My Work: Baneshwar Pind Daan

One of the highlights during my Tribes of South Rajasthan & Kutch Photo~Expedition™ was a few days spent photographing in Baneshwar during its annual fair, or mela.

The Baneshwar mela is popular tribal gathering held in the Dungarpur district in south Rajasthan. The gathering is followed by a fair held at a small delta formed by the river Soma and Mahi. It's a relatively modest event, without the hype and the attendance of the Kumbh Melas, but it's nevertheless a deeply religious gathering with simple and traditional rituals. Bhil and Garasia tribals come from the neighboring states of Madhya Pradesh and Gujarat to offer prayers to Lord Shiva, to perform pind daan, and to socialize.

Here's Baneshwar: Pind Daan, an audio-slideshow of photographs made and ambient sound gathered during the mela. Photographed in a documentary style, I chose to process the images in black & white despite their vivid colors.

The audio-slideshow was featured in my March email newsletter sent to my subscribers.

Ryan Pyle: Chinese Turkestan

Here's a feature by photographer Ryan Pyle on Chinese Turkestan, which touches on the Uyghur people and their efforts to preserve their cultural and religious practices in China.

Chinese Turkestan is now known as Xinjiang, and is an autonomous region of mainland China. It is the largest Chinese administrative division and borders Russia, Mongolia, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, Afghanistan, Pakistan and India, has abundant oil reserves and is China's largest natural gas-producing region.

Its major ethnic groups include Uyghur, Han, Kazakh, Hui, Kyrgyz and Mongol.It also has a documented history of at least 2,500 years, and a succession of different peoples and empires vying for control over the territory.

Ryan Pyle obtained a degree in International Politics from the University of Toronto, moved to China permanently in 2002 and began taking freelance assignments in 2003. He became a regular contributor to The New York Times covering China, where he documented issues such as rural health care, illegal land seizures, bird flu and environmental degradation. He also has published magazine work, such as the Sunday Times Magazine, Der Spiegel, Fortune, TIME, Outside, Forbes and Newsweek.

Normally, the Muslim call to prayer is melodious but the one chosen for this piece's soundtrack is not, so perhaps you may want to turn the audio off.

Chew Chuen Dim Sum at Butterwoth

Chew Chuen Dim Sum (N5 24.364 E100 22.318) is the Biggest Chain Dim Sum outlet at Butterworth, and this outlet we visited was the first shop where the business started.The shop is located at Tingkat Bagan Baru 1 at Bagan, Butterworth and it has outdoor and indoor session. It always crowded with peoples in the morning until almost noon...

We chose the outdoor session to avoid heat that circular within...

The indoor area of Chew Chuen Dim Sum

The outdoor area of Chew Chuen Dim Sum

The reason I can understand why so many customers like to visit Chew Chuen is because they have many varieties! As you can see from the photos below...

Customers like to choose what they love to have...

Inside the cabinet

Beside the Dim Sum, you also can have some standard dishes or Congee (粥) from the shop.

Standard dishes from Chew Chuen Dim Sum

The Mobile Congee (粥) supply from Chew Chuen Dim Sum

When we walked over to order the Dim Sum, me & my brother just took the main plates like : 'Siu-mai' (燒賣), 'Ha-gau' (蝦餃), 'Char-Siu-bau' (叉燒包) and others...

Siu-mai (燒賣)

Har-gau (蝦餃)

Char-Siu-bau (叉燒包)

Turnip (Carrot) Cake (萝卜糕) My favorite and it's a must for me...

Beside the main Dim Sum, we also order some site dishes, like...(below)

Sweet Tofu Skin Roll (腐皮捲)

Taro dumpling (芋頭糕) (My dad used to buy this dumplings for my breakfast...)

Fried Turnip (Carrot) Cake

We also had some of the Fish-ball, Phoenix Talons (鳳爪), Egg Tart (蛋撻) and....
The Dim Sums somehow were good and tasty! But some of my friends told me about their Heavenly Perfect Dim Sum, I felt it's just over-rated...

The Damage was MYR37.00 for 4 adults and 1 child. It was a Reasonable price!
Of course you cannot compare the quality with the Ipoh Dim Sum, but if happen to be at Butterworth and you think like have a bite if the 'Siu-mai', don't mind visit The Chew Chuen Dim Sum.

Rated : 4/5

Location map of Chow Chuen Dim Sum at Butterworth

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The Travel Photographer's 2011 Photo~Expeditions™

I am planning my forthcoming Photo~Expeditions™ for 2011, and thought I'd write a heads-up concerning the direction these will take in the next year.

