Category: People

Happy International Women’s Day

Happy International Women’s Day, today.

Re-posting an image of Bonda Emma in conjunction. She’s the very successful woman lemang entrepreneur, mother and matriarch of a big extended family. Yet she behaves with humility and is down to earth always. She giggled like a bashful teen when she saw me walking in

Original post : Motherly Emma.

Bonda Emma appeared genuinely happy and excited when she saw me walking towards her. I was surprised she didn’t do a double take nor was there delay in recalling or recognising me. She has thousands of repeat customers, after all.

She giggled like a teen and asked me what I like as she will give me a treat. I last met her during Hari Raya and she told me subsequently she will treat me after seeing her lemang pics and the ensuing publicity.

I normally don’t accept free stuff from places I reviewed as a matter of principle and ethics. Nevertheless, receiving lemang as a festive gift is a tradition like how we give lemang to relatives, friends and neighbours during festivals. I accepted it in that spirit.

The Malay word Bonda in her moniker is old world, palace usage and an affectionate term for mother. Bonda Emma may be motherly but she is no ordinary woman. She runs a very big operation with 20 or 30 staff and her turnover is higher than that of many other sole-proprietorships.

I complimented her on being active on Facebook. She comes to like many of my daily posts and not just of those that featured her. She blushed and said it is to kill time after work. She even remembered my recent Penang trip posts.

So much humility and ‘humaness’ from a very successful and busy entrepreneur. Awe and respect.

Behind her in red shirt is the chain-smoking, firestarter. chef and family friend Hamdan who I interviewed during the Hari Raya feature.

When I was leaving and as parting words, Emma told me she will share my upcoming posts when it is published 🙂

To be continued…

Sony Alpha a7R, ISO 4000, f4, 1/60 sec.

#streetphotography #documentaryphotography #lemang #lemangbonda #bondaemma #emma #harirayahaji #eidaladha #eid #festival #stall #entreprenuer #candid #night #sonyalpha #a7r #zeiss

Love Her Freckles

On this day in 2015, I met Indonesian Chinese school teacher Lix Xia when she was wandering by herself in Chinatown KL. The then stranger and tourist told me she is from exotic Cirebon and it was my first time hearing of the ancient port city in West Java. At first, I thought she meant Seremban. Haha.

I asked to take pictures of her on the street and she asked why. I told her I like her (mild) freckles. Honesty helps:-) We spoke in a mixture of English, Hokkien (Fujian) and Mandarin.

If you ever go to Cirebon, book a hotel room through me at http://www.mycen.my/agoda/

Search for Cirebon on that page and Agoda will list at least 38 hotels there.

#cirebon #java #indonesia #indonesian #chinese #freckles #tourist #chinatownkl

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Back At 168 And Sungai Wang

Back At 168 And Sungai Wang.

I was back in Sungai Wang Plaza for the second straight day in a row. I fell asleep on my glasses and broke it. FML. Johnny Ong was nice to drive me there today and the optician boss, Michael, was in a good mood and he replaced the pair without charges, even though it was my own carelessness.

The shop is Eyewear and you may want to search for my recent post entitled “Love At First Sight”. Bear in mind, you may not enjoy the same kind of liberal warranty, though.

This is the blog version of that post and the address is also given in it:
http://tvsmith.my/eclectic/love-first-sight

Was also happy Johnny got himself a new pair after eye examinations today and saved himself a bundle. Since Johnny likes traditional Chinese food, I suggested we go eat at Restaurant 168 as Pudu was nearby.

Johnny was excited hearing it, as he remembered me going there with mutual friend Anna Har the last time. We wanted to try the signature curry mee but to our big disappointment, it was already sold out at 2 pm.

Earlier blog post about Restaurant 168. Also on FB and IG:
http://tvsmith.my/food/restaurant-168

I asked for regular yellow noodles and kuey tiow “kon low” (dry mix) instead of wontan noodles and as before, it came with awesome wan tans and a sui kow. The sui kows were so good we ordered an additional standalone bowl. All washed down with Calamansi Juice With Sour Plums.

#restaurant168 #pudu #wantonmee #dumplings #noodles #streetphotography #streetfood #eyewear #sungaiwang

The Old Jetty In Tanjung Sepat, 10 Years Ago

Love the power of social media networking. My long time Instagram follower @jaschintaz sent me an old pic of her wedding day at the old jetty in Tanjung Sepat, 10 years ago! What a sweet couple, weren’t they? Her husband CS is a native of the town. If you remember, I mentioned that the old jetty collapsed. See how charming the old jetty was albeit being quite rickety then. Thanks Jas for sharing. Now my story about the new and old jetties is complete. See my earlier post about the new jetty titled “Time And Tide Wait For No Man Or Woman”.

#tanjungsepat #jetty #fishing #sea #smalltown #selangor #landscape #pier #wedding #tbt

Troupers

Met these two young Malay lion dance troupers last year. As I was taking their pic, their Chinese and Indian teammates kept mentioning KFC.

Puzzled, I asked them about it. One of the boys appeared in a KFC television commercial near that time.

According to Albert Fong, lion dance expert and trainer on my Facebook, they are Hakimi Ismail (left) and Eskandar Zolkarnaine.

#liondance #cny #nfc #sonyalpha #a7r