Hari Raya Aidilfitri Delights

These are some of the food commonly offered during the Hari Raya Aidilfitri Open House.

The lemang is an all time favourite. It is glutinous rice cooked in hollow bamboo over an open fire. When cooked, it is removed from the bamboo, cut and eaten with chicken curry.

Another dish which is de riguer is the satay ( charcoal-grilled skewers of chicken and beef ) which is accompanied with ketupat (rice flattened and packed into casings) and eaten with a sweet and spicy peanut sauce.

Beef rendang (dry beef curry) is also served.

There are many varieties of cookies to tempt those with sweet tooth and the children. A traditional cookie is the kuih makmur.

Pineapple tarts and peanut cookies are perennial favorites.

Dodol (a sticky soft sweet) is a must.

Here are also some of my favorite kuih which I absolutely must have whenever I "balik kampung".

Balik Kampung & Open House

We are enjoying a stretch of holidays. This year the Hari Raya Aidilfitri holidays coincide with National Day which is also a holiday. A replacement holiday is given so that there are three consecutive days where everyone enjoys the holidays which fall on Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday. These three days fall within the mid-semester school term break so what most people ( especially parents ) do is to take leave on Monday and Friday so that they will have a stretch of nine days’ holidays, from Saturday to the following Sunday.

Malaysia is truly a paradise in that there are so many public holidays and school holidays. There are always celebrations to look forward to as we are a multiracial society with our own festivals to celebrate.

A few days before a festival, there will be a mass exodus from the capital city, as well as other big towns, with vehicles clogging up the main motorways as people hurry to “balik kampung” ( go home ) to celebrate with their families. All siblings and their families will do their best to return home to celebrate with their parents. It is this reunion which sees people driving long distances or flying in.

This practice is not limited to any particular community. All the ethnic communities in Malaysia do this. We all “balik kampung” when our festivals come round.

Some “kampung” may be located in the smaller towns or rural areas while others may be the big towns or the capital city. It is usually where one was brought up and lived in the formative years of one’s life.

This is the event that almost all elderly folk look forward to. Their homes are spruced up for the return of children and grandchildren. A lot of planning and cooking has been done to welcome home the youngsters and their offspring. Money in green packets ( for Hari Raya Aidilfitri ) are kept handy for distribution to the children when they greet their elders with good wishes.

The practice of “open house” is unique to Malaysia whereby anyone is welcome to join families to celebrate the festival. There is no need to issue invitations and it is a done thing to welcome even strangers to your home and your table.

This is a very good way for friends to renew acquaintances which might have gone slightly stale over the year. It is not unusual for some one to ask “Hey, what day is your open house?” to which the response will be “ The first day. Please come and bring all your kids!” Or it could be the second day as some people would pay their respects to their elders and relatives on the first day of the celebration.

The atmosphere is one of goodwill, camaraderie and partaking of the elaborate spread of food. This goes on throughout the day although these days some people will specify the time say from ten in the morning till five in the evening.

That’s when the hosts are ready to drop from exhaustion !!

A Good Day

Today can be counted as a good day as I accomplished a few things.

The morning started off with a visit to the fish market. We hadn't had fish for a while. We bought three different types of fish, altogether totalling 6 fish and I also bought a chicken thigh.

Cleaning the fish took almost an hour after I reached home. Descaling it isn't a pleasant task, neither is cleaning the stomach cavity of its entrails. Then I boiled winter melon soup with chicken feet and carcass. This would be for dinner as I had been away and my grandchildren hadn't had any soup in my absence. I prepared one of the fish for steaming and also seasoned a few pieces of chicken for my grandson who doesn't like fish. A vegetable stir-fried with garlic completed the dinner menu.

Come afternoon, I did a bit of gardening, clearing the flower pots of weeds and adding new topsoil so that the flowers will bloom in abundance. Luckily it wasn't a hot afternoon so I was able to tidy up the potted plants and flowers before starting dinner.

Seeing my family, especially my grandchildren, enjoy the meal that I had cooked for them made me happy. My granddaughter likes fish and soup and she had two bowls!

It was a good day for me as I also finished reading a thriller that had a good story line.

Meet Dr Derek Lim, my nephew

I'm so proud of my nephew, Dr Derek Lim, my brother's son. He's based in Birmingham, in the UK and he's a clinical geneticist. Here is the video of his interview.

