Hidden gem: Food business in the Seri Kembangan New Village continue to thrive.
VENTURE into the Seri Kembangan New Village, and there is no mistaking which dialect group the locals belong to.
Senior folk to greet each other at coffeeshops with zhou mak kai (what are you doing?) and sit pau mau (have you eaten?).
Welcome
to the predominantly Hakka area, where the people often launch into
dialogues in their native tongue. From grocery stores, food stalls, wet
market to car repair shops, the village is like one big family.
Hakka people, which is known as ke chia ren
in Mandarin, historically means nomadic people who keep moving from one
area to another, hence their ‘guest’-like culture which the word ke indicates.
“Hakka
people are reputed to be loud talkers, because they used to sing and
shout across the huge plantations they toiled,” said a Hakka colleague.
Hakkas are also renowned for their array of delicious dishes, and there is no shortage of that in the new village.
One
such outlet is the Kien Kee Sup Pedas and Ayam Kampung, a no-frills
outlet located not too far from the old morning wet market.
During
a recent visit, the owner’s grandson Kelvin Sang said the shop was
opened in 1999, and was patronised more by outsiders rather than the
locals.
“Our signature dishes are lat thong (peppery soup), fah teu kai (chicken in dark soy sauce and fah teu wine) as well as yellow rice wine chicken.
“Everything
is prepared and cooked fresh daily. I think the ingredients we use and
the flavourful taste are what draw our customers,” said Sang, 22.
Speaking
in Cantonese, he said it was not necessary to learn Hakka to trade in
the area, as long as one could converse in Mandarin or Cantonese, which
are widely spoken in the area.
Tasty treat: Lee preparing Hakka noodles using those made by Wong (pic, below).
Another famous Hakka dish is yong tau foo, which are vegetables stuffed with fish paste and (in the case of the Hakka version) pork.
The
Leong Meng Fatt Hakka Yong Tau Foo shack in one of the roadside lanes
has been around for more than 30 years, said its owner. They also serve
paper-wrapped chicken, which is another Hakka delicacy.
For many Hakkas, though, what they miss is homemade Hakka noodles.
Former noodle seller Wong Kim Yen is one of the rare few who continues to make it from scratch, using flour, egg, oil and salt.
“Homemade
Hakka noodles have become almost ‘extinct’ — a traditional trade gone
because nobody really makes them now. From kneading the dough to letting
it rest, the process is time-consuming and a test of your patience.
“Even
in the new village, not many people, especially the younger generation,
know this,” said Wong, who started making it more than five years ago
in her home in Taman Universiti Indah.
She used to sell about 25kg of the noodles a day at her stall in Kuala Lumpur, but stopped last year due to time constraint.
Now, she only supplies the noodles, selling 4kg of it daily to a Hakka food stall owner.
“There is a marked difference between Wong’s homemade noodles and those that are mass-produced in a factory.
“Wong’s
noodles are springier and do not have an alkaline taste,” said chef Ken
Lee, 37, who runs the Chong Steam Fish Head and Hakka Food restaurant
in Taman Universiti Indah.
Lee is a fourth-generation Hakka in
the food trade. He aims to spread the goodness of the noodles and
introduce other old-time specialty Hakka dishes to customers at his
rented outlet, which opens from 4.30pm to midnight.
Driving
through the new village, flags of various political parties can be seen
flapping wildly in the wind. Yet one seems to have the feeling that
most folks here are more concerned about going about their daily routine
and businesses than get caught up in the election fever.
There might be the occasional coffeeshop talk among friends and families, but many chose to remain mum on their voting choice.
He
felt that there was still an insufficient number of Chinese schools in
the new village, especially since 90% of the population was Chinese.
Another
woman, who declined to be named, felt that Pakatan Rakyat had done a
fine job and said the people now voted based on party rather than
candidate.
Senior citizen Choy Sai Chee, 75, did not hide who he
was voting for though — adding that he had been voting for the same
party all his life.
Serdang DAP candidate Ong Kian Ming has picked up basic Hakka greetings man sheong hau (good evening), which he now dishes out during his ceramah.
He
would continue his speech in Mandarin, but not before apologising to
the audience and saying he was trying his best to learn the dialect.
“If
given a chance to serve, I pledge to be fluent in both Hakka and
Mandarin. If I still can’t do it within the next five years, then voters
are free to kick me out,” he said previously.
His opponent,
Serdang Barisan Nasional candidate Datuk Yap Pian Hon, is a Hakka, as
are his two other state seat candidates Chin Toong Kang (Seri Kembangan)
and Dr Lai Kwong Choy (Balakong).
“It is a 90% Hakka town here,
where people from nearby areas such as Sungai Besi and Serdang Baru were
resettled by the British under the Malayan Emergency.
“Coincidentally
then, the Hakka community had already existed. The British called it a
new village but it was actually more like a detention camp,” said Yap.
Seri
Kembangan’s DAP candidate Ean Yong Hian Wah is a Hakka and Balakong’s
Ng Tien Chee a Hokkien. Ng also pointed out that there were two new
villages in Balakong — the Balakong New Village, which was mainly Hakka,
and the Batu 11 New Village, which is predominantly Hokkien.
