Half a pound of treacle

Friday, October 19, 2012

5th Day of the Nine Emperor Gods Festival 2012 @ Ampang

Today's post revolves around the last S or the 3Ses - Savour. What is there to savour at Ampang Nine Emperor Gods Festival, you may ask? Well plenty. The first thing to savour is the atmosphere created through the devotees that are driven by faith. The zeal and fervour of the faithful gives this temple a carnival-like appeal. Some go into a trance-like state in front of the altar whilst others bring huge offerings as tokens of gratitude. No less are those who give donations that is acknowledged by the ringing of the temple bell and drum.

By the power of...Kow Ong Yeh...I have the power! - a devotee touched by the divine during prayers.

Assistants: Oh boy, I am gonna be famous!
Priest: When will this crazy guy stop taking photos. He must have a million shots of me and the prayers.
Me: Since I am a bad photographer, I use the rule of probability to get a good shot, the probability being less than 1 in 380 shots or so for a particular scene :-p

Next thing that must be savoured, and this can take several visits, is the food. Food is everywhere, and just like the faithful, pervades every corner of the temple grounds. All nine days isn't enough to try everything edible sold here. Perhaps that is the reason why people keep coming back year after year.

Stuffed vegetables, tofu and dumplings. You will never be hungry at this festival. Just don't forget to bring your wallet.

Chinese chestnut - the smell of it roasting will make you want to grab some. Pictured here are raw chestnuts and a colander of washed gravel. The gravel is used to transfer heat evenly to the chestnut as it is being stirred in a hot wok.

Local sweet cakes that is eaten with grated coconut. A good dessert for those with a sweet tooth or wants a sugar rush.

Vegetarian mix rice at the temple fair.

Last but not the least is fun aspect of it. If you do come to Ampang Nan Tian Gong Temple, you will be amazed at how a simple festival becomes a healthy family outing as both the young and ~~old~~ gracefully matured are catered for. Also do not fret if you are not vegetarian, for the mock meat stuff are pretty good and there are stalls selling non-vegetarian stuff on the stretch of road fronting the Ampang Old Folks Home.

If you have not tried Ai-Yu jelly in Taiwan, here's the place where you can have a try.

Playing a game of hide-and-seek with the photographer. Gotcha!!! I told her that she looks pretty in the photo, like a 16-year-old princess.

If you are free on Saturday (20^th October), do visit the temple in the aftertoon (1.30ish) to see the feeding of the heavenly soldiers. To see pictures of previous year's event, visit Cheryl's site here.

My links for the 2012 Nine Emperor Gods Festival @ Ampang Nan Tian Gong

Thursday, October 18, 2012

Nine Emperor Gods Festival 2012 @ Ampang - Day 4

Oh how quickly time flies, for it is already the fourth day of the Nine Emperor Gods Festival 2012. Next in line of the 3Ses is the smell associated with the festival. Firstly, there’s the scent of joss-sticks. The whole temple is permeated with this thick, smoky smell that is acrid and will make your eyes sting and your throat irritated.

The temple is thick with the smell of joss-sticks and sandalwood. More than enough to make you cry and your throat dry.

Yet the festival would be incomplete without this smell. Faring slightly better than the smell of incense would be the smell of sandalwood. At least it is pleasantly aromatic, though standing in front of the sandalwood urn is an invitation for dry throat and stinging eyes.

Behind the parking lot is a pit where all the discarded joss-sticks and unclaimed joss papers gets unceremoniously burned to ashes.

Then there is the ubiquitous smoky burnt smell contributed by the continuous burning of joss paper and also the joss sticks that were collected and then dumped on an open burning pit. This leaves a smoky smell in your hair and clothes like you’ve just walked out of a burning house.

The final resting ground for the dragon joss-sticks. This contributes to the 'burnt out' smell that pervades the area during this festival.

Another interesting smell that you will encounter is the smell of Chinese chestnuts being fried in ~~large~~ huge woks. The addition of sugar to the frying mix and the caramelisation of this sugar give the smoke from the roasting/frying process a nice sugary feel to it.

A man frying Chinese chestnuts...Expensive, but a rather popular snack with visitors. A fan is used to drive the smoke away.

Next is a smell that will make some people balk at the thought of eating it – the smell of stinky tofu. This year, there are six, yes SIX stalls selling stinky tofu. They smell bad, especially when they have just hit the hot oil in the wok and the heat drives the moisture and smell out. But once fried, and together with a tangy, spicy sauce, they are quite addictive and the long queues to buy them attest to their popularity.

Stinky tofy being deep fried. They smell the worst at this stage. After cooking, they are actually quite mild, like a rather strong cheese. I occasionally can smell the stinky tofu smell from down the road and thirteen floors up!

Four pieces of stinky tofu with a tangy chilli sauce cost RM 3.20. Not bad for something that smells foul when put into a wok of hot oil.

