Kelantan is well-known for its exotic foods which are not widely known and available outside the state. Due to its geography, lying near Southern Thailand and Indochina it shares many similarities in terms of social culture, including foods with people of the said places. One of the unique and weird foods in Kelantan is known as Etak Salai. This is a popular snack amongst Kelantanese.
Kelantan is well-known for its exotic foods which are not widely known and available outside the state. Due to its geography, lying near Southern Thailand and Indochina it shares many similarities in terms of social culture, including foods with people of the said places. One of the unique and weird foods in Kelantan is known as Etak Salai. This is a popular snack amongst Kelantanese and it is available along the roadside stalls. Etak is Asiatic clam that thrives in rivers and lakes in Asia. Kelantanese pronounce it 'Etok'. Judging from the above background we hypothesized this special food originally came from the north. We travelled far to Cambodia to find the answer. We observed street foods in Phnom Penh, the capital city, we went to the main wet market to find Etak and we also took a daily van trip to Tonle Sap, the largest lake in Southeast Asia. We were lucky, our guide, a Muslim Cham who can speak fluent Kelantanese dialect, was a student in a religious school in Kelantan. Indeed, with his good demeanour, he was the kind of person many would immediately like. What a relief!
It is a common practice for Muslims to find accommodation near a mosque when they want to travel to a non-muslim country. Since a mosque is a centre of religious and social activities, more often than not one can find fellow Muslims and halal restaurants in the vicinity. We stayed for a couple of days at the Boeung Meas Guesthouse which is just a stone's throw from Al-Serkal Mosque in Phnom Penh, the capital city of Cambodia. The said mosque is the biggest and the most beautiful in the country. Its name comes after the family name of a successful entrepreneur from UEA who generously donated money for the construction, it first opened in 1968 and then was replaced by the new building in 2014, standing majestically in front of the guesthouse where we stayed. The white mosque has a big dome flanked by the two tall and slender minarets, as for those who visited Istanbul before, this mosque reminded them of Hagia Sophia. Usually, in the morning many people nearby exercise at the mosque compound and leave before noon. Apart from the daily dawn prayer, we were lucky enough to perform Friday prayer with Cham Muslims and internationals, including a few diplomats from Muslim countries. The air-conditioned mosque was adorned with beautiful mosaics, overhanging chandeliers in the middle and artisanal ceramics. Expensive carpets covered the floor of the mosque where we prostrated during prayers. At the compound of the mosque, near the main gate, many varieties of stalls sprung up in the mid-morning, selling clothes, all sorts of foods and jewellery. Creating a bustling atmosphere. A quick glimpse showed many non-muslim sellers also ran their businesses to grab golden opportunities to sell their wares. We had an acquaintance with a staff of the mosque, they were extremely happy when they knew us from Malaysia, we also felt a strong Muslim brotherhood with them. A separate section for female inside the mosque and ablution makes it comfortable to perform their prayers. Many Malaysians who visited Cambodia choose to stay here, not only the availability of halal restaurants but also due to its location, it is just about 15 minutes ride by Tuk-Tuk to the centre of the town. Experiencing a Tuk-Tuk ride in Phnom Penh was a new experience for us.
A daily trip from Phnom Penh to Tonle Sap Lake was in the early morning, after the congregation dawn prayer, we left our accommodation to the north. Life gradually came to stir, while many shops were still shuttered, vendors at the roadside stalls started opening their shops, Tuk-Tuk riders carried passengers who seemed sleepy, perhaps they had sleepless nights due to unresolved problems, motorcyclists on their way to work, expensive cars for sales on display inside the showroom showed economic boom of the country, leading to an increasing demand for such a kind of vehicle. After an hour's ride, we had a pit stop at a restaurant in Kampung Cham for breakfast. Our guide, a young quintessential Cham, aged in his early twenties informed us of favourite foods for local people - based on his suggestion we ordered noodles and black coffee. Soon on the road again, continuing our journey, the mighty Mekong River originates from the Tibetan plateau and flows parallel to the main road, occasionally, we peeked at it behind shop houses and buildings. Water on the surface of the river shining and glimmering reflecting the stream of rays of the morning sun. On the right and the left were vast views of dried brown rice fields void of vegetation except palm trees. A herd of brown cows, a similar breed in Kelantan grazing in the distance. New buildings were under construction at the roadside. We passed a few villages and saw similar types of thatched roof stilt houses, about 8 feet above the ground with wooden window shutters. Orchard fruits including mango and coconut trees surrounded their houses. Underneath, we saw big earthenware, clothes hanging on the washing line and a bamboo bench. Such a panorama transported us back to the past, Kelantan in the 1960s and 1970s, to familiar rice fields where we played kites every time after rice crops harvesting as well as climbed up and descended on the wooden ladder of our grandparents' house made partly of bamboo and wooden wall. Looking at all the similarities with rural life in Kelantan in those years, we felt at home here.
