Chapter 4: Hari Raya Aidiladha Celebration at the Kampung

First day.

A brief list of what happened:

•Arrived at the kampung around 0830.

•Greeted by Mak Cik Athirah, the owner of this house.

•Started work by cutting onions (and crying too).

•Divided into groups that had different responsibilities.

•Cooked beef rendang.

•Stir, stir, stir.

•And continued stirring.

•Helped others with their tasks while they helped us with ours.

•Ate bits and pieces of the food that was cooked.

The rendang master (or should we say mistress) : Mak Cik Aminah. We managed to take a picture with her before we started cooking.

Key role people

Mak Cik Aminah

Her group of friends who helped us out.

Mak Cik Athirah helping us to pour the cooking oil into the huge wok.

One of the ladies cooking the kacang curry.

Pak Cik who helped us do the stirring



Working together

Onions; chili; ginger cutting


Meal of the day: Lunch

The mak ciks  fried fish, cooked vege and jackfruit curry for us. It was a simple meal yet a meaningful one.


Rendang cooking process: Cleaning

Ms Sharmila helping us fill the basins with water to soak the chicken and beef.

Other group members helping to set up the tables


Cooking "Rendang daging"

Ingredients:

-Garlic 3 kg

-Onion 5 kg

-Ginger 3 kg
-Chili 3 kg
-Sugar 200 g
-Spices 100 g
-Santan 14 kg

-Kerisik 1/2 kg

-Chicken 30 kg
-Cooking oil 2 kg
-Salt to taste
-Petumis (spice)
-Lengkuas (blend) 300 g
-Serai (lemongrass) 20 sticks (ketuk dulu)

1) Put 1.5 kg neat oil into the wok.

2) Add half the amount of serai and spices.

3) Add garlics, onions and ginger. Cook until it becomes light brown.

4) Add (the red mixture) and stir until the oil bubbles.

5) Add 0.5 kg oil and continue to stir.

6) Add the meat and stir until the oil bubbles.

7) Add serai, stir until meat softens. Add the santan.

Getting the recipe

Peeling off the chicken feathers (yuck! >.<)

Getting our hands dirty with the chicken (blehhhhhh Dx )

The spice mixture

Frying the garlics, onions and gingers

About to pour in the spices

Stir, stir, stir! :O

Adding in the santan (Woah! Look at the amount used!)

Tired people stirring XD

The outcome. It was worth it.

The Making Process of "Rendang Daging" 

Here's a video of what we had to do to 'produce' the magnificent beef rendang

Food for the celebration

Beef rendang

Ketupat

Lemang being cooked

Dodol

Kacang curry.

So, you must be wondering, 'what do the Muslims do on this auspicious day?'

Well, first thing's first, Muslim men are to go to the mosque to pray. It is compulsory for them to do so, although it is not for the women. Women, however, are encouraged to go to the mosque to witness the goodness and gathering of the Muslims. Menstruating women do not participate in the formal prayer though. It's mandatory for residents and those in good health to attend this prayer too. 

This formal prayer, also known as the Eid al-Adha prayer, is performed anytime after the sun completely rises up to just before the entering of Zuhr time. Then, they are to make ablution and offer the pre-sunrise prayer. They are also required to prepare themselves for personal cleanliness and put on their new or best clothes available. 

And then, there's the sacrifice-ceremony (which will be explained briefly below).

 Second day: It's THE celebration!

We wore punjabi suits for this event
(tall, short, tall, short, tall) XD

Preparing the ketupat

Appreciation gifts to those involved

Yummy-licious food!

Kacang curry 

Nasi himpit

Ketupat

Lemang

Chicken rendang 

Pulut

Beef rendang (LOOKS GOOD, RIGHT?)

Scrumptious food

Eating om nom nom~



Oh well, the day didn't end after the event. The fun literally started AFTER the event ended, when Ms Sharmila brought our class out for a fun trip. Here are pictures of what we did.

We went to a hotspring pool (which was out of nowhere) to dip our legs (dirty and smelly :P) for 20 minutes or so, and off to the waterfall we went!


Oh wait. We visited a mak cik before heading to the waterfall. She fed us with lots of food: Jelly, cakes, kuih bahulu and lychee drink.

We saw some men preparing the sacrifice (korban) at the waterfall. Man oh man, they were de-skinning the goat! We were informed by Ms Sharmila that we aren't supposed to pity the goat/ cow that is being sacrificed. The sacrifice is done by well-doing families, and the product of the sacrifice is given totally to the poor. Nothing is taken for themselves.

Back to the waterfall topic. Look at us enjoying ourselves!

Some people who didn't want to join us in the water due to certain reasons (like not bringing their undies, or extra pants, or simply not liking to be wet).

All in all, we enjoyed ourselves to the max. We wished we had more time to do these activities again, but we didn't have time (due to the heavy load of assignments that we have :'( and the time constrain too)

So we shall just end this post with a family picture with ayah and bonda with our newborn baby brother, Ammar. (Oh did we mention that Sherilyn's brother-in-law's name is also Amar?)

Such a happy family. Do look out for our next post about our personal opinions on the kampung life). Time to get back to our assignments! Tata! :D