Sibu walls a delicious work of art

Yummy sight: A pedestrian admiring the murals on localdelicacies of Sibu.

SIBU: Drawing murals of food on walls may be more challenging than drawing people.

According to Lilian Tang, one of the two artists who created the art on the wall of a shophouse at Jalan Market here, there are certain difficulties artists face when drawing pictures of food.

She said it required a lot of patience to ensure that the picture turned out well.

“We spent two days on these murals. Since the wall is along the alley of the shophouse, our concentration was also affected by people passing by, ” she said here yesterday.

The murals were a team effort between Tang and her husband Lau Sei Kwong after they were engaged by the Sibu Municipal Council to come up with the paintings.

“These paintings and many others to come show the the town’s uniqueness,” Tang said.

Council chairman Datuk Tiong Thai King unveiled the artwork, which included kompia (foochow unleavened bread cooked over hot burning charcoal), dian bian ngu (a thick soup made of cooked rice paste served with squib, meatballs, black mushroom and golden needles), kampua (foochow dry noodles), pulut panggang (sticky rice), kuih jala (Melanau and Iban net cake), and penyeram (a Malay sweet cake).

Council secretary Hii Chang Kee said similar artwork would be done on the walls of shophouses in the town centre.

“The first one is about a wharf labourer. This is the second one. The third one will be at Jalan Blacksmith, where we will have drawings of old buses and old street scenes,” he said.

“The one at Sibu Central Market will have paintings of ayam bungkus (chicken tied and wrapped up with newspaper and nylon string).”

Hii also called on the people not to vandalise any of the paintings, which “provides space for us to portray the specialities of the town’s food and culture”.