Tag: Brunei Foods

Productive Ramadhan

mizarwen

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
  • Pinyaram/Ondeh Ondeh/Puteri Mandi – $1.00 / 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?

Oh, Syawal!

mizarwen

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 old or new baju 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?

Just Us

mizarwen

The Ladies

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 restaurant
One 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.

🖤🖤🖤

Need Some Love

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I’ve recently been active uploading my life in videos on Youtube. You guys can check it out the links here.

(Eng) Delicious foods & Good times back in Brunei 2020 | Makanan sedap | Silent Vlog


Vacation Memories 2020 vlog Part. 1 | How To Eat Ambuyat, Brunei National Dish

And my October updates…

(ENG) AUTUMN VLOG 2021 | Growing plants indoor | Dieting | Halloween Vibe

Thank you so much. Hope you enjoy watching it 🙂 If you like the vlogs show some support by subscribing to the channel, give some comments, like, and share.

Temburong

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One word is already enough to create the buzz amongst Bruneian. Yes, the other district in Brunei Darussalam that famous for its beautiful reserved tropical rainforest and its popular Malay local foods: Wajid Jawa, Cendol Temburong and last but not least, their local giant freshwater prawn or what we called it Udang Galah.

Wajid Jawa (source: here)
Udang Galah (source: here)
Cendol Temburong (Source: the Bruneian)

Since the Temburong bridge is open until 10 pm it is accessible for the people to be able to go there and I feel so grateful I could experience passing the 22km long bridge which takes about 20 minutes to go to the other side when my family kind of ‘stranded’ in our own country in the midst of this pandemic.

Temburong bridge
On the way to Temburong.

I almost forgot the new craze menu the Temburong people manage to create from Udang Galah–it’s the Burger Udang Galah. If you don’t mind waiting in queue for hours just to get this burger, for BND3 it is worth to try once in your life.

Burger Temburong Burger Udang Galah
Burger Udang Galah

I also have the chance to see some improvement done by the government for the place especially at the public areas like this one image below.

Temburong beautiful pillars
Unique designed light pillars that awed me.

It isn’t officially opened to the public yet. However, I am excited about what else they want to do with this place in the coming few weeks. What I know at the moment phase 2 is under construction. Phase 2 is building a waterfront. I can’t wait to see it. Although we can’t go to Miri or Limbang– two of Malaysia’s small towns that close to Brunei’s border due to the Covid-19 restrictions, at least we get to see a new place inside our country that worth for a visit.