New Story for Ham Chim Peng(咸煎饼)

The three rows on the right are the three types of Ham Chin Pen















Ham Chin Pen with glutinous rice filling

Ham Chin Pen or Ham Chin Peng

Ham Chim Peng(咸煎饼 xián jiān bǐng) is a type of salted pan cake or Chinese deep fried bun like pastry. It is a popular street food. Ham in Cantonese literally means salted, Chim Peng means Pan Cake. So Ham Chim Peng means Salted Pan Cake. It is round shape. The Ham Chim Peng may comes in 3 types, the normal( the salted), the red bean filling(tau sar), and the glutinous rice(chu bee). The best Ham Chim Peng is reported to be located at the junction of Cintra Street and Campbell Street, Penang. It open only at night. The stall has been there since I was a small boy. I preferred the one with glutinous rice.

I suddenly remember Ham Chim Peng, after reading of the political development in Perak state. Yau Char Kwai was the food eaten to remember the traitor of Song Dynasty, Qin Hui(秦檜/秦桧1090-1155), who was the one that caused the downfall of the Song Kingdom. The Chinese people ate Yau Char Kwai as a culture to remember him as traitor. The statues of Qin Hui and his wife was built in front of tomb stone of General Yue Fei (岳飞 1103-1142) in West Lake(西湖), Hangzhou(杭州), China.

Ham Chim Peng is the street food , normally sold together with Yau Char Kwai. The Penang Chief Minister Lim Guan Eng once called the person who caused the downfall of the Perak state government as Wu Sangui(吳三桂 1612-1678), the ancient Chinese General who allowed the Qing armies(Manchus) to enter China and caused the downfall of Ming Dynasty in 1644. The party hopper that caused the downfall of the state government was like Wu Sangui.

It was like allow the party who has no majority seats that was "voted in by the people" to form the state government; their majority was gained by party hopping. Some did not agree with him, they said it is the the freedom of choice of the elected representatives. Whose choice? representative's choice? or people's choice?. Is the justification for hopping accepted by the people? It is the betray of people's choice, betray of democracy......

But democratic election is freedom of people to vote for their representatives in the assembly, and the party with the majority will form the government. The majority is voted by people. But merely by depending on party hopping to become the majority, the said majority is not true majority, it was not voted by the people.The basis essence of the democracy is people, not political party(which only is a vehicle for people to express their choice),not the elected representative(who represented the people). It is still the people...the people's choice. I think the politician need to be re-educated on the spirit of democracy.

The Perak people should eat more Ham Chim Peng to remember the person. Ham Chin Peng is round in shape, which indicated woman. The Yau Char Kwai is in strips, which indicated man. So the Perak people need to deep fry the Ham Chim Peng in the boiling oil at the big wok,to express their displeasure on the mockery and betray on the democracy . So that person who caused the problem, will no longer be happy for what she has done; it is the silence protest on her choice , without reverting to the source or people who voted for the elected representative . Is it better than wearing black shirt?.

Perhaps an iron statute of the person, can be built in front of democracy tree in Ipoh, kneeling in front of democracy tree. The democracy tree is a rain tree, which will closed the leaves at night. Let the rain tree cry each day to remember the dark day of Perak politic. The more emotional one can spit on the statute, as like what happen to Qin Hui in China.

Ham Chim Peng will be famous in history. The rain tree will be famous in history. It will have new story to tell…… and Ham Chim Peng sellers will be happy, they will have fantastic business opportunity in future. The place will become a tourism attraction for the state. This is the strategy of turning crisis into opportunity, a way to stimulate the state economy?. All sectors will be happy. Malaysia boleh!

Let us eat more Ham Chim Peng…..to express our displeasure on the failure of the democracy in the state, to remember the day the democracy was betray. It can be indoor, it can be outdoor; it can be in the private party; or it can be under the rain tree; ooooh one day it will be our culture(culture is formed by people) and heritage....... The expression of freedom for food......the freedom to use food to tell a real story to our children....to tell a ugly chapter on our Malaysian political history. It is a public duty as an elder of the nation, to pass the story to the younger generation, to teach them to value and respect the people's choice. Will the food be banned?????. (Note : law is make by people, to protect people).

Related posting:

The posting on 17-5-2009, with the title "Yau Char Kwai (油炸鬼)