Today is 18th Syawal..
Now I feel like writing a post...ohh..lazy bum bum me. Tee hee..
Unlike the Eidulfitri or Aidilfitri celebration in Malaysia, for the first time...I was at the brink of tearing up. A mist of tears was clouding my eyes when I recited the Eid takbir,alone... while preparing the ingredients for the final iftar for Ramadan 1435H.
Hmm...
What were so different?
For many reasons:
After Eid prayer at Islamic Center near Barrio de La Concepcion metro station.
- Solidarity with the Palestinians. I kid you not. I was kinda heartless in this Israeli-Palestine conflict up until the last occupation. But then...after marrying a Moroccan and watching the Arab countries news day in and day out which is mainly in Arabic (a language which I should at least show some keen on learning but still getting to it), I could simply cry after seeing the faces of the dead children hold by their parents or kin.
- No Eid takbir. I did not hear this recited in the mosque or maybe there was some problem with my ears but I was pretty sure they did not. I tried looking for any familiar Asian faces during the Eid prayer but the closest were some girls from Indian decent wearing their traditional garb. At least I wore my Baju Kurung. In hoping to find another Malaysian. T_T
- I was far from my family for real this time, had to cook Eid´s food on my own (no help from my mom whatsoever). A confession: I never cook rendang or yang sewaktu dengannya all my life. Sumpah! Hehehe.
- No house visiting or open house as you call it in Malaysia.
- No kuih raya...don´t ask me why I didn´t make it myself. My answer will be blurrrrrred this time. There´s a specific reason which I prefer not to reveal this time.
A very happy man celebrating Eid with his wife for the first time.
After Eid prayer, we went to a cafe´ near Barrio de la Concepcion Station for a breakfast. Honestly, after a long month of fasting and having a meal in the morning is pretty weird. We had our normal breakfast (desayuno) of bread (barra) with tomato and olive oil along with a cup of the usual cafe´ latte.
Only then, after reaching home, I pulled my sleeves up and attcked my kitchen!!
Let´s see what I cooked!! Yada..yada..I am seriously shy to even post these. Well...take it away. No comment is highly appreciated hahaha.
The first one is the must have meat rendang.
Before coming back to Madrid, I have my own cheat sheet..haha. I am a ´kaki bangku´ in cooking so I cannot dare to enter my kitchen without my honorable assistant. Tada!!
Adabi Rendang powder.
Saved my day but it definitely didn´t feel as close to authentic. I forgot to grab a pack of kerisik so it adds up to the non-authenticity value.
Anyway..my next meal is fried chicken satay.
I nailed this one definitely cause I had seen my father made this countless times. The only difference is...I fried, not grilled.
The third..the peanut sauce to accompany the fried chicken satay.
But.............. I seriously failed big time. There was no exception and I would simply give myself an F because...... I did not fried the peanuts well. The sauce tasted so crude. T__T Gawd help me!!
As the grumpy Mr H did not want any source of soy bean in this lodeh...no tofu, no tempe, no foo chook...and NO! Don´t you dare ask me why Mr H hates soy bean so much. ^__^ Am not gonna entertain your question. Hahaha. Ask Mr Google please.
Well...four meals are quite aplenty albeit not done by a 5 star Michelin chef. The Palestinians did not even have the liberty to celebrate Eid so am I supposed to wail against the wall just because of my disastrous satay sauce?? Nope.
To mention a few..
To my precious parents and family back home,
my beloved friends,
and whoever who knows me;
I may have done many errors in my life which could have impacted your life and I greatly regret it.
To err is human and Allah, the Almighty is the Most Forgiving.
I wish for the best Eid Mubarak 1435H and Maaf Zahir Batin.
