pasar ramadan go go go

It has been nothing but stuffing myself with pasar ramadan's food. And of course, the real hunt is for puding raja, a well-known royal dessert made of banana, cashew nuts, prunes and cream custard sauce. This is like a staple food for me lah, since it is considered privileged to have one (since not many eateries sold it, and even if they do, it isn't good enough, well at least for my tastebud) . Being a pasar ramadan regular customer (every year without fail, mind you), you would simply know your favourite food joint , where would their stall be and definitely the taste won't change, hopefully, which is why you come back each year.

So promising myself this year would be all the same for the puding raja hunt. Since I was having the afternoon out in Kuantan and won't be coming back to college till late, I went for the stadium's 'pasar ramadan' food discoveries ( cewahhh kemain discoveries!) on one goal, finding 2 of my must wanted food- puding raja and murtabak pekan.

puding raja idaman kalbu kopak walletku (image taken from cloudymonday.blogspot)

Sadly, the puding raja stall ( i knew the stall, seems like they don't change the coordinate one bit since last year, amazing!), did not open for business. What a letdown!! Dari office dah meroyan-royan nak makan puding raja,sekali..... So have to settle for the other stall. The murtabak station, however, is still standing strong. By the time I made my way (which was actually a peak hour for the pasar ramadan business, 6 pm to be precise), there were queues so long it made me think twice to even standing there and placing my order. But my nafsu makan is a real winner, 20 minutes later then I got to tapau home the ever thick, ever juicy, ever pricey murtabak.

Oh ya, a box of puding raja as the picture above will set you for RM 5 , and the murtabak is RM 6. Then there's gulai daging kawah which I did not intend to buy but I bought anyway ( I was in a hurry, so I kinda did my shopping absentmindedly)-RM6. And of course the nasik,  and then the ikan percik coz I felt it won't be enough with just gulai kawah- RM5 and sugarcane juice, bout RM2

RM 24 for a day buka puasa session for a single eater!! Pheww macam bela jin.. hahaha.. but hey, u have been fasting a whole day so a little treat would be fine, wouldn't it? Not that I am going to spend this much everyday *guilty mode:(*

Anyway, I did come across the not so lucky day when the food you bought was...err.. inedible?

The was the day when I bought the gulai kawah daging  (different place, of course), which it wasn't meat per se, but loads of fat !! (sakitnyaaaaaaaa hati aku..sapa nak makan bahagian lemak!)

And there was the day when the kerabu perut I bought was so sweet I thought the cook purposely wanted it to be a dessert. Sweet kerabu?? So potong selera okey. Kerabu has got to be masam, got it?

Of course there was a day too when we flinched in horror seeing this one stall at the college's pasar ramadan, which some of the food (gravy and even fried), were full with these telur lalat, you can even point out the eggs to the owner (which we did). Yuck!!

Gosh..I should really have started my cooking session. Going to pasar ramadan really test your patience and your crazy food spending habit. 

hoyeaaaa

yeyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyy...ehh ..alhamdulilah:)

yeyyyyyyyy dapat bonus raya!!!

* percikan bunga api*

Ramadan update

Salam Ramadan people!:) How's your Ramadan so far? Mine is good, but it will be much better if I could have the chance to go home, visit the old folks and break fast the whole family. Since everybody has their own career, it's kind of hard to have the weekend together ( the price of having the job is you lost the family quality time, agree?). I was away in Kuala Lumpur last weekend, initially being so lazy to be behind the wheel again (I was in KL the week before even, for that Kenanga shopping spree, shoppinglah sangat hehe:). So when Ina threw up the idea of having the iftar together and thought that everybody was dashing out of the college for the weekend anyway, so why not?. We chose to just have the minimal break fast session, closest to Ina's place because we  want to rush for the terawih session later on. So went to this one restaurant we normally frequent, to only know that the eatery was having a buffet selection for the price of rm29.90. Rather steep, given that there were not much choice of food and less people anyway. But most of the Malay restaurants were close and we were left with no choice, nonetheless. So belasah je la. Even that pun already made us bloated kekenyangan. Lagi mau makanan banyak banyak ka?

So here I am, Monday morning, halfway sleepy and waiting for the next class. What's for the Iftar today? Not so sure, the pasar ramadan at the kawad site in my college is rather inviting though. Can you believe it? Pasar Ramadan, just across your working station, best seh! And we gain the benefits of having the class ends at 4pm, because we simply don't have to fight food with students and merrily walking from stall to stall for the much needed food. Heheh...And what about being the so-called Ramadan Chef? That again, I don't know. Cooking for one can be rather wasteful, so tengoklah. Maybe only over the weekend when you are lazy to hit any pasar ramadan, or when you are no longer being tempted of the displayed food.:)

Selamat berpuasa everyone. May this year is not only about holding your hunger and thirst.

there is no definite time for The Time

Selalu,kalau tengok berita pasal mak mak yang dah tua, macam mana anak anak tolong jaga, kadang kadang pikir jugak pasal diri sendiri. How could I be at the same par with those anak anak yang tolong jaga mak, tengokkan makan minum, tolong mandikan mak when they are no longer have the strength to do those simple task. Can I carry out those simple tasks? Bila agaknya masa aku kan? Bersedia tak aku?Boleh ke aku?

Well..it seems that those are the questions that you don't have to think because when the time comes, you just jump into action,no answer needed. Dah tertulis, sebelum mak sakit tua, all bedridden  pun Allah dah letakkan yang your test will come sooner that you expected, and how you just sprang into action because contrary to your earlier belief, sebagai anak, you will always be ready to take care of your parents, come what may.

