The Baram Regatta

THE BARAM REGATTA defines what this rich cultural riverine tract of Sarawak is. This famous regatta is now held once every 3 years and this year is from Thursday 21 August to Saturday 23 August. Festivities include cultural performances, traditional sports competition, Baram Idol, beauty pageants, exhibitions and native craft stalls.
   The Baram River rises from the highlands and passing through riverine settlements of longhouses. There are five major tribal groups that have given this region it’s cultural identity, Iban, Kelabit, Kayan, Kenyah and Penan. The Baram Regatta is held in Marudi, the furthest upriver trading post on the Baram and services all the longhouses in the Tutoh, Tinjar and Baram river basins. Nowadays, roads reach further upriver but Marudi still maintains its trading focus. The Baram Regatta was promulgated since the peace-making treaty to end tribal wars of over 115 years back. What better way to end hostilities by having regatta every couple of years in the spirit of friendly rivalry. 

   I must say being at any Baram Regatta is the crowning glory of the Sarawak cultural experience, memories of the one regatta in Marudi in my youth will never be forgotten. I managed to design the commemorative badges (without any design training yet) and since I still have these badges and photographs taken back then, I recall the happy times spent at the regatta with now life-long friends. 
   We would watch the races from the vantage point near Fort Hose up the hill on the banks of the Baram, looking across to Lubok Nibong. 
   We hear the chants as teams from different longhouses and tribes would set out to outrace each other, and we would gasp when there’s an occasional capsize or collision. There would even be an (army) helicopter hovering in the sky like a dragonfly.
   Carol Brooks, a then Peace Corp science teacher at Marudi Secondary School posted on my Facebook page: My last Baram Regatta was in 1972 when the Orang Putih longboat team entered. They got off to a great start but steering was a challenge as their boat veered straight to the riverbank! Lots of laughter and fun!
   The town square was abuzz with native cultural dances and stage shows, and stalls selling native craftwork from upriver. It was a good time to try buy carvings, ikat (woven fabric), beadwork and the rich array of native crafts. You could even buy blowpipes. And there were a lot of stalls selling traditional foods. What’s there not to love?
   I'm very envious of friends who have made a special trip back to Marudi to re-live this spectacular regatta.

Kit Perera’s Pumpkin & Snake Bean Coconut Curry

Kit Perera turns up pumpkin and produces a Sri Lankan-inspired curry of amazing flavours. 

2 tablespoons olive oil
1 teaspoon black mustard seeds
6-8 curry leaves
2 dried red chillies
1 onion, finely sliced
1 cm piece ginger, peeled and grated
2 cloves garlic, crushed
1 teaspoon ground coriander
1 teaspoon ground cumin
½ teaspoon ground turmeric
½ teaspoon paprika
800g pumpkin, peeled and cut in to 3cm pieces
400ml light coconut milk
200g snake beans, trimmed and cut in to 4cm batons
salt to taste

Heat the oil in a saucepan over a medium-high heat, add the mustard seeds and allow them to pop. Add the curry leaves and chillies and fry for 30 seconds. Add the onion and fry until lightly golden. Stir in the ginger, garlic and spices, and fry for about a minute.

   Add the pumpkin and fry for 2 minutes, then stir in the coconut milk and bring to the boil. Turn down the heat to medium-low and simmer for 20 minutes. Add the beans and cook for further 10 minutes. Season with salt.

   Serve with steamed basmati rice.

   Serves 6.

★ Kit Perera is famous for his Sri Lankan food, even though he’s equally adept in French and Moroccan cuisines. He is also unequivocally passionate about cooking as he is about cricket. Born in Sri Lanka, Kit became a professional cricketer, and this sporting career has taken him to England, Australia and New Zealand, where he’s a coach and mentor up to the Black Caps level. Kit’s Chef for the Night is a highly popular event where he cooks Sri Lankan food for select parties in the setting of their homes or a studio kitchen centre. He’s the perfect consummate host chef, with smashing anecdotes from his professional cricket career and his colourful travels.

http://kitperera.com/#chefforanight
http://kitperera.com/#kitskitchen
http://kitperera.com/#kidscookingwithkit
https://www.facebook.com/kit.perera
PHOTOGRAPHS BY WILLIAM CHEN

Remembering the ANZACS

Ode of Remembrance

They went with songs to the battle, they were young.
Straight of limb, true of eye, steady and aglow.
They were staunch to the end against odds uncounted,
They fell with their faces to the foe.

They shall grow not old, as we that are left grow old:
Age shall not weary them, nor the years condemn.
At the going down of the sun and in the morning,
We will remember them.

Lest We Forget

Ode of Remembrance taken from Laurence Binyon’s poem, For the Fallen
PHOTOGRAPHS BY WILLIAM CHEN

▼ Filmmaker GaylenePreston’s new tribute to the gallant New Zealand soldiers 
screened on the walls of the Auckland War Memorial Museum.

How Doris Coddled Her Egg

MY EYES LIT UP when I saw Coddled Eggs were on the menu of a foxy cafe at Ponsonby Central, I had to order it. It arrived in all it’s glory with accoutrements. And what a disappointment, the eggs were hard boiled. They said give it another try next time. I did, by which time chef was advised not to overcook the egg. Not much better. Third time lucky? Not likely! The egg was popped into the microwave and served almost raw swimming in cream. I told them they should just take their Coddled Eggs off the menu. Last time I looked, it was still there, waiting to snare another unsuspecting fan.

