21/12/2021
Tung Fong CoffeeRestaurant Introduction Post [1]
Paul Foo - 21st Dec 2021
Tung Fong (東方) means ‘Eastern’ in Chinese, geographically is the eastern part of the World we live in. During the British Colonial period they called it the ‘Orient’ or ‘Far East’, lands stretching east from ‘British India’ to the Pacific. It would take a lifetime to acquire a good working knowledge on the History, Culture, Geography, People, Economic, Politic of this vast & diverse region. As for me, I am concentrating on the Region of India, South East Asia (Asean) and China in particular. With India & China being the most powerful empires in the 18th century their influences from then until now created the fundamental integrated Culture Lifestyle of all of us in Asean in particular Malaysia. There were also the subsequent impact of Islam and colorizations by the Portuguese, Dutch & British in the 19th century.
For a start I can only share the Very Micro part of my Oriental Eastern Culture that revolve around my life.
This Virtual “Tung Fong CoffeeRestaurant” is to honor my late ‘Grandma’ a ‘Dongguan Hakka’ came to Malaya as a young girl, who started this Coffee Shop, a century ago, in a place called ‘Chemor’ a small township in the state of Perak, Malaysia. Chemor is a small town along the old trunk highway in between Ipoh city and the Royal town of Kuala Kangsar. The premise was in a traditional oriental ‘Sino-European style’ building sort of a mix commercial / residence terrace shop lot. This building was a large unique two storey construction with a footprint of approx. 30ft x 200ft, structurally supported by huge brick columns, timber floor structure, wooden roof trust and a common ‘five-foot’ passage connecting the whole roll of shops.
The ground front portion was the coffee-shop/restaurant serving area, middle Chinese Mah-jong club house, and the wood fired Kitchen at the back. Upper floor residences and my mother even had a Singer certified ‘sewing school’ at the upper floor. It was really a vibrant place, and at any time you can easily accommodate 50-100 peoples with comfort. Some pictures presented below are comparable, as originals no longer available. I believe this is good enough as an introduction. Will do more research for later postings which would include other townships, countries, foods, etc. of interests……