Keng Som Visited

Salam..

Things have been rather quick over the week. It seems, as it nears the end of the year, time just flies. Thats for the Gregorian calendar. The jumpstart has been jerky in the celebrated month of 1432's Muharram. Let's hope that the productivity levels will remain ever bullish throughout the year.

Just yesterday, Malaysia trounced our neighbour Indonesia with a 3-0 win at the Stadium Putra Bukit Jalil. The laser incident, which, according to the Jakarta Post "marred the game" made more of the headlines rather than the whipping of the "timnas Indo". Lasers more than 1-5mW could cause damage to the retinas, no doubt. But that could occur in a deliberate attempt. This means, directly putting one's eyeball in the pathway of the laser for a certain period of time. Can this occur in a game where the players are constantly moving about? Wikipedia mentioned of the South Korean goalkeeper who was affected in by lasers beams while playing. Even Diego Maradona and Christiano Ronaldo were not sparred the laser treatment from fans. Back to the AFF cup, in the first group match between Malaysia and Indonesia, the Malaysian goalkeeper too was not eluded when the laser were shone to his face after Indonesia's fouth goal. Anyway, some Indonesian's fan, pointed out that the lost could not be blamed on the laser disturbance. It was more of the lack of focus (by the laser?) of the players that cause them to crumble from the marauding young Malaysian attacks.

In every Malaysian's life, Sunday was indeed the day to remember for a long long time. Singing the Negaraku anthem together is one thing. But to sing the national anthem together in a spirited patriotic mood was emotional.

Let's hope that the match in Gelora Bung Karno Stadium will not be returned in a similar fashion of so called unsporting "Malaysian fans" laser incident. For a record, some national teams have been fined by FIFA for laser beams disturbances.

That was for sports. The next item is going to be something that you do after watching a match in the stadium. It is a ritual which could be used in sync with the other activities, as the Malay proverb says, menyelam sambil minum air. Eating! Coincidentally, the proverb too affirm to this. One can take a gulp while swimming. Discussion while eating? watching TV while eating? Supporting Malaysia while munching away? Some people even study while eating. It provides them with the much needed glucose for their thinking brain. Beware, over indulgence can divert the flow of oxygen for digestion instead. In effect, the book will study you and take the exams the next day!

Some of the ante restaurants in KB will be the likes of Sri Chieng Mai, Payang Serai Restaurant and Syam's Restaurant. All of them serves customers in a clean setting, some what posh looking environment. It is very inviting for diners to be. One thing in common of all of them, or with most restaurants and street vendors in KB, their Tom Yam are one of the niftiest in Malaysia. The flavours are almost frequently rich, fresh and aromatizing. Most importantly,they are able to maintain the richness in flavours in the next visit and thereafter.

Keng Som is an al fresco dining place right in the middle of Kota Bahru. It is deemed halal, although I can't see the halal logo by Jakim anywhere. Even the food premis grade is not displayed. Have they managed to go clandestine with their nightly operations, one would ask.

The place was a little unconspicuous. It is not located in a building but at the side of it in a mixture of metal, zinc and cement structure. Just enough to place a kitchen, a counter and space about the size of 2 badminton courts. If you are able to locate Dynasty Inn, it is just a few doors away from it. The place does not look like an eating place during the day.

Keng Som's may look obscured, a few blocks away from Dynasty Inn Hotel.

The facade of Keng Som which is actually the kitchen

We reached there about 8pm after parking in the alley next to Oriental Kopi Tiam a stone throw away from the Keng Som. I did not realised the parking space just next to Keng Som, which is free for Keng Som's customers.

Ample parking space.

It was already packed with diners, mostly families. We took our seats at a rectangular brown compressed wood table on the tarmac just outside the covered area. Luckily, KB has been free of showers over the weekend. Stars were visible from where we sit.

The waitresses were too busy whisking away serving food. It took them nearly 10 minutes before they realised us. The waitress of Thai descent finally came with a tattered plastic laminated menu. Years of operation has left the lamination clouded with scratches and dirty marks. The words on the menu were not crisp, but still legible. The selection of dishes were impressive, divided into the names of the animals or food classes you wish to eat. Chicken, beef, fish, prawn, rice and vegetables headings sectioned the menu. The style of cooking is listed below it. Ready with a pen and paper to jot down the menu in Thai, the waitress were anxious. Impatient. A new group of diners had just arrived. There are 2 other tables, arriving at the same time as us, still waiting to be attended to.

We ordered enough food to feed 4, although there were only 2. It took 30 minutes for the food to arrive from order. That is already considered as snail paced, but forgivable given the nearly full house occupacy of the restaurant.

