Memories of RRF: Lingering culinary thoughts!

Masala Vadai

Most treasured memories in life are usually associated with food - whether at a wedding, a family reunion, or even when smoking the peace pipe between nations! Anyway, which soul can be at peace on an empty stomach? Even a funeral ceremony dedicated to resting the soul of the departed involves eating. Supporters of penance may disagree, believing that a little suffering helps in appreciating God's greatness. This is why we see the practice of self-inflicted pain during Thaipusam and hunger pangs during the holy month of Ramadan. If you ask me (though you probably won't), kavadi bearers enjoy the brief attention they receive — which they rarely get on an average day — and the festive spirit and binge that follow the fasting period.

In response to an enthusiastic follower (self-praise, sic) who asked me to write about foods available around RRF and Penang during my earlier days, I racked my brain, and this is what I came up with.....(Grey, crimson, and oily...)

How ironic life can be - when you have the appetite for food as a child, you lack the means; as an adult, if you have the means, you lack the stomach (i.e., health-wise, if you bother)!

RRF (outside the home) had much to offer to us as growing children in developing our culinary tongues, even though it had been ingrained in us from a young age that we only eat to live and not vice versa.
Let us look at all the mouth-watering hawker's food available outside the home while we were being cooped up and trying to be a bookworm to turn our fate around. To be fair, we had our occasional indulgences every now and then, especially around the time Appa draws his salary packet.
RRF was a big source of potential customers due to the large number of inhabitants who reside there. Hence, it drew many food vendors.

Some not-so-well-to-do kids (otherwise known as enterprising) used to sell traditional cakes (probably made by their mothers, just like in the old Malay movies) in their baskets, yelling out their products during school holidays.

• One Indian boy went on screaming.... Masala Vadai kueh!!! He sold uluttam vadai (a deep-fried, spicy black lentil paste South Indian doughnut) and masala vadai (savoury, deep-fried gram dal flat fritters). Talking about doughnuts, did you know that vadai is the original doughnut, glazed with loads of sugar. That is, if you believe what The Comedy Court duo of Allan Pereira and Indy Nadarajah said in one of their gigs. They said all foods are of Indian origin: crusted masala dosa is pizza; spring rolls are spaghetti; rasam is soup; fried chicken - where did the spice come from? India, of course! And the list goes on....   

• 

  Tok Tok Hard Candy

  
  

  An old Chinese man with his trademark Pagoda brand white T-shirt used to walk with a flat, large aluminium tray balanced on his head and a foldable wooden frame over his shoulder whilst knocking on a metal gizmo producing an irritatingly loud decibel noise of 'tok tok'. Hence, we used to call him 'tok tok man' and his merchandise 'tok tok' . What he was selling in his aluminium tray was hard, sweet candy, and his loud gizmo was nothing more than a small hammer and a curved metal tool that he would use to chisel out his hard candy into shreds before filling it up with tracing paper to serve it to his customers.
• Occasionally, we had young boys selling 'Malay traditional cakes' (kueh) in their baskets during school holidays.
• A Chinese lady (Ah Soh) used to do the same almost every day, but she sold only kueh kosui. I think kueh kosui is a Nyonya delicacy enjoyed by all.
  

• Then there was a boy who used to sell Chinese crispy deep-fried phallic-shaped fritters and their complementary round counterpart, yelling 'Ham Chim Peng'-'Eu Char Koay'.

If you are sitting at home and you are exposed to all of the above gluttons galore, it is not at all mind-boggling to imagine the varieties available out there outside the confines of my flats. Only affordability is the limiting factor! All around RRF food stalls could be found. The noteworthy ones include...

Bengkang (my fave)

