Tuesday, September 30, 2008

On Raya Eve...

Raya Eve today. The time that I like best! It feels really exciting but at the same time melancholy like, and sad too, all in one! Sad, because Ramadhan is already passing by and also because thinking of RPK spending time in solitary confinement in Kamunting. For a person who fights for justice and upholding the real values of Islam...,that's the price that one has got to pay I guess...,that you'd get to be pushed right to the wall. Especially now when we are living in Akhir Zaman...What is 'right' to the eye is actually wrong and vice versa! We need to see things with 'mata hati' and think a little bit more deeper, or maybe not, as it is just common sense and also to just go back to the Quran. So, when we are here celebrating Eid surrounded with our beloved family, I wonder how he is coping there. Isn't it so cruel that in Ramadhan when you should be most forgiving, but instead you lock someone up without having any single chance of defending himself just for speaking his mind and speaking on what is absolutely right?!!!Some people are so afraid of their own shadow and evil deeds, and by putting away RPK, they think that they'll be at peace! Well, they are wrong! In doing that, I honestly wonder how they could confess themselves to be Muslims and how could they even do takbir tomorrow and praise Allah's name-when it is just so obvious that they are not even scared of HIM??? And if you are not even scared of God and His wrath, are you not a believer??? It feels like they such a hypocrite!!!

Just finished cooking assam pedas for dinner, and marinated satay for tomorrow. Nizam wanted to break fast with satay, so later I'd have to grill some for him. Anyway, I still had to try how it tasted like, first time marinating my own satay, I don't know how it would turn out to be! This is Nizam after breaking fast, helping me out with the rest of the satay to be brought over to the Raya gathering tomorrow at Seiful's place. My own home made satay turned out to be really good actually though we were panicking initially as we didn't have a proper grill to grill the satay. (With 4kgs of chicken, we managed to make 150 satay sticks). Mus's bbq plate came to the rescue and so we put that on the stove instead. At first we were planning to grill them at Seifhul's place but were told at the last minute that it was not possible. (The apartment society people didn't let us-there are rules and regulations to abide to living here you know!). The satay tasted really good anyhow. Definitely proud of myself!!!hihi..
As it is Raya tomorrow, he came back early today from work...been playing Raya music for the past few days, so Raya mood is definitely in the air though we are far away from home in Malaysia...
Autumn is here, and the weather has been gloomy lately, a drizzle here and there sometimes, and it feels cooler too. I have been down with a flu, a temperature and a sore throat for the past 3 days...so much for looking forward to Raya! I noticed that I would actually get them every Ramadhan! I didn't realised this before but Dr. Siva, my ex-boss pointed it out to me, and until now, I would still get them at this time! Strange!..,but maybe this is God's way of cleansing my sins...you know what they say about if you get a fever, you are actually in hell by yourself! Anyway, I do hope to be better by tomorrow. I would certainly want to celebrate Raya and enjoy the food!!! So dear friends, here's wishing you a very Selamat Hari Raya, and Maaf Zahir & Batin.

Ayam Masak Kicap ala Jawa

Got this recipe from Ain, Seifhul's wife. She cooked this for us for breaking fast at her place last night. Absolutely yummy! Haven't get to try it myself yet. Will show the picture of the dish when I do!

1 ekor ayam (saiz sederhana)
10 ulas bawang kecil
6 ulas bawang putih
2 inci halia
2 inci lengkuas
5 batang serai
1 sudu teh serbuk jintan putih
1 sudu teh serbuk jintan manis
1 sudu teh serbuk ketumbar
10 sudu besar kicap manis
1 sudu besar serbuk kunyit
4 biji cili merah/hijau
1 ulas bawang besar
Asam jawa sebesar ibu jari
Garam dan gula secukup rasa

Bahan untuk menumis:

6 sudu makan minyak
1 @ 2 kumtum bunga lawang
2 inci kulit kayu manis
4 biji buah pelaga
6 biji bunga cengkih


Cara:-
- Ayam dipotong 16 bahagian dan dicuci.
-Perap ayam dengan 5 batang serai, 2 inci halia, 2 inci lengkuas, 1 sudu jintan manis, 1 sudu jintan putih, kunyit, garam dan gula (blend semua bahan).
- Perap selama 2-3jam serta digoreng separuh masak.

