March 16, Wed
Panang
Nasi Candar, Peace through Perfume, & Little India

WOW!
Short version, DSL (low quality)Penang
Little India:Movie of Special Kali ceremony at a Hindu temple. This takes place every Tues & Fri at 4:30. Mostly women attend. More about this amazing ritual, at the bottom of the page.

I've been having a nice time in Panang. Unfortunately, I didn't meet up with Raymond and Ronnie for a tour of the town Tuesday, as planned. Business dealings ended earlier than expected, so they left. In a way I was relieved, because Raymond wouldn't let me pay for anything over the previous day and a half, including the exhorbatent road toll costs, meals and beers. I believe it was partially because I'd spent a lot on groceries for our last home cooked meal in the guest house, and his wife Irene said something to him.

A sidenote about my last supper Saturday in Melaka...

..the vegies were cheap, but there were several expensive imported ingredients to buy such as olive oil, balsamic vinegar and parmesan cheese. I was asked to make an American dish... and the best I could come up with was Californianized pasta, and twice baked potatoes. It ended up that the gas oven downstairs wasn't working, so I ended up making boiled/mashed potatoes instead... oh well. Irene (Raymonds wife), put an Indian twist on the potatoes by rolling them into cute balls which she stacked on platters. We had quite the memorable and delicious meal between that, and the fabulous (much more labor intensive and delicious) Baba Nyouna food. The latter included 3 dishes which required a lot of hand pounding of dried shrimp, chilies, onions, and spices. The shrimp sambal was devine!

Anyway, back to Panang...


Nasi Kandar (Indian Muslim rice buffet):


I toured Panang's little India. On the way there, I ate a delicious lunch at the recommended by a local at Restoran Kassim Mustafa on the main drag of Chulia street. I feasted on Nasi Candar (Indian Muslim rice based smorgasboard, basically) accompanied by a banana shake. As with many of these places, one orders food and beverages in person, and from different vendors/stations, under the same roof, and a runner/server helps deliver the items and take care of the bill. The deep fried quail like bird was just meaty enough to be worth the struggle of ripping it apart, and the medley of curry sauces ladeled on were delicious. I also chose a satisfying stewed spinach, and a briney boiled egg. The latter had no fishy taste like the Malaysian version which I'd had in Melaka at an ethnically Malaysian restaurant.

After the satisfying meal, I soon encountered a tidy corner shop with unusually neat shelves of little bottles and a glass counter. S.M. Badjenid & Son, 184-186, Beach St., 10300 Penang I thought it a medicinal herb shop, and decided to explore. It ended up being a perfume store, with all the popular fragrances copied (I assume) and sold at low prices. Small sample size tubes were 2RM (about 60 cents US), so I bought a little over a dozen and received a 20% discount. The man behind the counter was quite shy, sweet, and accomodating, and provided several bottles to sniff and try. I ended up visiting with the owner and accountant in the next room (a small breezeway with a large opening to the other street). That room was lined to the ceiling with bolts of beautiful fabrics, and family photos. Ends up the two men had ancesters in Yemen. The younger turbaned accountant, initially the most chatty, gave me 3 extra fragrance samples as a welcome to Penang present. I was touched. The accountant had been working there for 12 years, and the owner was the third generation to run the shop. They both spoke several languages, which is not uncommon in Malaysia. The owner proudly showed me the old tinted black and white family photos on the wall. I thought his parents were local movie stars, they were so attractive. We chatted a long while about Malaysian culture, how it integrated so many religions and ethnicities into one cooperative melange. They both said that although people retain their ethnic and religious customs via family life and the way they dressed, that they'd grown up together in schools and so didnt really think about differences as some negative issue. They seemed very positive about my desire to create children's books to explain different countries' cultures, as an effort toward mutual understanding, respect and peace. The turbanned fellow, who's name I can't remember, said it was through learning how to show respect to each other, that the world could learn to get along. Ahhh... one can hope...

They gave me a few more bottles of scents, including a special pure sandlewood oil. The latter is no longer available for export, since India is running out of sandlewood trees. It supposedly has medicinal and skin healing uses when in pure form. The latter is ruined by dillution. The scent was quite mild, after having snorted so many strong smelling perfumes. I was presented a business card, including the hand written cell phone number of the owner should I be in need of assistance.

I followed their directions to nearby Little India, where I bought 2 traditional punjabi outfits (each set includes a tunic top, baggy pants, sheer shawls), and lots of sparkling bangles for 112RM (about $30 US). It was a challenge to find bangles to accommodate my big (by local standards) hands. Anyone that knows me in the states see's me as average to slim and small boned... so I get a real kick out of the awe my size creates. There's plenty of chubby Indian women around here, but I guess their feet and hands are still petite.

On the way back to my guest house, I stopped for a cooling limeaid. I heard a loud commotion of drums and a nasal sounding bugel from the nearby Indian temple. I quickly paid my drink, while hastely answering the cashiers friendly questions about my origins, how do I like Penang, etc, and rushed out to hunt down the source of the noisy event. It was a fantastic little ceremony conducted by big bellied dark men in loin cloths and beige body paint, carrying incense and small flaming torches. Wow! I captured some of it, and will upload it to this blog. It didn't do the scene justice, since the automatic exposure lightened everything, but it's still cool. This exotic event takes place every Tuesday and Thursday, at 4:30. It's events like this that remind me that I'm someplace very different. (MOVIE AT TOP OF PAGE)