When we were growing up, Hisham’s favorite food was Pajeri Nenas (holy cow! No Wikipedia listing for this!!). Pajeri is a kind of spicy thick gravy, sweeter than a curry but similar to a curry, containing different spices as well as kerisik). I had never made this dish myself, and finally I attempted it. But instead of Nenas (pineapple), i used Terong (eggplant/aubergine) to make Pajeri Terong. The eggplant (terong) being cooked: [[image:pajeri1.jpg:The gravy is still yellow and thin:center:0]] The pajeri terong, cooked and ready to serve: [[image:pajeri2.jpg:The gravy has darkened and thickened:center:0]] Amazingly, it turned out pretty good! I thought it tasted like my mother’s. It felt like I was home and eating her food, stealing as many pineapples from Hisham as I could. 😀 Thanks for the recipe, Mak!!
Continue readingAuthor Archive: sila
The Library
At the end of last summer, we finally finished our library project. We turned the front room from a room where the books were stacked on the floor to having books sorted out on bookshelves. OK, let’s admit it. Neither Vin nor I are handy enough to actually build our own bookshelves, believe me we have enough trouble trying to assemble anything that has the tag “Some assembly required”, so Josh, our friend Jeanne’s grandson was commissioned to do the actual building. Here’s a little photojournal of the evolution of our library. First Vin vacuumed the room, and we stacked all the books elsewhere. [[image:lib01.jpg:Love the bright colors in this room!:center:0]] [[image:lib02.jpg:This wall is to be covered by the shelves, unfortunately:center:0]] Prototype box: [[image:lib03.jpg:One is the loneliest number:center:0]] The room fills up: [[image:lib04.jpg:More boxes:center:0]] [[image:lib05.jpg:The corner is to be a workstation for Vin:center:0]] [[image:lib06.jpg:This wall is filling up:center:0]] [[image:lib07.jpg:Recessed lights […]
Continue reading2005: A Bread Retrospective
You got it! Another bread entry. In my one and only entry on this topic, I was waxing poetic about My New Hobby, and showed the breads I had been able to produce. That was about early August, last year. For the last one-third of the year, I have been hard at work baking bread and learning more and more about it. Vin no longer buys any bread, and I have experimented with a variety of breads in my bread book. This entry shows a selection of the different breads that I baked August through December of 2005. First off, my guide in the bread experiments, my bread book: [[image:bread19b.jpg:My Big-ass Bread Book:center:0]] Here are my Onion Twists. Onion Twist after being twisted but prior to rising: [[image:bread20.jpg:Before rising:center:0]] After the loaves rose: [[image:bread21.jpg:After rising:center:0]] Baked, with a dinner fork next to it for some perspective: [[image:bread22.jpg:Onion Twist, Baked:center:0]] Challah […]
Continue readingHey, It’s Still February 1st here!
Just a quick little entry to wish my yope (a.k.a. Hisham) a happy happpy haaaaapppy birthday! I realize it’s already going on 5 AM February 2nd in Malaysia, but it is now almost 4 PM February 1st here! So technically, I’m not late! Well… maybe a little… Happy birthday to the best brother ever, from both Ayah Cik and Wan Cik Dik. Love y’alls..