- Tumis bawang kecil, bawang besar dan halia dikisar dan ditumis berserta bahan penumis sehingga naik baunya.
- Masukkan serbuk jintan manis,jintan putih dan ketumbar.
- Biarkan sedikit garing, masukkan kicap dan air asam jawa.
- Masukkan ayam yang telah digoreng.
- Masukkan bawang besar dipotong bulat dan cili merah/hijau yang dibelah empat.
- Masukkan kicap, gula dan lada hitam.

Thursday, September 25, 2008

Save RPK!!!

Dear friends of RPK,
A man who has stood up for truth and justice in Malaysia has now been incarcerated for two years without trial and with no hope for release, save at the pleasure of our Home Minister.

The time has come for Malaysians to stand up and be counted; to send a signal both to the authorities that we will not be cowered and that we stand by our man; to send a signal to each other that we are not alone, and to show our strength to one and all.

The time has come to act.

We compile here a number of actions that every Malaysian citizen can do in protest of the ISA, and to express their hope for a better Malaysia. It is imperative in this crucial moment that we keep up the momentum, lest RPK be forgotten like the rest of the ISA detainees.

  1. Fly the Malaysian flag anywhere and everywhere possible (car, house, desk, body)
  2. Drive with your headlights on in the day
  3. Go bald (send pictures to MT Team) [download why-i-go-bald] [Gallery]
There are a number of other activities that can also be done, all of which will help RPK:

  1. Wear Free RPK T-shirts (coming soon!)
  2. Hold Candlelight vigils (send pictures to MT Team)
  3. Sign online petitions (click here to sign)
  4. Flood the authorities with phone calls, faxes, etc (click here for more details)
  5. Send greeting cards to ISA detainees in Kamunting

notes:

  • email MT Team : admin (dot) mtoday (at) gmail (dot) com
  • postal address of ISA detainess : Tempat Tahanan Perlindungan, 34600 Kamunting, Taiping, Perak MALAYSIA

Regards,

MalaysiaToday Team - 24 Sept 2008

Wednesday, September 24, 2008

Breakfast for Dinner!!!-Nasi Berlauk with Sambal Kelantan


Ingredients:
  1. Fish (any fish will do), cut and cleaned
  2. 6 shallots-ground
  3. 3 cloves garlic-ground
  4. 1 inch of galanghal-ground
  5. 2 tspn of turmeric (kunyit) powder (i couldn't find any fresh one here in Toyota Shi!)
  6. 2 pieces of asam keping
  7. 1 tspn of dried chilly paste
  8. cucumber, cut half lengthwise
  9. green pepper
  10. salt and sugar to taste
  11. coconut milk-(i used 1 packet of coconut powder)
Method:
  1. Mix all the grounded ingredients together with coconut milk.
  2. Add in saffron, asam keping, chilly paste and fish.
  3. Bring to a boil.
  4. Add in cucumber and green pepper...cook till tender.
  5. Dash in salt and sugar to taste and ready to be served with hot rice.

Sambal Kelantan:

Red bird eye chillies-about 30 pieces
2 -3 pieces of garlic
Vinegar
Salt and Sugar

Method:-blend everything together and ready to be served!

Tuesday, September 23, 2008

Udon Dinner for Buka Puasa

With another week to go before Ramadhan ends, we finally had a Japanese dinner for breaking fast just now. Nizam called late afternoon asking me not to cook and that we'll be eating out. We went to this Udon Restaurant nearby our place with Seifhul and family. The Udon (noodles) served was delicious (by Japanese standard). I especially loved the tempura...there were so many of them to choose from...freshly dipped inside the batter and fried right there and then right in front of us! I had ebi (prawn), eggplant and mixed veg tempura. The mixed veg tempura was actually made up from a mixture of green onion, purple potatoe, pumpkin, carrot and spring onion. Love it!!!

Popiah Goreng

My first experience in making this popiah goreng was really encouraging, for it turned out to be really well! So last Sunday, I took them over to Hasif's birthday party. They were gone really fast! I had this idea from my niece, Kak Lin in Sabah...she had been making this for buka puasa and has been selling them too that I thought that I might try it out myself here in Toyota Shi! Though I slightly modified her recipe (she uses frozen mix vegetable, while I prefer to use the fresh one), Nizam was asking for more!


