Wordless Wednesday: It's Official

Fervour 3 & Goodbye from Nicole

Nicole's (last) 2-cent: We were passing by this luxury car showroom and can't help but notice it's festive decor. Nice, eh? It's a classy way of celebrating both Eid and Independence Day without doing too much, I thought. Oh, by the way, this is my last blogging day. My contract expires at midnight. Angelina's no more hibernating and claims top blogger position as of 12.01am 1 Sept 2011. She has refused to extend my contract. It's OK, I'm cool with it. It's been fun, peeps. Till the next time, purrrrr *giggles*

Dragon Fruits - The Experiment

Driving along the trunk roads in the East Coast of the Malay Peninsular is a pleasurable experience. Besides the view of the coastal line, there are also heaps of stuff to buy by the roadside. The variety is just mind boggling....from young coconut juice to sugarcane juice to palm toddy to dragon fruits to mangoes to watermelons to lemang (glutinous rice cooked in bamboo) to bananas to jackfruits to breadfruit fritters....I could go on and on and on....

So just stop and buy what you really fancy. Also, don't forget to bargain because that's the Malaysian way of buying stuffs. For example, when we stopped to buy dragon fruits from a 12-year old lass, Mama unashamedly bargained. Well, we did buy a lot so the young lady still made some profit. Then Dad has to ask, "Why did you buy so much?" Mama's answer: "Coz I like the fruit. Anyway, I'll think of something. Experiment in the kitchen."

We brought back heaps of these beauties from the East Coast. Gave some to Mak Long, some to Dad's relatives, still have heaps at home....

And thus, we experimented. Of course, since rediscovering her baking mojo, Mama decided to make dragon fruit cupcakes. "See if we can get a nice red colour like the famous red velvet cake, eh," she said.

Here's the recipe. It's basically a tweaked blended orange cake recipe.

Dragon fruit cake

1 dragon fruit (red skin + red flesh)

1 cup cooking oil

1 cup soft brown sugar

3 eggs

1/2 cup full cream milk

2 cups flour

1/2 tsp baking powder

1/2 tsp baking soda

1/2 tsp salt

Cut dragon fruit, discard skin and chop coarsely. Blend with oil, sugar, eggs and milk until fine. Pour into bowl. Mix in sieved flour, baking powder, baking soda and salt bit by bit. Pour into muffin cases. Bake at 190oC for 20 minutes. Makes 12 muffin-sized cakes.

Prior to putting in the oven. We were excited over the pink-coloured concoction...natural colouring of the fruit.

Piping hot....fresh from the oven. Unsure of cake colour though....

Cooled and then put in a container. Cracks on top but can be covered with cream cheese icing, Mama said.

A closer look...can you see those black dots? Those are the dragon fruit seeds...looks like poppy seeds too.

Ready for eating.....

....tara! Where has the nice pink colour gone? Somehow, the colour disappeared. However, the cake tastes good, with nice texture...and moist. Maybe we'll put in some food colouring next time.

Nicole's 2-cent: Oh, we baked the cakes because it's a special occasion today. It's Michael and Nikki's birthday!!!!! They were born on 29 August 2004. That makes them...hmmmm...seven years old. My babies.... Rejoice with us.
For more information about the dragon fruits, click here. It's very cheap at the East Coast, at just RM5 - RM8 per kg for the red skin + red flesh variety, as opposed to about RM8 - RM14 per kg in Kuala Lumpur. purrrr *giggles*

Educating Brad: Payae

Y'all must be wondering: what is payae? What language is Brad learning now?

Well....in my quest to be the Tourism Ambassador for Southeast Asia, I have to learn the customs and culture of the people in this region. It's quite a challenge considering that there are many countries and about half a billion people living here. But I persevere....

Last weekend, Mama brought me to a function organised by the Myanmar community in Kuala Lumpur. While some members of the community are recent arrivals, some have migrated here since the early 1990s and have even married locals as well as became citizens. The event we attended was the happy occasion of a prize giving ceremony of a school serving the community. Mama's office has been implementing educational programmes at the school such as giving them computers, computer lessons, English language lessons, skills training, sports and income generation projects. Hence the invitation to the event.

Oooh...but I digress. Now, what is payae? Payae is the Myanmarese word for facial tattoo!

As I was soaking in the sights and sounds...OK, they were speaking in a language I don't recognise, I noticed that some of the ladies and children had a sort of pattern drawn on their faces. Busybody me began asking questions, to the ladies of course. I found out that it is a Myanmarese custom to "wear" this facial decor as an identification of sorts - a mark of Myanmarese-ness. (I wonder if Burmese cats have the same pattern drawn on their faces).

