Nang Chong Stories : Getting hold of Pang Ngee

The Pang ngee is a small red crab which the Foochows love. It can be eaten, though rather tediously, as a pickled crab. It is too small actually as it is  only the size of a match box. But the best way is to make it into a sauce, which the Foochows call Pang Ngee Chiong.



The photo above is by Irene J. Yong.

During the Japanese Occupation in SArawak, my mother looked foreward to catching loads of pang
ngee to make the sauce for the family.



Here is her story:

" It was her first foray into the growing of rice in the muddy fields at a tender age of 17+ and she was the chief farmer of the family. She and her eldest brother and sister in law had cut the grass of the 2 acre field ready for the mud to soften, and the grass to be burnt. The Red Pang Ngee in the 8th lunar month came together to mate and they were seen crawling all over the field.

How to capture them?

Mum called her nieces and sister in law for help. They piled the grass into mounds and started to chase the pang ngee into the mounds. After gotten several pang ngee under several mounds, they started to lift up the mounds to check. The pang ngee were still there resting. So they just pushed the pang ngee into their buckets. They managed to bring home about two heavily ladened buckets. The next day they did the same thing again. "

Traditional knowledge of nature. Some people say that would be very gee rek (strange) but that was one way to capture the pang ngee in the older days.