My Ah Tneoh, my youngest maternal aunt’s husband, has passed away shortly after noon. He was 88. We were close as extended families. Ah Tneoh would usually drop Ah Cheng Ee off at our place on Sunday afternoons when we were staying at Jalan Terengganu. Both she and my mother would then potter around the garden or just enjoy each other’s company.

In the evenings, Ah Tneoh would come back to pick her up. That was the routine for many years until they moved to just a stone’s throw away from us. After that, Ah Cheng Ee would come over by herself. Ah Tneoh would drop by occasionally still whenever they return from running errands.

The last time I saw Ah Tneoh was at my wedding banquet in 2009. Ah Tneoh and Ah Cheng Ee were as close to me as parents as they ever could be. Among them, I have always felt loved. I am distraught. His passing is sorely felt. Rest in peace Ah Tneoh.

My mother was very sentimental person. She kept in good condition the things that were dear to her, items dating back to her baby years, kept in good condition by her mother, my grandmother. Among the items that I inherited from her that I treasure most are a gold pendant with bite marks and three pieces of baby dresses.

Hand-stitched dresses made from pineapple leaf fibre fabric.

The dresses, my mother told me, were made from pineapple leaf fibre fabrics, painstakingly sewn one stitch at a time by hand. I cannot imagine the amount of effort and time put into making them. The sparsely woven fabrics make them appear almost sheer but they are stiff to the touch. The size of each dress is different, giving rise to the assumption that they were made at different times of her young life, most probably for important occassions like her baptism and such.

She was born in 1925. That makes these dresses at least eighty years old. This is all I know of these priceless “artifacts”. I regret that I did not spend time to get to know more of her life, more of the things that she would eventually bequeath to me when she was alive. I am sure hers was a life worth telling, and there are interesting stories behind each and every one of those items.

This Teochew guy does not speak a word of the dialect. My father neither taught me the dialect nor the culture. From a young age, I spoke Hokkien, that being the predominant Chinese dialect in Penang where I grew up. I also learnt some Hakka from my mother and Cantonese from the landlady where we rented a room in Ayer Itam in my early years.

While I am as Teochew as a banana is yellow, I have an inherent love for the simplicity of Teochew cuisine, especially the porridge with its multitude of tasty dishes and appetizing condiments. Teochew moi, as it is popularly known, is light on the stomach yet filling enough to be considered a main meal.

Dishes for Teochew porridge uses a lot of preserved and pickled ingredients. The common accompaniments for the porridge I used to eat are salted duck eggs (kiam ark nui), braised salted vegetables, salted fish (kiam hu), canned fried dace with preserved black beans, canned pickled lettuce, preserved bean curd (tau joo), sweetened pickled mustard (kong chai), salted peanuts, stir fried beansprouts with anchovies and preserved radish omelette (chai por nui).

My favourite is a simple condiment of dried prawns, shallots, garlic, ginger and chilli marinated in taucheo and calamansi juice. I could finish entire bowl of porridge with just that dish. The taste is a mix of sweet, salty, tangy and spicy, its texture accentuated by the firmness of the dried prawns, crunchiness of the shallots and garlic and softness of the preserved beans.

It has been a long time since I last had a taste of this. I got Wuan to make the condiment for me today but could not remember all the ingredients needed. After I had my fill for lunch this afternoon, I suddenly remembered that we left out ginger. Nevertheless, it was appetizing but not something that I can eat often due to the high salt content in the taucheo. For now, my appetite for Teochew porridge is satiated.

Appetizing Teochew porridge condiment – taucheo with dried shrimps and shallots.

Taucheo with Dried Prawns and Shallots Condiment Recipe

6 shallots, slice thinly
3 cloves garlic, slice thinly
(3 slices young ginger, shred finely)
1 red chilli, remove seeds and slice thinly

*By the way, if anybody knows what this dish is called in Teochew, please let me know.