Nowhere near…

It was in the news sometime ago that the municipal council here is embarking on a street art project beginning with one of a wharf labourer, a common sight around that part of town in the old days. After that, another one followed on the wall of a complex in town where our trioplex (a three-hall cineplex) is located – I am not too familiar with such characters but I think it was one of Iron Man.

More recently, more appeared, this time along the small lane leading from Market Road to Channel Road where the Sibu Central Market is. These include one  of the kampua noodles…

…and the kompia…

…and also the dianpianngu…

– things that are synonymous with this little town and representative of Sibu.

Of course, these are works of art, not photographs, so we cannot expect them to look anything like the real thing where the noodles are concerned…

…or what the kompia actually looks like in reality…

…but if that last one was not labelled, I would not be able to tell what it actually is…

…as all I could make out would be those bits of cuttlefish tentacles. Still, I would say that they are indeed very appropriate choices though I really wonder about the rest. Is the penyeram…

…or what we call kuih lipeng supposed to represent the Malay community here? If I am not wrong, these are available all over the country and a much better choice would be the ederam…

– the ones here have many holes while those in the peninsula that I have seen online have one only, like a doughnut. Likewise, I think the pulut panggang…

…is available throughout the country, not just in Sarawak or Sibu…like how the kek lapis (layer cake) is quintessentially Kuching. I wonder if the kelupis would be a better choice…

…but then again, it is not that readily available around here and wikipedia says that though it is the traditional snack of the Malays in Sarawak and Sabah…

…it has its origins in Brunei. Or perhaps one might consider the Melanau delights such as the sagu’ (sago pellets) or tumpik or the terbaloi (coconut sago crackers) or kuih cina instead?

I guess the kuih jala…

…is representative of the Iban or ethnic community…

…even though that comes across to me like instant noodles.

Unfortunately, when I was in that lane that morning, I thought it was kind of sad that everybody was walking past like the pictures were not there at all. For one thing, they do look like something you would find on the walls at some food court or hawker centre advertising the things that are available there. Perhaps they can make them a little more “interactive” so to speak, like the works of Ernest Zacharevic in Penang, Kuching or elsewhere. There can be one of people eating kampua noodles at a table in a coffee shop, for instance, with a chair jutting out from the wall and people would be able to sit on it and have their photographs taken, looking like they were one of the group…or for the one of the wharf labourer, they may have a sack protruding from the wall and people can pretend to be carrying it while somebody snaps their photographs. Still, whatever it is, I would agree that we should show some appreciation for the effort on the part of the authorities or the people concerned. Keep up the good work!