A well-known Malay proverb says "Sambil Menyelam Minum Air" which literally translates as " While Diving Drinking Water" but the best English Proverb closely related to its meaning is "To kill Two Birds with One Stone". Relating to this, on our journey to the famous Tongle Sap, as suggested by our guide who is the son of an imam of a local mosque, we agreed to drop by the local Islamic school or institution which on its last preparation to accommodate a big congregation of Tabligh throughout Asia. When we entered the compound we saw a big mosque surrounded by school buildings. We parked near a halfway built big tent, and a group of men at work approached and welcomed us. Students mostly teenagers, wore white long robes and white skullcaps in classrooms and a few outside during recess time, we greeted and mingled with them. A group of students surrounded a vendor who was very busy operating his sugarcane machine, a plastic jar below gathered the sweet juice. We did not miss the opportunity to quench our thirst. On our way to the main gate to continue our journey we met a brown skin elderly bearded gentleman behind a barbed fence who wore a turban similar to what Kelantanese men usually wear on their heads. Such a turban is called as 'semutar'. Since Kelantan and Cham are alike, not surprising they have close networking and relationships. Our city campus is situated in Pengkalan Chepa, the word Chepa refers to Cham or Champa. In English is known as Port of Champa. Perhaps Cham people came there to trade. A pit stop here enriched our knowledge about this community and at the same time reignited our memories of Kelantan in those days. We miss our childhood days when things were unsophisticated and we had the freedom to play in the rice fields. Indeed, a rural life experience here took us back in time to our childhood days.
We were extremely elated and overjoyed when we saw Etak (Asia Clams) evenly spreading on the wooden carts in front of the main market in Kampong Channang City, the capital of Kampong Channang province in Central Cambodia. Confirming, our earlier guess or hypothesis that Etak, the popular snack in Kelantan originally from places in the north including Cambodia. Looking at the geography of Kelantan, approximately near Thailand and Indochina we suspected many of our foods related to the aforementioned places. We approached the cart of sundried clams and observed the activities revolved around it from a short distance; the owner, a middle aged woman wearing colourful round hat and blue flower shirt was sitting next to her cart, soon a female customer who rode a black motorcycle stopped and bought a small plastic bag of spicy -chilli flavoured clams, she tasted one or two for free. Then disappeared from our sights. Hardly the vendor could sit, other customers came and bought her clams. While in Kelantan Etok Salai or smoked clam is more popular, in this city the sundried clam is the favourite snack for many Cambodians. As its name, sundried clams are naturally cooked when they are left under the scorching hot sun after about 4 hours. Since clams as mussels can be eaten raw, arguably, it doesn't require proper cook on fire to eat. Apart from chilli flavour, customers could choose plain clams, salt clams, as well as spicy lemon clams. As for Kelantanese our mouths salivated when we saw Etak, but because we were unsure if the sundried clams were halal or not we could not be brave enough to savour them.
Seeing and observing local people from all walks of life doing their daily routines were the best ways to discover what and how they do things as well as to gain a deeper insight into their socio-cultural environment and economic well-being. We could study similarities and differences with our country and at the same time determine our standing in the above-mentioned factors. In terms of food, we observed the uniqueness of Cambodian delicacies around the main and busy market of Kampong Channang City. Apart sun dried clam locally known as Leas we found local folks also preferred fried crickets. We saw a heap of them on a big bamboo plate but had no gut to pinch one and try to sample it. Such crispy and crunchy ones only left a portion for late customers. Back home when we were young we caught edible grasshoppers, 'belalang beras’ at the nearby rice field and asked our mother to fry them for us - tasted yummy. On the road, a small two-wheel modified tractor carried a big pile of wood charcoal and a guy comfortably sitting on it. The so-called iron buffalo is modified as a mode of transportation that carries passengers, wood, furniture all sorts of things. At home in the 1970s and early 1980s, the said type of vehicle was also available. One day, my late father raised his hand and stopped his friend who was driving his two-wheel Kubota when he was just about to pass our house, and said "I want to give you some money, please send these saw woods to my customer's house". As kids, we only observed adults' business but that memory is everlasting etched on our memory.
