of impending ramadhan and kampung food

Lagi 2 hari, insyaAllah muslimin dan muslimat akan mula berpuasa. Anak-anak dah dimaklumkan weeks before jadi harap-harap mental cukup sedia. Iman di beri warning supaya kontrol makan, kalau tak nanti tak muat baju raya. Adam setuju puasa 1/2 hari. Weekends semua ke surau atau masjid untuk terawikh. Hari bekerja biasanya Abah saja ke surau atau masjid.

Like past years, I aim for homecooked meals for iftar and sahur, insyaAllah. We both suami isteri are working. Which means we need to brave the heavy traffic before we could get to our pots and pans and what nots. Menu belum buat lagi. Ahad ni baru nak shopping groceries and lauk pauk. For iftar, cabarannya on weekdays la, bergelut dengan masa. For sahur pulak, cabaran besarnya would be apa nak makan sahur nanti? Tahun tahun lepas, sebelum tidur, saya ambik order dulu, esok pagi bangun dah tahu nak masak apa dan makanan apa yang anak-anak (dah abahnya) nak.

Ni gambar Iman waktu balik kampung cuti sekolah baru-baru ni. Maknya sebok menumbuk, dia pun nak menumbuk. Haa terer tak anak saya, tumbuk sambal guna satu jari je hehe.

Sebut aje nak makan ulam, bukak pintu dapur nampak pokok peria.Fresh. Nikmat duduk kat kampung. Macam-macam ada. Kebetulan time tu musim mempelam, pauh, kuini. Sedapp. Kuini pulak molek-molek sangat, takde ulat kat dalam tu. Dulu kecik-kecik gendong dalam baju bawak balik rumah. Kena marah la baju dah kena getah buah. Getah kuini jangan main-main yek, boleh melepuh kulit. Especially yang fresh tu.

Untuk tengahari. Capai lesung buat sambal kuini. Menambah-nambah makan walhal lauknya ikan goreng je. Ulam peria. Cubaan ke tiga (atau ke empat?) menambah nasik, tertiba kedengaran di hujung sana satu suara hemmm... bukan dah tambah 2 kali tadi?

Mempelam sampai tak boleh nak di makan dah. Terlalu banyak. Biar je, jadi baja nanti. Antara mempelam dengan juini, my personal favorite is kuini. Lebih manis and bau nya lagi sedap.

Antara aktiviti digemari anak-anak kalau balik kampung - bakar sampah! Maknya dulu kecik-kecik kalau disuruh bakar sampah.. cukup malas hehe. Dah budak-budak membesar kat bandar, dapat bakar sampah pon cukup happy.

Ha.. ni bukan anak saya. Ni bapak kepada anak-anak saya. Aritu jalan bergandingan ada orang ingat saya ni kakak dia. Haishh.. nak kena makan jamu muda jelita banyak-banyak neh. Yang, tolong gemok balik.. supaya I nampak relatively muda he he.

Antara makanan kegemaran. Dodol kukus. Kalau bulan puasa, sampai nak berebut beli dodol ni. Satu lagi yang syok sedap is buah melaka kukus. Sedap lemak, manis, masin.. lembut. Malangnya di KL takde jual. Atas tu orang kampung saya panggil tahi minyak. Santan di masak lama-lama sampai jadi minyak, akan ada tersisa ketulan macam tu. Sedap woo.

Kalau balik kampung eloklah pakai seluar getah saja supaya boleh letak macam-macam makanan dalam perut. Kalau Mok buat gulai patin.. saya orang pertama susun pinggan nak makan.

Apapun, berbalik kepada bulan puasa yang bakal menjelma ni, let's try not to waste, in any forms, food ke, masa ke. And make the most of month beribadah.

Ramadhan Mubarak to all muslims!

of a 5-days-leave

So. How was school holiday? Ours was a whole-week-off-from-the-office. We didn't really go anywhere except for a night sleepover at One World, a day trip to Kuala Selangor and balik kampung.

Before checking in at One World, pegi tengok wayang .. Maleficent. Booked two cozy twin seats Luxe at TGV One Utama. My.. so big the seats. We are so used to cramping ourselves on twin seats at TGV Cheras Selatan, so LUXE was ohsem in comparison hehe. Maleficent was ohsem too. A feel good movie. And my oh my, did Angie ever got pregnant with twin? *suck in stomach*

 

 

 

One World, has became our favourite hotel. Tebby's, specifically. I have to agree that it is very convenient to stay in a hotel adjoined to a shopping mall and I have to agree that One World serves very very delicious croissant and they have impressive breakfast spread too. I could spend hours there hehe.

 

Kids, like always, berendam dalam pool. They can do that for hours while I shivered just by watching over them. While they were practising what they do best (among others), I did what I can do best.. eating!

One dare-devil we have there. Flipping like nobody's business. Tho earlier on he got a very sad face he he.. sebab terhantuk kepala kat meja belakang nun.. pahlawan la sangat adik kann..

 

The next day we checked-out early and made a trip to Kuala Selangor. First pit stop was to buy seafood. Second stop for kerepek and the likes. Third for mentarang bakar and fourth for lunch. Mentarang bakar adalah sangat sedap! But knowing me, apa aje tak sedap :-) And the following few days, it was seafood galore at home.

 

 

 

Atas kerang tu .. mantis prawn. We were sceptical at first. Memang macam bentuk praying mantis. Taste-wise (according to my taste bud) is better that prawn.

Our balik kampung trip, it deserves an entry on its own. To sum it all up, it was fruits galore and also a walking-down-memory-lane thingy. Met old friends whom I'd known since I was a very little girl.

So, till next time...

 

ting! it's Juicing Season 2!

Juicing Season 2!

Masalah saya - tak isitiqomah. Belek-belek magazine, tengok Miranda Kerr terus beli blender nak buat juice macam dia. Baca petua wanita arab, terus beli just delima sama susu sama olive oil. Semangat berapi-api la mula-mula tu. Then the flame dies off.

Juicing Season 1 saya bertahan sebulan dua. Pastu malas. Hilang motivasi. Baru-baru ni belek magazine apa tah.. tetiba membara semula nak buat juice. Thought of getting a good juicer.. bimbang pulak jadi hiasan je sudahnya nanti. Dah tentu kena ceramah free kang. A good one costs like more than 1k! Instead I bought a mini Phillips blender with inner strainer. It's better to gulp down all the hampas as well actually but my tekak just can't take it (yet) at this point. But worry not, the hampas can be used as body scrub. Add some sugar or salt as exfoliator. My personal perference is sugar.

It's been a week and I am still juicing. Hope it lasts this time around.

There's this uncle who sells fruits in his van during lunch time at Menara TM's roadside. The red dragon fruit cost me RM5.00 for 2. 5 red apples sold at RM4.00 or sometimes 4 for that price, depending on the size. I am not sure if those are cheap but it is sure very convenience for us coz we don't have to go to kedai. The kedai comes to us!

Kids love them! Most days bekalkan diorang fruits bawak ke taska. Apples, oranges, bananas, melons, grapes. And of course dragon fruits. Semalam bawak dragon fruits. Cut them up into cubes and the kids had them all during breakfast time.

As for me, I like fruits with intense flavour. Durian. Mango. Manggis. Kuini. Dragon fruits, are not. They have mild, indistinct taste and flavour. At least to my tastebud la kan. So I added them up with green apple.

Yummylicious! Made two cups, for us girls.