Cooking for iftar

with cooking as one of my favorite pastime, i kind of feel a bit bored at home since i'l be cooking for myself no one else but myself. its one of those great pleasures for non-professional cooks like myself when you have that 'satisfaction' look on the face of people. in the month of Ramadhan, apart from the free food the local mosque provided, it was like a present from heaven, knowing that you can volunteer to cook.. being the cook geek that i am, i did volunteer, but for a later date, just to make sure that i do some good analysis of the peoples' eating culture... well that was my initial plan anyway...but as they say a plan is just a plan... if i was not mistaken, 2 days (i think it was 2..or maybe 3) before the 2nd day of ramadhan, one of the brothers asked if i could cook on that day since they was no one available, and with much persuaision especially from the malaysian brothers who said they will help out on that day (Alhamdulillah).. so during those few days, thinking up of a menu that will suit the mixed variety of people was quite a challenge, especially when you havent cooked for 200 plus of odd people, taking into account not all taste buds are the same...

that day did come, and after some budgeting spending (the mosque provided the beef and rice), looking for the cheapeset things available the night before the date of cooking, alhamdulillah, everything turn out quite ok, and we had an extra hour or so before the time for breaking fast. with all the people helping, things just became quicker. my only worry was the rice, its not everyday im cooking for 200 plus of odd people, and cooking over a gas top was not my speciallty. thanks for the tips, the rice was cooked (large amount) in over half an hour (the tip was to have the water boiling first, to reduce charring of the rice at the bottom of the pot). beef was simple, it was all just chop-chop and let it cook. that first day was a success (because the rice cooked just right).

the second stunt, also come in the last moment, i think it was for the 6th day of ramadhan. and i was asked during after asar on a friday. the head chef for that day was sick, so i was asked to replace him. since the day was sunday, i wouldnt mind much. being an adventourous cook, i asked for chicken. well that was a bad choice actually. since chicken comes in pieces, so on that day, not everyone got a piece. that really made me down, and i was really demotivated for the next few days. i hope i could have another chance to make amends. the date i first volunteered was in the 3rd quarter of ramadhan, i would really love to make sure everyone is satisfied (the hot and spicy group and the not hot and spicy group). but still, im only planning, things may change.

for guys like me, cooking is a satisfaction, not that i get to eat what i cook, but the satisfaction of seeing people are happy eatting away what i made with my two hands...

Tanah Tumpah Darahku

Malays, Chinese, Indians... these are basically the core of Tanah Melayu, and later Malaysia (including the community of Sabah and Sarawak). This Month of August represent the Independence of Malaya in 1957, later followed by the Malaysian Federation (Peninsular Malaysia, Sabah and Sarawak) in 1963. It has been those many years Malaysia has now seen itself standing as a nation of people of various ethnicity, race, religion and background. With the political turmoil of Malaysia today, this has tested the years that have passed by without really working out a formula that will maintain stability of the differences between racial and religious issue. I believe that 2008 is not like 1969, because some of us have come to live together and understand one another, but still this only is true for a small percentage of Malaysia. Distrust is still strong. Integration of racial and religious understanding is still possible, but will take time, but it all depends on how well the leadership is in providing the initial requirement of integration. Integration starts at early age, and will take a life time to see its result. The National School was a good tool which was not put to good use. Because of its inefficiency, parents gets annoyed and send them to other forms of school, in the end, the targeted integration fails (not in totality..but it shows there are still loopholes).

Coming to a certain unification point will take time, but i am totally confident that each Malaysian have a love for this country "Tanah tumpah darahku". We should be starting to learn about each other, religion, ethnicity and etc, so we become to respect one another. When there is respect, surely there will be less quarrellings. We should as a nation, stop for a while, and look at ourselves in the month of Independence, and ask ourselves, what do we really want?

the same playing field?

Having read the comment by the Selangor Menteri Besar on his comments on UiTM, I was really relived that at last there can be more competition and cooperation between Malaysian regardless of race and religion, even if it was just 10%, its a good start. But suddenly there was some relentless individuals who saw this as an attack , and we had students who wore black marching to demonstrate on a "suggestion". What makes me wonder more is why people higher up in the institution hierarchy was also up against the "suggestion" by an individual, and wanting to be a university of international standards seems more of just a slogan than a target.

Universities should be building bridges between the gaps made by the education system (that i will write later in the near future), because campus life should be a preparatory platform before these young adults can enter the real world which is not made of up of certain groups but a mixture of ethnic, religion, background and etc, and under the country of Malaysia. What Malaysia lacks currently after the 1969 issue was integration between people. and even after so many years, the issue is still there. The national school had a good start but started to fizzle out. universities open their doors to everyone (even tough theres the quota system), yet we still see these young groups of individuals mixing with those of the same ideology, thus integration was not achieved. One of the 1969 issue was because the bumi (i wouldnt say bumi..but should be malay) was not happy with regards to wealth distribution between the races, so the government came up with the NEP, which was suppose to create the balance between the races. But how successful of NEP seems to only be a poison if the idea was kept too long. Suddenly these bumi's become too dependent , while other's had to fend for themselves. So when put on the same playing field, the problems is not only just still there but worsens. The same is said for university, if you don't prepare and coach individual to play on a level playing field, it would be a mountain to climb once they are on the field.

I graduated from a an IPTA which not many non-bumi would like to attend because of the name (IIUM/UIAM..but those who do come, they are exceptionally good... i missed the time in secondary school though where I could mixed with everyone). It really caused a few problems when some of us where in the real world, because we were not exposed to a Malaysian scenario (international..a little yes) it became quite hard (its a good thing I attended those open seminars and programes where there is everyone Malaysia, so I had a head start compared to my comrades). I am sure there are handfulls of people who can tolerate each other, but if there still exist group lines within our institution, we cannot achieve integration at the national level.

Coming back to UiTM, im not underminig their intelectual (knowledge base) credibility. There are a few exceptional individuals in the institution, but when you coach students on a field that does not reflect the real world, you just cannot get the desired result. I would like to suggest to for students and administrators alike within such institution to have debates and seminar on the concept of integration, and not jump the gun without studying the consequences. Opening the doors to have a better practicing field can prepare everyone better, and in reality, it is true non-bumi works harder than the bumi (not all..but most). Why wait till going to the playing field to realize we are at a disadvantage?

VENISON MICROBIOLOGY

In New Zealand, the meat of deers are called venison. Elsewhere venison are the meat of hunted animals from the wild, but here in New Zealand, they breed them like sheep and cows. Venison is said to be a really healthy meat because of its low fat content and high in iron. When it comes to marketing, venison are not that so popular due to the fact that it looses its colour within a very short time period. So currently, the best method of promoting venison is let the consumer know that venison, if discoloured are still fresh.

Currently, I am working out to understand the meat microbiological system of meat. So if you've read the bible of meat scientist "Lawrie's Meat Science", in the 6th edition, there is a statement which says venison can be readily hung for quite some time without due precaution, which in other words, something is preventing the attacks of microbes. There's not many research, but they have observed that venison after quite sometime, its surface bacterial load has no significant change when compared to beef which had a tremendous increase of bacteria within the same period.

here is where i be coming in, i am currently working on a meat system to study the phenomena, which after sometime i found it is real (really) hard and complicated. theres a few possibilities though that i may need to go through before i settle on a possible study system, which once i have completed, i might post it sometime later.