From asphalt roads, we continued our journey further north to a rather smaller road and ended up on a red-dusty path along Tongle Sap river. Halfway through, our driver stopped his white van at a grocery shop and we took the opportunity to quench our thirst, we took out cans of cold drink from the fridge. A lazy brown dog was sleeping under the couch. It was noon, the sun scorched our heads. We observed the daily life of local people in the vicinity. Three ponytail black hair teenage girls cladded in school uniforms cycled home in a joyful mood, talking with each other. A tuk-tuk driver nonchalantly rode his vehicle in the opposite direction, with no passenger on the cart. His right hand holding accelerator throttle and his left hand on this thigh. No need to speed-up, he seemed not in hurry. We sat on the bamboo top table, next was a neatly stack of chopped wood for sale and on the ground were a few plastic bags of charcoal. Across the road was a house on stilt, an example of a typical Cambodian house. A few hours' ride from the capital, Phnom Penh to the popular Tonle Sap lake enriched our knowledge and experience of the people and the land of Cambodia. Life at this laid back place near the mighty Tonle Sap Lake was on the opposite of the hustle and bustle of the capital city.
We arrived at the riverbank of Tonle Sap when the sun exactly above our heads. All sorts of rubbish, plastic bags, aluminium cans, empty bottles and papers littered the low sandy and silty ground. Sheds of various sizes and varieties of foods and drinks sold haphazardly built and occupied the area. Since we arrived at noon, many were deserted. Wooden shops built on stilts situated on the edge of water, one in particular was a motorcycle shop where wooden planks were used as a platform to connect the shop with the dried ground. We also observed hundreds of colourful long tail boats, overwhelmingly made of wooden planks moored in the shallow water. In the confluence of Kelantan river and Golok river, near Tak Bai such kind of long tail boats are commonly used to cross the river and for transportation. However, unlike here, fiberglass material is preferable to a plank of wood in our place. On a long tail boat, an engine is attached at the stern above water and an adjustable long pole with a propeller. Not only such the boat engine cheap in price but also easy and less maintenance cost. A black jet hair and weathered faced man, a cigarette between his lips but yet burning, his left hand was holding a box of his favourite cigarette and his right hand in the pocket, perhaps searching for a lighter. He wore a white long sleeve shirt and black trousers, sitting at the stern of his colourful boat waiting for someone or something. In a short distance, we saw a father and a mother and their young son and daughter sitting on the deck of an old wooden boat, judging from the heap of clothes on the rooftop and other overhanging clothes on his boat we can easily say they lived on the boat. In Cambodia, especially in Tonle Sap Lake, the majority of people stay in houses on stilts but a few prefer to live on boats. Living on boathouses means easy for them to move and carry all their belongings with them including their children and pets. They own no land but boats, maybe some of them inherited from their parents. They lived far from basic needs like running water and electricity let alone a fridge that is considered a must for us. Questions like whether their kids go to school or not? Lingered on our minds, if they do, how they do their homework and study on boathouses is another question.
We observed there were a few female vendors sold Sun dried Etak which locally called as Leah on the bank of Tonle Sap river. While waiting for a long tail boat to ferry us to the nearby floating village, we observed and snapped some photos relating to Etak business, its vendors as well as their customers. Since sun dried Etak required high heat, the vendor placed them evenly on the rectangular wooden table and also on a round big steel plate under the rays of the hot sun. We found customers who bought and consumed Etak came from all walks of life - children, teenagers, and adults for both genders. A young lorry driver walked and ordered a plastic bag of Etak, and a female vendor scooped Etak with a tin can which cost him about 1,000 Riel equivalent 1 RM in our currency. Later a yellow tattered T shirt boy and his sister who wore a red shirt ran and approached the table, a seemingly irresistible temptation, his eyes looked at the vendor, begging and asking for sympathy at the same time extending his right hand, pinching one and put on his mouth. Yummy. Judging from our observation we can conclude sun dried Etak is a popular snack amongst the community. Near the boats, we saw gunny sacks full of Etak which waited to be transported to other places. Our shoes trampled on the ground which was covered by shells of Etak. We could not wait to see where and how Etak was harvested in the great lake.
Water hyacinth floating aimlessly on the surface of the river. Our long tail wooden boat left the riverbank, and chucked steadily, the owner, sitting on the rear of the boat, confidently manoeuvred it to the destination. As he stayed there since his birth he knew every nook and cranny of the area. It was a new experience for us, looking at hundreds of houses on stilts of various types, sizes, colours and made of various materials. Long tail boats moored against those houses, moved up and down according by the rhythm of ripples, anytime ready to be used by their owners. For them having boats as motorcycles in Kelantan and other villages in Malaysia. Children played on the wooden planks in front of their houses, they waved their hands when they saw us. An old lady, leaning against the wall in a pensive mood stared at us. A group of young boys played together, swimming and splashing without any worries. Those houses on stilts created a floating village, taking together hundreds of such villages like this one. Overwhelmingly, the majority of those who stayed in floating villages in Tonle Sap Lake are Vietnamese origins. They are fishermen who earn their living through fishing in the great lake. A few Muslim families of Cham ethnic for many generations stay here. They mingle together with other floating village community.