Mama slipped on the floor mat and fell, consequently broke her wrist. Because of her dislocated bone, terpaksa underwent operation untuk letakkan besi and simen. Kena pulak tangan yang bersimen is those dominant hand, so it is hard for her to do all her daily chores, even to prep herself and all those simple tasks. Esok dah nak kena balik Kuantan, betapa sekarang terpikir susahnya duduk jauh dari parents sebab inilah, bila all the kids grow up and start working in different states, no one will be around when incidents happen, macam mana la mak nak survive and jaga diri dia, nak mandi macam mana and all those. Tak sufficient nya cuti tiga hari ni nak jaga mak. Tak puasnya nak jaga and temankan dia. Rasa nak mintak cuti tanpa gaji dan bawak balik dia ke Kuantan pun ada. Bagi tangan dia recover betul baru bawak balik Perlis. Tapi kesian la pulak dekat abah, sorang sorang kat rumah. Tapi takpalah, I know God will show the way, will make things easy for our family, dan yang penting, that He takes care of her when we are all going back to our own places.

Insya allah nanti kami balik selalu tolong, ye mama. Get well soon and we love you lots:)

salam again, Double R:)

You know it's going to be the coming of double R soon when these happen! (double R  = Ramadan and Raya lah what else!:)

a) to start flipping over Malay female magazines in the hunt for the latest Raya trend and style (apa kaftan kaftan? tapi style peplum oh so gojes kan?)

meletop tak pakai ni raya? agak agak kena humban luar daerah tak dengan mak aku? ;)

                                              

b) in which bring you to beg your tailor (even the least professional one), to accept your persuasion of sending more cloth even the due date is over (or so she claims.. pui!. tailor aku nak sehelai je. Sehelai mana cukup Kak Lia oiii.. Aku raya 5 hari okess~!

c) to start paying all the puasa debts (then start being all panicky because you got your menstrual and afraid you can't pay all the days by the time Ramadan comes. Aku le tu..)

d) to have sample kuih raya on your table..along with its form and delivery date. Almond London haruslah ratu segala, tak gitu?

kelass kau jah, berkaler bercorak kuih kau. (imejan: google)

e) to start plan with your siblings for a break fast session and pester them to buy the break fast early bird coupon:) (Sime Darby anyone?)

f) to start checking news (and praying hard) that it will be a raya bonus. Hehehe.. ke takde?

g) to set out plans that every classroom lesson which involves the excessive verbal explanation (like writing an essay, perhaps), should be done BEFORE Ramadan. Sila jangan penatkan diri sendiri.

h) and even plan the balik kampung rendezvous (gilos, puasa belum, dah sebuk nak balik raya. hehe..)

g) to scrub all pots and pans for the cookout break fast session (okeh ni aku reka. Auta lebih, padahal beli bungkus kat padang kawad kolej je kih kih).

h) to have this diligent purposefulness and determination that Ramadan this year, it will be all complete terawikh and Quran recital (Insya Allah, amin...tolongla jangan biar saya ada perasaan layu tentang ini, Ya Allah..)

May us all have the barakah Ramadan and delightful Raya . Can't wait!:)

quickie

Works have been flooding in non-stop ever since. Preparing students for their speaking quiz, handling events in college, trying to be one businesswoman and yes, my social calendars are so non-existent. Weeks of planning on my KL rendezvous, .then i was told the college was having the Saturday as a working day , ganti cuti raya. Bedebs betul la! Went to work nonetheless (Saturday is always a mundane day to work, yeh?), and rushed to KL right after, because someone was about to treat us the Rosli's with his fat paycheck! Haha..actually Wen has gotten his confirmation later, and suggested we went steamboating:)

Boy, how i heart Flaming Steamboat!! http://www.flamingsteamboat.com/

If you have this huge appetite and can pig out almost everything, you should definitely try having their steamboat. We tried out this Sunway branch since it's closer, but if Sunway is not your choice, you can try Setapak and Shah Alam branch. Trust me, whichever branches you go, they surprised you with these never ending selection of white meats and crustacean and its dips and finger food. Those who can't live without rice (macam abah haha), they got nasik goreng. Ha, dim sum pun ada and ada cokolat fountain boleh cicah cicah marshmallow and biscuit stick macam Nini cokolat celup celup. Best kan??? Beverage wise, ada fruit juice, ada station carbonated drinks, lin chi kang, air mata kucing semua free-flow bebehs!!

Oh they even have station for rojak buah. All do-it-yourself. Mama must like this place for its rojak buah very much and abah, can imagine him scoring all those ice creams. hahahahha. Nantilah kita open table sini pulak ye. They have more than 5 different dips, like seriously. Cili , cili with belacan, sos thai, sos kicap, sos manis and few other yang I don't even bother trying. Ended up having huge dollops of Thai chilli sauce anyway, tak adventurous pun aku ni. The sea creatures yang sempat disteam pun banyak udang je (XXL size mind you. Tak kedekut la this place). And they replenished food quite often, I mean you can't even complain not having those 'praun', you know :) Sapa rajin, boleh celur mee (ada mee kuning, mee sanggul, behun lagi..haa...)

I better stop mentioning.. i have yet to get breakfast anyway. The downside of it was, we were only given 2 hours to gobble everything (actually cukup je, but for big eaters, maybe not la kot.Aku dah tahap jeluak even before it reached the second hour). Oh, it's about rm29 per head. Send Wen home, and off to Loudspeaker for sesi pecah mikropon. Saja..lepas geram!:). Ni Aten's treat (orang belanja lagi kih kih kih)

Okay, itu je quickie untuk hari ni, sory le tak de gambaq seketui pun. Gila dull. Haha! Bawak je kamera tapi tak sempat pun nak posing posing, dengan asap steamboat, dengan nak kopek udang, dengan sos meleleh kat meja (choi tak alasan aku? heheheh). Anggap je la ni karangan expository tanpa gambar.

tata!