Hello World: Food for Hari Raya

Hari Raya Food

Hari Raya is the best time to get fat. I kid you not. Every house will prepare and serve variety of food - traditional local cuisine, mouth-watering cakes, cookies etc. All these food are specially prepared just for you - as a house guest and visitor. It's Hari Raya Food Royal Rumble!
Typically every house will serve

• Lemang (Essential traditional local cuisine)
• Rendang (Essential traditional local cuisine)
• Ketupat (Essential traditional local cuisine)
• Kuah Kacang (Essential traditional local cuisine)
• Cookies
• More cookies
• Cakes
  
• More cakes
• More traditional local cuisine

Hence why it is very easy to gain weight during Hari Raya therefore it is always a good reminder to eat moderately on Hari Raya.
Majority of people prefer to bake and prepare their own Hari Raya cookies but you can also find Hari Raya cookies in shopping malls. Nonetheless homemade Hari Raya cookies are always the best.
Pineapple Tarts - delightful little tarts. Crispy pastry cookies filled with pineapple jam. It is crumbly, buttery, tangy sweet and also addictive to eat.

You can find Pineapple Tarts in variety type of shapes. Nonetheless the taste is similar.Bahulu or Kuih Bahulu is made from eggs, wheat flour and tapioca flour. Kuih Bahulu comes in a lot of different shapes. It has a soft and dry texture but it is undeniably sweet as well as crispy outside and inside. Kuih Bangkit is one of the traditional local cookies we have in Malaysia. It melts in your mouth instantly. It is dry, sweet and crumbly. I think it taste like milk. Peanut Sauce is a Malay traditional cuisine. Made of peanuts, coconut milk, garlic, spices etc. Generally in Malaysia, Peanut Sauce is serve along with Ketupat (Malay rice cake) / Satay / Lemang. It is quite spicy but delicious to eat.
Rendang is a spicy tangy beef stew. Rendang is a mandatory local cuisine during Hari Raya. You can eat Rendang with rice / Ketupat(Rice cake) / Lemang (Glutinous rice). Occasionally you can find two types of Rendang - Chicken Rendang and Beef Rendang. Nonetheless you can also find Mutton Rendang and Prawn Rendang.

Actually I've tried Rendang cooked with Rabbit's meat. I was a little kid at the time. I refused to eat it at the beginning but was forced to try. It was delicious but really spicy. That was the first and the last time I've ate Rabbit's meat. PETA's going to get me. Hur, hur.
Nasi Impit (Ketupat) is basically rice cake or rice dumpling. You have two options to prepare Ketupat. Either buy instant made Ketupat (above) or prepare it traditionally (Which is a pain. At least for me).

Traditionally the rice is boiled and compacted inside coconut leaves that have been woven. The painful part of preparing Ketupat is not preparing the rice but to weave the coconut leaves. I've failed big time.

Generally Ketupat is serve alongside with Rendang or Peanut Sauce. Oh ya, with Satay as well.
Lemang is glutinous rice cooked inside bamboos. As you can see from the photo above, it is wrapped with banana leaf in order to prevent the rice from sticking to the bamboo. It is tender, moist and well, sticky. It has a tiny pinch taste of salt but also sweet at the same time. You can either eat Lemang just like that or alongside with Rendang and Peanut Sauce.

Cooking Lemang is quite interesting. It needs your 100% attention unless if you want to over cooked it, which is a big no. I've helped my relatives to cook Lemang before when I was a kid. It was a dull process as Lemang demands really slow cooking.

But the output of a well cooked Lemang is truly delicious. And of course it makes you fat (if you eat a lot) since it is made of glutinous rice and coconut milk.

All of these are some of Hari Raya food that you can find in my house. I didn't get the chance to snap more photos as most food have been indulged by my family and guests.

I haven't touched all of these food for several years. Nonetheless I have decided to eat some of them this year but of course under one condition, which is eat moderately. However you are not going to see me eat all of these food on other time but Hari Raya.

It's Hari Raya Food Royal Rumble!

Truthfully,

JJ

Random: I should have made a video coverage on preparing Lemang. Maybe next year.
Listening to: Michael Jackson - Butterflies
Current Weight: 86 kg (189.2 lbs)