Watching The River Flow

I'm sorry I've just been sitting there watching the river flow.

Your response to my request for pape has been tremendous and I apologise for the silence as I have so enjoyed listening in to you people chatting to each other that I felt there was no need for my intervention. Please keep your chats coming in. About Kerepok Görèng Pasir (thank you Anonymous and Cik Qaleh Teksi), yes I do know about kerepok 'fried' in sand. I think we did try that a few times at home, and without the oil the kerepok did taste different. Mother used to say that sand from the pata (beach) was best for this purpose, but after seeing what they did on the pata, using their sarongs as burqas, I began to doubt that.

Sdri Norziah, thank you for responding to Sdri Nadiah's request. I think you are more qualified than I to give out recipes for such a complicated thing as Rökök Arab. I've never rolled a Rökök Arab in my life, nor made Bèkang, and even the simplest things I find quite hard to do, like wrapping Pulok Lepa.

And what an array of characters: Mök Lèbör, GUiKP's wife's grandma, Cikgu Ja'apö, Mr Isaacs, Nik Smara and a host of Möks that made our little town twirl, Mök Long, Mök Mèk and Mök Pèr.

Cucu Pök Löh Standok is right of course about Kerepok Kulit, the rolled kerepok made from the discarded skins of fish. That was special but only available to those who lived near the kerepok makers. We were lucky to have been the neighbours of Mök Nab and Mök Song, both kerepok makers, so we did know what it tasted like, but I do have my suspicions about Cucu Pök Löh's waxing lyrical ("Khepok kulik buatang Semek Dara Ttanjung") about his fish skin kerepok as the very name of its maker does suggest that there was more than his taste buds at work there.

All this talk about kuihs surely has paid off, for not only has it brought so many of you here to share your foodie talks and recipes, but it has also brought from afar Sdri Ninotaziz, a talented writer, blogger, folklorist and a poet too. I have quite forgotten what Badak Berendam looks like, perhaps you have a photo? And thank you for giving that Trengganuspeak-in-verse a home, am so honoured too.

But I must say a word about Rökök Arab before I go. That's eggs, ghee and a host of other good stuff all rolled into a cigar and so special it was that we got ours from the vicinity of the Istana Maziah, made by the hands of Mök Nöh who lived in Dalam Kota. As Anonymous (Sdri Norziah?) rightly points out, Rökök Arab isn't Apék-Apék, the latter being just thin crispy crackers that sometimes - if flat - concealed picture cards (as Mr Van N'dot found in Dalam Bata) and - if rolled - were used as straws for drinking hot Milo.

So thank you all: Ajidol, Aliff, Che Qaleh Teksi, Cucu Pok Loh Standok, GUiKP, Mmekkolang, Nadiah, Norziah, Zulomar (for the Berönök) and the various Anonymous contributors. To Semek Dara of Tanjong, a special thanks for having lit up the early life of Cucu Pök Löh. And thank you too all you good people who commented earlier (for names please see Comments below).

Please keep the conversation going, and your recipes coming in.

If you're a newcomer, please read these too:
A Bèkang From Kölang
Your Recipes Please!"

Makang Belang Jjalang No. 2

You must be in a different place if you're sitting, not breaking a stick of kayu keramat, but nibbling on Jaffa cake with tea. The contrast is that it is colder here than in monsoon-swept Tanjong Pasar, but then it was wetter in Kuala Lumpur than in the blessed city of Kuala Terengganu.

We are now re-adjusting to our daily life of work, and it has been more than a month since we launched the Monsoon Cuppa at the Abdullah Al-Yunani bookshop (Keda Pök Löh Yunang) in KT on Christmas Day 2007. Since then GUiT has gone into its 2nd printing and more than five thousand copies have been sold in London, Malaysia and Singapore. It is totally unexpected and I want to thank you all.

I had a great time doing the campus tour that took me to the newly born University Daruliman Malaysia (UDM) in KT, to the Universiti Sains in Penang, and the UIA and UITM in Kuala Lumpur and Shah Alam respectively. The response was tremendous, especially at the UDM when the normally shy students (females mostly) cheered everytime I lapsed into Trengganuspeak. At UIA two students from Bosnia came up to get their GUiT signed and then said something that really touched me. The response was similarly enthusiastic in Penang and in Shah Alam, and I hope I have fired them all with enough enthusiasm to read and then to go on and write their own books: as I repeatedly told them, if I can do it, so can they. But it pained me to see them dip into their own pockets for GUiT, even at a slightly reduced price. We had approached a few corporate bodies and monied institutions to make a bulk purchase for the students at a smaller price than what they paid for their boardroom tables, but corporate and monied people must be extremely busy because none answered our call.

The state of Terengganu did though buy for people who attended the do on the river that was attended by some 300 veterans of Terengganu. They were all very enthusiastic, and answered my call to plan with wisdom and to respect our heritage by standing up themselves to make the same call to the Menteri Besar who was present in the hall. But what troubled me was a YB who said afterwards that “we must get rid of the eyesore” because “eyesore” means different things to a property developer as to people who have lived there for generations and breathe its air and relish its history. And looking at the direction of works you can have a rough idea of where things are going now. But I must record here my thanks to the Terengganu government, especially to its Menteri Besar Datuk Seri Idris Jusoh, for the support given to us — and which, to their credit, was given without strings — while we were on the GUiT trail. And I want it to be on record too that I have misgivings about the way “planning” is bulldozed so hurriedly in Kuala Terengganu.* * *I mentioned kayu keramat that delightful Trengganu stick known to us English speaking lads as 'holywood'. On the West Coast it is called by its Chinese name of charkoi. In Trengganu this deep-fried 'wood' is eaten neat or dipped in sugar, and I've seen folk dunk it in their coffee or tea.Hard, week-old kayu keramat has many uses, you can use it to petong at your herb-eating goats, for one, if repeated cries of bok! bok! fail to move them, and then you can leave it aside for the ants to kerik and see them ferry little grains of kayu keramat to the place where ants keep their store. But whatever it is you don't expect the kayu keramat to come calling on you, so imagine my surprise one morning when I woke up in Kuala Terengganu to see our minder Pak Daud outside my cousin Mi's gate with a bag full of keramat (enchantedness) stuffed in a plastic bag hanging from his motorbike handlebar.

My friend Sara Paul could not be at our Kuala Terengganu reunion as she died tragically young, many years ago. The Paul sisters — all Trengganuers to the core — are now scattered, there's one in Penang and a couple in Kuala Lumpur. The latter, to my delight, came to my book-signing at the MPH in Mid Valley, but it is about Mary that I want to tell you now.I was taken to Mary's house by her daughter Marina (a distinguished journalist in that fair isle) and Lily, the grand-daughter of another fine GUiT lady, my Mök Mèk of the ceranang and kerepok lèkor fame behind the Chee Sek bookshop in Kampung China. Penang never rang with Trengganuspeak louder than on the day I met Mary; she reminisced about the wonders of Trengganu and reminded me once again of the many people and places of our old KT, and then, as I was l leaving her I saw a little something that really touched my heart's cockles: there on the gate of Mary's Penang house was stuck a little black and white flag of our Terengganu! ”Kita orang Teganu, mestilah!” she said. But that wasn't all. Her daughter Marina told me that Mary could not just stop thinking of Trengganu but insisted on having it before her in black and white, so she painted their old house in those colours.

I think I heard a little sigh of relief from the adorable Marina that they are no longer living in that little quarter.

GUiT Footnote: You'll be pleased to know that our Mök Mèk is alive and well and is now living with her daughter in Kuala Lumpur. She is all of 102.