Balik Kampung for Hari Raya Celebration

My noisy relatives catching up with the latest happenings and of the family at the Rumah Ibu (Main House).
The Gamin, Kuala Pilah open house has a strong support and good participation. Sad to say I only recognised 90% of my distant relatives.
A surprise reunion with my second cousin who made a fortune in Australia and lost for more than 10 years, with a twist of emotional story. Every guest be it male or female shed tears. I remember him as a cute boy. Hari Raya is for bridging the lost gap & extend our forgiveness.

A cute and chubby baby with a relative.

My adorable nephew & nieces resting at the stairways decorated with old glazed tiles.

My son wearing a Baju Melayu with a songket sampin at my mum-in law's house

It has been 2 weeks into festival of Aidilfitri, popularly known as Hari Raya in Malaysia. The joyous month falls on Syawal month of the Islamic calendar. I guess it's not too late to post on this occassion as it is celebrated for a month in Malaysia, no doubt it's not being celebrated full swing each day as life is getting more mundane. It is a meaningful occassion for the Muslims as it signifies a personal triumph and a victory of self-restraint and abstinence symbolising purification and renewal after a month of fasting in Ramadhan. Urbanites make their pilgrimage to their hometowns, popularly known as balik kampung. My family and I spent our moment in my ancestors home and mum's weekend home in Kuala Pilah, Negeri Sembilan. Celebrating in a kampung (village) environment is more magical and my family has been sharing the joyous moment in the kampung the past 6 years instead of at my parents house in Seremban, a city in Negeri Sembilan. Prior to that we were in Muar, Johor at my in-laws home.

My family members started the day by congregating in the mosque early in the morning for the Hari Raya Puasa prayers. Everyone put on the traditional Malay clothes and for the ladies the garb could either be baju kurung or baju kebaya with each family having their own theme.... we were into yellow this year. Asking for forgiveness from the elderly is a touchy moment through salam (handshake) with us recalling the full year's misdeeds and wrongdoings to be wiped out. Kids too have their field day in collecting duit raya (money gifts in small envelops). My mum-in-law is good in feasting us with tasty Malay delicacies which are mainly found during Hari Raya such as authentic ketupat (rice wrapped in coconut leaves weaved casings), rendang (beef/chicken spicy dishes), peanuts sauce, lodeh (mixed vegetables cooked in coconut milk), chicken curry, etc. I missed the aromatic lemang cooking event at the Kuala Pilah home as I was only there on second Hari Raya. Lemang is a Minangkabau delicacy that is glutinous rice cooked in bamboo. It takes at least 8 hours to cook lemang via burning in firewoods. Most houses are decorated with oil lamps illuminating the gardens and lighting up the dark skys. They are normally lacing up the garden after the third week of fasting month of Ramadhan.

For this Hari Raya what amaze me is the lighting up of Meriam Buluh (home made cannon by using Calcium Carbide stuff in a hollow pipe). The sound is so loud and perhaps that's why the city videographer who was me displayed a spontaneous reaction. Those guys in the video are from technical background namely engineer, engineering students, technical teacher, technicians.... Hmmm they seem to have the applicative fun. The Meriam Buluh, fireworks, fire crackers and sparklers added the aura of Hari Raya and there seems a competitive battle ground in between the sub-kampung.

My kampung has a scenic beauty and the famous Petronas Hari Raya "Burung Murai" commercial and other movies were shot there. I will make a special posting of my (grandma's) kampung in the future. The traditional house on stilts stand regally on a hill and surrounded by lush trees. My family in Kuala Pilah had an open house to our extended family. We slaughtered 2 goats which are reared at the backyard of the traditional kampung home. I am dumbfounded by the linkages of my own extended family tree. My family network are the kind who loves to bridge the gap between the many generations of the family tree branches..... horizontally and vertically. With the intricate connection, a long lost relative's son whose mum is about my age called me Uwan (Grandma). Ouch!. It's the rank and file. Overall, 2 days in the kampung but felt like a lifetime.

Please view the Meriam Buluh video below with the volume on as you could hear the sound effect :-)

Home Made Hari Raya Cookies, Anyone?

