May Nasi Kerabu Lives On, Among Other Things

Be it fancy feasts or mediocre meals, berbuka -- iftar, breaking fast and what have you -- took a slight change of air for my Ramadan this year.

OUR BERBUKA MENU, interestingly, has been of stale variety. For many passing Maghribs, nasi kerabu has becoming a staple with interchanging lauk, the option being ikan goreng, ikan keli or the usual ayam goreng rempah. It's the most preferred meal as it is the most well-prepared, scrumptious meal sold at our nearest Ramadan bazar: made, prepared and sold without any significant failure, in which usually includes the absence of solok lada or the usual keropok.

That is, of course, as long as you get the right gerai. Works everywhere, this tip.

With the nasi kerabu (which may be switched with nasi dagang, nasi ayam or nasi goreng anyway, but rarely nasi lemak) comes the various air kotak, air tin or the standard RM2 air bungkus -- be it tebu, soya, kelapa, Milo, tembikai, sirap bandung, mangga or 'jus ori Abang Gaban', the lot -- for squinching the thirst.

Sounds rich. However, the menu doesn't change a lot since the first day we got excited for the newly-located bazar. We love nasi kerabu a lot, but at the bazar alone there are four operating stalls selling nasi kerabu (and lots of it) alongside two identified stalls selling the same food -- the same bontot ayam, the same pedal, the same ayam golek -- and I'm not even getting to the drinks stall part yet.

It's like liking Jason Mraz's I'm Yours but being fed up with it being played at the radio all over again, without fail, constantly, each and every time you change the channel.

Whatever it is, breaking fast for Ramadan this year is being much a simpler affair. It's a no fuss situation for me, no less. I've bumped into meal-less buka puasa one or two times before and yet I'm finding myself not complaining much. Almost every berbuka sessions are had in our bilik, with food laid out on old newspaper sheets, still packed in their plastic bags. The azan from the nearest surau will roar out loud through the college speakers, while the doa berbuka will be said out of the most unexpected person amongst us and the feast begins. After berbuka, some of us will go for Tarawih, some to the studio and some staying at the room, resuming their works.

Nearly, its the routine for us everyday for the past two weeks or three.

Compared to this year's stagnant, low-key variety at our Ramadan bazar, last year's bazar is best described as one of the best bazars that has been around during my lifetime. During Part 1, when we definitely didn't possess the luxury of having cars around, we took the challenge of walking outside of the campus just to indulge in the delights of the bazar at SIDEC, risking ourselves to berbuka tengah-tengah jalan back into UiTM. Looking at the situation now with a batch with one car for every four person which makes us seem to be so paralysed, it was a very miraculously rajin thing to do.

That simply explains the attraction. The variety of the bazar is massive -- hundreds of stalls selling nearly anything you want for berbuka -- and we're expected to be in long lines for the best food stalls. The best nasi lemak and ayam golek were sold at the bazar, with the tastiest beverages and fruit juices alongside the utmost delicate kuih, tau fu fa, apam balik, kebab, mee, burger, whatever. Everybody you know in Seri Iskandar went to the bazar for food-hunting back then, so it's also a meeting of familiar faces at one time.

Strangely it's not happening this year, maybe because the previous bazar being split into two -- one inside UiTM and one at the outside SIDEC -- but even that won't explain the disappearance of the best stalls around. Yes, even some of the best-remembered gerai have disappeared.

That even makes the food at DM -- the Dewan Makan, where food is subsidised -- a choice for me. Nothing wrong with that, of course, but it shows how desperate we are for express, fast food and how berbuka is simply an occasion to break our fasts. A big feast is rare, though we may venture for KFC or Pizza Hut sessions at Batu Gajah or simply Ipoh for the bravado, but like I said, with the 'work' factor being counted into the scene, the case is always rare.

The luxury of Klang Valley is far away, of course. What more the luxury of home, where breaking fast is never a question -- it's an answer. However the similarity of both remain the same, it's the excitement that matters (especially when the hunger just builds up while waiting for berbuka). Whether it's just plain water and kurma or a big plate of Super Supreme for berbuka, I guess Ramadan has been nice to me this year. Sahur can be quite challenging, though. With all the food scarcity...

We've grown acceptant to it. And we've grown acceptant to the accumulating workloads too, even though Raya is getting nearer day by day. We've expected the worse, though. Hari Raya is Hari Raya, I do look forward to it but I don't want things to be fast forwarded to it. At last, I contemplated to a friend, we're not excited about Raya anymore. We've grown patience for it, unlike during the schooldays.

What's for berbuka tonight, eh? It's very early in the morning at the time of the posting, so I guess it's a bit too early to think about the food we'd have for berbuka, no? Mama would usually hush me, saying it's a tak baik thing to be thought of while you're fasting. I miss her controlling what I think sometimes. But I do think a seafood session at Lumut would be nice, or just a plain nasi alongside with our usual daging goreng kunyit, cendawan goreng, kailan ikan masin, telur dadar with the regular teh ais at the nearest restoran. It's been a while since we last had meals like that.

Nasi kerabu, actually, has never been my favourite. Only today, thanks to the influence of my UiTM friends, it has even found its way to my berbuka plate back home. Ironically, nasi kerabu has always been lurking in our kitchen due to our Kelantanese heritage -- catering only to Ayah and Mama, and sometimes Atuk, Wan, Opah, Acu.. and the list goes on but never myself -- but Mama realised my menu changes only recently, while quickly catching up to it.

She even added ikan keli (which was definitely alien to our tastebuds) into the menu whenever I'm at home. But KL's ikan keli has always been pitiful, unlike their Sungai Perak counterparts. Ah, the fish that tastes like chicken. One of the best worldly rewards if you ask me, never mind the ugly seditions being thrown at them.

Looks like a nice Friday, today. Have a smooth sailing in completing your fast today, if you're fasting. Of course, when it ends for today, selamat berbuka puasa. When we're done with it, well, then maybe we can think of what's in for tonight's moreh.

Posting from Seri Iskandar. Kerabu, as I understand are mixed vegetables, ulam of some sort. I don't know for sure. I just eat. Nasi kerabu is a set of meal consisting of a blue-colored, telur masin, which can be mixed with budu or sambal. You can further customise the meal by adding ikan or ayam goreng, ikan masin, keropok and solok -- some coconut mixture stuffed into a pepper's kelongsong. Moreh is a meal served after Tarawih -- a special prayer done only in the nights of Ramadan which basically consists of two rakaats and performed until the 8th or the 20th rakaat. Moreh can be some sort of a late-evening meal, a supper if you want to see it that way. Sahur is a pre-fasting meal, taken very early in the morning before the Subuh prayer is performed, which signals the beginning of a fasting day. Listening to: Butterfingers - Mati Hidup Kembali (Kembali, 20o8)