After some deliberation, I've decided to further accentuate the travel-documentary thrust of my photo~expeditions, and reduce the maximum number of participants to only 5 (excluding myself) on each trip. My recent expeditions have become so popular that they've swelled up to 9-10 participants, and generated long waiting lists. As of 2011, participation will no longer be based on "first registered first in", but will be based on a portfolio viewing and other criteria.

I intend to maximize the photo-journalism and travel-documentary components of my photo~expeditions even further, and largely focus on story-telling...and add a multi-media workshop element to them. This is the future of photography, and I fully intend to structure my photo~expeditions accordingly.

Here's an example of what I mean:

One of the photo~expeditions I intend to lead in summer 2011 is to Kashmir. I will announce its itinerary and the terms in due course, however it will be restricted to 5 photographers (excluding me).

The photographers will have visual and intellectual interest in Kashmir's Islamic culture, would have previously traveled to India, would be self-starters, have an affinity for photo-journalism & travel documentary photography, and want to work on individual projects and produce photo essays.

I chose Kashmir as an example because it's a destination that lends itself very well to both documentary photography (which is the objective of my photo~expeditions) and "pretty picturing" (which is not my aim). The overriding purpose in Kashmir will be to document its rich culture, its people and their faith. Will we photograph Dal Lake at dawn? Yes we will, but the major thrust will be on documenting the culture, and on projects of human interest.

Whether it's Kashmir, Kerala & Gujarat, Kathmandu, Havana, China, Siem Reap, Vietnam or any other of my possible 2011 destinations, carefully selecting participants and capping their number to 5, will accentuate the travel-documentary philosophy that I gained a reputation for, and will further enhance the quality of my photo~expeditions.

For further insight, here are a couple of my older posts (a) and (b) defining my philosophy behind my photo~expeditions. You'll find these quite interesting.

Here is an updated description of my photo~expeditions on my website.

Jan Sochor: Nukak-Maku

Photo © Jan Sochor-All Rights Reserved
Jan Sochor has documented the Nukak Maku people, a nomadic indian tribe from the Amazon, who were driven out of the jungle by the Colombian guerrilla and paramilitary squads. More than half of the Nukak population have died of western diseases like flu. In refugee camps, the Nukak are taught from (mainly Christian) aid workers concepts and habits that were never part of their tradition.

Jan is a freelance photographer, working between South America and Europe. He lived and worked in Chile, Colombia, Costa Rica, Spain and the Czech Republic during the past five years. His photographs and stories have appeared in numerous magazines, newspapers and websites, including Sunday Times, National Geographic, Reuters, Burn magazine, Foto8, 100Eyes, UNESCO, Boston Review, PDN online,and others.

I've always considered proselytizing by any religious group to be an abhorrent practice...hand in hand with racism and bigotry.

Found via The Click

Gloria: Maestra de la Guelaguetza

Photo © Tewfic El-Sawy -All Rights Reserved
Photo © Tewfic El-Sawy -All Rights Reserved
Photo © Tewfic El-Sawy -All Rights Reserved
During the Oaxaca Mini Photo~Expedition™ last week, we attended a Guelaguetza performance at one of the town's old hotels. I managed to get our group in the dancers' dressing room just before the performance, where we were introduced to Gloria, an experienced dancer who was dubbed "La Maestra" by the rest of the dancers.

Although heavy-set, Gloria had the flexibility, energy and liveliness of dancers half-her age, and she deafened us with her rhythmic whistling during the most frenetic parts of the dances. A real professional, with a wicked sense of humor.

La Guelaguetza is a perfomance of traditional dances from the seven regions of the state of Oaxaca. The performance is a re-creation of the original dance steps and music passed down through the generations. Dancers, and even musicians, wear costumes representative of their respective district, which are decorated with ribbons and sometimes bells.

The origin of the Guelaguetza dances dates fro pre-Columbian traditions, and the word "guelaguetza" is originally Zapotec Indian which means an offering or gift. In the true spirit of guelaguetza, the dancers at the end of their performance toss gifts, usually of fruits and vegetables, into the crowd. These offerings represent their region's specialty and include straw hats, flowers, mangoes and even pineapples.

This is what I described in my earlier POV post, and the fruits were eagerly awaited by some poor Zapotec children watching the children Guelaguetza.

Here's my gallery of La Guelaguetza photographs, made in 2007, which has additional details.

