Thursday, March 31, 2016

Art Gallery - Balik Pulau Street Art Wall Murals

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Balik Pulau Street Art Wall Murals
Balik Pulau, Penang, Malaysia - March 2016
The street art in Penang Island has become a culture by itself, one that has drawn many tourists to the island. It all started when Lithuanian artist Ernest Zacharevic did some wall murals around the streets of George Town during the George Town Festival 2012 depicting the simple life-style of the locals. Street art then bloomed with Ernest doing more pieces, other artists doing metal rod artwork (which depicted scenes from the city's colonial past) and then there is even a series on cats.

Now up in Balik Pulau on the other end of the island, Siberian-born Russian artist Julia Volchkova have painted beautiful pieces, pieces which also portrays the local culture. The Balik Pulau literally mean "back of the island" in Malay, a very apt name for a quiet town at the back of the island. A few of us did a cycling tour of the place to enjoy it's rural setting ending with a stint to view these wall murals. For location of these pieces, see map at the bottom.
Below are three pieces by her in this town:
"Hakka Dancing Girl" - GPS 
This is a painting of Pang Yi Chuen, a local Hakka girl whose traditional dancing caught the artist's eyes at the Hakka Association in George Town. Balik Pulau town has a predominant Hakka population.
GPS 5.349820, 100.234219

(Click here for Google street view)


"The Silat Master"
This is a portrait of Johari Omar in a silat stance. Silat is the traditional martial arts practised in the Malay Archipelago and Indonesia.
GPS 5.349398, 100.233800


(Click here for Google street view)



 "Fisherman"
This is a portrait of Yeoh Choon Seng, a local fisherman from nearby Teluk Kumbar, mending fishing nets.
GPS 5.351839, 100.235673


(Click here for Google street view)

"Silversimith" by Ernest Zacharevic.
It depicts an old wrinkled silversmith and was carried out in an interesting way - with a water-jet blasting away a dark mossy wall to expose the original paintwork below.
GPS 5.352653, 100.236330
(Click here for Google street view)




Related Blogs :


Street Art @ Hin Bus Art Depot
George Town, Penang : February 2014
An exhibition of interesting art by Lithuanian artist Ernest Zacharevic





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Street Art of Ipoh, Perak : May 2014 
Street art is slowing but surely blooming in Ipoh.


Street Art of Gopeng, Perak : July 2014 
The street art culture is spreading and is now budding in Gopeng.


Graffiti Street Art @
Kuala Lumpur Storm Drains #1 : September 2013
A surprise find of large mural street art graffiti in the storm drains of Kuala Lumpur












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Tuesday, March 29, 2016

YummY! - Squatting Teow Chew Porridge @ Bee Hong Coffee-shop, George Town, Penang

You are at - Jotaro's Blog / FootSteps / YummY! / Chinese / Squatting Teow Chew Porridge @ George Town Penang
                                                              YummY!                                                             
               Jotaro's Food Review              
Squatting Teow Chew Porridge @ Bee Hong, George Town,  Penang
George Town, Penang, Malaysia - March 2016
Squatting down to eat, now this is either a cute thing to do or a difficult and funny way to eat! Well, it's not actually squatting down per se, patrons to this stall sit on stools (locally called bangku) that are put on long benches to eat the porridge served by the vendor. They sit on the bangku and fold their legs up to put onto the bench in a squatting manner. For casual visitors and tourists (like me) it's a quirky memory; but for regular patrons, it is a style that goes with their daily lives.
There were a few of this type of stalls in Penang decades ago and they were mostly patronised by trishaw pedallers and there is a reason for them to eat this way. After long hours of pedalling their trishaws, their legs ache and the squatting position pulls their leg muscles back, offering some comfort to their tired legs.


The stall is small, occupying a small light pastel blue counter next to the next to the Bee Hong Coffee-shop at Jalan Magazine. It's easy to miss, look out for the 1st Avenue mall, it's opposite. This place had a colourful history, back then Jalan Magazine was called Thau Tiau Lor which meant in local Hokkien the "First Road" as it was the first road running after the Prangin Canal (it was an open canal back then). It was the first of seven parallel road after the canal and the area was called the "Seven Streets Precinct" and was then a rather notorious gangster area. These days, the area is an extension of the George Town UNESCO Heritage Zone, the gangsters are gone and have been replaced by boutique hotels and quaint modern eateries.
(Correction: There are actually nine roads starting with Jalan Magazine and ending with Lebuh Sandilands. See the comment below by a helpful reader, perhaps this area should then be called the Nine Streets Precinct.)
The stall's operator (Mr. Tan Jin Hock)  is a seventy-five years old man and has been running the place for almost forty years after taking it over from his father. Let's hope his stall won't be replace by those quaint modern outlets.


They offer a good range of simple home-cooked dishes. Having flown in from Kuala Lumpur, and having had a leisurely cycle jaunt down from the Bayan Lepas airport, I was there close to 6:00pm, past their normal operating hours and was lucky that the stall was still opened, although not that much dishes were left.


Here I am sitting on one of the bangkus with legs squatting akimbo. Squatting there with my tired legs made me realise how the trishaw-men must have felt; the squatting pulled back my leg muscles, stretched them and slowly relaxing them


Here's what I had (from left to right): 
- white taukuah bean curd stir fried with leek. This was a simple dish with the slight bite of the leek leaking it's flavour into the bean curd.
-  mui choy stir fried with slices of pork. The salty flavourful gravy went very well with the two bowls of white rice porridge that I had.
- omelet fried with slices of large onion.
And IT'S CHEAP; this dinner of mine just cost RM3-80 (less than one USD)!


There used to be several stalls of this kind here and also a few at Kampung Malabar. Sadly this is the last stall left and may be the last of it's kind as the old man's children are reluctant to take over the stall.
So quickly visit it and enjoy the experience; the bangkus are there waiting... but not for long!

SQUATTING TEOCHEW PORRIDGE @ GEORGE TOWN PENANG
Jalan Magazine, George Town, Penang, Malaysia.
(The stall has no name. It is next to the Bee Hong Coffee-shop and opposite the 1st Avenue mall) 
Hours: 10:30am to around 4:30pm
GPS: 5.41293, 100.33078
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