Hello dear family & friends, hope everyone is having a great time & enjoying a good health! Sorry I haven’t been blogging for quite sometime now. Among other reasons, my family & me have been celebrating our Eid ul-Fitr since Oct. 13. It’s been a very joyous & hectic celebration.

I know most of you are expecting me to post loads of photos of the celebration but very sorry to disappoint you because, as I’ve explained before, it’s a hectic routine, visit, visit & visit all the family, relatives & friends & eat & eat & eat at each house!!! Thus with all the rushing & eating, didn’t have the chance to take much photos! As expected, the host is usually very busy attending to all guests, so I don’t have the heart nor the courage to say, “Okay! Photo time!!!” Kih! Kih! Kih!

Now it’s the tradition that we start the celebration by being together, all the immediate families, on the first of Syawal month i.e. the month after Ramadhan, which falls on 13 October, this year. That means everybody will go home to be with their parents & siblings. As in my case, all my siblings & their family & me with my family, went to my Mum’s house. After the Eid ul-Fitr prayer held at the mosque in the morning is over, we would greet everybody & take that opportunity to ask for forgiveness for all the wrong doings that we’ve done to each other. This tradition must first be done by the young, greeting the older ones first. So it will start by my husband, being the eldest son-in-law, to greet & ask for forgiveness from my mother (as our head of family now), then followed by me, greeting & asking for forgiveness from my mother, then my husband. Then after me, my brother & his wife will follow suit, and then my sisters & their husbands. Then come all the children, greeting & asking for forgiveness from their grandmother, their parents, uncle and aunties…..

Sharing here is a photo of some of the ‘angpow packets’ that are given to children during the Eid ul-Fitr celebration. Children are the happiest during this time. Just like during X’mas, where you give presents, our tradition is to give ‘duit raya’ i.e. cash inserted inside lovely angpow packets! The amount of money inserted inside is up to the discretion of the person giving i.e. the adults. Sad to say, normally ‘duit raya’ is given only to the children! Boo hoo hoo!

Remember that Malaysia is a multi-racial country? Initially ‘angpow’ is from Chinese tradition where it is the money that they give to all who’s not married yet during their festival. They insert this money inside red angpow packets. Somehow, somewhere around ‘80s somebody started the tradition of giving ‘duit raya’ in ‘angpow packets’. Initially it was green packets, so as to differentiate from the Chinese’s red packets….. Somehow this too has been revolutionized & the packets are now like the ones in photo above!

So you can imagine how much the children enjoy all these visits, apart from the good food! As for us adults, it’s a chance to meet up all the families, relatives & friends, at least once a year.

And remember I said the youngs must greet the older ones first? So after we had our first festive meal at my Mum’s, all of us will head to all our granduncles’ & grandaunts’ houses to pay our respects. So imagine how many houses we have to cover! And in between we have to attend previously arranged ‘open house’ too! Gosh! That’s remind me, I’m so anxious to start my morning walk & jogging but it has been raining on & off since Monday morning! Hiya! Hiya! Hiya!

There goes another glimpse of my life! And before I go off here's something I would like to share!

Hope you have a very wonderful day! Take care & Ta Ta For Now!

Hello dear family & friends, hope everyone is having a great time & enjoying a good health!

Wishes For My Friends To Jilly: Happy Birthday today!!! To DMeredith: Happy Flat Hunting!!! To Anna-Anna: Take Care of the F--t!!! To Casey-Anne: Hang In There, Girl!!! To Nannybear: Good Luck with more ME times!!! To Miss Vicky: Sunshine always!!! To MichiganGranny: Keep it up!!! To AB: Passa una bella giornata!!! To Jackie: Woo hoo!!! To Geraldine: Keep it up!!! To Blessed Rain: Take Care!!! & last but not least, To Connie: Be well always!!! A Big To All of You & All In 360!!!

Before my mother-in-law passed away a couple of years ago, we would go back to Teluk Bakong, Perak, which takes 4 hours drive to reach. But now we’ll just celebrate it at my Mum’s house first, then we’ll convoy in different cars (three or four families: my family, sisters’ & a brother’s!) as routine every year, visiting all the elders’ families one by one. This will go on for the first few days of Eid ul-Fitr, then over the weekends, for the whole month! SO, imagine the amount of food stuffed into our mouths for the whole month! SO, for those who lose weight during the fasting month, will normally gain what they’ve lost during the celebration! As for me, who gain weight during the fasting month due to no exercise done, will lose some during these hectic traveling! Am I not the lucky one?! Heehee!

Then in one of these days, each of us will choose a day to in turn, hold ‘open house’ i.e. to invite family & friends to our house where we will also serve all sort of traditional foods.

Talking about traditional food, let me tell you of ‘lemang’ which is my all time favourite. Previously, every year without fail, my late mother-in-law would prepare them herself for all her children & grandchildren. Now that she’s gone, we had to buy them or enjoy it at other people’s home when they serve it. No more from my mother-in-law’s own two hands! Even my side of family missed her ‘lemang’! I know that’s one of the hardest parts for my husband to face when comes Eid ul-Fitr. And knowing he’s not able to talk about it, I talk about it, on his behalf. And I know that helps him a lot. But I do cry silently, too because it breaks my heart knowing his pain…. Opps! Where was I?! Oh! My lemang! Well, I know you wouldn’t understand much if I don’t give you the recipe & pics, so here goes, my first ever recipe!

Lemang Ingredients: Bamboo,washed and drained Banana leaves, washed and drained Glutinous rice, washed and drained Coconut milk A bit of salt How to Prepare: Roll the banana leaves and place it inside the bamboo, making sure it covers the inside completely. Fill with glutinous rice to about 3/4 full and add coconut milk until it is about 2 inches above the rice level. Place it slightly slanted with the opening facing upwards near a small fire. Keep turning your lemang to cook evenly. It will take about 4 hours to cook. Lemang is usually eaten with with rendang and/or serunding daging (meat floss). To cook lemang well, it requires constant monitoring. If the flame is too big, you will burn the bamboo. Sources: Malaysian Cuisine

The next step: The hollow of the bamboo stick is filled with glutinous rice, leaving an inch or two of space at the top.

Cooking: The bamboo sticks are placed over a medium fire and turned every 15 minutes so that the lemang cooks evenly. It takes about three to four hours to cook the lemang.

Sources: Star Online Gallery

(This part is added after my dear friend Anne's pointed it out! Heehee! I don't want to be responsible if someone get hurt because of eating lemang!)


When the lemang is cooked & cool a bit, you make a cut at the top of the bamboo stick & then tore it open, splitting it into halves & revealing the delicious lemang. Then you cut the lemang to small pieces, as shown in the photo on top, with either 'rendang' (meat gravy) or 'serunding' (meat floss). I should give you the recipes soon. Before you eat, you'll have to peel of the banana leave! Hmm... yummy! Yummy! Its a wonderful mixture of sweetness from the coconut milk & the salt enhanced the taste (I didn't notice the recipe omitted this earlier!). The banana leave and bamboo stick add an awesome aroma......


Now with this I’m afraid I have to bid you adios! Heehee! No, no, no, I’m not going anywhere! But as I’ve explained earlier, our celebration is just around the corner! I still have a lot to prepare around the house & comes raya I will be at my Mum’s, (where there is no pc!) and then our annual convoy will start! So in the meantime, don't be too naughty & please, please don’t forget about me!