Fish & Chips With Salt & Vinegar: The Book

FISH & CHIPS WITH SALT & VINEGAR

FOREWORD

By Datuk Shahar Effendi bin Abdullah Azizi

My fondest memory of my student days in England has to be fish and chips – the fleshy chewy cod fried in crispy batter scooped from a boiling vat of fat to be served hot and smoky wrapped in yesterday’s Page 3 of the Sun.

So it is – the prickly smell of vinegar assaulting the nose, rather than Samantha Fox’s puffed up assets that made me jump at the chance to write this foreword to Azizi’s book aptly-titled “Fish and Chips with Salt and Vinegar.”

To be sure, it’s not just about fish and chips, though. For, Azizi and I go a long way together. I have known him since our primary school days at Clifford Primary School in the Royal Town of Kuala Kangsar, Perak. We were also together for a while at Sekolah Menengah Sains Perlis before parting ways momentarily, when I accepted an offer to go to the Malay College in my hometown. As fate would have it, our paths crossed again when we were both offered to study at the same college in England for our GCE A Levels.

So, it was there on the wind-swept coast of Lancashire, in the north west of England, that we would renew our friendship. Together with other Malaysians at the Blackpool College of Technology, we had a whale of a time - discovering and getting to know that foreign land and the ways of the Mat Salleh. It was a new journey for a motley crew of young, fresh-faced Malaysian students.

This little book, Fish and Chips with Salt and Vinegar, tells the story of those young Malaysian students seen from the eyes of my friend, Azizi.  It takes us through his interesting sojourn, first in the resort town of Blackpool, and from there to Manchester where he pursued his university degree.

Thrown into the deep end, so to speak, this is a chronicle of the trials and tribulation, the joys and pleasure of life in our adopted home, the United Kingdom.

Whilst I was receiving education to become a mining engineer in Leeds, Azizi was training to be a town planner just 40 miles away down the M62 Motorway. I guess all that training as town planner has stood him in good stead as could be seen in this book through his meticulousness and vivid recollection of the everyday life and activities of a student in the 1980s UK.

This has resulted in a book which has managed to serve up some real gems and bring back pleasant memories which many of us could easily relate, especially for those who had been a student overseas. In that sense, Fish and Chips with Salt and Vinegar is rather unique in a sense that it could easily be seen as a record of one’s daily life as a student – together with all the happy memories -   all those years ago.

Readers will identify with all the exploits and mis-adventures as highlighted by Azizi. For example, I am sure no one would be able to forget their experience of having to cook for their meals as a student. To this day my friends and I can still recall with much hilarity of the trouble we had when we tried to cook the notorious Malaysian belacan. The strong pungent smell that permeated throughout the house almost caused a riot by the English tenants furiously protesting against the offensive aroma from the meal that was being concocted.

There were also many British life habits, culture and quirks that Azizi managed to capture and share with us, looking at them through the eyes of a typical Malaysian kampong boy.

Fish and Chips with Salt and Vinegar is one not to be missed by anyone – especially for those amongst us who had toughed it out as a student overseas.

So, go ahead and sit down, or lie in bed, with this book. And, as the chippy shop counter service person would always say: “enjoy your Fish and Chips, luv!”

Datuk Shahar Effendi bin Abdullah Azizi
Director General

Department of Minerals and Geoscience Malaysia

Putrajaya