Sambal Without Anchovies by Chua Kok Yee

Posted on by chingwy

About the author

Chua Kok Yee was born and raised in Ipoh, before coming to Kuala Lumpur to pursue an accounting degree at Universiti Malaya. His short stories have been published in various anthologies and periodicals including Black and White and Other New Short Stories from Malaysia (CCCPress 2012), KL Noir Blue (Fixi 2014), Selangor Times, and Esquire Malaysia. He co-authored News From Home with Shih-li Kow and Rumaizah Abu Bakar in 2007, and his own collection of short stories, Without Anchovies, was published in 2010.

Synopsis

Pak Samad has been running the family business of selling nasi lemak for a long time. His son, Hanif tries to make the stall more profitable as a business by suggesting measures to cut costs, among them halting the use of banana leaves for each plate, refurbishing the furniture and cooking sambal without anchovies so that it can be kept overnight. However, Pak Samad has always turned a blind eye to his suggestions and this causes tension between the two. They argue constantly, both stubborn in their own way and causing their relationship to falter. Nora, Hanif’s wife steps in to resolve the issue after seeing Pak Samad’s reasons for not listening to his suggestions. Pak Samad merely wants to treasure the memories and love he shared with his now deceased wife through the nasi lemak stall that they set up together. Nora helps Hanif see reason and make it clear that proving his worth, through application of his business experience, is not as important as cherishing those you love.

Theme: Love and Remembrance

Sambal Without Anchovies is based around the love the main protagonists have, albeit displayed in different ways. Hanif’s love for his family business has led him to try and elevate it via cutting costs or business acumen he had procured from his restaurant businesses, as if he was “the anointed successor of the family business”; Pak Samad’s display of love is different and clashes with Hanif’s thinking: he wishes to preserve the original state of the nasi lemak stall, refusing all of Hanif’s suggestions and constantly arguing with him. To understand how this love came about, we need to look into both characters.

Why does Pak Samad wish to preserve the nasi lemak stall as it was 25 years ago, refusing to compromise even once despite having done so in the past? This is because of his deep love for his wife who had passed on in an accident. As mentioned in Thieving Daughter, people grieve in different ways, and this is no exception. The stall was started up together – Pak Samad, his wife and his children – and it was something everyone loved equally back then. It was Pak Samad’s pride and joy to have such a business with his wife and it was precious to him. That could explain why Pak Samad had left the hospital immediately after her death without displaying any grief: he wished to continue treasuring his wife through the nasi lemak stall, the one thing that was left behind as her legacy besides his own children. 25 years later, Pak Samad is seen refusing to even give the stall a fresh coat of paint, let alone change the recipe of the sambal or remove the banana leaves from his plates. Each of these were started by his wife, so by keeping them as they were, he was preserving his wife’s memory in each and as the story quips, “the banana leaves were his parents’ love letters.” This same concept can be seen in Hanif’s actions of preserving material items from his courting days with Nora: email printouts, ticket stubs and birthday dinner receipts all represented his deep love and it is this realisation that allows Hanif to finally understand his father.

Hanif’s love for his family is shown through his decision to not abandon the business, despite being told to do so by his elder brothers. He feels that he was “the anointed successor of the family business” and had to keep his parents’ dream alive by using his business acumen. The day his mother passed, he was shocked that Pak Samad had left silently to open the stall without any outward displays of grief. This could be his turning point, where he dedicates the rest of his life to preserving the stall and making it a success, just as his mother would have wanted (or so he assumes). It is his love for his mother and the family business that motivates him to clash with his father – after all, he just wants the business to be a success and for his father to be happy that his mother’s wish had come true.

In a nutshell, this short story is showing us how people remember their loved ones differently and the love they show through their actions, despite being not as clear and affectionate as many would imagine. Both Hanif and Pak Samad’s attitudes do not actively display their love for their mother and wife respectively, yet it is clear to any outsider that both of them are trying their best to preserve their loved one’s legacy, as Nora has observed herself. While it may not be clear to both these prideful men, it is clear that deep down, they both love their family deeply.