Canon 5D Mark II: ATR6250 Microphone

Further to my post on microphones for the Canon 5D Mark II, and having decided to add one to my audio equipment, I walked over to B&H (see note below) today and bought the Audio-Technica ATR6250 Stereo Condenser Video/Recording Microphone.

This is an extremely affordable stereo microphone, and I thought it would be ideal for use either on my Canon 5D Mark II or with my Marantz audio recorder. It has a bunch of accessories, most of which I don't think I'll use, except for the hot shoe adapter.

In my earlier post, B&H recommended a couple of microphones such as the Rode VideoMic, Stereo VideoMic, and the Sennheiser MKE 400. The latter in particular seems to be quite popular with photographers, however it costs $200 whereas my new ATR6250 is only $32. I compared the specifications, and what I made of the differences were not enough to warrant the increased cost as far as I am concerned...except for the coiled cord (which the ATR doesn't have).

Naturally, I will continue to record audio with my Marantz PMD620, but use the microphone when I need to shoot video since the Canon 5D Mark II built-in microphone just doesn't cut it. I will post my impressions as soon as I can.

* I'm not affiliated with B&H in any way. The Audio-Technica ATR6250 is also available at many other stores, on-line and otherwise. I only mentioned B&H because that's where I got it.

CNN: Haridwar Kumbh Mela

CNN brings us this short video, which was produced by Alex Zolbert, who traveled by train north of Delhi to witness and photograph the Dvitya Shahi Snan, or Second Royal Bath, on March 15, at the Ardh Kumbh Mela.

Photographs by Palani Mohan are included in the piece. Palani's photographic career started at the Sydney Morning Herald newspaper, and since then he has been based in London, Hong Kong, Bangkok, and now Kuala Lumpur. Malaysia.

As I wrote on my earlier posts about the Hardiwar Kumbh Mela, exuberant hyperbole (and imaginative press releases) describe it as the largest gathering of humanity. It is not. The distinction belongs to the Maha Kumbh Mela which occurs after 12 'Purna Kumbh Melas', or after every 144 years. It was held at Allahabad in early 2001, and was attended by over 60 million people, making it the largest gathering in the world. I would also say that, in my opinion and having been to both Allahabad and Hardiwar, that the latter is an unappealing city and its ghats are not photogenic.

Whether it's over-hyped or not, all of the photographers who attended it over the past few weeks had a wonderful time, and captured magnificent images.

G. Welesley Food Court (Kopitiam) at Chai Leng Park, Butterworth

G. Welesley Food Court (N5 23.102 E100 23.567) is located at the junction of Lebuh Kurau 3 and Jalan Kurau, Chai Leng Park, Butterworth. (Always crowded during night time)
We love to come here (night time) because you can get all the Penang local delicacies in this food court. Only some of them have different taste from Penang, anyway...the foods at Penang Island also have different taste among each other...

G. Welesley Food Court at Chai Leng Park, Butterworth

Everytime we visit here, we love to order many different foods on our table...there was no exception this time. Look what we got...Penang Assam Laksa (again!), Penang Char Kuey Teow (again!), Penang Curry Mee (again!), Baked Stingray (Ikan Bakar) and Pork Satay.
The photos below :-

Penang Assam Laksa

Penang Char Kuey Teow

Penang Curry Mee

Baked Fish (Ikan Bakar) 

Pork Satay

Overall we were satisfied with the foods, except...the Pork Satay is very poor, very difficult to chew! The Assam Laksa was marvellous! I felt it's even Better than the stall near by Penang Hill. Curry mee and Char Kuey Teow were above average. Price also reasonable! And it's definitely cheaper than Penang Island!

Foods of this food court, rated : 4/5

Location map of G. Welesley Food Court (Kopitiam) at Chai Leng Park, Butterworth

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POV: Children Should Never Go Hungry

Photo © Tewfic El-Sawy -All Rights Reserved
The Zocalo, with its cultural activities, is the very heart of Oaxaca, and is a daily magnet for locals and tourists alike. It also attracts vendors of various trinkets, as well as poor children (all of them indigenous...possibly Zapotecs) who attempt to make a few pesos by selling chewing gum. Approaching the restaurants' tables occupied by tourists, these children sometimes shyly ask for left-overs. In fact, that's what three little girls did one evening. We gladly gave them whatever was on our table, and one of us even asked our waiter for a bag to give them half her pizza.

