Preparing to 'Balik Raya' - Part 2

When I was in primary school, I used to frequent the Public Library at Jalan Burhanuddin Helmi, Taman Tun. That's where I get my doses of cerita dongeng Melayu from the book called 'Ceritalah Lagi'. They come in volumes. Enid/Guid Blyton's storylines were too predictable. Can anyone tell halfway through reading what's the end of Si Luncai, Sang Kelembai, Abu Nawas and Pak Pandir dan Mak Andeh?. One will grow to understand best the minds of the typical Malays out of reading those.

After a few hours of free reading with Zairil and sometimes Alita (my long lost childhood friends who's still in Taman Tun but Zairil, he now shags Mat Salleh and don't remember who I am nymore, is that right Beruk? That b*****d!). I don't know what he reads but he would patiently wait till I finished and then we would go to one of the single story houses beside the library to buy 'ais krim asam boi'. There's a special code to request for it, if not the houseowner will just pretend she doesn't know what we want, her stocks was always very limited.

Now, I can't even find it even back in my hometown. It's refreshing to be able to have that especially during raya after we have to eat all the rice, ketupat, sate 10 times a day... ok 5 times a day. Now it has become my obligations to make them and bring enough stock back, at least the little cousins are not missing the simplest things in life. I have refined the recipe to do without the colouring that makes us look like we just consumed the 'sireh'. It's so simple, just get a jar of Honey Plum Sauce from any supermarkets, dilute it in one jug of water with 300gm of asam soaked in it to make the taste merry :)

I wanted to bring some of it for my friends whom I invited for buka puasa treat last weekend but because of the long walk to look for baju raya right before it, maybe nuther time. We were at Charlie's Place for their BBQ menu, it's my second time there. The first was to taste the often boasted Western Menu that are firstly excellent in terms of presentations, they make unusual sauces to go with meat and seared fruits. It's a place to try something different in a secluded corner of the city so I thought I would impress my 'jakun' friends to this alien place. The pictures of the food presentation makes one thinks it's a nice decent place. Some things can be deceiving.

The crowd instead looked tastier than the food. It was like a convention for 'Orang-Orang Melayu Elit' and we were the outcast. The BBQ line only allow one end queuing when there's about 80 people trying to rush for food. There's only two other waiters on standby to take orders for drinks. Half way through, I remembered, these friends are all from the hospitality industry, all of them and I bet they are disappointed with so many things, luckily there's enough gossips and good looking people to watch to keep us distracted.

The food wasn't enough and yet the crowd mistaken the carbonara sauce for salad dressing, the one carbo meal we all wanted to have.

No extra pair of baju kurung for me but.. it's ok. Had a long good conversation with my own friends and supplier turned friends which ends with finally a good brew of teh-tarik and that's enough to keep me contented. But I'm not going to Charlie's Place ever again.

To hell with paragraphing, so sleepy.