One of the 6 stalls that sell stinky tofu. This one even sells fried Durians. They have combo sets where you can get a drink with your stinky tofu or fried Durian.

Less odourous than stinky tofu but might still turn someone off is the smell of fried cempedak, or jackfruit. The ripe fruit has a smell that is reminiscent of bottled cooking natural gas, and when fried, this smell is pretty strong. There is also two stalls selling fried durians, but I could not detect the signature smell of durian emanating from these stalls.

A fried jackfruit (Cempedak) stall. The smell of battered and fried Cempedak is unique.

So when you do visit this festival here in Ampang, let your nose be your guide, hopefully to what you like to see and eat.

My links for the 2012 Nine Emperor Gods Festival @ Ampang Nan Tian Gong

Wednesday, October 17, 2012

Nine Emperor Gods Festival 2012 @ Ampang - Day 3

The sun gave a brilliant show of force on the morning of the third day of the Nine Emperor Gods Festival here in Ampang. Not at all surprising after several bouts of heavy rain before, during and after the procession yesterday. Smoke from the chimney and the refuse stack indicate that the staff have been busy cooking as well as clearing all the joss-sticks and candles that were offered the night before.

I hope Santa doesn't try to slide down this chimney, he will land in a pot of boiling water, surrounded by ladies armed with cleavers and knives. The chimney smoke is an indication that the kitchen is busy preparing food for the devotees that board at the temple.

After the first two days of the festival, I was was expecting a drop in the number of visitors to Ampang Nan Tian Gong as there are no more grand processions with floats and dragon dances for this year. Au contraire, the crowd was larger on the third day of the festival (17^th October 2012). Perhaps more are here to see what this festival is all about as the word spreads across town and through the internet.

Light and hope - A young girl praying...perhaps asking the gods to bless her so that she will get all As in her exams. When she grows up, she will probably pray for a hot bf and 42DD. When she is ready to marry, it will probably be a for a husband with 5Cs. Then for a healthy child....then she will probably be praying for her kids' success. As she grows old and mature, she will probably ~~pray that the stretch marks, cellulite and wrinkles will go away~~ just go get nipped and tucked plus a set of botox injections.

Speaking of processions, there is still a send-off procession, but over here at Ampang it is a very toned down affair, unlike in Penang (take a look at Cheryl Hoffmann's photos of last year's Nine Emperor Gods Festival in Penang). This is understandable since the send-off here in Ampang occurs around 3am in the morning on the 10^th day.

Colourful hand-held Chinese lucky windmills and Halloween balloons - a kaleidoscope of colours and culture.

Back to the post topic of the day, I think the reason for the number of visitors pouring to Ampang’s Nine Emperor Gods Festival is due to the fact that visitors get to do 3S. No, this 3Ses has nothing do do with the Japanese 5S methodology or someone’s derriere...The three Ses that I like to think draws visitors to Ampang Nan Tian Gong are :

See
Smell
Savour

For the third day, I would start with the first ~~ass~~ S, which is See (Sight) - Simply put, this is a festival that is very visually stimulating. The flickering candle and oil lamps, colourful cakes and buns, all sorts of amulets and talismans, knick-knacks, flip-flops, handheld windmills that come in various shapes and sizes, fruits and flowers, different praying paraphernalia, cute chicks and handsome hotties, queens and divas prancing around the temple with their Pradas plus different kinds of candies in bright and almost toxic colours.

Sexy lady oogling at a hunky hottie not visible in this picture. Guy in brick-red shirt drooling at the sexy lady's derriere. Oh wait, the hunky hottie is her brother and he is just coughing from all the smoke. Me bad... Besides going there for prayers, you can have a fair share of eye-candy at the Ampang Nan Tian Gong Temple.

Hello Kitty in a rather 'exposed' position...No peeping guys. Move along, nothing to see.

Is it just me or are the hairbands psychedelic and appears to be spinning?? Hmm, must be from excessive smoke inhalation. Or maybe there's more to just sandalwood in the incense burner by the Five Generals' altar.

You can also watch tattoo artist giving his artistic touch on someone body, tattered beggars and well-dressed fortune tellers , hair care products to wash away the smoky smell, bong and torch lighters if the smoke from the incense does not make you high enough and Amoy opera actors twirling all about on the stage flooded with harsh lighting.

Hair conditioner anyone? Or hair iron??

Fancy torch lighters and that thing that begins with b and ends in ng but is not bang, beng, bing or bung...you know, a vase for some plant.

From DVDs to cute little lights, there are many things available at the festival site.

The list is endless, and it will be futile for me to even attempt to show photos of the above. So come and have a look yourself, and I am sure you will not be disappointed. In fact bus loads of tourist actually come around 11pm – 1am, so it is never too late to drop by over here.

PS - been having issues with photo uploads on the previous post so I am a bit behind schedule.

My links for the 2012 Nine Emperor Gods Festival @ Ampang Nan Tian Gong