Was walking around Katong today and had lunch there (more on that later). Both sides of my family history basically revolves around Katong as well. So the walk today triggered even more memories and nostalgic feeling.
During the walk, from Katong Shopping Centre (KSC) to Glory Catering, some observations and reflections:
1. KSC itself has changed over the years (of my life). Back in the 80s and 90s, when I was a young boy, it was a fascinating place where there was a video games arcade, bowling alley, computer games shops and yes, I even bought my first porn VCDs there. My mum even owned a hairdressing salon that she was even robbed before at gunpoint while heavily pregnant with me. Today, it is a misguided place with Internet LAN shops, (numerous maid agencies). Some of the old tenants are still surviving and thankfully those I still have a connection with.
2. The walk down from Katong Odeon. Katong Odeon used to be a small-time Cathay cinema that also held ge-tai style performances where Taiwanese singers like Zhang Di and Feng Fei Fei will perform, before the days of cine-plexes. Being in the entertainment industry, our family also had some business interests there. Today, there is a bank, a cafe and a restaurant on the ground floor, with the anchor tenant being the Cornerstone church.
3. Shophouses along East Coast Road (from Black Canyon to Aston's stretch). There used to be fruit stalls, mama shops, a OUB branch, Glory's old self: Shanghai Restaurant, which served one of the best Peranankan and Malay makan around. The corner kopi-tiam used to house my favourite hor fun. The resident hawker, a person my mum calls 'Barley-High' is still around, looking as energetic peddling char kway teow as he was 10 years ago with fishball bee tai mak (one of the best done dry in Singapore). The original Seh Seng towkwa pow used to be in this kopi-tiam, but have moved diagonally across the road.
4. I bought mee-siam at Glory and couldn't resist buying a few Nyona kueh-kuehs like Pulut Inti, Kuih Serimuka and Pulut Tekan. Went across said towkwa pow new location and had 2 of those yummy delights.
5. Whilst sitting at the coffeeshop enjoying my meal, couldn't help but noticed the chap chai png stall was manned by 2 Mainland Chinese (can just tell by the faces nowadays, without even listening to their accents). There were also several helpers who were visibly from the Mainland. Only the towkwa pow and chicken rice folks were local Singaporean. Then I thought about my walk down the shophouses, where all the laksa joints are. They are now manned by these migrant workers and so are some of the workers at Glory. Glory itself is a delightful mung of chaos, with the Baba owners conversing in Mandarin and Malay to their Mainlanders and Indonesian in great synchrocity.
Which comes to my point of how Katong has changed and evolved over the years.
There is room for both modernization and conservation in this area which I still call my home.
For example, Kim Choo bak chang used to sell only bak chang, having moved out of their little shophouse in Joo Chiat onto the main East Coast Road stretch. Now, they have a restaurant serving Peranakan food.
There was a little shop that sold Peranakan heritage ware, something which I have taken a point of interest lately, due to my quarter Peranakan-ness inspired by the Channel 8 TV series Little Nonya.
Old establishments have taken on new identities, while new establishments have tried a little bit to discover the old, making Katong such an interesting mish-mash of cultures.
I believe in the need to conserve cultural identity. I am not one to object immigration of migrant workers. We are a few generations of migrants all finding our homes in Singapore and therefore we should be more tolerant of new cultures.
However, we need to preserve the traditions and cultures of yore and not lose them to our younger generations. I find it disappointing that less and less of young Singaporeans losing touch with their dialects (not to mention Mandarin even), to a point they can't really relate to their ethnicity.
We are relying on migrant workers even to prepare traditional Singaporean food like popiah and mee siam. Yes, commercialisation is necessary to survive in F&B today, but please have some pride in your 家常菜.
So starting from my next cookout, I will start a new blog detailing recipes passed down from my family, meaning Teochew, Hokkien and Peranakan dishes my parents have taught me to cook so that even if it is lost with my generation, there might be others waiting to discover it in Cyberspace. This is a little bit part I can play to preserve our culture and not watch it die out. It is also a good way to celebrate good food!
Details to follow.
Have a great week and last month of the year ahead!
