This month is going to be very overwhelming for me most of the time because it’s Ramadan. People (especially in my country) fast from sun rise to sun set, and it lasts for a month. We cannot eat or drink anything, not even water! And the weird thing is, Ramadhan ALWAYS comes on the hottest months so when you’re fasting it just feels like you’re dying!
In Malaysia, they have a special food market that runs every Ramadhan, for each district. There are SO many people there, and SO much food, but I can tell that a lot of the food is going to be wasted at the end of the day. People just keep buying because they are so hungry and they feel they could eat everything, but once you break your fast, you’ll see that you’re not that hungry anymore. Everyone in the markets go crazy! They line up for up to a kilometre for even the tiniest and expensive spring rolls! I am so used to just eating chicken and rice that I don’t even bother with the food sold there. The desserts, though, they’re yummy! I wish we could buy them all too, especially the chocolate ones, but my mama says we must not waste, so we only buy one thing per day because she says fasting, for a kid, can be hard, so she tries to make it better by buying me a treat to eat for the fasting break in the evenings. That was what we did last year though. This year, my grandfather’s old car that my mama uses to go to the supermarket and all that is not working anymore (on the very first day of Ramadhan!) and we can’t get it fixed yet because my mama has too much to pay for this month, so all we do is stay at home and hurkle-durkle together until it’s time to eat!
I don’t like it when my grandmother asks me about Ramadhan, things she knows I already know but when I want to ask her about Christmas or Deepavali, she says she doesn’t need to know anything about them. I like to learn about everything and everyone, she’s missing out.
Anyway, I wanted to end this by saying, I wish we could get my two favourite desserts for breaking fast today. They’re called Kueh Lapis and Kek Lapis, and it’s funny because “Lapis” just means “layered” so both of my favourite things are layered things hahahaha. Kueh Lapis is pink and white layers of (my mama says) rice flour and tapioca flour steamed, and then cut into squares or rectangles. Kek Lapis on the other hand is a buttered layer cake, sort of like the mille crepe but they’re cooked like a cake. It’s hard to explain, but I hope you get it!
How are you celebrating Ramadhan this year? Anything interesting happening on your side of the world?
I'm so proud of you for not breaking your four year streak! We'll find the kueh lapis and kek lapis you want soon, okay?