Page 11
Grandma's gardenOoi Chong Jin remembers
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Page 11
Grandma's gardenOoi Chong Jin remembers |
| Tamarind 
THE TAMARIND TREE situated exactly on the boundary between
the premises and Kelawei Lane was to me biggest tree my Ah Mah's compound,
growing to an estimated height of 70 feet. For many reasons this was one
of the most memorable trees in the garden. One, it was the tree from which
I swung like Tarzan until one day when the rope burst, I fell and ended
up in a plaster cast (over my fractured tibia and fibula) for more than four
months. I tuang school for about a month but had to go to school after
that and became the centre of somewhat unwanted attention being the only
fellow with a plastered leg in school. At that time, I was in standard three
in Wellesley Primary School, aged 9.During my time (I was not told of the times when my uncles ruled the garden) the three climbers of this tree was Lau Hor, Kandiah and me. Every year when the tamarind fruit ripened, it was either Lau Hor or Kandiah who would climb this tree and shake down the ripe tamarind. This was done by using a long bamboo pole tied with a metal hook at the thinner end (of the bamboo pole) and hooking to the distal or upper sections of the branches and pulling and releasing the branches in quick strokes somewhat like shaking up a bottle of ketchup. When this is done the ripe fruits would be shaken off. On the ground below fruit pickers like Ah Tee Ee, Ah Lee Ee, some of my girl cousins or some hired hands like Ah Kee would be waiting to pick up the fruits and place them in baskets. Sometimes, when this is being done we would have unwelcome visitors waiting in the lolong (Kelawei Lane) to hijack the fruits from us. These unwelcome visitors refer to the neighbourhood kids and even some thick-skinned adults. The tamarind fruit (or "asam ko") do fall by themselves when urged by the occasional wind or when they become too ripe. The general feeling was that when the fruit fell in this natural way whatever fell outside our compound onto Kelawei Lane was free to be picked up by any passers-by - but not when Lau Hor or Kandiah was up the tree shaking down the fruit. As for me I seldom climbed the tree to shake down the fruit. Whenever I climbed the tree it was more to sit there, relax and contemplate the world below. I always had and have a fascination for heights, especially from up a tree or a hill or a mountain. |
| Now what happens to the picked asam
ko? When enough fruit had been accumulated - we had smaller baskets
to contain the fruit as they were picked off the ground and these would
be emptied into much bigger baskets -the fruit would be de-shelled and then
dried in the sun in open trays (about 24 inches in diameter). De-shelling
the fruit was quite easy and even I enjoyed doing this from time to time.
The real task was to remove the half-dried flesh from the seed and this
was done by hand, using a sharp knife. If I remember correctly this onerous
task was normally undertaken by Lau Hor, Ah Lee Ee, Ah Tee Ee and occasionally
by Ah Cheng Ee and Ah Mah (when she was much younger - she lived up to
age 91). Somehow I never got my self into trying this for fun or otherwise. At this stage the asam ko was ready for further drying in the sun and then it was ready for eating. Packed in bottles and jars - Ah Mah used to collect a lot of empty bottles and jars for this and other purposes - the processed asam ko was stored for future use. As usual stocks were delivered to Ah Man's children, grandchildren and closer friends on the island as well as in Taiping, Kuala Lumpur and Singapore. The asam ko is an ingredient for making sour curry as well as other sour food. It was believed that because of good quality control Ah Mah's asam ko was cleaner and fresher than what you could purchase from the chye tiamah (sundry shop). In later years, so I believe, when Ah Mah was not so active, Lau Hor secretly or openly sold our excess asam ko in Pulau Tikus to generate some extra income for herself. Another thing memorable about this Tamarind tree was that being the tallest tree at the back of the compound (the taller coconut trees were at the front of the compound) it became the biggest trap for the kites which we (Chou Bah Koo and me) flew during the windy seasons. Tapioca or ubi kayu 
From time to time, over certain years, Ah Mah grew the tapioca. It
was easy to grow and hardly needed any attention. At the right time Kandiah,
Lau Hor or sometimes I dug up the tubers for Ah Mah to make kueh beng
kah. The tubers were first washed in water to remove any attaching
soil and then the skin was scraped off using a knife, if my memory is correct.