• Again worth mentioning is the Block A Char Kway Teow, the ever-delicious, tasty, lard-filled, succulent, fresh prawn and cockle-filled dish, sprinkled with Chinese chives, individually prepared by Ah Long. (mentioned in previous post).
• The simple bee-hoon (thin rice noodles) or mee (plain noodles) sold by a push cart hawker between Blocks D and E, sold in the mornings and late at night after 8pm. Even though it was plain, with no additional ingredients (besides soy sauce, chilli paste, and small lard-fried cracker strips), it tasted heavenly! I realised that some people called them 'mee bodoh' (stupid noodles in Malay) as it contained nothing to talk about except for its taste - something like a dumb blonde!
• The morning market was a fertile playground for food lovers. Cheap noodles were sold at unbelievably dirt-cheap prices (25 to 50 sen, believe it or not?). I remember they used to sell curry mee with a brownish curdy stuff covering the noodles. Only much later did I realise that the brownish shiny stuff was actually cooked pork blood! The curry mee sold in Penang is actually different from what is sold as curry mee in Peninsular Malaysia, which is actually named Hockkein Mee in Penang!
• The Penang Laksa is also is in a different league altogether. One can smell the pungent smell of Penang Laksa miles away. Steamed round rice noodles are mixed with shredded pineapple, cucumber, and fish pulp, and immersed in a special gravy, with a twist of prawn or fish paste (otak-otak) and lime. Even though it may churn the inside of a vegetarian upside, it is sure to clear your sinuses.



Laksa Penang




• Even though Mamak Mee is freely available in bistros and hotels these days, nothing beats the ones found at the simple, no-frills hawkers, probably run by a single operator whose hygiene is much to be desired. You should probably not look at his multitasking rag that he used for cleaning the chopping board and the customers' table! He would probably wrap his cooking in old banana leaves and newspaper. It still beats the most hygienically prepared Mamak Mee any day.

If you venture further out into town, you would probably not come back home...

• 

  Pasembor

  Penang has a few varieties of food which are only found there. Pasembor is an Indian Muslim spicy snack, made with a combination of a spread of cut tofu, fried batter, fried prawns, turnip, cuttlefish, cucumber, and others, with a liberal spread of groundnut gravy over it. Taukwa rendang is another variety of the same, using mostly cut flat Chinese tofu. (See how national integration had fallen into place)
• In the 1960s all the way to the mid-80s, the corner shop at the Penang Rd-Magazine Rd-Brick Kiln Rd-Macalister Rd- Datuk Keramat Rd- Gladstone Rd (Simpang Enam) was held in high esteem by Penangites for its one-of-a-kind tasty Mamak food. Nobody actually remembers it original name. Based on the 'Craven A' cigarettes advertised on the signboard, the restaurant eventually became known as the 'Craven A Restaurant'. It was famous for its Mee Singapura (probably even Singaporeans would not have tasted such an indulging mee) and its Nasi Kandar. The Mee Singapura was usually prepared at night after 9 pm, and people would hang around the place to wait for the cook to start cooking so they could place their orders. Their nasi kandar used to be such a hit that customers just couldn't have enough of their food! The urban legend has it that their original cook used to spike the gravy with ganja (hashish) to encourage customers to make return purchases. The cook was apparently caught for his misdeeds by the Health authorities! Of course, the 'kas kas' used in its gravy is a kind of poppy seed of low potency! Craven A was also a hit with us, USM medical students. Convoys of motorcycles used to frequent this joint past midnight to make mass purchases to feed the souls of the midnight-oil-burning future doctors!

  

  Kuih Talam. 

  Interestingly, the best of this

  Nyonya delicacies in Penang are 

  prepared by Indian Muslim peddlers!

• After the cooks in Craven changed hands as the Indian cooks became richer, the quality of the food suffered. Apparently, now, a stall in Tamil Street holds the crown for the best nasi kandar in town! (According to our local expert that we appointed, Appa)

Bee Hoon Singapura

During the Hungry Ghost Festival, besides the noise that one had to endure to scare the ghosts away, there was also food, not to feed the hungry visitors of the underworld, but those walking of the walking kind from earth! One particular dish which I found extremely satisfying is the cuttlefish-kangkung preparation with spicy gravy...Mmm... 

Somehow, everyone thinks that foods of yesteryears fare much better in terms of taste and richness. We can put all the blame on the loads of chemical fertilisers, pesticides and the genetic modifications that we have done over the years. The real reason for its superiority is not caused by the above, but rather because of its lingering aftertastes that are laced with loads of memorable, heart-wrenching, cooling, zephyr-like thoughts of fond childhood memories, spiced up and seasoned with its carefree attitude to life. It is nothing to do with wealth and money!

Kuih Lapis

Nasi kandar

Mee Rebus Mamak Penang

Kuih Kosui

Hum Chin Peng

Eu Char Koay