A little whisper in the dark

Teh Tarik

I happened to be in the Arab Street area today, and vaguely remembered having dropped by a little hole in wall along one of the side streets that still sold proper teh tarik. Now, teh tarik literally translated, is pulled tea. How does one pull tea? To make the hot tea cooler, the vendor would raise one mug containing the drink, and pour it out.......of course, there is a receiving mug to catch the contents. The path the water takes, together with the motion, gives the impression of "pulling" the tea.

So anyway, I suddenly had the hankering to see this chap at work, and went out of the way and around a few streets before finding it. And so I find myself with a nice spot, watch him do his thing, and I have.......coffee. I'm not a tea drinker, but nostalgia of watching what is a dying skill and trade is worth the trip.

In a way, I guess that's me. And I guess I'm a square peg in a round hole right where I am, in this society, on this island, in this country. To the crowd who was at the little coffeeshop, they were probably there for the teh tarik. The taste, the originality, the familiarity. Or whatever. They have their goal. So do most people in Singapore; goal-oriented we all should be. Otherwise we'd be stagnant. Right?

I went there just to have a look. It didn't matter if the teh tarik (or coffee) tasted like shit (for the record its pretty decent).

posted by Chung Leong @ 3:19 AM