Ingredients:-
  1. Ready made popiah skin
  2. Fresh prawn (cut into tiny pieces)
  3. 3 cloves garlic
  4. a little green onion (cut into small cubes)
  5. cucumber (shredded)
  6. carrot (shredded)
  7. radish (shredded)
  8. beansprout
  9. 1 tbsp oyster sauce
  10. salt and pepper to taste
Method:
  1. Sautee garlic and green onion together till fragrant, add in prawn and stir fry until the prawn is a bit cooked.
  2. Add in oyster sauce and the shredded vegetable together. Toss in beansprout. Finally put a dash of salt and pepper to taste.
  3. Take a scoop of the fried veg and roll them in the ready made popiah skin.
  4. For the popiah skin glue, I used 2 tbsp of flour and 3 tbsp of water.
  5. Deep fry in medium hot oil.
  6. Ready to be served!

Honten Crab Dinner

UMWT HR Manager came down last 30th Aug, and we were treated with a crab dinner at HONTEN, Toyota Shi. There were 14 adults and 5kids, so we ordered 4 set menu. The Crab was served raw for starter, followed by boiled, grilled, fried and finally crab porridge. We had ice cream for dessert. The bill came up to a whopping 74000 yen! The kids were given with a bag of hanabi (firecrackers) each by the restaurant as a gift.

Friday, September 5, 2008

Dream Orchard..


This picture was taken 2weeks ago when we went to Universal Studios of Japan, in Osaka. It was actually fruit note pads where children gets to write their wishes and dreams and they get to hang it there at the 'orchard' after that. Cute eh! I didn't get to read any of them as mostly they were written in Japanese! I wondered too, what those children had wished for and what their dreams were. When I was younger, I had always wanted and secretly wished to go to Disneyland or anywhere abroad...to "live' in those classical children stories...,(especially Cinderella)...but then when you are already 'here', what else would the children might have wished for? Papa & Mama would always said to me, "...well, study hard and excel...,and you'd deserve to go anywhere you like..
"Looking back, in a way it is true what they said about studying hard, but at the same time, I don't think it has got anything to do with studying hard...,it's all about the money....,whether your parents can afford to take you there or not. I've seen my cousins who wereo just 'normal' students, but they get to travel anyway, so that's how i figured out that it has got nothing to do with studies! (I was 10 or eleven years old then). But of course, if you'd get to go because you did your school exams in flying colours, the trip would have been sweeter!
My mum took me to Australia and New Zealand. In Australia, we went to Gold Coast's Movie World, Dream World and Sea World as a gift from Papa that I did well in my SRP. It was bitter sweet kind of trip actually...that i did finally get to go for a holiday abroad...but without Papa. He had succumbed to cancer and passed away then. There were 3 of us..,me, Mama and Afif. He was 2years old then.
Because of that, one of my dreams was to take him to one of these theme parks (USJ, Movie World, Dream World or Disneyland), when he grew up...Right there and then, I secretly wished that I could take him again someday, somewhere...as a 'gift' to replace Papa...,just like what he had done to me though he was dead then. I got to finally pay that 'debt' after 4 years...
When he sat for his UPSR, i had actually promised him that if he did well, I'd take him to one of these places one day, (Godwilling)...,and surprisingly, he did gave us a string of 12 A's after that (he was in ABIM, a religious school, so instead of taking the usual 4 papers, he had to sit for more)! As I was still struggling with my own life during the time, I couldn't have possibly take him then. So now I've done my part though a little bit late, I do feel relieved! After 4 years, i managed to collect some of my allowance and paid his fare to come here. And of course, Thank You Sayang for helping me out a little too!
To me, it was especially sweet that I got to fulfill my wish and came here not only with them but with my husband and son as well!
Afif came last 15th of August during the school holidays for 2 weeks. My mum was already here when he arrived. (She came on the 3rd of August for a month stay with us here in Japan). I guess, in a way, what i really wanted to do was to 'replace' Papa for Afif...that he didn't get to take Afif anywhere for a vacation, so atleast, I'd get to do it on his behalf...Afif had actually travelled far and wide before when he was younger, but because he was still small then, he couldn't remember about any of those trips that we took him on. So coming here, i hope it had broaden up his mind about the world. We actually made him travel and do sightseeing on his own as Nizam was working to take him anywhere. Nizam taught him how to use the train and where to get on and stop. It was okay actually for him considering that this is a non English speaking country, but he managed to get around. At one time he even lost his train ticket, but luckily before that he actually took pictures of that ticket and managed to convince the station master to let him go! If it was me, i would have turned white completely!!!