|
All About Jam Home My Profile My Photo Album My Manager Register Today! Fresh Concoctionsfind me at blogspotkitchen window Good Behaviour Chart My Holiday Schedule Too Many Ideas Transferring.... The House in Batu Buruk Goodbye, Tim Sole Survivor 2 movies and 1 dramatic end Stale ConcoctionsFlavoursBlogberry JamCulinary Jam Fictional Jam Juvenile Jam Literari Jam Love Jam MixedFruit Jam Pearl Jam Shutter Jam Temper-a-Mental Jam Traffic Jam Transmission Jam Travelling Jam Trengganu Jam Official TastersAll Friendsphotostyle Chica lollies Chandramoon kingofankh bbd PeriodicallyDemented libertine paledaemon aiechomeyll mamarawks mosh roserose ondeonde LadyVisine beelove DeeJay budi famygirl green lana nectar suhaila dory oflionandbear pd theotheraj primarybasic lazydaisy cookiebubbles gartblue pizzofmine skyice treasa rotidua kejora ben ShortStories womanoffeathers Eclectablog nonah futuredoc mommyalif makintan zan honeychild blogawards birdsnest code6 Twist led haundem butterflutter myra poeticimmortal82 tony Minda abi Mia |
Deceptively Delicious
Last Wednesday there was a scheduled power interruption in my compound, so I decided to make it a day out with the kids. We went to the bookstore at the mall and I found this widely-promoted cookbook on the shelves. My kids were ecstatic and insisted I buy it coz they saw it on Oprah and was drooling when Oprah raved about how delicious the brownie was. I looked at the price and was suprised that after currency conversion, it was cheaper than I thought it would be. Needless to say, I was sold and bought the book. Leafing through it while eating Fish and Chips for lunch with the kids, I wondered how I could use this newly discovered knowledge of hiding pureed vegetables into the dishes that I cook every day (read:Malay food), but this made me realize that hiding pureed vegetables is not rally a novel idea. We Malays have actually been doing it for ages! Thin about all of the bingkas (malay cakes) you've ever had - bingka keledek, bingka ubi, bingka labu, bingka pisang.. arent they pureed vegetables made into a dense cake? Cekodok is simply mashed banana fritters. The Johoreans have been adding pureeed sweet potatoes in the gravy for their mee rebus (noodles with sweet+spicy gravy) for ages. The book's recipe for donuts with pureed sweet potatoes reminded me of Cucur Keria (look for my recipe under Culinary Jam). And we take the mashed sweet potato donut a step further - by turning it into a spicy prawn filled ball (cucur badak). And Vade and Masalodeh - are simply chickpeas and lentils mashed and made into savoury cakes - a very good way to subtitute meaty nuggets. Don't get me wrong, I'm not trying to put down Mrs Se1nfeld, or her efforts. I'm sure I'll be trying our her recipes, and I'm sure I'll love it. I'm just saying, maybe we should come up with a melayu version of this lah. Like how to hide sayur in Ayam Masak Merah. Mesti boleh buat punya lah... Siapa nak join? Kita kasi tajuk .. "Sedap tapi Tipu", boleh? ha ha. first lines
10:13 AM, 2007-Jun-26
.. Concocted as Literari Jam
.. Link
dedicated to nonah See whether you can recognize these first lines from novels: 1. It is a truth universally acknowledged, that a single man in possession of a good fortune, must be in want of a wife. 2. Many years later, as he faced the firing squad, Colonel Aureliano Buendía was to remember that distant afternoon when his father took him to discover ice. 3. Happy families are all alike; every unhappy family is unhappy in its own way. 4. It was a bright cold day in April, and the clocks were striking thirteen. 5. It was the best of times, it was the worst of times, it was the age of wisdom, it was the age of foolishness, it was the epoch of belief, it was the epoch of incredulity, it was the season of Light, it was the season of Darkness, it was the spring of hope, it was the winter of despair. 6. If you really want to hear about it, the first thing you'll probably want to know is where I was born, and what my lousy childhood was like, and how my parents were occupied and all before they had me, and all that David Copperfield kind of crap, but I don't feel like going into it, if you want to know the truth. 7. He was an inch, perhaps two, under six feet, powerfully built, and he advanced straight at you with a slight stoop of the shoulders, head forward, and a fixed from-under stare which made you think of a charging bull. 8. I had the story, bit by bit, from various people, and, as generally happens in such cases, each time it was a different story. 9. It was a pleasure to burn. 10. You better not never tell nobody but God. answers: 1. Jane Austen, Pride and Prejudice (1813) 2. Gabriel García Márquez, One Hundred Years of Solitude (1967; trans. Gregory Rabassa) 3. Leo Tolstoy, Anna Karenina (1877; trans. Constance Garnett) 4. George Orwell, 1984 (1949) 5. Charles Dickens, A Tale of Two Cities (1859) 6. J. D. Salinger, The Catcher in the Rye (1951) 7. Joseph Conrad, Lord Jim (1900) 8. Edith Wharton, Ethan Frome (1911) 9. Ray Bradbury, Fahrenheit 451 (1953) 10. Alice Walker, The Color Purple (1982) I love number 9!! Memoirs of a Geisha
01:38 PM, 2006-Jun-10
.. Concocted as Literari Jam
.. Link
Before I start, just wanted to announce that I have updated Izani's blog with the latest post: Sibling Smooches.
I borrowed this book from Sharlee, and read it while breastfeeding Izani. It took me about a week to finish reading it. I thought the book was beautifully written. The language used is simple and not too bombastic, and I like the way it sounded like a woman was telling the story. I absolutely loved the descriptions of the sceneries, the smells and sounds of the okiya and the teahouses, and of course the kimonos.. oh the kimonos..! It made me want to own one! The story was quite intriguing. I kept on reading, wanting to know what happens to Chiyo/Sayuri next. I thought the author fleshed out his characters well. Chiyo was not potrayed as a simple, good girl, victim character, but she also had a stubborn and mean streak in her. I did however, grew tired with her obsession with The Chairman, and thought the ending was too common, like the ones you would find in every Mills&Boons book. I felt sorta cheated, like the book was actually really a Mills&Boons disguising itself underneath all the silk and cherry blossoms and complicated Japanese traditions. I also found some of the things that geisha's go through quite appaling, especially about mizuage, selling a little girl's virginity to the highest bidder (it's borderline paed0philia!) and then danna, selling a woman's physical loyalty, also to the highest bidder. Just because all these are glamorized by the donning of expensive kimonos, hairdos, make-ups and strict procedures, the world considers it 'cultured', but the covering of a woman's hair using a simple veil is considered 'oppresive'. What double standards! After reading this book, I found myself trying to do things more elegantly , imagining myself wearing a kimono and serving my husband in a teahouse. The other day I had to put on my batik sarong because Izani peed on my last pair of clean pants and I found myself admiring the bold colorful prints and felt kinda .. hm.. feminine in it, almost like a geisha. And I subconciously try to walk and talk more softly and gently.. damn.. this book is evil, i tell you. I'm want to watch the movie, just to see the splendid images. rotidua: cue for u and firhad to look for this DVD. |
Break TimesTalk to the JamFree shoutbox @ ShoutMix Pearl JamTracked by Histats.com 
Links |