During a festive Guelguetza dance festival of schoolchildren, I looked beyond the colors, music, laughter and frenetic motion, and at the periphery of the stage, saw a Zapotec boy with arms outstretched in askance for fruits from one of the young dancers.

You see, after each dance the young dancers would reach into baskets of fruits, flowers and vegetables, and toss them to an appreciative audience. The Zapotec boy was in that audience, and wanted fruit. Mind you, not for keepsake as perhaps the families wanted, but to eat. However, I also noticed he never reached into the basket full of apricots just inches from him...no, that would be stealing. He just wanted the young dancer to give him one...and he got a fruit.

Not only was I sobered at this sight, but I also read in these unfortunate children's eyes an uncomprehending acceptance that they would never take part in an organized Guelaguetza dance such as the one they were witnessing. I also sensed that they understood that it was so because they were poor and were racially different. They would never wear the colorful Guelaguetza costumes. All this boy could muster was an old over sized baseball cap, and a dirty shirt.

No child should go hungry and no child should beg for food. Ever.

The 500th Google Follower

I saw that my list of Google Followers have now grown to 500! This list is distinct from my Twitter and Facebook followers and friends, or from my subscribers to my newsletters.

To commemorate this milestone, here's an introduction to the work of Karina Joseph, who is my 500th Google Follower.

Karina Joseph is a freelance photographer working in Mumbai, and from what I've seen of her excellent photographs on Flickr, specializes in commercial photography. She also does street photography, as can be seen in this following photograph.

Photo © Karina Joseph-All Rights Reserved
I will keep an eye on my Google Followers, and whenever possible I will post the work of every 100th follower.

Sulawesi Surprise: When the Rain stopped

The rain came to a gradual stop and most of us took the opportunity to hit the streets behind the hotel. I accompanied some ladies to the bank and took the opportunity to change for small notes. The streets were rather empty and quiet and boy, there were many goldsmith shops there and they were run by ethnic Chinese. Those were not stuff for tourists like us, I suppose and was I glad then, when we started our journey to Tana Toraja or Toraja Land. That would be about 310 km away and we would have to get ready for a nine to ten hour drive along a coastal road. There was a promise of the blue water of the Makassar Strait, limestone hills rising from the plain, beautiful rice fields, fish ponds and Buginese villages on the way...Just keep your finger crossed!

Streets of Makassar...

Traveling Tip: Keep your finger crossed!

Penang Bazaar at Penang Road, Penang

Penang Bazaar (N5 25.120 E100 19.899) is located along Penang Road opposite the Mydin Supermarket (it was Cathay Cinema 35 years ago).

Penang Bazaar

When I was a kid, I always follow my parent having their shopping this Penang Bazaar in the late 70s. I can only remember my Mom keep on remind me :"Don't touch this, don't touch that...". Haha! Those day...
Correct me if I'm wrong, this was One of the popular shopping area during the time. Maybe similar to a hypermart today...My Mom love to come here and my Dad will do his shopping in the next building - The Chowrasta Wet Market...
Today, the shops (or stalls) in this building mostly (90%) are selling fabric. It is different from those day, there were many type of stalls around...

Shops in Penang Bazaar

I walk around this area, and slowly recall my childhood memories...the building was not equip with Air-Con, so you can imagine the temperature in there...But...I didn't feel the heat at all, because I was concentrate on the surrounding...trying hard to remember where did I lost my toy car, and finally...I saw the dirty drain! My car was drop into that drain! And it still dirty today...haha!

Chowrasta Wet Market, Penang

The wet market was closed in the evening, beside the fish and other stalls, there were also some stalls selling daily necessity and food...

I found this food stall really colourful!

Hanging around for about an hour, we finally step out of these two building. Surprised, this chestnut stall still around!

The chestnut seller

Look at the Penang Road, it totally changed! One of the famous cinema - Cathay Cinema, became Mydin Supermarket today...

Penang Road

This area was really given me a comfort feeling, that I wanna sit beside the road (or at the Bus Stand), relax and look around for couple of hour...I can't tell the reason why...too bad I didn't have the chance to do it that day...

The location map of Penang Bazaar

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Best Of Photojournalism: Dhiraj Singh

It gives me singular pleasure to learn that Dhiraj Singh was awarded Honorable Mention (Feature Audio Slideshow) in the NPPA's Best of Photojournalism 2010 for his My Name Is Dechen.

