Tag: sonyalpha

Yik Mun’s Hainanese Chicken Chop

Yik Mun kopitiam in Tanjung Malim was a popular stopover during the heydays of Federal Route 1. The Chinese steamed buns shop was an institution.

Now run by third generation descendents, the restaurant is located outside the old town. A shophouse factory in town churns out the assembly-line buns. They are no longer hand-made.

I didn’t order their famous pau (steamed bun) this time. It tasted lousy on a previous visit. Fortunately, the shop sells other local food including the famous Malaysian invention; the Hainanese Chicken Chop.

I am a bit OCD when I see salad dressing carelessly splashed all over the dish. The Hainanese chicken chop’s gravy is a speciality by itself. Typically, it has oyster sauce, HP sauce, Worcestershire sauce and blended secret ingredients in it. It must not be contaminated with Thousand Island dressing.

That aside, the chicken chop here tasted “so so” and the portion seems to have gotten smaller. At RM 14 ++, it is not cheap for a small town.

Nevertheless, the shop was packed when I was there. I guess a good reputation from the past can go a long way. Try it yourself and let me know what you think, if you are in town. Yik Mun is Halal.

Sony Alpha a7R, ISO 1000, f4, 1/60 sec.

Tanjung Malim Train Station

A very big station was built as part of the electrified double-tracking rail project. The new railway station and the accompanying road re-alignment and flyover were to change the face of Tanjung Malim town forever.

Amazingly, the sheltered platform is about 500 meters long. Currently there are only a handful of passengers, even during rush hour. Talk about optimism or building for the future.

Sony Alpha a7R, ISO 250, f4, 1/250 sec.

Sun Setting On A Rest House

The Tanjung Malim Rest House stands like a crumbling monument to an era long gone. There used to be a rest house in every town but only a few have survived or are still operating. Government rest houses are now mostly a British colonial day relic left abandoned and to fade away silently.

This one is unique as it is one of few with the original design from more than a 100 years ago. One of the last caretakers was a Hainanese. Not surprisingly, the rest house was well-known for the food he served.

During its glory days, this rest house not only served as a hotel (or motel) but also as a popular dining venue for royalty, other VIPs and room guests.

Now, the wooden structure is rotting away, the fittings stripped bare and creepers are encircling it in a slow strangle of death. Only thing that will probably remain is the eponymous Rest House Road it stands on.

Sony Alpha a7R, ISO 100, f11, 1/320 sec.

On The Street Where You Live

People stop and stare, they don’t bother me
For there’s nowhere else on earth that I would rather be
Let the time go by, I won’t care
If I can be here on the street where you live

The wonderful love song by Frederick Loewe and Alan Jay Lerner from the Broadway musical (and later the film) “My Fair Lady” sounds creepy in this day and age. Sounds like a stalker anthem. Haha.

Sony Alpha a7R, ISO 100, f6.3, 1/160 sec.

The Rohingyas On Land – Compassion

A Muslim Burmese lady was feeding abandoned kittens by the roadside. She declined to have her face photographed.

As I photographed the kittens, a busybody stranger remarked that she’ll be getting massive ‘pahala’ points (based on the concept of receiving blessings as reward for good deeds).

I thought the man’s Malay accent sounded like that of a Bangladeshi migrant living in Malaysia. When I met him later inside a Toto shop, he told me he is Rohingya as well.

The lady seem annoyed by his remark. She declared: “I’m doing it because I can’t bear to see a living thing die of hunger. Not for any reward.”

Compassion. It reminds me of a quote attributed to Mahatma Gandhi:

“It ill becomes us to invoke in our daily prayers the blessings of God, the Compassionate, if we in turn will not practice elementary compassion towards our fellow creatures” .

Sony Alpha a7R, ISO 320, f4, 1/200 sec.