Small Wonders

 

Who doesn't, on occasion, find themselves in need of a 1-cm-deep wok perched on a 2-cm-high stove, complete with lid, ladle, and a single tiny fish? Or a teapot no bigger than the tip of an adult's pinky finger, chained to a miniature thermos bearing etched flowers that will trigger nostalgia for anyone who ever lodged in a Chinese hotel before bottled water was available everywhere (remember the boiled water attendants on every floor)?.

The wok sits on a bookshelf in my office, a souvenir from our January sojourn on Penang (here, by the way, is the article that took us there). In the odd but endearingly caught-in-a-timewarp west coast town of Balik Pulau we visited the workshop of the island's only silversmith specializing in miniatures. Mr. Fong is sixty-eight years old; he started learning his craft at age thirteen.

We're not trailblazers in any respect. This guy has been written up in publications from Kuala Lumpur to Japan to Europe, and he's got the framed clips to prove it. But his notoriety in no way diminishes the uber- coolness of what he does for a living.

 

Mr. Fong says it took him at least ten years to master the art: 'Oh, I was terrible when I started!' he claims. 'Slowly, slowly, I do better. And now people come to Balik Pulau just to see me!'

He's very proud, and not particularly humble.

 

These days, he says, he's doing fewer and fewer of the sort of delicate pieces pictured above - not because of failing eyesight but because he's losing dexterity in his fingers.

A Penang treasure, Mr. Fong is, worth making your way over to Balik Pulau for.

While you're there, you might tuck into another sort of Penang treasure: laksa. Two popular stalls face off across the main road (the name of the road? I don't know, and you don't need to. It's that kind of small town).

The one occupying a front corner of Nan Guang coffee shop dishes up laksa assam and laksa siam. The soup of the former is thin but full of fish flakes. It boasts a robust fish flavor, a fair bit of heat, and lots of tamarind tang. The latter, named - obviously - for the influences bestowed on the dish by Malaysia's northern neighbor, is thickened and enriched with coconut milk and heady with lemongrass and galangal. It tastes, at first spoonful, very Thai. It's also delicious.

 

But it's the assam laksa dished up across the way that we love best.

This vendor's been at it for thirty-six years, and his assam laksa is fishier and more tart (with plenty of assam keping, or sour slices) and spicy than the version across the street. The sign on his cart says 'laksa lemak' but it's the assam laksa you'll be wanting to try. 

 

Laksas siam and assam and Mr. Fong the silver miniatures artist, main street, Balik Pulau, Penang.

Comments

[KY]

It has been a few months since I last went back to Penang, and the last time I had this particular laksa was probably a decade ago. Thanks for bringing up the memory. :)

[Nan]

Robyn, I loved your article on Penang, where was it published?

[Saida]

Laksa is my ultimate favorite food.
And I can only drool here in Indiana.

[Robyn]

KY- sounds like it's time for you to make another trip!

Hi Nan - thanks very much. It was in the March issue of Travel+Leisure magazine's Southeast Asia edition.

Saida - sorry! I feel your pain.

[William Leigh]

Now that's what I need for breakfast this morning.

[Pete]

Robyn, although I've been to Nan Guang for the assam laksa, I think the famous "Balik Pulau Assam Laksa" folks are actually the ones who were located in the Old Market - they've recently re-located to the spanking New Market (behind the bus terminus). Busloads of Penang folks from the other side of the island make a bee-line for their assam laksa there!

[Deepak Bista, Australia]

I have only been KL once during the International Congress and did not get around to go to streets but had few meals in the parliament house hosted by few ministers as I was one of the Malaysian Government's guest. It was an experience by itself.

[Barbara]

We took your advice from yesterday and went to Balik Pulau. Even in the pouring rain (with no umbrella) we had a wonderful time. We had the asam laksa, Jim ate all of his and half of mine. We also visited the silversmith and got the tiny wok! It's going to have a place on my desk at work where I can look at it and fondly remember this trip!

[Robyn]

Whaaa? After all the walking/grazing this morning? You guys are freaking amazing! So glad you had a good time and that the silversmith was open. I treasure my miniature silver wok, fish and spatula and all.
Enjoy the rest of your time in Penang!