Most people know the world famous beach resorts on the west coast of Pangkor Island but on its eastern shores there are traditional fishing villages, eateries, cottage industries which are equally worth a visit.
Pulau Pangkor is a tiny island just 30 sq. miles in size (compared to Singapore which is 280 sq. miles).
I had the privilege to stay a couple of nights at Sungai Pinang Kechil village on Pangkor's east shore, enjoyed its sunrise and tasted traditional cuisine. One of the highlights of my short stay was to visit the island's century old traditional fishing industry. Pangkor fisheries is relatively young, beginning only in the 1920s.
Before setting off for our fish jetty trip, we had a typical hearty Pangkor breakfast which naturally featured lots of fresh fishes and spices. Most of the coffee shops on Pangkor Island are run by Hainanese, so all the Nanyang kopi are great here at Kampung Sungai Pinang Kechil.
We went to the jetty along Jalan Besar belonging to Ker Hwa Enterprise to watch them unload and process the catch of the day. There are only seven such wooden jetties or piers left at Sungai Pinang Kechil and Sungai Pinang Besar.
The jetty or pier owners known as towkay also own boats and all the pier equipment required to run the pier operations such cranes and ice making machines.
I was blessed to watch the boat return to the jetty after a night at sea.
Manoeuvring the boat into its narrow berth takes great skill.
In Pangkor, they still use traditional wooden boats locally made on the island with chengal wood. The Pangkor boat yards make three kinds of wooden boats - trawlers, kembong boats and squid boats. Each wooden boat takes 4 - 5 months to make by skilled craftsmen who work from memory without any blueprints. From its heydays of 15 traditional boat yards, there are now only 5 on Pangkor Island.
The catch is kept fresh in the hold of the boat with ice.
The seasoned crew sprang into action, unloading the fish once the boat was berthed and tied down.
What is this idle fella doing here? 🤨
Working for my lunch. Yeah, me giving a hand 😬
The fishes are sorted according to species and size.
Typically, the catch is mostly cencaru, selar, kembong, and such. The most numerous and important for Pangkor Island fisheries is ikan kembong fish.
Pangkor Island fishery are mostly various sub-species of mackerel fish.
The jetties make their own ice.
The fish are packed in ice to keep them fresh for their truck journey to wholesale markets around the peninsula.
Towkay handing me my wage for the day's work 🙏
My reward 😬
Boss cat of cat paradise 💭 "Why you take the fish? 🤨 "
We took our catch to Restoran Pangkor Fook Hai where the boss-chef kindly cooked our fishes even though it was a busy day for the popular restaurant 🙏
Part of our catch was steamed.
Another portion was deep fried.
Whichever way the fish is done, it just tastes wonderfully naturally sweet because they were super fresh straight off the boat.
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