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- Sin Kheng Hooi Hong -
 

LAST MONTH Italian national Rai-TV ran a 2 hour documentary about the life of Ruggero Orlando with rare footage of him with Marilyn Monroe and the great Anna Magnani. Ruggero Orlando's death a few years ago was a loss to Italy. Serving only one term as a parliamentarian he was too honest to continue as a politician or play the power game for high political office, a rare feat of denial for an Italian. Even up to a great age he was the informed commentator after the 9 o'clock news, contributing pithy comments about the personalities in the news and his sharp memories of penetrating interviews. A book launch or the opening of an exhibition of paintings was unthinkable without his being asked to do the needful. So also was he asked to be the introducer to the Italian ballet on their visit to the USA telling American audiences in his inimitable English about the then little known Italian group. 

One of the most memorable of his TV presentations was his "Malaya", a series in which, when introducing the Italians to the tropical rubber estate, he observed that Malaya was a rich country, as they could see from the flowing latex, but the people were poor. On the other hand Italy was a poor country inhabited by the rich. 

Italy's renaissance man and war hero of the Italian resistance was also famous as a connoisseur of good food. He was a must guest of honour at every newly opened restaurant in Rome whose every reaction to the food served was closely watched by the TV cameras and nervously, by the chief chef. A displeased frown would spell the end of the restaurant's hopes. It was once rumoured that he was so furious with the quality of a dish at Mastrostefano's in Piazza Navona that he had overturned the table, an event that had thrilled millions of viewers. But he self-effacingly denied this story, he had only walked out without paying the bill, he said.

Orlando's taste buds were endowed with a preternatural memory. Russel Baker in his autobiography tells of their days in war time in London when thousands of Hitler's bombs fell on the great city. During a break in the rain of bombs they had found a crate of wine in a collapsed building, destroyed just moments before. They broke a bottle and shared it (who cared about ownership then?). Ruggero announced that the wine was from Piedmont and even named the year of its making. "Bit of bull", thought Russell Baker. However landing in Italy with the invading troops in pursuit of the Italian fascists, Russel Baker was to discover, when he went north to Piedmont, that Orlando was right after all

Ruggero Orlando was impressed by Sin Kheng Hooi Hong's duck yam soup He named it one of the 12 best soups in the world.. And he was right. For many years this little coffee shop squeezed in the middle of a row of 1910s shop houses in Beach Street was the target for connoisseurs. Sadly this great coffee shop-restaurant ceased to do business last month. Many will remember the super waiter who carried several tiffins a time on his bicycle, riding without using his hands through the impossible traffic to his customers along the street. Those were the days even in the 60s when bosses ate with their clerks and did not go to restaurants. He was a great favourite with the newspapers which gleefully put his dangerous balancing act on the front page

One of a dwindling number of coffee shops run by former "European boys", Sin Kheng Hooi Hong always had a table or two reserved for "boy" old friends of the boss. The best beef steak or roast chicken, Hainanese-European style was served complete with knife and fork and toast and lots of rectangular shaped butter. And the guest would sit upright in his white shirt and white cotton drill trousers eating and gossiping with his host. Now all that is no more. And Ruggero would have been saddened by it all. 
 

A place which suffered the indignity of being called a GARAGE was also brought to the attention of the touring PM. The Garage was in fact the showroom of Wearne's, the firm of two brothers who were agents for Morris and other cars. The pair pioneered the delivery of airmail before the Japanese Occupation, flying in their biplane from Singapore to Penang weekends, with a bag of letters for the post office. The present occupants of the former showroom would be doing history a bit of good if they renamed the place with a more felicitous name to perpetuate the name of the pioneers Wearne 
 

Dr Chan who is also Water Watch Penang president recently made the news when he said that Sungai Pinang could become a tourist product when rehabilitated, providing boat rides from Lorong Kulit. WWP has together with SERI applied for financial aid from the Danish Cooperation for Environment and Development for river restoration education programmes. 

RESIDENTS of Taman Sentosa, Bukit Mertajam, also have their problems caused by falling stones and mud. They blame the Seberang Prai Municipal Council and contractor engaged on a hillslope stabilisation project. The question is: Is it right that Council serve notices on residents to move out "temporarily" and then order work to start?  Is this another example of a failure of public relations and a lack of consultation? The contractor is offering compensation: but what is the measure of damages for people who are considerably inconvenienced and who suffer the indignity of damage to their property?

Somehow the two buildings built right on the river at the foot of the hill at the Lower Station have escaped the attention of the critics of  council and the state government