NEKBAK, APANG SSAKOR,  beromok. Perut ayam, wajik, lompat tikam, asam gampal and putri mandi, rojok betik, halba,  bekok keng, lopat tikang, kambing nerok.

Words that intrigue and puzzle. Awang Goneng  explains it all in “Growing up in Trengganu” where the author has added up tit bits from old and new Trengganu into a fascinating book.

Examples of his entertaining explanations.

Lempok: “At some point in her life, Mother must have looked up to the rafters and decided that something was amiss. She ordered the best lempok that ever was stirred on this planet earth, put the whole big clump in a metal pot and hung it from a beam up there” - Penangites will not be amused to learn that lempok is a “thread of dreams”,  far superior to their durian koay.      

Putri mandi: a bath of shaved coconut and palm sugar.

Rojok betik: a salad of green papaya shaved into thin strips covered with a sauce of fish, chilli and coconut sugar mixed in vinegar.

Kambing nerok: goats with the strongest B.O.

The book comes with a useful glossary.
                                           
Awang Goneng tells us what games the children played when three sweets of buoh guling cost 5 cts and  the teksi was the trishaw, when you bought ice blocks on the pavement; and that was  before the fridge came, before the flourescent lamps came.

We meet Pok Anjang who never smiles and plies his trade on his kitchen-pedicab with its boiling pot,  preparing his rojok,  and the dah dah sum man and his apang balik, the fish dealer with his handlebar horn. And there is the asthmatic Ayoh Wang, brass craftsman, who also made keropok. Sulong, the cameraman, taking shots from beneath his blanket and delivering matte prints from his glass negatives. And if you wanted to DIY you could  hire  the Rolleiflex camera from Lay Sing Studio.

     A cousin's wedding

We know that egg is food which is also used to decorate a stick with at weddings but it has its magical uses too. Bomoh will roll an egg over the parts of a sick person and when egg is cracked open a rusty nail, bits of glass or whatever causes the trouble is drawn out, a medical practice that reminds us that the Chinese too use of the magical egg to draw out the hidden hairs in your body which felled you with typhoid.  Bekok keng, a mixture of vinegar, applied to the cheeks and a cold poultice of dried tamarind soaked in cold water and pasted on the forehead is for mumps. For diabetes, tapai is effective.

Like the Chinese, Trengganu folk too think that nangka  is bad for muscular aches. They too push chili padi down throats of merbok to make them sing better.

Awang Goneng is a treasure house of information about his native Trengganu, a collection of immigrants from Bugis land and also from far away Yemen, Baghdad, Egypt.  We learn that Chinese, Muslim as well as non Muslim, came as far back as 1178. Kg China was the place where Chinese settlers came in the 18th century to trade. Awang Goneng remembers the singing of his Tamil neighbours during the birthday of the Prophet. 

Many immigrants, Christians, Buddhists as well as Hindus, lie in the cemetry which has a quaint wooden house built over it. It was an egg from an exotic bird called the buraq.  

It is this extraordinary mix of immigrants which has created Trengganu, a top prize country for having the friendliest and warmest people in the world. A Malay friend  from the west coast who had never visited the East coast told me that he was stunned by the hospitality.  It was this same warmth that drew me year after year to the East coast which, in critical days, never seemed to have heard of May 13. #

Lim Kean Chye

Book Reviewed
Awang Goneng: Growing up in Trengganu

Monsoon 2007