The tuber was then rubbed against a piece of toothed metal plate to disintegrate
the pulp. This task had to be done carefully - a lesson which I quickly
learned. In my exuberant attempts to help Ah Mah a number of times I scraped
my fingers against the sharp teeth and added my blood as an unplanned ingredient
in the cake which eventually materialised.The disintegrated pulp of the tapioca is then mixed with sugar - black and/or white - put into a shallow pot lined with banana leaves and then baked over a wood fire. Not many people get the chance to taste freshly baked kueh beng kah whilst it is still hot or warm and let me assure you that it tastes much better than the cold cake which you can buy from the cake seller at the market. Nowadays a small miserly piece of the kueh costs 25 cents. |
Other Flora 
Another fruit plant which grew in the garden was the custard apple.
This plant was is normally quite small in comparison with say, the chiku
or the rambutan. The fruit is green in colour and the skin is rough
somewhat like the scales of a small crocodile. The fruit contains many
edible seeds of pulp, each surrounding a small black seed. It has a nice
fragrance and is sweet in taste.The fencing hedge surrounding the compound was composed of several species of plants and in this sense was not a well groomed hedge like that of "rich" bungalows which mostly consisted of one species of shrub. But our hedge was quite practical as one of the main components was the bamboo. This was a species of bamboo which had a maximum diameter of only about 3/4 of an inch growing to a maximum height of about 10 feet Our hedge was about 6 feet in height and from time to time, about once a month or once in two months Kandiah or Hussein (another gardener employed by Ah Mah for several years) had to trim the top and sides of the hedge with a garden sheer. This bamboo was useful in several ways. Once a year, just before Chinese New Year, Ah Mah would direct the gardener/maid/one or some of her children to spring-clean the house brushing away the cob-webs stuck to the ceiling and the walls. The brush or broom used for this purpose consisted of cuttings from this bamboo - its numerous small leaves made good brushes. The bamboo sticks with the leaves and branches removed also served as a good cane to wallop naughty children. As for the children, especially the boys, the bamboo sticks also became the raw material for some home made weapons. One, the internode of the bamboo which could extend to a length of about 15 inches served as a good blow pipe. The bullets (not darts) of this blow pipe consisted of green peas or uncooked rice grains which could be forcefully propelled through the barrel at targets about thirty to forty feet away. For many years during the August school holidays Mummy would holiday in Kelawei (coming from Singapore) with Ai Teik, Ai Kiong and sometimes a stray tagged along. This would be the season when we would conduct war games against the neighbouring army consisting of Jeffrey, his brothers and other neighbourhood kids. The weapon of choice was the bamboo blowpipe. Somehow, although uninstructed, we had the good sense not to resort to more dangerous weapons like the bow and arrow or the catapault Jeffrey's army would shoot at us with their blowpipes from atop their rambutan tree which grew just next to the demarcating hedge. Another weapon which we used was lor tin (Note 1) - a kind of creeper-like plant which grew on the ground or on upright supports. The stem of this plant was rough in texture and we used this as a whip or as bullets when cut into strips about 1 1/2 inches long. These bullets were propelled using a rubber band held between the thumb and the first finger. |
| If I remember correctly Ah Seong was
recruited into our army once a while whenever he happened to drop in from
Kuala Lumpur where Eh Bah Koo had migrated to take up his job with Shell.
In our warfare with the neighbouring army we not only used projectiles
but we also used mines. Ai Teik, being the oldest of the our boys was regarded
as the general. I still remember the day he set a mine against the enemy
who sometimes invaded our territory when we were not around in our headquarters
(Note 2). The mine consisted of salvaged and rusty nails driven through
pieces of wood and hidden under the grass for the unwary enemy to step
on. This time however he accidentally stepped on the mine himself with his
bare foot (it was our custom to run around bare footed). In our culture,
as I mentioned earlier, the impulsive reaction of the observer is to start
laughing at the victim. However, he being our general, I dared not laugh
at him and have saved it for now (almost forty years later). I cannot remember
whether the war injury was reported to the field marshal (Mummy) but one
good thing, at that time we did not know of things like tetanus and so the
