Trengganu Raya Delicacies: Tapai Pulut in Daun Getah

This one particular sweetmeat is popular here in Trengganu. It is more common to ketupat or lemang and to have raya without this is not raya indeed here. If my memories of past raya did not betray me, there is no raya that was celebrated without tapai pulut. So significant that mom priorities this in her list of raya delicacies, ketupat is always bought from someone else.



Usually prepared two days before Eid, mom will make sure that it is everyone's affair of making sure it is done before the end of the day. Preparing this is always a merry chance of get together for us.


The tapai is made from sticky rice (or is it called glutinous rice?), mom use the help of bacteria in ragi (that chunk of white stuff in the strainer, seriously, I dont know what is this in English) through fermentation to help sweeten it.


The tapai is wrapped in leaves of rubber tree, beside from giving the tapai a shade of refreshing green, the leaves also provides aroma, but not at all like the smell og getah mind you!


For us youngster, this will be perfect time for us to hone our skill of tapai packing, as shown here by my nephew, beside, who else will carry the sweet tradition after this?


Perhaps aided by some ancient Trengganu charm, the tapais are left to sweetened in some dark damp corner of our house.


And usually when Eid comes, the tapais are ready to be wolfed by sweet tooth who craves it! YUMM!


My living memories only remember two version of tapai, the one shown here and another one, wrapped in daun jembal. Usually made by those who live by the sea. Why? simply because rubber tree dont grow near the beaches

Tapai in Jembal Leaves, taken here

But I even heard that they use yam leaves to to prepare tapai, wonder how they overcome the gatal that come along?

Next, I will share the secret trade of making Nasi Dagang which in the very moment of me writing this, is steaming hot in mom's kitchen, bye!

And he landed on my chest...

I guess when you are so close to nature, nature will tend to get friendly. I was home for raya and was enjoying my privilege of waking up late when i felt a gust of gentle wind on my face and then a gentle thud of something landing on my chest. Now, growing up in a FELDA settlement, when things like this happens to you, instinct tells you to run and screams for your mom, exactly what I did after that, which was really stupid because what landed on my chest was a cute, black bird.

I dont know where this little fella comes from but it was thin, when I grab it, I can really feels its bone underneath those feathers, so been a good Samaritan that I was, the proper things to do is to feed it.

I think this one belong to someone. It is tradition among us who keep birds to let them go during Ramadhan, they fly back to their cages at the end of the day anyway. But, judging by the state of this one, I am pretty sure the owner has not been a good bird keeper, so there is no hurrying to return to your cage birdie!

Judging by the way it folds its wings, I am sure this is a really young bird, maybe stolen from their nest just after hatching, the same way many birds use to end up in cages in my kampung (I know because I used to do that a lot when I was a kid). 

What I got to say about this is, go ahead if you want to keep a bird, just make sure it always happy

Halwa Telinga Di Bulan Ramadhan

Got to admit that I am not really a nasyeed fan. But a good song do appear once in a while (Zain Bhika's Allah Knows for example) such as this one by Sami Yusuf. In the spirit of Ramadhan, you can download this one for free. Just google for his site and download there. Enjoy!

Sami Yusuf - You Came To Me

Cinta yang ku simpan setahun ini sangat manis rasanya

Kalau dah cinta, manusia buta segala,

Manakan tidak lahirnya kata - kata,

"Mandi tak basah, tidur tak lena"

"Lautan api kurenang jua!"

Apatah lagi jika,

Jasad yang didamba mustahil pula,

"Kan kucapai jua!"

"Haram caranya, kupeduli apa?"

Begitulah alkisahnya

Cinta Ramzi kepada

FINAL FANTASY DISSIDIA!!!!

Chaos and Cosmos Front cover

YAAA! after a year of waiting for this game to be translated into English, Akhirnya puas juga nafsuku untuk melagakan Kefka Pallazzo dan Cloud Strife (Final Fantasy Stuff, if you are not a fan, tak payah cuba nak interpret what the fish am I talking about, takde hidden meanng pon)

Best! semua karakter dari Final Fantasy yang original sampai Final Fantasy 10 ada, A must have to every Final Fantasy Fan! Two thumbs up and 5 star to Square Enix!