By HELEN ONG
The Hakka Connexion serves something one rarely comes across commercially: home-cooked Hakka food.
THE late Tan Sri Wong Pow Nee was a teacher of humble origins who rose to become the first Chief Minister of Penang from 1957 to 1969.
Of Hakka descent, he was apparently fiercely proud of his heritage, his family initially settling in Balik Pulau where there is a large community, and later moving to Bukit Mertajam.
Warm gesture: Peter Wong inviting you to try some home-cooked Hakka food.
In memory of his late father who died in 2002 at the ripe old age of 92, son Peter Wong Tet Phin, 49, has set up a gallery in Jalan Basawah, behind Giant Supermarket in Burmah Road, which showcases hundreds of photographs from his personal collection collected over the many years he was in office.
The small room is packed with framed pictures and other memorabilia, and a visit there is sure to bring back memories for many.
As entry to the gallery is free, Wong has also established a restaurant next door to help fund this worthwhile project.
The Hakka Connexion serves something one rarely comes across commercially: home-cooked Hakka food.
“Not many outlets serve this kind of food,” he explained.
His cook and partner, Carene Lim, 48, was one of the very few; she used to cook and serve this peasant-food-turned delicacy from a hawker stall in town.
As it is quite different from the sort of sam poey (dishes) we usually eat in Penang, which is more nyonya-based, the meal turned out to be an interesting sojourn into a culinary world of which I knew next to nothing about, despite having had an old Hakka flame decades ago whose family ate such food.
Lim did stress that as, traditionally, Hakka (Khek) people were immigrant visitors from northern China whose nomadic lifestyles meant that they absorbed influences from the various regions they finally settled in, the lines are blurred as to the origin of some dishes.
Mouth-watering: Hakka noodles with minced pork and soya sauce eaten with homemade chilli and garlic sauce.
“Much of Hakka cooking involves pork and fish,” she explained, so we started with one of their signature dishes from their small but popular and reasonably-priced menu, Tu Kar Chor (Vinegar Pork Trotters). Its sweet and sour dark gravy, seasoned with ginger, is very similar to the Hokkien version.
Another is “Lui Cha” or “Ham Cha” or even “Lei Cha” – it has different names, but basically the dish consists of individual portions of, in this case six different types of vegetables, some fried with dried shrimp, chai por (preserved vegetable) and nuts heaped around a helping of white or brown rice.
“Each state serves this dish differently,” according to Wong, but the important must-have ingredient is apparently the green tea soup, which comes in a separate bowl.
It is made with tea and Chinese herbs, and there is a strong overriding flavour of mint camphor, which is unusual but not unpleasant.
The dish is deemed quite healthy as the vegetables give it plenty of fibre, and rather like rojak, you mix everything up, including the soup, before tucking in. At RM6, it’s worth every sen.
I especially liked the spicy and flavoursome Hakka Noodles tossed in black soya sauce, which is a bit like broad, flat konloh meen, but served with a helping of savoury minced pork and eaten with a good spoonful of fried onion fritters and a tasty homemade chilli and garlic sauce.
Their Hakka Yong Taufu, also homemade, is popular too; taufu, bitter gourd or brinjal filled with a paste made with sai to fish, minced pork and a hint of kiam hu (salted fish), served in a light clear soup.
Proud showcase: The gallery dedicated to the memory of the late Tan Sri Wong Pow Nee.
Yet another new dish I was introduced to was the appropriately-named Suan Pan Zi, or Yam Abacus, little round discs made from a dough of yam and tapioca flour which is kneaded, shaped then cooked in boiling water before being stir-fried with minched pork, mushrooms and soya sauce.
Shaped like an abacus seed, they are soft, smooth and slightly springy, and the taste is an odd mix between sweet and savoury, although I’m told some places serve it dry without a sauce.
The opening of the restaurant cum gallery was deliberately timed to coincide not just with Malaysia’s 50th anniversary last year, but also the fifth anniversary of his patriotic father’s demise on Aug 31.
“When we first started, we had only four tables and a couple of dishes,” Wong said, “but even then we had a stream of people coming to eat here. We have added a few new dishes since.”
The Hakka Connexion, based in this modest little shophouse, is pleasant and clean, and interesting pictures of Hakka village roundhouses in clusters from central China line one wall. It can get quite packed at lunchtimes.
The gallery is open daily from 11am to 8.30pm. For details, e-mail them at littleshanghai _penang@yahoo.com or call Wong (016-483 2823).
Helen Ong is a self-confessed foodie who loves to hunt down the best of Penang.
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