Interview with Dr Derek Lim from BHDSyndrome.org on Vimeo.

Beautiful Sunday

Another great day today!

It began with breakfast with my daughter and my brother at the Kuala Lumpur Golf and Country Club.

This is one of the premier golf clubs in Kuala Lumpur and membership comes at a very pricey tag. The fairways have matured with trees that have grown.This is my younger brother. There is a 12 year age gap between us

I had lunch with two younger sisters, sister number 3 and sister number 6. We had roast pork, and two vegetable dishes, quite tasty, I must say. Then we browsed in the shops in Bangsar Village 2. Sales are on and there are a few good bargains, especially with Hari Raya Puasa ( a Muslim celebration at the end of one month's fasting ) coming up in two weeks' time. Green and yellow are the colors of Hari Raya.

Dessert was Baskin Robins ice cream across the street.

Sister number 7, the youngest girl in the family, came over with her daughter for tea. They came with an assortment of cakes, egg tarts and "pau" ( steamed buns with roast pork filling and red bean paste filling, "Char siew pau" and "tau sar pau" respectively ). We had a good natter and made plans to meet up again before I leave for home.

Then my daughter and I headed to the "pasar malam" ( literally the night market but it starts around 5:00 p.m. )to purchase our dinner and some fruits. We bought "poh piah" ( vegetable spring rolls ), "apam" ( sweet pancake )and I ate mine downed with fresh coconut water. This night market is held once a week and fruit and vegetables as well as cooked food are aplenty. It is actually stalls set up by hawkers who move their wares to different locations throughout the week.

It has been a most satisfying day. I had come to Kuala Lumpur to touch base with my siblings and I've met up with all of them. Nothing can be more important than family and it is imperative that family ties are kept intact and relationships strengthened by keeping in touch constantly. Otherwise the risk of drifting apart may become reality and the family ties will fall apart.

Another Rainbow Day!

Yesterday I had a beautiful rainbow day!

My niece who has a new car came by

and together with her mum, we went to fetch my brother for bah kut teh ( braised pork in herbal soup ) breakfast in Klang. Klang is famous for its bah kut teh and different stalls guard their recipes jealously. My brother who used to live in Klang is a bah kut teh connoiseur. He knows the best stalls for the different types of bah kut teh offerings. Whenever I'm in town, we will have at least two bah kut teh breakfasts together.

Although we went looking for durians ( a spiky thorny fruit with a fragrant aroma that either seduces you or repels you )

but unfortunately there were none as the season is over. Sigh.... ( my favourite fruit!)

After breakfast we dropped by his place. There my sister-in-law was busy wrapping her fruit cake into individual pieces of red transparent paper secured by ribbons at either end and placing a sticker with the bridal couple's names and double happiness symbol on the wrapped cake. Their daughter is walking down the aisle in October. It's another great occasion to look forward to.

That evening after a horrendous traffic jam and a 40 minute delay we managed to reach the restaurant where we had dinner together with both my younger brothers. The Taiwanese dishes were a tad spicy but the bonding with my family members was a good ending to a great day.

Good News, Colors in One's Life

Good news add colors to one's life. Good news is meant to be shared, the joy it brings is to be shared and the ripples of such joy spread outward to touch those who are open to joyous news.

My younger sister will soon have another grandchild to welcome into her family

and our extended family are looking forward to the newcomer who will make his or her debut just before Christmas.

The younger generation is growing not only in number but also growing up very quickly. My niece's daughter will be entering elementary school next year while my granddaughter will be entering high school. It didn't seem that long ago that I carried her home from the UK when she was just two months old.

Time really flies! The little girl whom I rarely saw as she was a whole sea away on the mainland ( we're on Borneo Island )will be getting married in two months' time. My brother's daughter will be a radiant bride come October.

Early next year there will be another wedding too as my youngest brother gives his daughter away in marriage to the young man with whom she will share her life. In fact, there will be two weddings next year. All the little girls have grown up and will be starting the next chapter in their lives as young married women looking forward to building their own families.

Of the five dragons in our family clan, all the three girls have their own children. Only the two boys have yet to get a visit from the stork.

Here's hoping that the stork is flying close and that there will be more good news coming our way. It will be wonderful to have baby dragons making their debut as next year will be the Year of the Dragon.