Passionate in Penang

The Henry Luce scholars are in Penang with my friend George Brown, and after a cooking session with Pearly, they invited us to a lecture at the Penang Heritage Trust the next morning where Khoo Salma spoke along with a scholar from the Penang Institute, what used to be SERI, a think tank organization.  Here is Salma, talking about the Penang Heritage Trust and the work it has ahead and has accomplished.

After the lecture, we trooped across the street to the Nonya/Baba House, known as Penang Peranakan House, a commercial site where the guides are not even Chinese!

I add these scary photos of door panels and door knockers for my two favorite fellows, Max and Nicky.

And here, written out on these wooden panels, are the 24 filial obligations for any son or daughter; would that we had something like these in the U.S.!  Filial piety is such a foreign notion for our children, as it was for those of us who rebelled and then felt lost and disconnected as a result.

Today Pearly is teaching 14 vegetarians to cook Nonya food, and this carries with it the requisite trip to the market, my favorite rainbow world!

What I love is the way the combs and nail accessories are arrayed in the same color conglomerates as the vegetables; it all gets a little confusing!

And if you think it is a quiet operation, you have something coming to you!  This is chitter-chatter in Hakka, Hokkein, Malay, and English are splattered about as though one language were just not enough to satisfy the never ending need for expression, passion and COLOR.







And did I mention the LIGHT?  Look at the way the sun hit the white aubergine and just the tips of the purples.  Splendid enough so that who needs to cook OR eat?

Who decides what color plastic bag to use?  How?

I know this is a vegetable, but just look at the enormity of this squash next to the Malaysian ginger.

The fruits, the ever-present fruits... ah....









Who doesn't need a noodle with any Nonya dish?

Am I excited about tonight's meal?  I would be more excited if we hadn't stopped for an emergency feeding at lunch when we went to a Malay place and ate sting ray, squids, another curried fish, salads, rice, etc... and then stopped at a chocolate store where we had "tastes" of probably every kind of chocolate offered for sale!  Good Lord, are WE dieting when school begins?  Hmmm...  Life is certainly short when you live in Penang and every kind of food in the world is at your fingertips!!  My standard peanut butter and banana sandwiches on Ezekiel bread is going to seem like rather bland fare when I return.