Thai Tom Yum

The Tom Yam still deserved a pass. Compared to other tom yum's that I have tasted, this one was abit slightly diluted in taste. While not being a self proclaiming tom yom connoisseur, this faintness in flavour may not be detectable for those tongues that taste tom yum once in a while. The spiciness is not overpowering, but it may not be appealing to you if spiciness is not to your liking. The tangy bits of chicken meat, fresh prawn, mushroom were adequate.

Ikan siakap in Phad Phet Style

This one is tasty. The sauce plays an important role to bring up the taste of the deep fried siakap fish. The yellow sauce or roux has rich taste to it with slight tumeric essence. It was slightly spicy, sweet and sour at the same time. It may sound like tom yam, but it is not.

Kerabu Manggo

We decided to pick the Kerabu Manggo above after much thought pitting it against something leafy and stir fried. This Kerabu manggo was nice, and it suites as an appetizer. As sugar is a distinctive feature in Kelantanese delight, almost taken in a staple proportion, this kerabu did not make the sweet escape However, odd enough, the sugar added was slight and not in spoonful metric.

Chinese Tea

There are more choices of drinks available in myriads of colours. But, we were contented with the one above especially after consuming high caloric food.

We wanted to try bittergourd omelette but it was not available. It would help if the menus display pictures of the food. The odd and foreign names of some of the food with poor description by the waitress does not help at all. Kung Pau chicken, Pat Porn Chicken and Mongolia chicken may sound the same despite the differences in their name. We may expect some similarities to the familiar taste and match it with the ones stored in the labyrinth of our memory bank if the menu were like green curry chicken. Not at our adventurous wit, as seen above, we have settled for familiarities.

To visit, locate Dynasty Inn at Jalan Sutanah Zainab. Map as follows.

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Understanding Natrah

Salam..

I have always enjoyed plays. The first play that I have attended was a school play entitled "Oliver Twist", held at the Kuching Civic centre. It was organised by St Joseph's School, my alma mater. The second was also a school play, entitled "A Sprinkle of Magic". Then, it was held at Tan Sri William Tan Auditorium, in the school.

One knows how acting in a play has always been difficult. There is no room for mistakes to occur. Unlike in films, retakes can be done if the actors forget a line or misses a step. Near perfection is expected in an on stage acting.

Natrah was restaged at the Istana Budaya (IB). The last one was in December last year (2009). It was not left alone without any controversies, as the controversies of Natrah herself. The Late Natrah will remain as one of a significant point in the Malaysian-Singapore history.  Some will say it should be remebered, while the other quarters may wish not to remember it. Honestly, until this play was staged in IB, I have never heard or read about it. There was no recollection of the word "Natrah", "Nadra" or Maria-Bertha Hertogh in the history text books in school. 13 years was not too long ago since I left secondary school. Heck, I even bought the book Tragedi Natrah scripted by Fatini Yaacob to read on the the retrospective accounts of what actually transpired that lead to the upheaval of the locals, regardless of race and religion against the British and Dutch colonialist.

I would regard the staging of Natrah, by our very own Erma Fatima as a resounding success. If it was not, it wouldn't be played a second time around. Now, there are plans to make a third play, which shouldn't be missed by those who has not been to it. There are some differences in the second play, according to those who have attended the first. Some elements of the Bollywood beats, rhythm and choreographed dancing were added, perhaps making it more appealing to the Bollywood inclined audience. With such addition, perhaps, "Teater Muzikal Natrah" would be appropriate to describe the whole play.

Historical facts will remain as facts. In a theatrical depiction, it all depends on the director to decide on the interpretation of a historical event. Local nationalism was allegorically depicted in this issue. Forced apostation, the desperate attempt to save what ever honour that was left in a colonialist point of view, denigration of a good name in order to slander are just some points taken to heart by the locals. Of course, the colonial perspective will be otherwise. Some of the issues, although it occured half a century ago, is still akin to our recent times.

The Natrah play shows that creativity can be based upon factual accounts. Facts need not give in to creativity. As history subjects are usually stale when told in textual forms in schools, resulting in the mind to succumb to the half-closed heavy eyelids. The lack of oxygen in the air seems to encourage further this sleepy army on the offensive. Through the play, the interestingness of the characters, (and of course the prettiness of the casts that plays Natrah) and subject touched, it has, encouraged myself to read up on the somewhat "lost" historical event of Natrah. Not even the cooling temperature of the aircond and the dim lighting of the IB could doze me off to slumberland.