Continue readingNorthern California: Part V
Here it is, the final installment of our northern california vacation, Part V: The Petrified Forest and more! To recap, we had just gone Seal Hunting and found the (almost) mythical After-Christmas Seals. After running around on the beach with the seals (well, we did the running, the seals just laid there relaxing), we headed back up the little road out of the beach. Along the way, there were small parking areas overlooking some cool rock formations in the ocean. The following are some pictures of the beach. It was quite foggy and cloudy by this time, so the pictures actually show what we saw. Although it was fairly dreary, we thought the view was still beautiful up the road leading away from Goat Rock Beach (where the seals were). As with most of the photos in my blog entries, hover over the pictures for some more comments. Views of […]
Continue readingNorthern California: Part IV
The saga continues with Part IV: The Christmas Seals? Christmas day dawned rainy and foggy in Santa Rosa. When we went to bed the night before, the weatherman had predicted another sunny day. Phaugh! Never trust the weather man! Nevertheless, Vin and I decided we would go on the hunt for Seals (we were told by my former-colleague Don Floyd that the mouth of the Russian River was a good place to find elephant seals). We looked for seals in Eureka and Trinidad with no luck! No ewoks turned up in the redwood forests either. So, after a great breakfast buffet, Vin and I went off to look for the mouth of the Russian River and hopefully some seals! It was still raining pretty heavily though as we drove down the winding road that leads to our destination. [[image:cal66.jpg:Rainy River Road:center:0]] [[image:cal67.jpg:Fog in the distance:center:0]] Finally we get to the […]
Continue readingNorthern California: Part III
I do feel a little guilty for piling on the pictures but we really did have a good time in northern california. Part I should be subtitled “Rainy San Fran”, Part II is “Eureka! Redwoods!”, and this Part III is really “Avenue of the Giants, a.k.a. You thought the other redwoods were big? Get a load of this!” In our journey so far, we have covered the first three days of our trip. It’s now Christmas Eve and we hang out with Jeff and his family that morning before we take off southwards. Here’s Sarah Kate and Sam, Jeff and Tammy’s children: [[image:cal36.jpg:cute kids!:center:0]] [[image:cal37.jpg:Sam, napping in his car seat:center:0]] [[image:cal38.jpg:Jeff and Sarah Kate:center:0]] [[image:cal39.jpg:Showing off dirty hands from playing horseshoes:center:0]] [[image:cal40.jpg:Sam woke up and needed a cuddle:center:0]] [[image:cal41.jpg:Big smile from Sarah!:center:0]] After our farewells, we head back south down the 101. Unbelievably, the weather held and we had our […]
Continue readingNorthern California: Part II
Eureka!! We finally arrived there!! To Eureka, California that is. We drove the 5-6 hours north on highway 101 until we reached Eureka, and we checked into our hotel with great relief. It was pitch dark, we were tired and hungry, and it had rained the entire drive. The next morning, we woke up to sunny skies and beautiful weather. So we got together with Jeff (Vin’s buddy from La Porte High School, IN) who lives in Eureka, and he took us to see the sights. It was such a beautiful day, we decided to go to Trinidad Head to see if we could spot any seals. Sadly, no seals were to be found but look at the gorgeous view! [[image:cal12.jpg:Vin and Jeff looking out to sea:center:0]] [[image:cal13.jpg:Trinidad Head from the cliffs:center:0]] [[image:cal14.jpg:More Trinidad Head:center:0]] We climbed down a long and rickety stairway to get down to the beach. [[image:cal15.jpg:View […]
Continue readingNorthern California: Part I
For Christmas, Vin and I went roving again…this year we flew to San Francisco, and stayed in Northern California for 8 days. Part I will cover the first few days we were there – these are the days we spent in San Francisco proper (we arrived in San Fran Tuesday morning December 20th, and stayed until Thursday December 22nd early afternoon). The rest of the time was spent driving up and down the Northern California Coast. Here’s Vin sitting and reading outside – picture taken from our room three floors above. Doesn’t he just look so engrossed in his book? I can’t remember now what he was reading on the trip.. [[image:cal1.jpg:Back of Vin’s Head:center:0]] [[image:cal2.jpg:He looks up after I psssted him:center:0]] Here we are on the streets of San Francisco: [[image:cal3.jpg:Vin with I-forget-the-name-of-the-Tower in the background:center:0]] [[image:cal4.jpg:Me with same tower in the background:center:0]] See the big umbrella? The Hilton […]
Continue readingMaryland – Part II
As promised, here’s Part II of our trip to Maryland. Aside from fishing, during the day and a half we spent there, we ate our fill in Maryland’s pride and joy, the Maryland Blue Crab. Dean and Dolores who live in Crisfield, MD, live in a house where the back yard opens out into canals which lead to the Chesapeake Bay. So they almost never have to actually purchase the blue crab. Each household is allowed 2 crab pots which they toss into the canal behind their house. Amazing what some chicken wire, a dead fish, and a few hours in the waters of the Chesapeake will get you! It’s like magic – the crabs crawl into the pot and they can’t come out! Read on for more blue crab adventures, but if you are squeamish, the truth is we do eventually get to eat the crabs. So yes, there […]
