My childhood chewing gum...

After a good session with GR, Poy, and Law, I was chewing on what it calls “oriental chewing gum” on it package. Poy didn’t like to take it for some reason though he love to eat, GR and Law turn down my offer, guess they don’t really like it.

Guess you must be now wondering what is this “oriental chewing gum”? It is actually a sliced cuttlefish. I think it well describe. Imagine it is really quite tough to chew it, the only different is that u can swallow down the cuttlefish.

Well. I just like dedicate this post about my experience with cuttlefish in my childhood days.

I still remember when I was very small, I already love to eat cuttlefish, especially those toasted (bbq-ed) by charcoal. Normally my grandma will give us (a few of us, all counsins) some charcoal to burn our own cuttlefish. One small charcoal container, a few dry cuttlefish, one steel tube (for blowing of charcoal).

Where are all those cuttlefish come from? It is consider free of charge.

That time, curry satay cuttlefish is very hot business in Pangkor Island, in fact I believe this food originated from Pangkor Island. So, here is the flow of it production. Fishermen catch fish and cuttlefish, then, they sell it to satay fish factory. Then, factory will dry up the cuttlefish, due to not enough manpower, factory will distribute those dry and dead cuttlefish (it should be dead when it is dried up…) to household that interested to earn small money. Those dry cuttlefish will come in many big bag, some come in good condition, and some is not so good, depending on storage condition.

What are the household involved? They need to bbq those cuttlefish to get rid of any smell and ‘flatten’ it by a machine. These machines look like those sugar crane machine. That is why you see the pattern of cuttlefish like that… After that, it is send back to factory to pour curry favor gravy, and arrange them to be cook inside an big oven. My uncle was managing a factory before, so, I know full well the 'first-hand' experience on its freshness, and maybe some dirty thing... ha ha...

So, normally, the whole bunch of kids always pesters the adult to give them some cuttlefish to eat. Sometime my grandma will bbq for us, sometime, we just do it our own. The different is only one is more eatable, the other one got more ‘burned’ parching. Still can eat, but, all the kids will fight for the better portion to eat lo... ha ha…

For me, I only like to eat cuttlefish head, no one fight over this part, don’t know why. Got a lot of cuttlefish ‘hands’ (what is the actual terms?). I just love to eat them one by one. Eat to my heart’s content.

A lot of little hands around the charcoal pot. A lot of noise. Fight over best portion. Familiar sound by seawaves. Stray dog that always barking for nothing. Manjong sound. Dirty wooden floor. A lot of house fly (it is really a lot, I wonder if Singapore child ever witness such clouds of housefly. It is horrible scene. But it is one of my childhood games. Trap those fly in a plastic bag, and squash them to their grave…)

Amidst all these, I remembered I was the one most loved by my grandma. So, my cousins always grumble about her. Don’t know why I was so much liked by my grandma. Perhaps it is those time that I volunteered to massage her back ba... Anyway, she always gives pocket money after massaging. Ha ha.

Still missed the cup of hot and thick milo before bedtime made by her. Dearly missed. It is really thick one, request by me, 1/3 cup of powder, and don’t need sugar. Wow. One cup, and you can have a sweet dream. And now that she is not around. And she did not know Lord herself… I wonder will I ever see her again. Maybe in my dream…

I don’t have a picture of those moments. But, when I type out this, I recall more vividly those fun time. Next time when I read these again, the image will be recalled, and it stays with me till the end of my days.