Natrah is, a sad event. If I were to be in her shoes, being fully aware that people gets a hold of your life, but, at the same time, knowing what I want and need, is no different from the world coming to an end. Conditions were already bad for Natrah when living unwillingly under the clutches of the biological parents. Seeing her lover, Mansor Adabi many years later in a video recording living in a good life that was played to her in an interview, really broke her down. May I say, it tore her heart to pieces. In the end, counselling did patch up things to some extend, especially those created in the tumultuous early period of her life.

Considering Natrah's age was 13 at the time of the court judgement, it really amaze me on how people were more precocious in their life compared to those of today's generation. Try talking to a 13 year old today and you will get what I mean. The mental aptitude of an 8 year olds are not considerably different from a 13 year old. Well, it is not scientifically proven, but just a general stand. There are some, no doubt who are very into adulthood in such tender age of 13. What could be the missing X Factor here?

As often, the thing that puts me off in writing is the ending. Some people would summarize the whole issue. But, I do not wish to insult you, the inteligent reader. Go ahead, read up on Natrah and go watch the next play in IB!

Sit and Talk

In our fast paced life, yes, even here in this part of the world, we need to reflect on ourselves.

What have we done today? Have we offended anybody of late? Have I been productive or anti productive of that sorts? 

We need to sit and talk. At least, if not talking to anyone else, "talk" to ourselves. But, be sure not to do it in public. You may be fully conscious in your conscience and be very sure that you have not gone haywire, but this sort of oddity is not taken lightly by the public. Perturbed, the police will be called in to remove you off the streets. Have a little discussion and a minor debate within yourself. This reminds me of the old disney cartoon that depicts the angel and the devil sitting on either side of the shoulders of a boy, quarelling, in an attempt to influence the boy over good and evil. Self discussion will be something like that, in the hope, that our ethical qualities prevail.

"Brother, do you have time? I need to sit and talk with you on my research methodology"

" I am stuck in in my paper, I need really sit and talk with you about this"

"I have abusiness proposition for you, when I get to KB, we need to sit and talk". 

Yes, sit and talk, I have been bombarded lately. It means to stop from what ever you are doing. If you need to pay the bills, don't! have a cup of coffee. no no! Have to go to the washroom, nope you may not. Nope, not that bad. Let the stillness of time engage in you. If you have been pacing away, hold it, make time for yourself to stop and ponder.  Such phrase, when repeatedly mentioned, will make you think and reexamine the concept behind it. 

What does it mean? It just tells you to make time for yourself to ponder over things that is going to be and has been. Stop and ponder is actually a double edge sword. It aplies to the idiom, look before you leap. But in other hand, medically morbid term, postmortem. What causes a failure? Why is treatment A better than treatment B? What have I said wrong that the other person sulks everytime he or she sees my face?

"I don't have the time". This is such a common reply from a seemingly white collared professionals. Meetings here and there, appointment with new clients, operations that will take so many hours, oncalls, busy clerking new patients,... and the list just go on. Oddly, they will have the time to scroll on an update their status on facebooks, watch movie during work, have long morning breaks, not to mention the long teabreaks. Honestly, from 8am till 5pm, how much time did we really spend working? If there is no time, then, will there be time after work? But, hey, when will work actually finish so that you could make time for yourself?

There is no such thing as not having time to ponder on oneself. For everything there is a season. One will not have time if it is not allocated for. What about the time before we sleep every night? Ahh... that will be a good moment to reflect back on the day and be objective for the days ahead. If we have not forgiven anybody yet, except during idulfitri, well, this is the time. By forgiving, we are removing the anger and revenge from our hearts of that person. Adversaries will revert to friendships. Husbands would be wonderful to their wives.

As mentioned in the Quran, "By time, verily, men is in loss.. " This indeed is true. Even when we think that we do not have enough time for ourselves, what more if we have to make time to accomodate others? We are not isolated islands. No man is an island. We still need to be in contact with the other individuals. When? Well, then we still need to make time. In this essence, it is a matter of prioritising. Working mates are equally important. Without them, organization can falter at the destruction of teamwork. The job pays our monthly bills. However, family is still our main priority. A working wife, still need attend to the welfare of her husband and family. A responsible husband too. There is no such thing as the husband works and when at home, everything is left to the wife. The prophet cooks and sweeps too you know.

Yes, I have managed to sit and think for awhile now to discuss this matter. Sit and talk is one of the human needs, that subconsciously, we never attest to even having been through it many times. It comes in many forms, thinking aloud, chit chatting, a group discussion or even a convention. We hope to achieve something positive from our "sit and talk". Well, the national's independance involved sitting and talking. 

It is not just the sitting and talking. What bothers inside is, if the sitting and talking leads to something positive. Is it worth the time spend? The answer lies in our prioritising capability.