general did not die of tetanus even though medical treatment was not sought. Another implement made from our smail bamboo cut away from the hedge was the bow and arrow. The main stem of the bamboo (which was about 1/2 to 3/4 inch in thickness) was used as the bow whereas the thinner off-shoot of the bamboo (about l/4 inch in diameter) was used as the arrow. One day when Ruby (then aged about 9) was sitting in the crotch of the Frangipani tree she somehow got herself into the path of my arrow which landed on her forehead, one inch above her right eye. It stuck on her forehead creating a small hole about 2mm deep. One thing you couid say about people those days was that they were not litigious and no ensuing family quarrel resulted. The truth was that I did not aim the arrow at her- the arrow was attracted to her. Later on my martial art would improve and I constructed arrows with a feather at the posterior end - feathers pulled off from Ah Mah's chickens and ducks. It was only then that I could aim the arrow with any reasonable accuracy. Another toy which you could make from the bamboo is a pop gun. In order to do this a section of the bamboo stem about 14 inches in length and having one node is used This stem is cut into two unequal parts - one about 3 inches long carrying the node and the other about 11 inches long forming the barrel of the pop gun. A straight thin branch of the bamboo stem just managing to fit into the barrel of the gun is then firmly lodged into the smaller section. The principle is somewhat like a hand-held bicycle pump or a football pump. The smaller section carrying the plunger is then inserted, plunger first, into the barrel (the longer section). The exposed end of the barrel is plugged with wet disintegrated paper. When the plunger is forcefully plunged into the barrel a zone of high pressure is created in front of the plunger. When sufficient pressure builds up the plug suddenly shoots out with a loud pop. Another component of our hedge was a verbal plant with a dark green stem and sharp pointed leaves shaped like a narrow spear (what is the name of this plant'?). The thing remarkable about this herb is that amongst its leaves can be found the homes of the fighting spider. The fighting spider was one of the most exciting species living in Aah Mah's compound As the name implies the main attraction of this spider amongst the boys is its inclination to fight, male against male and female against female. Like the species Homo sapiens there is little inclination for the male to fight the female or vice versa. |
| The male spider (kang) has a
slimmer waist but bigger biceps than the female (boh) - these are
the distinguishing features between the two sexes. The common descriptive
comparison used by young spider afficionados is that the female has a fat
backside. Fighting bouts were normally staged between male spiders as the
females were by nature not as aggressive. Like human boxers spider fighters
are divided into weight class - heavyweight, medium-heavyweight, lightweight,
featherweight etc. The idea is that you match spiders of (almost) the same
size. You do not match a heavyweight with a lightweight. Still, like some
members of the human kind who lack grey matter upstairs you occasionally
find a lightweight challenging a heavy weight and what do you know? the
lightweight occasionally defeats the heavyweight (the chicken hearted heavyweight). The fighting match between spiders is a hundred times more exciting than the fight between human boxers. In boxing you often find the two opponents trying to outslug one another in a dreary 12 round match. Most times the winning boxer wins by points and this is often subject to a lot of disputes or controversy. The fighting match between spiders normally lasts only one round; sometimes two, and very rarely three. There is no dispute as to who is the winner and who is the loser. The loser will turn tail and flee for his life.# ______ Note 1: Lor tin (derris root) was an unwanted creeper. Ah Mah ran a tight ship - the garden was well kept and weeding was a continual activity performed by Ah Mah and her daughters and grandchildren. You sit on a bangku and pick out unwanted weeds around the garden. After sometime your action becomes automatic and you could pick weeds without thinking. It was then you could let your imagination roam or practise transcendental meditation. To harvest lor tin for our bullets we had to go the the unkept neighbourhood. Note 2: Whenever Ai Teik came from Singapore we would construct a headquarters consisting of strips of wood (scrounged from Ah Mah's scrap yard) which formed the walls and corrugated iron/zinc sheets or coconut leaves which formed the roof. To firmly hold the pillars or roof post in place we used cement consisting of the material from white ants' nest. This material is very hard when dry and when it is wet it does not easily wash away. Ah Mah's scrap yard was located in the motor car keng which housed ail kinds of scrap material like empty bottles, left-over timber, coconut husk, durian skins etc. During much of the day and even at night we would spend a lot of time at our army HQ away from the domineering women/girls of Kelawei.# Concluded Click here for Part Two Go to the top |
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| ______ INDEX Point to the article that you want to read, and CLICK Index page
The Baling meeting (3)
Book review
Food guide The God in the garden (3) The wedding dinner |
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Editorial consultants: Mr and Mrs Lim Teong Beng Technical advisor: Tony Ooi Thanks to Robyn Choi for her assistance this issue Thanks to "The Penang Palate" for
the use of coconut scraper and kuay kapek mould illustrations |
If you have any photos of old Penang which you would like published please send them to 35 Halaman Batu Maung 11960 Batu Maung Penang and we shall return them to you after publication We have prepared an Index to The Penang File. If you are interested in having a copy please email us at thepenangfile@yahoo.co.uk giving your name, address as well as your email address ____________________ The Penang File Issue 41 |