I went back to my hometown on Saturday, and it is 4 days before the festival. Looks like this year, my family are going to have moderate celebration. My mum just got a new couch set for the new living room downstairs. The following 3 days passed so fast. I did some chores to help my mum like shopping, cleaning the house and cooking for berbuka. Most of my family member loves the idea of “me cooking” because normally I like to try new recipe and it taste BOMBASTIC… Hehehe… (masuk bakul angkat sendiri lah nie)…So during this holiday, I did cooked spaghetti, Mee Hailam, Bergedil Ayam, Sotong Goreng Tepung and Ayam Goreng taste like KFC. There is one specialty of my mum’s cooking. She very good in cooking curry, and I do not know how she’s done that. I did peek when she cook, and try to follow the same step but in the end my curry is still no so UMPH like hers. Oh, another specialty is her coffee…( pergi coffee bean atau starbuck pun tak boleh cari :) )
The last day before Eidulfitr was very hectic. Everyone was busy with their own task. I missed my baby so much because I got very limited time to play with him. My sister took care of him, maybe it’s an excuse to skip work, I guess, urm…. But i'm allright with that since I love doing this chores, because its boost up the spirit of festival in me. In the morning I was busy with my chocolate cake. It’s been almost two years I don’t bake anything. How time flies so fast? I remember before I got married, I love baking cake, cupcakes, pies and biscuits. It’s one of my hobbies. The chocolate cake was OK, but it is a bit hard because I forgot the setting of the oven. I followed the temperature indicates on the recipe, and I forgot not all oven are the same. Mine one is the small type, so the temperature circulation is very limited causing the oven very hot even with temperature like 70’C.
After finished with my chocolate cake, my cousin took charge of the oven. She baked fives types of biscuit non-stop. My gosh! She’s really good and so enthusiastic with the cooking. I think she really should quite job and open up a bakery shop. My mum is busy with her lemang. This year, she co-work with neighbor to do lemang and the kitchen was very messy to prepare for lemang’s ingredients. I wished I did take a photo shot for that but I missed it. Wait for next raya, insyaAllah. My next task is to do Rendang Tok…yeehaa, quite excited actually because rendang is an essential food to eat together with lemang and ketupat. Imagine all the guest will be tasting my rendang and say, “Sedap rendang Mak Jang thn nie..” FYI, my mum is widely called as Mak Jang. Plus provided if my rendang is really taste good and I really hope, wish and pray (u named it!!) for and exquisite rendang.
I started my work with mincing 3kg beef. It’s really a tedious job; if you don’t believe try it. However I managed to finish it about 1 to 2 hrs enough to make my back and hand sore. After that I prepared the other ingredient eg. Kerisik, santan, onions, garlic, ginger, lemon grass and rempah ratus. Kudos to my mum for helping me prepares the kerisik and santan. These are another time consuming task items to make. I really looked like chef on that time, not the chef you’d seen in hotel, but the chef you’d see at kenduri kendara like makcik2 type. But the one not good thing is that its fasting and I can’t taste my rendang before the berbuka. Luckily there is someone who is tak puasa. She is not purposely not fasting, but due to her condition which forbid her to fast. Thanks to Etet, my sister I asked my mum whether she already put the salt into the rendang, she says not yet. So, it’s time for me to pour some salt before Etet tasting session. Etet suggest of one spatula of salt, since the rendang is quite lot, just imagine 3kg mince beef inside my rendang. Thank God, I didn’t follow her advice instead I put only one teaspoon of salt. She tasted it, “MASIN!!”….I was like huh??? Puzzled and suddenly I remember my mum did mention the coconut milk she used was already mixed with salt. Both of us were forgotten about that, and there it goes all my effort. I felt quite frustrated that time but Etet knows how to fix it. According to her the rendang is not that salty, it tasted fine if you eat together with lemang, ketupat or nasi. Just that if eat on its own, you can taste it’s quite salty. During “berbuka puasa”, she was right. My mum and I felt relieved.
Later that night, my Pak Lang family from KL arrived. He is my mum’s third brother. His daughter family came together so my mum’s house was quite a crowd that night. They looked so excited to see Luffy and I’m glad Luffy sleeps and behaved well that night which made people likes him. They also bring a few dishes for the Eid, at least people can try other dishes, not my rendang alone.
The Eidfitr falled the next day, which is on Wednesday. Early morning I ask forgiven from my husband for all the wrong doing I’ve done (sungguh sayu dan hiba). After getting some mild breakfast, we went to mosque for Eidulfitr prayer. Going to mosque with full stomach is a bad idea, I think. After finished with the prayer and listen to khutbah raya we went to visit my grandmother and grandfather cemetery.
Come back from that, comes my favorite part, which is visiting relatives and neighbors. This is also part where I need to provide ang pow or duit raya. For this year, I was late to do the money change ( break the money into other notes of smaller value) and a few days before I took leave I went to few banks and they don’t have the change anymore. Luckily there is one acquaintance at my kampong worked in the bank at Pantai Remis, managed to help me. This year I spent about RM600 for duit raya. Luffy also got duit raya, but cannot cover back mama’s money lah… :). I went to Uda’s, Andak’s, Tok Uda’s, Ulong Kama’s, Mak Long’s Setiawan , Ngah’s Batu Gajah and Pak Teh’s house. We were so exhausted and terribly full with the feast offered. Not forgotten, I feel happy to see my relatives and exchange stories. This is the time for family gathering and to update the particulars. Sometimes I just love to join aunties’ conversation, so many stories :). Not forgotten to refrain and to reminds myself not being such makcik ok!
Di rumah Mak Long Sitiawan
Geng Raya OTW rumah Tok Uda.
Soto di buat oleh fabulous Syuhada
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