Traditionally, Chinese has very strict rules when a mother gives birth to a baby. The mother is treated with special foods and usually ‘kept hidden’ in the house for the full month. So, the full month is call the confinement because the mom is literally and physically confined to the home. The only place she goes is the hospital and nowhere else as she is considered ‘dirty’ and not welcome to visit other people. *roll eyes*
Therefore, when the complete month is up, the birth of the baby is celebrated by giving away these foods. They comprise of the yellow rice which is made of tumeric and glutinous rice, red eggs and the sweet cakes call ‘ang koo’ or red tortoise.
Red eggs are symbolic, meaning good fortune, completeness and a new beginning.
The above red sweet cake is made of glutinous rice flour or sticky rice flour and filled with mung bean paste. What you see is the shape of a peach. If you get a baby girl, you give two peach shape sweet cakes with the tortoise shape. If you get a baby boy, the peach is replaced with two round balls. Completely roundish balls with no patterns.
The tumeric rice goes with curry chicken. In olden times, the family with new babies will distribute these packages to all their neighbours and relatives. My late mother-in-law told me she made her own yellow rice, curry and eggs when she had my husband. Bless her for her efficiency! She lived up to the ripe old age of 70+ years old without any rheumatism or whatever illness.
Meanwhile, in this modern times, one can easily order these packages from shops specialised in providing baby full moon celebration gift packs. The whole package above costs RM12.50. (please do not ask me which shop because I don’t do promo)
I got this package from my niece who just had her baby. Normally, we reciprocate by giving an angpow to the baby. Angpow is a red packet filled with money.
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I just did a little calculation and realize that you will probably need all your life savings and even more if you throw a lavish wedding. So, unless you have really rich parents, I suppose you wouldn’t want to splurge on giving wedding banquet that costs around $3,000 for a table of 10 persons.
I think even if I have the money, I won’t give it to my sons to throw lavish wedding banquets because they are better spent elsewhere. How about down payment for an apartment? Or an unforgettable honeymoon? How about stag weekends for them to have a final fling? And if I have daughters, I will probably ask if I can join them in their Hen Weekends.
And in case you have not heard of hen weekends, it is one smashing idea of a girls’ night out. They can make plans for you to do things you probably never have a chance if you have your spouse or boyfriend with you. Do take a look at the kind of entertainment programs and also the exotic destinations available for you.
Maybe I should ask my old girlfriends if we can go on a hen weekends, alone, minus our spouses. I didn’t spend much on my wedding and couldn’t afford to go on a honeymoon. Since my 20th wedding anniversary is coming this November, maybe I can catch up on old times?
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Today is definitely the wrong day to prepare this cooling drink. It rains from morning till evening and it is very cold. However, I had bought the red sugar cane (teik chia or bamboo cane) for a few days already and I do not want to store it any longer.
So, I boil it anyway.
I bought a bunch of three sugar canes from the market for maybe RM2. The sweet old lady told me it is good to be boiled with water chestnuts. So, I bought a packet of water chestnuts to try. Actually, this is the first time I tried boiling ‘ma thai teik chia’ as all the while, I ordered them from the coffee shop.
I peeled the water chestnuts (actually my hubby did that ‘cos I have no patience for things like these, probably slicing off pieces of my finger nails if I am to do it) and cut the sugar canes into 4 inches length and split them up.
I added a cube of rock sugar and boil them for about an hour until the water turns a little greenish and murky. I tasted it and it seems like those sold by the coffee shop.
Sometimes, those coffee shops have their versions with ginseng roots or barley too.
Try it. Another Ubah Gaya Hidup DIY kopitiam cooling drink. LOL, if I keep churning out more DIY recipes, my friends are going to think that I have turned into a pauper and have no money to eat out. Never mind….Better to brace for the worst. Make hay while the sun shines.
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It is ridiculous how food prices escalate without reasoning. The price for chicken used to be a fixed one at RM5.90 per kilogram. Now, I heard it has increased to RM8 and our so-called minister in charge of the local market said we do not have enough poultry in Malaysia. Doh….a country like ours with vast lands do not have enough chicken, enough rice, enough basic food items? Now, he said we may need to import from Indonesia and Thailand. I say that is bad planning.
With that drastic price increases, food stall owners too increase their cooked foods. So, let’s DIY at home. Today, I intentionally make a ‘theme’ meal of nasi kandar. Of course, my curry taste is far from the mamak curry but hey, it is much healthier, minus the oil and God knows what else they put inside.
But when you have hot, white rice, any curry tastes good.
I forget to purchase red chillies for the curry so it ended up yellowish as I only use a packet of curry powder with fresh onions, garlics, ginger and tumeric. I put dhal in the curry but unfortunately, the dhal totally mush up and leave a thick curry gravy. Still, the gravy tastes good. (you can get various easy to cook curry recipe on my previous posts)
What’s nasi kandar without the telor masin (salted duck egg, hardboiled) and the kobis which is stir fried cabbage with tumeric powder. To make the stir fried cabbage, I merely use garlic, some spices (poppy/mustard seeds will be good) and curry leaves. Flavour it with salt and you get an easy and quick stir fried vege.
The whole meal that feeds four persons with lots of left over chicken curry probably costs RM12 only. And that includes electricity, gas and rice.
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Bwahaha…this is the most unproductive trip where foods are concerned. We were in Singapore from Thursday till Sunday, which is four full days. Yet, I didn’t manage to eat much because most of the days were filled with the wedding banquet, buffet lunches and etc.
I was in Katong, Serangoon and other older parts of Singapore and I saw many eating places. However, all the time, we were too busy to stop by and try. At other times, we were in the shopping mall and due to the intense shopping LOL, we never have the appetite to sit down and have meals. Usually, we just grabbed something on the go.
So, this is the day we ate McDonald’s because they have something that we do not get in Malaysia. Kungfu Panda McValue meals.
Green tea sundae. I just checked McDonald’s Malaysia and we are having Banana sauce sundae. So, yeah, I ate green tea sundae in Singapore, something I cannot get in Malaysia.
I haven’t watch Kungfu Panda so I am clueless why they serve spicy McNuggets with curry sauce. I thought pandas don’t eat chillies? McDonald’s Singapore has some garlic chilli sauce which I like. Wish I had pocketed a few sachets home. LOL. The sauces and the spicy nuggets are awfully spicy, it made my tongue burnt. Nice.
The onion rings that come with the meal. Together with a large coke (sundae not included), I think the meal costs SGD9.50. Ouch, I forget to convert and thought it is cheap. Singaporeans love the upsize word. So, I upsize everything. But too bad, there are no free refill in Singapore. Only McDonald’s Malaysia allow free refill of coke.
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Lilian | July 22, 2008
