By C C Pung J.P
Ham cheese and sandwich
I get it.
Ham according to my Oxford dictionary is the top portion of a pig’s leg.
More accurately it is the hind legs.
The most expensive ham is made from the hind leg portion of the Iberian pigs raised in Spain and Portugal.
In rural China, this meaty portion is cured in salt and then hung and smoked.
So, yes. Ham is generally associated with pork. It’s delicious.
Ham is also a known method of meat preservation. There’s dry duck meat similarly produced.
There’s turkey ham. I’ve been told of ‘ham chicken’ which doesn’t sound good at all.
‘Bak kut’is Hokkien for meat and bones, not necessarily pork. The key is the herbal soup.
Bak kut Teh therefore can be the soup cooked with anything else like, for example Sandakan’s specialty bak ket teh with seafood.
So why is so many people having an issue with bak kut teh and insist that it must be declared haram.
An Indian nasi lemak seller in KL is making hay with his nasi lemak (malaysia’s national dish) with pork cooked in three flavours.
Not long ago a nasi kandar seller created a storm by inducing pork dishes along with the myriad of dishes for which nadi kandar is known for.
Unless they are restricted by their licensing, there’s no reason to restrict the restaurant’s creativity and marketing savvy.
Now some people want to have me believe that ‘ham’ means ‘pork’, and using the word to mean any other meats is irreligious, a deception.
If I were a Muslim and come across any ‘ham’ products, my years of indoctrination would instinctively turn me away.
You wouldn’t find me involved in some pseudo religious intellectual debate about halal/haram mumbo jumbo, food laws or da da da.
Why do muslims have this fondness to teach and preach in a multi religious country of ours where we ought to accept and embrace our differences rather than always insinuating that one is better or worse than the other.
Smoking is not encouraged. But Muslims are known to smoke.
Gambling is disallowed in Islam.
Would somebody please look at the queues of punters at the SportsToto shops all over Malaysia last week when the Jackpot prize money went over RM100 million?
I’m not advising for modern, moderate or Liberal Islam.
I just ask: Can we just live and let live like Malaysians kah?
Editor: The views expressed are those of the writer and do not necessarily reflect those of talantang.com
