An attempt that really amazed me. Although I missed one ingredient in the recipe and still need to cook the meat until it’s tender, it was still an overall success for me as a novice cook.
Yesterday, I prepared a Daging Rendang dish following a recipe that Che Nom shared on YouTube. I found the taste and aroma to be almost identical to what my in-law used to cook. She is also following Che Nom’s recipe. As she is currently in Brunei, I have been given the responsibility of cooking the menu for the Eid feast. My nerves won’t go away until the event is over. So I wish I could pull this off.
Now we don’t encourage parents to do this, but since Mr. Hubby only had his off day after the Easter school holiday and the Muslim month of celebration, Eid’Ul Fitri three days happened right after the holiday, we informed the school that my daughter wouldn’t go to school for that three days. I don’t know if she understood it but she was looking so happy when we woke up a little bit late than usual (Her school alarm is always set off at 7 am)
April 24th, 2023
Train ride to the unplanned destination.
So we figured since my autistic daughter likes to stay so long on the train ride, we decided to spend most of this day on the train and hop on and off to three different stops Bern, Basel, and Zurich train stations just to stretch our legs. She wasn’t pleased we got off the ride. But it has to be done. If not, our old legs and bum would be numb from sitting too long. Lol.
April 25th, 2023
The initial plan was to get the rest of my daughter Fruitea’s favorite drink from this shop where we ordered and thought they already had it in hand. Unfortunately, when we arrived at Pasar Indonesia, Mohlin they said they ordered just a few days ago when we had been waiting for beverages for months. We weren’t that disappointed despite the three hours ride to find this place. We felt grateful that some of the things we couldn’t get anywhere else in Geneva, they have them at the shop.
The shop was situated in an isolated place, but the GPS never failed us.
We were greeted by 2 friendly middle-aged women. There are rows of food racks on the left side of the store and other non-food sections on the right side when you walk into the shop. I was pleased to find Belinjo in the snack area. Bruneians called it Tangang. It would be nice if, after you fry them, you mix them with butter and honey like this recipe. A great snack to nibble while watching your favorite K-drama overnight. Lol.
Our next stop was the PUMA outlet, Oensingen. Unfortunately, we have not found the Spongebob edition. They provide just a tiny corner of the section. How can that be? We expected much from a place this big. Hmph.
Our last trip of the day was to have our bellies full at IKEA, Lyssach. The furniture mall was not as crowded as in Geneva so it was a pleasant, peaceful late lunch.
April 26th, 2023
The search for my daughter’s PUMA sneakers continued today. We went to the other design factory, Fish Fashion in Schonwerd. A really confusing route to get there. Even though Mr. Hubby was here twice, he wasn’t sure 😀
Yet, we couldn’t find the sneaker. Our bellies were groaning by the time we ended the long search. So we concluded this trip by getting our lunch at Singapore Restaurant in Zurich. I guess this is only a halal Malay restaurant. If you ever come here I recommend you the Laksa. It’s delicious!
As a matter of fact, that happened long before Ramadhan this year. I felt so motivated to try new recipes of Brunei traditional cakes (kuih) because my main goal is if I succeed in baking them perfectly Id open a food business when I return to Brunei for good in the future.
I was completely hard core trying to do it every week during this year’s Ramadhan. The recipe wasn’t my recipe, I found it on YouTube. These traditional cakes I made last month were…
Made by moi
The Beginning…
One of the kuih that attracted a lot of attention was Serimuka. I’m not sure why. It’s not my favorite. I only chose to do it because my husband really wanted to eat so as a good wife *cough, cough I baked it, and to my surprise on the first attempt it baked nicely. There were so many leftovers that we decided to give them to his colleagues. From there, orders continued to come and my last order (hopefully not the last) was for the open house celebration of Hari Raya at the residence of the Brunei ambassador.
I know I’m still yet to learn more about baking, but I can pick which kuih should I sell when I’m ready to come back home.
The Price
The only thing I feel so difficult at this time is the cost of purchasing the ingredients is not as cheap as when you live in Switzerland. For example, 1kg of flour here is about CHF2.10 but in Brunei, 1kg is only BND1.55 which is converting CHF0.68 only. And there are ingredients that can’t be found, or maybe I don’t know what the packaging looks like here. Many of the baking needs gula apong/gula anau/gula Nipah because the texture is still soft and liquidy when adding this into the mix so when it bakes it’ll not harden the kuih. This is the opposite result when you only use palm sugar, although they said you can replace the gula anau with it. I think only the professional is capable of deciphering the code here. Lol. I’m still starting out, so I need to learn more and more.
Serimuka/Bingka Pandan/Bingka Ubi – $1.50 / 5 pieces
Oh, those who are curious to know how much the price of kuih sell in Brunei, here I give you the list of general prices for your information.
They typically sell them in disposable clear plastic containers such as this one.
I hope there are more kuih or non-traditional cakes I could bake next time. I plan on making Mini Chicken Quiche, Raya biscuits, Kosui, and Puding Suji. Yes, there are many of them. Lol. I hope that happens as I hope.
What are your favorite Hari Raya cakes or biscuits?