Double Chocolate Cookies

Serunding Mini Popia

Honey Cornflakes Cup

White Chocolate Peanut Butter Cookies

Chocolate Almond Cookies

"Semprit" Thousand Thousand

My favourite Jam Tart

My friend was asking me whether I will be baking cookies this Hari Raya, Malay term for festive season Eid Ul-Fitr. I said, "Definetly, I would". I find baking cookies therapeutic.... the feelings are indescribable. Since time is an essence to me as a busy mum, I baked cookies during weekends. My kids and I did the ingredients look out the week earlier. I made some modification to the recipes with each cookie type, I made three equal portions for my family, my mum's and mum-in-law's. Earlier years I felt turned down when the cookies I bought regardless of its good looks, taste rancid and spoilt. Raison d'etre ..... I bake my own cookies. Put aside the presentation, my kids said it taste yummy. Hopefully, the limited edition will still be around during Hari Raya. Over years I have been experimenting to get the right taste and texture. My kids little hands are handy except for few accidents such as cookies turn topsy turvy while cooling off. Helping out mum baking since I was small, helps a great deal. So kids, don't worry about the mess ... the experience that counts. Love to see their joy while mixing the ingredients. Besides, feel great that the kitchen smells like bakery. To all my relatives and Muslim friends "Selamat Hari Raya Aidilfitri & maaf zahir batin".

My first family residence at Bryn Mawr Apartment, Chicago

Situated across the street from each other, Bryn Mawr Apartment is a finely detailed building epitomised the rapid growth and expansion of Chicago in the 1920s and the commercial development of Bryn Mawr Avenue and surrounded by Edgewater community. We stayed there when we first started our family life and continue to live on for three years. Apart from relatively close in proximity to my University, the rate was also reasonable being situated near the sub-urban of Chicago.

The buildings' extensive use of terra cotta

exemplifies Chicago's love affair with this versatile building material after the Great Fire of 1871, especially its decorative applications. The 8-storey apartment is clad in rich green and cream terra cotta and features Egyptian-like art deco designs. Three of my friends who studied in the Art Institute of Chicago also stayed in the apartment, which is perhaps a testimony of its nice architecture. The building is designated as a Chicago Landmark on 20 January 1999.

The building is situated near Edgewater, a north Chicago, Illinois community seven miles north of downtown bordering the neighbourhood of Roger Park to the north, Uptown to the south, Lincoln Square to the west and south and West Ridge to the northwest. As one of Chicago's 77 community areas, Edgewater is bounded by Foster on the south, Devon on the north, Ravenswood on the west and Lake Michigan on the east. It has the highest population density of any of the neighbourhoods in Chicago. Edgewater contains several beaches that we enjoyed in the warm month. My hubby, baby and me always strolled and sometimes had BBQ with friends near Lake Michigan Beach. We could breath life in Chicago as The Windy City.

Edgewater was first developed around the 1890s as a summer home for Chicago's elite. It boasts a skyline of apartment buildings, condominium, shopping complexes and mid-rise homes.The high rise condominiums were also known to have large numbers of retired and elderly persons, many lived on fixed income. The prices are more affordable than Lake Shore Drive addresses further south. They are nice people and always bedazzled by my baby Nabila and many loved to play with her. They would say.... "Ohhh she looks very oriental. Look at her nice black hairs". Most of them had grey and blonde hairs.

The place is close to the MRT elevated train station of Bryn Mawr. Conditions has begun to improve and there has been a large influx of residents. The area is a colorful community with apart from Caucasians, new residents from Yugoslavia, Mexican, Pakistani, Bosnian etc have also made their way. My girl started to pick up Spanish words as she has few friends who she played with at the corridor of the apartment. Chicago is well known for accepting new, thriving enclaves of ethnicities in the past centuries. The new settlement of Europeans is a modern revival of that tradition. Americans, young hipsters, new parents, first-time homeowners, students and many more call Bryn Mawr home. I love watching the colorful and fast moving life from my window. Chicago really sharpen my survival skill in staying in a metropolitant city. My unforgettable encounter was being approached by a pick pocket rogue, but he probably has to learn to be a better thief. Other encounter was getting on a crossroad with drug dealers who use a woman as a ransom at 3.00 am. She was being strangled by a rowdy guy and at a gun-point. She pointed at me who was watching the scene from my apartment's window, maybe to get herself free. The guy looked up at me who was just few meters up and loosen his grip on the poor girl. I swear I never look out the window again like in safe Malaysia, then. When I went to my night classes I felt erratic that I was being followed. It took me few weeks to pass through those traumatic episode. On other occassion, I also heard gun shot near me while i was feeding my baby who was lying in a cradle, at the windy and scenic back stairways. Wow! If I can survive in Chicago, I can surely survive anywhere else in the world. It really taught me to be street smart.