WHAT'S UP? Potpourri from the Pahang palate

WAHT'S UP? Potpourri from the Pahang palate
Wahti Mahidin
Malay Mail Apr 3:
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For being the launch of a cookbook, Ampun Tuanku, it was ironic that guests were kept mighty hungry for an extended length of time last Monday night.
It was the official launch by the Sultan of Pahang of a recipe book painstakingly compiled by the Tengku Puan Pahang Tunku Azizah Sultan Iskandar.

Something like three hours extended, since guest arrival was scheduled for 7.30pm, yet food first hit our plates at 10.38pm. Good food, thankfully. Good, traditional, Pahang recipes straight out of the Air Tangan Tengku Puan Pahang book.

And it wasn’t just the recipes, it was the ingredients as well. As much as Tunku Azizah could engineer it, fresh food products were brought to the Mandarin Oriental kitchen from her adopted home-state to ensure taste authenticity.

Salivate over some facts – 150 live ikan patin from the Tengku Mahkota Pahang’s private fishery, 15kg of tempoyak and 40kg of spices from Pekan and 60kg of pucuk cemperai from Raub.

The hotel’s ballroom had been transformed into Pahang, complete with transplanted trees and all. Oddly enough, bales of orange and black cloth draped the walls and ceiling, making the place look very – how about Halloween?

During the dance performance, I couldn’t see the stage for the trees – aha, aha ha ha – as this autumnal forest was more populated towards the back of the ballroom, where the Press tables were placed. Thanks to our microscopic and penetrating vision, we Press people managed to enjoy very spirited ibok dancing by some highly charged Pahang Cultural dancers.

After the performance, more dancers came onto the stage, as well as around it. So many more that I thought Noraniza Idris was going to appear. She didn’t, but her song did or at least it sounded like her song, performed by another singer who had a more melodious voice but couldn’t quite meet the modulation requirements of a Noraniza Idris-type song.

Not that it really mattered as the performances were hardly the night’s highlights. Fund-raising was. One book bearing the Sultan of Pahang’s signature was put under the hammer and managed to beat out a RM200,000 bid from Berjaya Group head, Tan Sri Vincent Tan. It was rather interesting considering the opening call was for RM10,000.

Other major sponsors and donors had already pushed collection up to Monday morning to RM2.5 million.

Throughout the night, book sales went on outside the ballroom. Impressively put together in hardcover, Air Tangan Tengku Puan Pahang is a bargain at RM158.60, the original RM200 price discounted to carry the birthdate of the Tengku Puan. And apart from giving to a noble cause, one also takes home a pretty book for the coffee table.

Most impressive that night had to be the video of the Tengku Puan Pahang forging through lalang-grown paths on foot, or gliding on rivers in boats, to get to an obscure destination where she would cook, and cook, and cook.

An endless montage of the Princess in varied makeshift kitchen settings made the viewer sit up and take notice – Tunku Azizah is no trophy cook. Deft hands manoeuvred ladles in huge woks, as well as knives around many an onion. Her chopping, dicing, and slicing too seemed very seasoned.

These skills were displayed in Mandarin Oriental’s kitchen for hours, much earlier before the launch, to guide the hotel’s cooks in preparing dinner. I empathically reflected on this fact when observing a glazed-eyed Tunku Azizah autographing copies of books purchased by guests, at the end of the night.

Fatigue could also have exacerbated her melancholic dedication of the book to her late mother-in-law, Tengku Ampuan Afzan. When Tunku Azizah’s voice broke during her speech, many eyes became teary as well.

If I had originally thought Al-marhumah was reserved, Tunku Azizah set my opinion straight with the revelation that Tuanku Afzan was the pillar-of-strength through some of the Tengku Puan’s most trying moments.

That expression of longing and gratitude moved me more than the Sumatra earthquake aftershock did. Really, my breathing turned woefully sharp for a spell. NO ONE felt the tremor, strangely enough.

That night, it was a matter of heart, winning over stomach, and opening eyes for me. Despite the absolutely rich and delicious pudding served as dessert, I felt the absence of a much-loved lady. And now the glow of her memory, through the Tunku Azizah Fertility Foundation which is funded initially by receipts from cookbook sale, will ignite hope for married women thus far unable to conceive.

Menjunjung Kasih, Tuanku.