Dhiraj attended my MultiMedia class at the Foundry Photojournalism Workshop in Manali last summer, and not only received a standing ovation on showing his audio slideshow (Soundslides), but was also awarded Top Award For Photography by the workshop's instructors.

A well-deserved honor to this immensely talented photographer and photojournalist...and he's a very nice guy as well.

I don't think Dhiraj will mind me plugging the Foundry Photojournalism Workshop in this post...so if you are still on the fence about your participation in the Istanbul workshop, you may want to take into account that if you do attend it, you may produce a similarly powerful project or photo essay that could earn you prestigious awards!

The Foundry offers the best instructors there is...real working professionals who will show you the ropes, and either change or reinforce your mindset. All you have to do is to leave your ego at the door...that's all.

The Travel Photographer's Pouches

Photo © Some Hot-Shot Photog I Forgot The Name Of
Here's the exclusive opportunity that you've all been waiting for! I announce the "availability" of The Travel Photographer's Pouches which are for sale at the incredible price of only $89.99 a piece...or, if you're inclined to save, only $181.00 for two pouches. Yes, please do the math.

The pouches are (probably) made in China of rugged black canvas, and have two pockets. The Travel Photographer logo is embroidered in the trademark bright teal color, using the Arial font, and with a thread exclusive (possibly) to me. The logo was embroidered using the latest techniques in the lovely town of Oaxaca, using a cranky Japanese machine.

The cost? Well, I bought the pouch for about $5 at a nearby US Army Surplus store, and the embroidery cost under $2...so I figured that a profit of $83.00 a piece seems reasonable. Oh, and shipping is not included in the price.

As to availability; well...here's the thing. I would need to return to Oaxaca to have them embroidered. This may take a year or so.

As I said, these are exclusive and are really really worth waiting for.

Seriously speaking, I found these pouches to be ideal for extra lenses, small notebooks, an audio recorder and other paraphernalia I carry while shooting. And I prefer to use items that carry my brand name instead of products such as ThinkTank, LowePro, etc. If these companies paid me to carry (and advertise) their wares, it'd be different...but they don't.

Asim Rafiqui: The Kerala Journeys

Photo © Asim Rafiqui -All Rights Reserved
A few weeks ago, I had just returned from my Tribes of South Rajasthan & Kutch Photo~Expedition™, and felt that I hadn't done enough in terms of street photography in the Kutch area of Gujarat.

I, rather ludicrously, expected to photograph non-stop in its small villages that had seen few (if any) foreign tourists and when that didn't happen, I had to content myself with a some frames here and there. Back in New York City, and still cursing my bad luck, I chanced on a post by Asim Rafiqui, in which he describes his street photography in Lucknow as follows:

"And in the rare moments when something close to a photograph does appear I keep ruining it with poor timing, inappropriate angles or by being club footed and lumbering towards it so slowly that the moment is gone. Yesterday I had waited nearly 3 hours for a frame, arousing suspicions among the many shopkeepers who had patiently tolerated me and my cameras on the corner of their street, and then missed it when it seemed to come together!"

Three hours for a frame! And Asim is one of the better photographers I have come across. So I swallowed my curses, and realized that this is what it takes...this is reality...and street photography and paparazzi-style travel photography are miles apart.

Because of such gems, I am a frequent follower of Asim Rafiqui's The Idea of India project. An extraordinarily erudite, both intellectually and visually, blog in which he examines traditions of social and religious sharing which still exist in India, reports on shared sacred sites like major Sufi dargahs where Hindus and Muslims co-pray and on religious festivals which evolved past their sectarian sources and welcome participants of all beliefs and faiths. A veritable cornucopia for those of us who are eager for deeper understanding of the roots of current events.

The latest blog entry is titled The Kerala Journeys. This is what street photography is all about.

Oaxaca: La Guelaguetza

Photo © Tewfic El-Sawy -All Rights Reserved
Our "almost-a-week-long" Oaxaca Mini Photo-Expedition™ was replete with daily serendipitous photo opportunities. Lynn Padwe, Carl Meisel, Li Lu-Porter, Maria Dikeos and I roamed the streets of this wonderful town in search of photographic scenes, and we weren't disappointed.

Naturally, it was the Zocalo...the throbbing heart of Oaxaca, that offered the most in terms of photo ops, and we made the most of it. It's always a wonderment that Oaxaca (and certainly other similar towns in Mexico) always has something going on in its main square. During our 5 days there, every evening saw some sort of cultural event; a classical performance by the Oaxaca orchestra, a performance by a wide-throated Mariachi singer, a Guelaguetza festival for young children (above) and the weekly dance event.