Continue readingMaryland – Part I
Hisham’s reminiscing has prompted me to finally take action – all this summer I have been procrastinating making some family related entries. Vin’s family had several family-related occasions and I have been meaning to blog them. Rather than doing them in chronological order, I am going to organize it a little differently. In early August, Vin and I traveled to Maryland first to Bel Aire to visit with Aunt Joan and Uncle John, then to Crisfield to visit with Aunt Dolores and Uncle Dean. Our visit with Aunt Joan and Uncle John was short and amounted to a quick lunch with them, but stay tuned, there will be more on them in upcoming entries. In Crisfield, Dean took Vin and I fishing. For the second year in a row, I went fishing with Dean and Vin, and guess what? For the second year in a row, the girl beat the […]
Continue readingThe Meme Tagged thingamabob…
Since Lilian tagged Hisham and I for the meme thing and Hisham actually did his, here’s my meme. Quick story about “Meme”, when I first saw it, I thought “grandmother?”. My friend and colleague Jo’s granddaughter calls her “Meme” (pronounced meh-may). But anyway – my contribution: Where I was 10 years ago:1995 – i was starting my Sophomore year at HU, and trying hard to gain back the 45 lbs I’d lost in the previous school year. I was getting used to living in upperclassmen housing and loving the old ivy-covered halls. My classes were quite sucky as it was the year I finished ALL (and i mean ALL) of my pre-requisite classes, so it was quite miserable. Thank God for my roomies and Music A. Where I was 5 years ago:2 years into being in the workforce, I switched companies and got a nice raise and much better working […]
Continue readingHenna
Malay weddings aren’t complete without henna. Malay culture isn’t the only one to include henna in its rites and rituals. Henna is an ancient tradition practised by many ancient cultures, and is an integral part of weddings and childbirth for Hindu as well as Muslim cultures. I had hoped that one of the benefits of marrying out of my own culture would be that I would be allowed to skip some of the more tedious rites, but (un)fortunately, my aunts and cousin would have none of it. So whether we liked it or not, henna became part of our wedding. After the aqad nikah (marriage) ceremony, Vin and I both sat down for my cousin Ija (Kak Long) and she meticulously applied the ritual henna on our digits. Well, Vin only had to have the three fingers on his left hand hennaed. I had to have all of my fingers, […]
Continue readingMy New Hobby
I thought and thought and thought about my new hobby – bread baking, and I wanted to write a long paean to it. But now the days keep passing me by and my workload has not lessened. The summer is zooming by and I’m sure Hisham thinks I’ve totally forgotten that he’d done all this work to get my pictures formatted for the blog. Well, rather than research bread and write a history of bread, this will mostly be a photojournal of my new obsession. For my birthday this year, Vin bought me a KitchenAid artisan 6 quart stand mixer: [[image:bread01.jpg:Toy! My Toy!:center:0]] It was exactly what I wanted, given that I’d been dropping hints and marking my Kitchen.com catalogs for months before my birthday. Vin finally just sat down, pointed it out and discussed with me what size, what features, what color, etc. I wanted. So I got exactly […]
Continue readingBaseball Anyone?
What could be more American than baseball and apple pie? Why would a Malaysian girl even give a hoot? Because baseball is Vin’s obsession. (He likes apple pie too, and blasphemously, I don’t, but that’s a different story altogether). During the spring and summer months Vin eats, drinks, lives, and breathes baseball. During the off-season, he keeps track of the trades and developments in the Major Leagues. We started dating in August of 2000, and by the fall of 2001 (the first full baseball season, spring-summer of 2001), I could read a box score. And Vin and I had a long-distance relationship. Many baseball widows would probably reprimand me for encouraging this obsession but (un)fortunately for me, baseball means more than just something Vin is unnaturally fixated on. We met at a baseball game. What? What was I, the least-interested-worst-possible-athletic person in the world doing at a baseball game? Yes, […]
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Honeymoon in Redang
As Hisham has faithfully chronicled in here, Vin & I got married in Malaysia recently. A few days after the big kenduri (feast) in Sitiawan, Hisham’s and my hometown, Vin & I flew to Kuala Terengganu, on the east coast of Peninsula Malaysia where we were picked up by a bus and driven to the Marang Jetty. There, we got on a speedboat and left for Pulau Redang (Redang Island) for a 3-day snorkeling adventure. My father had taken us on a few of these vacations when Hisham and I were in our late teens, but the last time I had been to Pulau Redang and its neighboring islands had been at least 10 years ago. I had been worried that the last 10 years might have brought “development” (and its evil twin destruction) and that tourism might have brought about the destruction of the natural coral reefs that surround […]
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