   So when I visited Doris in Pirongia, I recounted my coddled egg saga. She immediately brought out her Royal Worcester Egg Coddlers and proceeded to show me her way of making coddled egg for breakfast.
   She had just collected the 6 eggs from the farmette hen house that morning. She has 6 hens and they are happy hens. They are named after aunts and old family friends: Aileen Tregurtha, Trixie Christmas, Myrtle Collier, Avis Taylor, Armorel Rennie and Romola Murray. I kid you not. She has a roll call list on the side of the fridge and recognises each and every one by their feathers. I asked where the rooster was, only to be given a withering look. Romola, Myrtle, Trixie and co don’t need a rooster to lay eggs. Doris did provide an anecdote  about laying eggs but I will not repeat it.

   Doris warmed the egg coddler first (her short cut was pouring boiling water over and into it). Suitably warmed, coat the inner surface with butter which invariably will melt or soften. She ran to her herb garden in her pinny and picked chive, marjoram and parsley. She finely chopped up the herbs (separately). After salting and grinding pepper into the coddler, she added the finely chopped chive and marjoram. The butter would aid the herbs, pepper and salt to stick to the sides as well. Break an egg into the coddler and sprinkle the chopped parsley on top, and before screwing on the lid, season again with salt and pepper on top).

   Immerse the coddler into a pot of boiling water, the water level should cover the lid. Boil away for 5 minutes. The egg will be perfectly coddled and ready to be savoured. And it was so good. I’m now on the hunt for egg coddlers. Egg coddlers are not in vogue and I will be keeping an eye out at my former prop haunts, Trade Me or eBay. Or Smith & Caugheys might have them.

PHOTOGRAPHS BY WILLIAM CHEN

Kit Perera’s Sri Lankan Eggplant Coconut Curry

Kit Perera shares with us his famous Eggplant Coconut Curry, inspired by his grandmother in Sri Lanka who instilled in Kit a love and passion for cooking. This is a dish to savour, the spices imbuing bursts of flavour and held together by the coconut milk.

Sri Lankan Eggplant Coconut Curry

Preheat the oven to 180 degrees

For the eggplant
2 eggplants
1 teaspoon turmeric
Olive oil

Slice the eggplant in to 1cm thick rounds, put in to a large bowl; sprinkle in the turmeric and mix well to combine
   Heat 2-3 tablespoons olive oil in a fry pan over high heat and sear the eggplant on both sides in batches, add more oil in between batches. (Alternately, drizzle the eggplant with olive oil and grill until lightly charred on both sides) Once cooled cut each slice in to four

For the sauce
1 onion, finely chopped
2 tablespoons olive oil
1 teaspoon black mustard seeds
Sprig of curry leaves
2-3 dried red chillies
1 teaspoon each crushed garlic and grated ginger
1 teaspoon turmeric
1 teaspoon paprika
1 teaspoon ground cumin
1 teaspoon ground coriander
300ml coconut milk
Salt to taste

Fresh coriander to garnish

Heat oil in a fry pan over high heat; add mustard seeds, curry leaves and chillies. Fry for 2-3 minutes, stirring (make sure to stand back as the curry leaves may cause oil to spit) Add the onion; turn down the heat to medium and sauté until golden, stirring from time to time
   Add the garlic, ginger and spices, fry for 2-3 minutes. Add the coconut milk; bring to the boil, stirring. Add the eggplant, mix well and season with salt

   Put the eggplant in to a baking dish and bake for 20 minutes

   Serve with steamed  (basmati) rice

★ Kit Perera is famous for his Sri Lankan food, even though he’s equally adept in French and Moroccan cuisines. He is also unequivocally passionate about cooking as he is about cricket. Born in Sri Lanka, Kit became a professional cricketer, and this sporting career has taken him to England, Australia and New Zealand, where he’s a coach and mentor up to the Black Caps level. Kit’s Chef for the Night is a highly popular event where he cooks Sri Lankan food for select parties in the setting of their homes or a studio kitchen centre. He’s the perfect consummate host chef, with smashing anecdotes from his professional cricket career and his colourful travels.


http://kitperera.com/#chefforanight
http://kitperera.com/#kitskitchen
http://kitperera.com/#kidscookingwithkit
https://www.facebook.com/kit.perera
PHOTOGRAPHS BY WILLIAM CHEN

Prickly blooms of beauty

Captured on Hipstamatic, John S, Jimmy and Buckhorst Lens
Kodot, Ina’s 1969 and Blanko film

Watching the Royal Watchers

PRINCE WILLIAM AND KATE, the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge sailed through the Auckland on Friday. I went to watch the Royal Watchers and was well rewarded.
   There’s a lot of excitement and a lot of royal chatter. Best quote from a Royalist on eyeing the banner being towed by an aircraft which proclaimed: ONE DAY WE WILL BE A KIWI REPUBLIC
   He retorted: Shoot it down!
   Priceless!

PHOTOGRAPHS BY WILLIAM CHEN