Characters

  1. Pak Samad
    • Loving
      • Although not displayed outwardly, it is understood that his practice of preserving his wife’s traditions and recipes is his “love letters”, a way of treasuring her even after her passing.
      • When Nora observes him cutting square banana leaves, his eyes are “bright and alert” and he was beaming, looking “younger, more alive and happier than Nora has ever seen.” This shows that Pak Samad’s actions have all been about preserving his wife’s memory in that nasi lemak stall and keeping his loved one close to him was all the joy he needed. Material possessions like money have no meaning to him.
    • Stoic
      • He endures his son’s constant arguments and does not reprimand him for them, instead understanding and accepting without displaying his own hurt. The smile he gives Hanif is his way of hiding the sting of Hanif’s suggestions that only serve to rob him of his memory of his wife. Yet, he doesn’t complain and remains the same as usual on the outside, only saving those tender and emotional moments for when he was alone, such as the time he was cutting the banana leaves.
    • Compromising
      • As mentioned by Nora, Pak Samad had once settled a feud between Nora and Hanif’s families over a bersanding date. His resistance was also surprising to Nora, which indicates that there are many more incidents where Pak Samad had been very compromising in.
  2. Hanif
    • Determined
      • Hanif is determined to make the business a success and constantly provides suggestions to his father as to improve the nasi lemak stall. This includes the omission of banana leaves, cooking anchovies separate from the sambal and refurbishment of the stall itself. He tries to use his business acumen which he procured from his restaurant business to cut corners and increase the profit of the stall.
      • Despite being rejected multiple times, he persists on giving these ideas to the point of coming into conflict with his father, always thinking that his suggestions are the definite, right action to take.
    • Loving
      • His love is demonstrated through his determination to make the stall a success. Refer to theme above.
    • Loyal
      • Despite being told to abandon the stall and leave Pak Samad to it by his older brothers, Hanif still remains in his hometown and tries to persuade Pak Samad out of his love for the stall. He decides not to leave home for good, instead always returning to the stall of his childhood and supporting his family as long as he can.
  3. Nora
    • Nora is the resolution of this conflict. By observing Pak Samad and drawing parallels to Hanif, she was able to understand the root of the conflict and convince Hanif of the true reason behind Pak Samad’s defiance. This leads to Hanif’s realisation and regret, prophesising a reconciliation between father and son.

Quotations

  • For the longest five seconds in the life of Pak Samad’s family, the man’s eyes examined the contents of the containers of food. Then he turned towards Pak Samad, nodded and ordered a plate of nasi lemak with fried chicken. They had their first customer! Hanif remembers how his father’s face had lit up. That is a memory Hanif would always treasure.

    This demonstrates how fond Hanif was of his childhood stall and gives a small context as to his determination to make the stall even more successful. In his own way, his methods were always in the pursuit of his parents’ assumed dreams and that Hanif had wanted to recreate the happiness he saw Pak Samad have on that day.

  • For a few moments, Pak Samad appears to give this suggestion a thought. Then he looks at Hanif and smiles, shakes his head and walks out of the kitchen. Hanif rests his clasped hands on top of his head in annoyance. It is not the rejection, but the way his father dismisses his idea that makes him angry. He finds that smile on his father’s face cynical, sarcastic and patronising. Does his father still think of him as a clueless kid, instead of the successful restaurateur he really is? Or, does his father believe that only his own opinions count?

    The rift between Hanif and Pak Samad widens. Without truly understanding Pak Samad’s intentions, Hanif begins to take even the simplest of smiles as an offense towards him. He believes that his father was not proud of him and was self-serving at that moment, drawing his own conclusions without knowing that Pak Samad was hurt by his suggestions as well. It is also hinted that Pak Samad may have intended to compromise and mend the rift between them by taking the suggestion. However, his deep love for his wife override this decision and he dismisses Hanif, despite knowing that it would hurt Hanif as well.

  • She sees Pak Samad sitting there cutting the banana leaves into squares, but there is something peculiar about him. His eyes are bright and alert as he holds a leaf up to examine it before he slices it with a graceful and fluid motion and stacking them in the container next to him. The corners of his mouth curve up in a smile and his wrinkled face glows. The old man looks younger, more alive and happier than Nora has ever seen.

    The hint as to Pak Samad’s true motives. This practice of cutting the banana leaves was something Pak Samad had probably undertaken with his wife, and by continuing this practice, it was as if his wife was still there with him. This brings him immense happiness and as Nora observes, she finally understands Pak Samad’s current stubbornness. His deep love for his wife has brought him immense joy and he was not going to let that go for his son’s “business acumen”.

  • The banana leaves were his parents’ love letters.

    Hanif’s realisation as to the true significance of all those mementos Pak Samad has kept for 25 years. It is not the practicality of it, as he was taught in school, but rather the sentimentality of these simple objects that Pak Samad treasures, even more than the money he could earn. There were thousands upon thousands of memories of Pak Samad and his wife contained within those pots and pans, that sambal recipe and the square banana leaves that it is near impossible to give them up without hurting Pak Samad himself. Hanif’s ideas had no meaning to Pak Samad: all he wanted to do was preserve the stall and the true motive of his actions in the short story is encapsulated in a simple and conclusive sentence, leaving the readers to imagine the continuation of the stall’s tradition and Hanif’s support for his father after the truth has dawned upon him.

This is one of the six short stories that is provided through the short stories anthology for English Literature KSSM.

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