Legend has it that hundreds of years ago, ancient kings and nobles of ancient Burma go deep into the hills and jungles to capture beautiful tribal maidens, and made them concubines at the courts and palaces. So, the tribespeople decided to "destroy" the beauty that those evil noblemen seek. This was done by tattooing the face of young girls. As soon as a girl enters the age of puberty, tattoo is applied onto her face – the pattern of the tattoo being the one according to the tribe she belongs. The process of facial tattooing is quite painful and dangerous. Some even died of infection. The practice has been outlawed since 1960s, but some still practiced until around 1980s. The facial tattooing is no longer practiced anymore, even in the remotest areas. Although nobody could authenticate the validity of this story, many Myanmarese girls, especially those I saw at the event are indeed very beautiful.
Feast your eyes and tell me if these people (especially the girls) aren't beautiful, with or without payae....But I don't know why some of the boys wear it too. Forgot to ask their mothers.

This boy is so cute that Mama wants to take him home.

Another boy with a pattern on his face.

This lady is a beauty.....hmmm....the decor can't really hide her beauty, eh?

I think this boy doesn't really like being decorated as such when his sister escaped the same fate.

Mother and child....lovely aren't they?

This lady sells the facial decor material. And she's the advertisement for her products.

I'm guessing it's the liquid at the top left corner.

My favourite....thank God she didn't "wear" the facial decor.

The Myanmar community in Malaysia consists of mainly the Rohingyas, a predominantly Muslim ethnic group of Arakan in western Myanmar. The Rohingya population is mostly concentrated to the cities of Maungdaw, Buthidaung, Akyab, Rathedaung and Kyauktaw. There are now about 700,000 of them left in this whole wide world as they've been persecuted and chased away from their homeland since the 1940s. The Rohingya language is linguistically similar to the Chittagonian language spoken in the southernmost part of Bangladesh bordering Myanmar.

Oh...how can I forget? We also ate Burmese dishes and even bottled drinks specially imported from Myanmar. The drinks are very colourful, sweet,  non-carbonated and usually served with lime.

Guests at the buffet station.

Specially imported green drink.

....and red as well.

This is the vegetarian buffet section.

....and fruits for dessert.

The meat dish up close. I don't know what it's called.

The graduates!!!! The festivities were all for them.

Brad says: Mama, may I wear payae too? har har har *evil laughs*

Curtains from Down South

Whenever she's back in Malaysia, my Mama would travel extensively for work. Like last weekend, she had to attend an event in a place called Pagoh (recently inundated by flood) where survivors of the flood were handed out more essential items and other stuffs.

Thinking that the area is quite far and would take several hours of driving, Mama and Dad left home at 5am. OK, so no cats were taken on this trip. We were unsure if people at that event would let us join or blend in. So it was just Mama and Dad.

Late afternoon saw them heading back home but there was a last minute detour. Mama said our home in Malaysia needs new curtains as we haven't changed any since we moved here eight years ago. Fair enough, said Dad. 

Thus, with glee in her heart, Mama helped Dad navigate the way to Tangkak, a town famous for its rows of textile shops. We're told Tangkak has a new rival, a town called Nilai which is nearer to KL and only about half an hour from the airport. Mama and Dad would pass by Nilai too on their way back to KL but Mama insisted that they should support the original textile haven. And also that as they were just in the neighbourhood, no harm in dropping by.
"Oh, if we're lucky, we maybe able to pick up some nice josapine pineapples too. I don't think we can get those in Nilai," she convinced Dad. As usual, she ended up with more that just the josapine, there were mangoes, bananas and salak in her shopping bags!

The old curtains we have were also bought in Tangkak eight years ago. As Mama sews her own curtains, she usually buys better quality (read: more expensive) materials that can last a long time. She was also planning on making some new pet cushions....hmmm....I'd like to see that happen. 

It was a Saturday and yet the main road wasn't busy....could be the results of  rivalry posed by Nilai.

Aaahh....the colours....the shops usually display materials for clothes in front.

If you can't sew, there's also the option of ready-to-wears.

More shops along the main road. Mama didn't know which one to go to at first.

Some scarves to match the clothes too....

Be prepared for the glorious colours of lace and satin.....

.....of silk and polyester.....

.....of rayon and georgette and voile...

Mama loves the cottons the best she said...there's a choice of Japanese, Italian or Swiss.

Angelina's note: Dad said Mama was singing as she was choosing the curtain materials upstairs while Dad browsed through some men stuffs downstairs. We're not showing the curtains and cushions materials we bought yet. Wait till Mama finish sewing them, OK?

About the rivalry posed by Nilai, no sweat said the Tangkak textile community. Most of them have opened branches in Nilai. Whatever you get in Nilai, it's also still available in Tangkak. Same quality, same price. Smart move, people!  purrrr....meow!
p.s. did we mention that Tangkak is also the gateway to the fabled Mt Ophir?