FRIENDS...

Yabadabadoo said:

Hello, Bangsa Malaysia, I must agree that Penang food IS THE BEST!! I must add that Penangites also want the best of both worlds (for the price of one) eg.laksa with both types of soup - lemak (Siamese) with the assam one in one bowl; a bowl of hokkien mee with the normal soup mixed with the sticky("lor")mixture. Haggling for discounts is in the blood of every true-blue Penangite. THUMBS UP TO THE ONE & ONLY FOOD HAVEN.....thanks for the refreshing new addition to your playlist.

Yaba has answered it well. I'm not mistaken with my vision of how a Penangite is. Anyways yeah..no food can beat Penang Food.

Food is like music actually. Universal. Anyone can enjoy food. Go to a nasi kandar shop, you get to see all races enjoying the food. But....there will always be this grouping of Malys who will flock together, Chinese will flock togather and Indians will flock together. You very seldom see a mixture of races enjoying the same lunch together unless its official business. That shows that we don't really mingle with our Malaysian friends.

One reason for not being able to be close is language. Chinese in Penang are able to communicate in 2 languages. 1 is Hokkien. The other is English. Though some are broken to pieces but they prefer to talk that than Bahasa Malaysia. Class maybe. But their command of BM is actually very good. I'm talking about the younger generation, maybe now in their 20's. But the older ones might be better off in English than Malay. This is my personal experience with the people that I mingle and has nothing to do with whatever studies that has been done on this subject. Hahahaha.. But for those in Air Itam and Paya Terubong area, their command of BM is sad. English, sad too. Though they'll be having English names but do not be surprise if Jason Wong or Cindy Chong cannot communicate in English. Hokkien and Mandarin is their tongue.

The Indians are better off in the language department in Penang. From what I see, the Indians are divided into 3 categories. The Hindu Indians, the Christian Indians and the Muslim Indians. Most Indians are able to use their BM well. Understandable. Indians generally are able to communicate in 3 lingo. BM, English and Tamil. The Christian Indians generally speak English very vell. The Muslim Indians speak BM vell too, some with the Indian harmony added to it.

The Malays has got 2 factions in Penang. Mamak Malays and Malays Malay. I'm getting confused myself. They have quite a number of Boyan Malays too. To my understanding, its no fault of anybody, the Mamaks are a mixture of Malay and Indian. Thats how the features come about. The fairer skinned Mamak uses Malay language as their communication tool whereas the dark skinned Mamak uses Tamil as their mother tongue. The Malays will of course use only Malay language added with a little bit of English here and there. A lot of younger generation Malays are bad in English. Atrocious. The elderly Malays due to the type of schooling those days command English very well.

Could this be the reason why we can't mingle?

The other culprit could be the inability to tolerate different faith which I do not want to touch at this point of time.

Use to see a group of friends made up of all races, in the late 90's. Indians, Punjabi, Chinese and Malay make up this group. They are so attached that eventually consider themselves as brothers and sisters. The eldest in the group is called Abang Long (Chinese), next in line Abang Ngah(Malay) and so forth

When Chinese New Year come a knocking, all of them will go in a group to celebrate together to the Chinese friends house. Deepavali, there are not enough chapatis to go around, the way they eat. Come Hari Raya, they go all out, main dish they request would be sambal belacan.

Thursday is a day when they get together at Leith Street. The bond was so close that if one does not turn up, the others will start calling until the absentee has got no choice but to come. Unless you're outstation or being put to CRIB (complete rest in bed) by the doctor, there is no excuse.

Well...the group has since RIP. Due to other commitments that the members has to go through and also due to some spouses intervention, who does not know the actual value of friendship and the fun they had when together.....Those get together really lets you bring out the Satan and the child in you and yet not getting ridiculed... Those were the days my friend, I thought would never end...