Tag: Malaysia

Too Cool to Eat

“Cooling Face Power” is perhaps the best ingredient against Penang’s sweltering heat. It is made out of broken white rice, just like the kway teow or broadsheet noodles you would have eaten when savouring the city’s famous char kway teow.

The rice is first washed and soaked, and then left to ferment for a month in this home factory. When ready, they are rinsed to rid off the pungent and acidic smell before they enter a stone grinder to become rice milk. This is then transferred into muslin bags for most of the moisture to drain away in about 10 hours.

The filtered rice milk is reconstituted to make a paste outside the factory’s porch. They are squeezed through a perforated metal container to become flat-bottomed teardrops just like Hershey’s Kisses.

We take a few of these dried pellets, blend them with water, and apply it on our skin. As its name suggests, it feels cooling. But it does more. A century ago, women in China made this powder at home to ease rashes and control facial oil. The 76-year-old founder of this business turned his mother’s beauty recipe into a means of living after he migrated from Fujian to Penang.

The founder has passed the business to his two sons, but he still carries out the lighter chores.
Moulding the rice paste is similar to silk screen printing.
Teardrop-shaped rice paste just out of the mould.

H Directory

Perniagaan Bedak Sejuk Lean Seng

160 Mukim-D, Kuala Jalan Bharu, 11000 Balik Pulau
Tel: +60 19 481 1810
Open 8am to 8pm, daily.

He Has Rox in His Head

Dan Noordzy, one of the masterminds behind Hard Rock Penang’s poolside programmes, smiles like a goofy Ben Stiller and has tremendous energy like a Disney Channel host. The Australian Malaysian with salt and pepper hair shares how life’s been at Hard Rock.

I was really surprised to see staff with long hair and tattoos. Some of them even look like artists! There’s one gentleman in the lobby, his name is China, and he looks exactly like Prince!

HPAPER: What’s a master rock agent?
DAN NOORDZY: I take care of the operations of the poolside team, alongside one partner. We organise games and activities on a daily basis. There are about six games a day. We also manage the Roxity Kids Club, for children four to twelve years old, and the Tabu Teens Clubs, a teenage venue.

HPAPER: What kind of games?
DAN NOORDZY: We got the Vibe Dance, an aerobic exercise in the afternoon to wake you up, to get you feeling happening again. We also have a basketball ring. We get the guests to shoot the ball but in the pool. We have sumo wrestling. The guests wear inflatable costumes and wrestle. It’s very funny, especially when we emcee and create situations for it. They love it.

HPAPER: Do you perform?
DAN NOORDZY: You’ll see us at the Vibe Dance. There is no embarrassment even though we’re managers. We’re employed here on the basis that we know how to have fun.

HPAPER: How often do you rotate the activities?
DAN NOORDZY: Every month, really. We have long-term stayers, and they’ll get bored if we do it the same every month. We don’t want them to see Hard Rock as a stagnant place of entertainment.

HPAPER: What kind of games?
DAN NOORDZY: When it comes to entertainment we don’t necessary make them laugh like comedians. We just want a reaction from them, to get them out of the routine of being in a hotel. So we invite them to join the next activity in the schedule. Less about laughing and more about experiencing.

HPAPER: What game would or would you not include?
DAN NOORDZY: Simplicity is good. Guests are from different backgrounds and ages. We don’t want to complicate matters for them. We want to make it fun, easy and safe. We have to observe cultural traditions here, so we wouldn’t include games that are too close for comfort for people, like Twister, for example. Anything that is too strenuous we don’t want as well.