On the Road in Sarawak
August 30, 2009
Sarawak, Borneo. Fourth largest island in the world after Australia, Greenland and New Guinea. Pretty big by any standard. You’d expect lots of roads to link up all major cities and towns, and the little ones in between. But really, there really is just one major road from Kuching through to Sri Aman, Sibu, Bintulu and Miri. We call it the trans-Borneo highway. It’s a two-lane road, pretty well-paved and very pleasant to drive on.
The burning season has just ended. I pass many a field with golden brown remnants of trees and bushes. Extremely scenic, but then I remind myself that 100 of these burning at the same time can be suffocating and frightening all at once. Burning was never a big problem in decades past. That it should be such a problem today reflects the increasing pressure of ever-increasing populations of today and their livelihood needs.
In spite of that, I find myself dreaming about getting away from everything for a time. Perhaps I should just walk into one of these fields and just work for room and board. I would disappear for a few months and lead a rustic lifestyle. Detoxify myself from the poisons of my reality. But then I take a look at the 60-degree slope that hill paddy is planted on and I think, I’d just keel over and roll back downhill again once I puff my way up, if I even manage that. Still, it’s still a romantic thought and I’d like to think that I could try.
For now, I have to be content with being on the road, going upriver to adventures of a more strenuous type.
Fabulous Food Series: Chicken Rice from Another World
August 22, 2009
In an obscure corner of Kuching there is a little kopitiam that sells only chicken rice. Wait, that’s not true. They do have another stall that sells something else or rather but everyone goes for the chicken rice only.
Chicken rice. It’s not really a culinary wonder. You can find it everywhere. It’s just dead chicken steamed with salt, complemented by pickled cucumber, a side-dish of belacan, ground chili paste and black soy sauce.
But then, there’s chicken rice and then there’s chicken rice. The old masters have perfected formulae for precise temperatures, time, secret ingredients that make the meat smoother, shinier, more perfect and then some. At World Cafe, they sell CHICKEN RICE that’s really other-wordly. The meat is tender, cooked just right, the rice is just fragrant enough to titillate the nostrils but not so strong that it drowns out the meat. The belacan is pungent enough for some people to have a love-hate relationship with it but boy does it pack a zing to the tastebuds.
Here’s how I eat it: when the rice comes, I splash the entire dishlet of chilli into the rice with a good dollop of black soy sauce. Then I put one piece of chicken, de-boned on the rice and smear a pinch of belacan on to that tantalising, scintillating, enticing piece of white mean. It’s true what they say about good food. It’s better than that other great pleasure in life…(I’ll leave your imagination to work here). Then I put that delightful spoonful into my mouth, close my eyes and have a near orgasmic moment as I swallow, and then down a spoonful of that delightful salted vegetable soup that comes with the whole deal. Good chicken rice is truly a quality that’s the sum of all its parts. There has to be good chilli. There has to be fantastic belacan. There has to be great soup. Most of all, don’t let them stinge on the meat.
My good buddy and I used to go to World Cafe fairly often. We usually order enough for the next table to raise eyebrows.
The place is tucked in the corner of a row of shophouses behind Central Park, two doors from Caves Pub.
Caffeination Explanation
August 20, 2009
Ah, coffee. That aroma. That culture. That addiction.
But it’s never been my addiction; and Starbucks was never an attraction not just because I don’t do coffee, but because of the whole faceless corporate giant factor.
However, when Starbucks came to Kuching, I starbucks-ed along with my litter of misfits. I always went for the green tea latte (no syrup) though. If I ever downed a latte or god forbid, an Americano, it would have been mostly out of the cool factor of coffee. Admit it, the coffee culture is cool. Before too long, I was a regular and more than a few baristas could point me out in a line-up.
So, out of pure curiosity, when a buddy of mine invited me to a coffee seminar courtesy of Starbucks (there’s such a thing? Yes, there is), I said aye.
The aim of the Starbucks Coffee Seminar is to enlighten coffee lovers, addicts and dabblers like myself to an enlightened state of the coffee experience. What’s the diff between robusta and arabica beans? What’s the aroma, texture and feel? Where exactly does it tickle your tastebuds? What’s special edition coffee? Who created Starbucks?
It’s all quite fascinating really. There’s a great degree of coffee connoisseurism than the average Kuchingite would come across. But let me say this, if nothing else, I took back with me a slightly changed perspective of Starbucks the corporate giant of coffee sellers. They is a nice degree of the personal touch in their approach to business, certainly here in Kuching. Yes, it’s publicity, but it’s a nice sort of publicity because they’ve reached out to their market and gained quite a few supporters that night. Add to that a nice haul of free Starbucks merchandise and organic coffee grounds for the garden.
Not bad, coffee people. Not bad.
MIA by Deliberation
August 14, 2009
I must apologize for my absence in writing these couple of weeks. Daily life has taken me away from the computer. Or perhaps I am manifesting P.J. O’Rourke’s famous statement, “”Usually, writers will do anything to avoid writing”. The hypochodriac in me figured I might have contracted H1N1 and could die the next hour, even though I was still eating like a horse. But no, that was not it.
I recovered in time to go to KL, Malaysia’s version of the big apple. Some of us call it the Big Durian. There’s been a whole slew of writing of various things since then, and no small amount of shopping during the trip.
I shall be off to Lanjak-Entimau Wildlife Sanctuary and Batang Ai National Park in the next couple of weeks, and will likely have good material to inflict my writing on you.
Meanwhile, I’ve set my posts to update themselves in my absence, so do come back for more.