mind the community wherever and whenever it is served.
The Foochows from Ayer Tawar and Sitiawan in Perak arrived from China in 1903.
A close-knit and resilient community, they are proud of their culture, and would make it a point to introduce their food to their friends or guests.
Their love for their culture is evident in places like Ayer Tawar and Sitiawan  where they first set foot in then Malaya.
Authentic Foochow taste: Red wine chicken mee sua 
Wholesome:  This dish with a mix of vegetables, meat and seafood is popular as a one-pot meal.
In Ayer Tawar, about 65 km from Ipoh,  Restoran Sin Han Seong serves good Foochow food since the 1930s.
Old and strong: Sin Han Seong Restaurant has many loyal customers 
The restaurant owner Ling Hing Kuai is his family’s third generation.
At 70, he went about his work in zest,  and that speaks volumes of the restaurant.
Located along Ayer Tawar’s main road, the ambience in the restaurant is reminiscent of the good old days.
(Note: When we google, the name of the restaurant is Sun Hon Siong. It is the same place).
Many Foochows including those who have settled down outside Ayer Tawar, will patronise the restaurant when they visit their hometown, and among them is Tan Sri Dr Ting Chew Peh.
A Foochow, Dr Ting, a former Housing and Local Government Minister and current Universiti Tunku Abdul Rahman (UTAR) council chairman was from Merbau New Village in Manjung.
Other new villages in Manjung which are predominantly Foochow are Ayer Tawar, Jering, Rajah Hitam, Changkat Kruing, Simpang Dua, Simpang Tiga, Simpang Lima, Kampung Koh and  Kampung Cina.
And the Ayer Tawar town centre along the main road is the meeting point for villagers to run their daily errands.
Meeting point: The main road in Ayer Tawar
The Siew Hua Biscuit Factory in Ayer Tawar which is over 70 years old continues to be famous for its traditional Foochow biscuits like the “gong pian”.
Hall of fame :  Ayer Tawar Heritage House chairman Ling Sze Hing says the  plaque has  the names of all donors who contributed to the setting up of the  Manjung Kutien Association. The plaque is displayed in the Ayer Tawar Heritage House in Ayer Tawar.
The landmark in Ayer Tawar is the Manjung Kutien Association majestic building along the main road.
The association was set up in 1956 in an attap house,  and its present building was opened in 1994.
Ling says the association’s more than 2,000 strong membership are all Kutien, one of the 10 sub dialects of Foochows.
Janice Ting Hsia Sung says the association holds major festive celebrations like Chinese New Year and  Parents Day.
At 42, and a mother of five, she says the association’s activities are tailored for all age groups; and its focus are on good values like filial piety, cooperation, harmony, kindness and education.
She and her husband, also a Foochow,  decided to settle down in Ayer Tawar- their hometown-  after a short work stint in Kuala Lumpur.
Both of them are active in the Manjung Kutien Association.
Janice’s  father Ting Kong Liong, 76, who is a former president of the association continues to be active
Youngest among four siblings, Janice recalls following her father to the association’s events when she was a kid.

Rainbow and roast pork makes the day

Natural wonder : The Rainbow Waterfall in Sungai Lembing is popular in the wake of increasing interest in  eco tourism worldwide
By Foong Pek Yee
6 March, 2022
THE tourists get more than roast pork for lunch.
For most of us, that is the first time we see the roasting done in a traditional way –  using firewood inside a huge concrete stove.
Happy together:  At the roast pork lunch in Sungai Lembing New Village after the  Rainbow Waterfall tour.
And the freshly roasted pork (siew yoke in Cantonese) is real good – taste and texture – compared to the ones we have in eateries.
This “siew yoke” lunch is cultural tourism and very popular  in Sungai Lembing New Village.
During the lunch, I met a family of three generations from Johor and Singapore –  grandmother, her children and  grandson.
They say they decided to holiday in Sungei Lembing in Pahang, a popular destination among Singaporeans.
Between 2,000 and 3,000 tourists visited Sungai Lembing over weekends prior to the pandemic.
And the young boy who lives in  Singapore also gets to take a closer look at life in a new village.
Cultural tourism/food tours that promote the traditions of a community is increasingly popular among foreigners and locals alike.
All excited: Tourists getting ready to trek up  the Rainbow Waterfall.
Today, many  Malaysian Chinese and Singaporeans have  their roots in new villages in Malaya dated back to the 1940s
They are the descendants of half a million Chinese in then Malaya whom the colonial government uprooted and re-settled in 452 barbed wire settlements named new villages during the Emergency (1948-1960)
The exercise had saved the Chinese from an impending deportation by the colonial government who deemed the community as communist supporters.
There are still about two million Chinese living  in the new villages to date.
In Sungei Lembing New Village, its popular Rainbow Waterfall tour also tells a story  of  life in a new village.
The youngsters from the  new village and nearby roamed around and discovered the rainbow long ago.
According to a tour guide, the rainbow cast on the waterfall is the effect of sun rays shining through the cascading water.
They called it Rainbow Waterfall-  their favourite hangout.
It was only many years later that the villagers’ search for a living saw them coming up with Rainbow Waterfall tours.
They started off using lorries to ferry tourists to the base, about 12 kilometer from their village.
The half-day tour starts at 5.30am.
The trek up  Rainbow Waterfall involves about two kilometers of jungle trekking and rock climbing after crossing a small stream.
And tourists cheering the moment they spotted the rainbow is not without reason though.
For instance, the rainbow may not appear on a cloudy day.
Note: The tour in Sungai Lembing was before the pandemic.

Korean seaweed soup

Korean culture: The soup bowl must be placed on our right hand side.
Ingredients:
2 gm seaweed (wakame)
2 cloves garlic (minced)
6  pieces  dried  Shitake mushroom
2 cups water.
Seasoning:
Half teaspoon salt,  one teaspoon sesame oil, one teaspoon  roasted sesame seeds and two teaspoons  soy sauce.
Method:
1. Soak seaweed in water for 30 minutes, rinse and cut into bite size.
2. Wash mushrooms.
3. In a pot, put seaweed, mushrooms, garlic and 2 cups of water and bring to a boil.
4. Simmer for one hour.
5. Add seasoning and ready to serve.
Adventure:   Add a pinch of pepper and chilli powder (gojugaru) for a stronger taste.
Seaweed soup is highly nutritious. Korean mothers take it during confinement.
And Koreans have seaweed soup for their birthday- By Foong Pek Yee. 2 Jan, 2022