Eid & Eat

It was Thursday night, my hubby was still in a meeting downtown, while I had to entertain a neighbor who came to my house. I was supposed to be the listener, when she needed someone to dump her mid-life crisis. So I did, patiently. I gathered all her sad stories on one side of my Random-Access-Memory, to be erased upon her leaving. She left, when my hubby walked in. Sad stories vanished through the darkness of eve.

It was 'Raya' eve, the night of Eid. Suddenly we realized that we wouldn't have anything to serve should any visitors come on the 'Raya' day. The good thing about living in Kuala Lumpur, business-minded people know when to make extra money, targetting such last minute group of people like us. Therefore, they stayed up late to after midnight selling the Eid's necessities. Off we went searching for 'lemang'(Pronounced as lehr-mung), Malaysian famous glutenous rice cooked in bamboo, layered with Banana leaves. It was past midnight. Dark and quiet.

At the corner of one area, we saw an open fire.

We didnt bother to call a fire truck. Instead, we joined the jamboree, waited patiently for our 'lemang'. The stall owner informed that, we had to wait for the next phase, as the earlier batches were sold out. We decided to drive around appreciating KL by night.

STOP!! Durian. Couldn't stand the smell? Fine. Stay in the car. It was late, but for Nadia and I, never too late to eat the spiky King of Fruits. No seat? No problem. Squat. Who would recognise you at night?

The Durian was EXCELLENT!. RM5/pc (USD1.50)

Half an hour, we were back at the Lemang stall, but still needed to wait a little longer. Good business. Over 10K sticks sold this time. The happy owner was kind enough to explain to my hubby on the cooking process. Interesting, but no thanks, as I could have been grilled to well done if I listen longer, as the heat was unbearable, that I left my hubby suffered attending to his elaboration.

RM10(USD2.40) per stick of 16in in length, with 1.2in in diameter. cost us RM50 for 5pc.

Next, off we went, looking for the associating dish, 'Rendang', meat, cooked in heavy coconut milk and pounded desiccated coconut. Very nice coconutty taste.

An area called Taman Tun (Tun Dr. Ismail),about 15 minutes drive towards downtown, would be the first place we could think of where for years it had been the centre of 'Ketupat' (rice stuffed in square shaped woven young coconut leaves, and boiled for long hours),'Lemang' and 'Rendang' on every Raya eve. Merry by the road side, I wished we could stay a little longer, but our eyes were too heavy.

We reached home with the foods at almost 1.30am, sleepy. Raya could wait till the next day, but not the temptation, so, we ate some of them before going to bed.

Warning:Do not practice this.

Eid day, following the tradition, we all went to the nearby mosque for morning prayers. Quite a lot of people.

Right after prayers, we visited my inlaw's for big breakfast. Ate, chatted, joked, laughed.

2 hours later, lunch time. Few relatives came.

Eating continued. Chatting uninterrupted, Jokes and laughter proceeded, clutching further towards a closer family ties.

Then we left home to rest.