When I was very, very small, maybe less than 8 years old, I remembered helping my mother to bake Chinese New Year peanut cookies with lard. My mother would warned me that these were not edible by my Malay friends. So, I asked her what would happened if let’s say they didn’t know and accidentally consume it? She told me our gods (we were Taoists) would greatly punished us.
When I have become a mother myself, I too make sure that my children abide by these strict reminders. Usually, the primary school children would come to my house after school while waiting for their sports activities. There would be a big bunch of them, like 6-7 children, two of them are Muslims. Taking pity on the hot day and long hours before their sport, I normally offered them some simple meals like fried nuggets, fried rice or something economical. However, I always make sure the two Muslim boys (as young as 8-9 years old) have packet biscuits and packet drinks to consume if they didn’t mind taking from me.
Meanwhile, I would have a much young child at home and he would sometimes, joined the Muslim boys to see the PS2 or computer games while the Chinese/Indian boys were eating. I told him he is never to munch something in front of them. He would argued, “But I am not eating pork!” I told him I don’t care what he eats because the two boys wouldn’t be able to know and we are to respect them.
So, I hope all parents also teach their children on the sensitivities involving other faiths taboos.
Therefore, I think this news of Indonesian serunding (or what we Chinese call bak-hu) containing pork is really, really shocking and disgusting. Like my mom said, “The god will greatly punish.” Anyway, I usually discourage my children to take such products like the Chinese pork floss because it is expensive, we are not sure of the source of the meat (e.g. unhealthy discarded meats) and who knows what they put in as preservatives and flavourings.
The news from Malaysiakini.
Waspada serunding babi di pasaran
“Sebenarnya tekstur serat babi lebih tidak kelihatan kerana banyak mengandungi lemak. Oleh itu, kita menguji di makmal dengan menggunakan alat bernama the real-time PCR (tindakan berangkaian polimera),” ketua badan itu Husniah Rubiana dipetik berkata.
Menurut sebuah akhbar negara itu Republika, jenama-jenama itu ialah:
Dendeng/abon sapi (lembu) gurih cap Kepala Sapi 250 gram
Abon/dendeng sapi cap Limas 100 gram (keluaran syarikat palsu)
Abon/dendeng sapi asli cap ACC
Dendeng sapi istimewa berjenama Beef Jerky Lezaaat (keluaran MDC Food Surabaya)
Dendeng sapi Istimewa No 1 cap 999 (keluaran S Hendropurnomo Malang).Husniah dilaporkan berkata satu daripada jenama itu didapati menggunakan tanda halal yang kononnya dikeluarkan Majlis Ulama Indonesia (MUI), manakala pengeluar lain menggunakan nama syarikat milik orang lain, menggunakan alamat tidak benar
atau tidak tercatat pengeluarnya.
at a first glance of the post i thought u will talk something bad about muslim/malay as this kind of topic usually will lead to misunderstanding among others. however after finishing thru it, i must say that i really respect you. salute!
p/s: i’m a muslim…
hi lilian,
the title can misleading somehow hehe. My thought was the same with the first commenter
Thanks for understanding..We really appreciate that
hi lilian…
on behalf of muslim out there in msia…i would like to express my appreciation and admiration on your sensitivity on our diet restriction…thank you so much….
…but i do understand why certain people can’t understand this restriction, as it comes from ourselves too…in attempt to discourage eating pork meat and product, some of the muslims raised their children to regard it as a distasteful food…hence, when the children interact with one another, sometimes the non-muslim child get offended…
if you or your children have encountered this, please accept my sincerely apology…on behalf of muslim community….
p/s: really appreciate your post on butter cake…since i’m a novice in baking….do have recipe for light+fluffy+economic frosting for cupcake?
Hi Lilian,
really appreciate you and your children..
since my kids still small… so I have to let them know directly, I show them pig tell them cannot eat em… i hope they understand…
since they have many Chinese friend at school, so whenever they have party at school, I will cook something with no beef at all..because I know some chinese not eating beef.
I beleive if you want ppl to respect us , we have to respect them first.
hi there , i am looking for the hup loong 7 bean powder which mentioned in your previous post . Do u mind showing a picture of it or maybe their company’s tel no cause not sure if their product can be bought in KL or Pj? thanks
sue – It can be found at Tesco, Giant and most supermarkets. Check it out at the ayam goreng flour aisle and see?
thanks lilian, will check it out at the hypermarket near my house, cheers!
I remember a time when there was no HU HA about food, as long as pork was not served my muslim friends had no problems, they ate from our plates & drank from our glasses.
Nowadays, it’s a big thing WHY? I’ve travelled far & wide & trust me muslims don’t make a big fuss when they’re overseas they just
order a pork free meal even if the restaurant serves pork, so what’s the BIG DEAL IN M’SIA!?
Do the muslims reciprocrate for their staunch Hindu & Buddhist friends, I think not! So just cut the CRAP!
i really respect you..
hi lilian, seems like hup loong flour not sold at Giant Hypermarket. Do u mind providing any info like their tel no or address cause when i check online , very difficult to find more info bout the company and when i called , the no seem like no more in used.Where can this flour be found in Penang? cause my aunty is there visiting , will be back tmrw not sure if i can tumpang her to buy or not but worry she will have a hard time looking for it. I think Hup loong more cater to oversees asian so i think klang valley don’t have their product, gosh i’ve search online but no result.
cheers