Friday, October 5

Of food and relatives that come once a year

It’s almost Raya now. Ramadhan is well on its 23rd day. I am looking forward to Raya. Not as much as I did when I was a kid, nonetheless, still looking forward to it.

This year we’ll be celebrating it here in KL, my beloved hometown. Yeah yeah, don’t make cracks about not having a kampong to balik to. I’m a city girl and my so-called ‘kampung’ is here. My grandma is here and my parents are here. And contrary to popular belief, it is meriah to celebrate Raya here. People who say otherwise are just people who don’t belong. They need to go balik elsewhere, so just go already, and leave us to our merry-making. I don’t mean to sound rude, but if they are patriotic over their respective kampungs, why shouldn’t I be? KL is all that I’ve ever known.

Oh well….

When I was younger, my mother used to make nasi tomato for every Raya. We’d have chicken curry and sambal tumis and acar and daging dendeng and cakes and cookies. My mum loves cooking and baking. Those were great fun times. Now however my mum doesn’t cook up a storm like that anymore. She buys all her cookies. Lucky for us she buys most of the cookies from my aunt. So it’s still homemade, though not made in our home. Haha!

Both my parents and in-laws will be here this year so we need to go visit both, and then we shall go visit my grandma and aunt. Can’t wait for the wonderful food that will be waiting for us. My grandma’s house will be the meeting point for all my aunts and uncles. I’m looking forward to meeting them all. Now that I’m a working adult, I don’t get to see them as much as I used to. I haven’t seen an uncle of mine like ages ago! (Ok I exaggerate, it was probably a year plus ago.)

So I’m definitely waiting for the food and the relatives. In that order. Yeah yeah, can’t you tell I’m a glutton already. *smile*