We are still in the month of Syawal. Happy Eid’ Ul Fitri to all my Muslim readers.
This year too, my family did not celebrate this special day because we are not in Brunei. Early morning of the first day of Syawal, I didn’t even greet my husband and in-law because I was waiting for the 2nd day of Syawal where all Bruneians celebrated the Eid’Ul Fitri (1st Syawal in Switzerland fell on 21st April) so that we could feel the Syawal mood together.
It was also my older brother’s 42nd birthday on the 1st Syawal. Through the WhatsApp video call, I could see they had a blast celebration. I was so happy to see everybody smiling and having a good time, including my mom and dad. These are the only faces I want to see first thing in the morning of Syawal.
As what our family tradition would always be, (when we were not yet married) early morning around 6 am together with my siblings, we prepared last minutes all the cakes and biscuits on special crystal containers to be served to the guests who later coming that day. We always wear our new sometimes oldor newbaju kurung (traditional female Malay costume) whilst my brother and dad wearing their baju cara melayu (traditional male Malay costume). My mother always the one who turns on the radio and takbir (proclaim the greatness of Allah s.w.t. which is recite during first Syawal) could be heard early in the morning. I was also my mother’s co-cook and kitchen assistant, preparing ingredients, doing the food tasting, washing dishes and cleaning the kitchen afterwards. FYI, my parents are great cooks. So first Syawal they usually cook Chicken Kurma, Curry Beef, and Mixed Veggies. These are the main dishes and are well known for the delicious taste among our relatives. Once all is ready, it is time for me and my siblings to ask forgiveness for our past bad deeds to both my parents. No angpau (green packet contain money varies from $1-$10) be given unlike what you see in the Raya Tv commercial. We never expected that from them, and I don’t think we have to. But now that we were all married and have a family of our own we give the angpau to our nephews and nieces and the kids who come to visit the house. It’s a different vibe if you’re away from your family. I miss that moment so much. Wish I was with them now.
My first Eid’Ul Fitri in Geneva, as usual, just like any normal day, but this year I was given a task to make Serimuka, a traditional cake made from sticky white rice with pandan layered on top. My first attempt surprisingly, was successful, but never have I expected the Brunei ambassador wanted me to make 3 trays of Serimuka for the 2nd day of Eid-Ul Fitri where she invited some guests to come to her residence. I had to do all 3 of them a day before and only around 2am I could finally go to bed.
Serimuka I made
So my Muslims readers how you celebrate your Eid’Ul Fitri in your country?
I am back in Brunei because my father-in-law passed away last month. Since last month till now I haven’t spend quality time with my own family members and the time that we have here is so limited. I feel like I couldn’t visit them so freely this time. A few visits won’t feel enough. Thanks to my husband the permission was granted that I could meet my sisters and my mother, just us, the ladies (My father and brother had other plan of their own).
Sham’s BBQ Grill
We chose to eat at Sham’s BBQ Grill, Kiarong. There are some good reviews from people who already have gone here. So I ought to try their food grills. It is easy to locate the place. It is just next to Kiarong Primary School you can see the row of buildings before the school. They have few branches, though. Since we were close to another next destination I think it is better to just dine in here.
(6/9/22) I just couldn’t understand taking picture with face mask on… I just followed XD Inside the restaurantOne section of menus that they have (source: Sham’s BBQ Grill’s IG)Photo taking again? Layan….The spreads
Review: The BBQ sauce that they used and the juiciness of the chicken wings are superb, super, super delicious! The waitress is super friendly and welcoming. The place is worth photo taking. 9.5/10!
If they add up Tongkeng(chicken butt) in the menu I would rate it 10/10 🙂
I can say after I had Majestic Wings in Jerudong Food Court this place is way better than them.
Street Food
After our dinner, we went to see Street Food at Digital World’s parking lot. The COVID case wasn’t that high, I was thinking if the mall were crowded with people, here perhaps they are full of people too. However, it wasn’t as I expected it would be.
Yet I was happy I could find foods that I wanted for takeaways and lip tints sold there.
I didn’t expect there was a surprise for my birthday yesterday. All I wanted was a gouache for my project and I asked for Buttermilk Prawn for our dinner last night. The kitchen was off-limit only for a few minutes after my daughter arrived from school. I thought my husband had bought me a normal cake, but I never expected it to go that far. Lol. If you guys haven’t noticed yet, he ordered a custom birthday cake decorated with my Hogwarts House, Hufflepuff colors, and house logo on it and placed the Hufflepuff scarf around the cake. Such a surprise! My daughter usually didn’t like to go near the cake if we celebrated our birthdays or her birthday, something about the candle and loud cheer frightened her but this time she came closer and joined in.
Sneaky little hand! She got to taste the cake first! 😄
The dinner was sooo good. He nailed the taste although it was his first time trying the new recipe. Even though we are away from our family back home in Brunei during Eid-Ul Fitri, I’m so thankful I could spend such a sweet moment like this with just my husband my daughter♡
“Selamat Hari Raya to all my Muslim readers and Happy Mothers Day to all the mothers out there, whether you are a past, present or soon-to-be mom (◕‿◕)♡”
mizarwen 