After photographing the events, we would invariably make a beeline towards the various cafes and restaurants that line the square for drinks and/or dinner.

Note: I've recently noticed that a number of travel photographers have now started to appropriate the Photo-Expedition moniker that I've used for years. I guess imitation is the sincerest form of flattery.

Ashley Gilbertson: Bedrooms of the Fallen

The New York Times Sunday Magazine has featured The Shrine Down The Hall: Bedrooms of America's Young War Dead, a powerful photo essay in slideshow format by photographer Ashey Gilbertson (VII Network), which looks at some of the empty bedrooms of the over 5000 U.S. military personnel killed in the wars of Iraq and Afghanistan.

Dexter Filkins starts his accompanying article with the words "Just kids". The ages of these military fallen range from 19 to 25...indeed, just kids.

George McGovern in 1969 speaking about Vietnam said:

"I'm fed up to the ears with old men dreaming up wars for young men to die in".

Now of course, it's also women who die in combat, as indeed Karina Lau did. Her bedroom still has a stuffed teddy bear and floppy-eared rabbit on top of her floral bedspread. She was killed seven years ago when insurgents shot down her helicopter in Falluja, Iraq. She was 20 years old.

In my view, this slideshow should be mandatory viewing by every politician who supported our senseless wars in Iraq and Afghanistan.

I just read that George W. Bush is visiting Haiti. How about visiting these bedrooms first?

Foundry Photo Workshop: Scholarships

Eric Beecroft of the Foundry Photojournalism Workshop issued a press release announcing the winners of the Workshop 2010 Scholarships.

It was difficult to choose amongst the plethora of so many superb and powerful entries from extremely talented photographers, especially from those whose work was somewhat outside the "traditional" photojournalism concept.

The Foundry Photojournalism Workshop is amazed at the level of unexposed talent it has seen so far, and it is the hope that all who applied continue to pursue their passion for visual storytelling. There will be more scholarships for Foundry, from sponsors - some general and some regional specific- so keep watching.

The FPW Scholarship of the Year 2010 is awarded to:

Doni Maulistya

Three full scholarships have been awarded to (in no particular order):

Tom Jamieson
Yulia Vishnevets
Roubina Margossian


Two half scholarships are awarded to:

Johannes P. Christo
Agata Pietron

The judges included Stephanie Sinclair and Guy Calaf.

There a few spaces left, so don't hesitate to apply!

Ho Ping Coffee Shop (Kopitiam) at Penang Road, Penang

Ho Ping Kopitiam (Traditional Chinese Coffee Shop) (N5 25.161 E100 19.928) it's located in the junction of Penang Road and Jalan Kampung Malabar. (Ho Ping means Peaceful in Chinese) We got attracted by the hawkers in the shop along our walk at Penang Road.

Ho Ping Kopitiam (Traditional Chinese Coffee Shop)

I like the setting of these traditional type of coffee shop...
The two stalls which selling Pork Noodle and Char Kuey Teow (Fried rice noodle) looks really attractive! We went into the shop and ordered the foods without discuss among ourself! Haha!

The Pork Noodle :-
It serve with all the pork intestine, vegetables and mee-hoon (vermicelli). Taste good! We like the soup very much! It cost MYR5.00 each. (Can't see it in JB)

The Pork Noodle of Ho Ping Kopitiam

The other hawker which got my attraction was this Char Kuey Teow stall. The charcoal stove was really unique and I hardly see it elsewhere...

The Charcoal Stove of the Char Kuey Teow hawker

He (the Char Kuey Teow hawker) was preparing about 30 packs for take away when I order mine...so, I have to wait for about 30 minutes...and that situation made me more hungry while waiting...:)

Authentic Penang Char Kuey Teow

Look at the 4 prawns well presented on it! Wah! I like very much! There is NO way to taste this at Johor Bahru at all! It was Delicious! Cost MYR3.50.
Beside the ingredient, the charcoal stove also make the different, it provided the heat for the wok equally compare with the modern gas stove. (Learned it from the local)

By comparing the Famous Char Kuey Teow at Lorong Selamat, Penang (from local recommendation) and this hawker, both of them are equally good! But I prefer this because of the Attitude!

We Rated :-
The pork noodle - 3/5

The Char Kuey Teow - 4.5/5

I will come back again on my next trip to Penang! 

Location map of Ho Ping Kopitiam (Coffee Shop)

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