It’s the 1st of June today which means it’s the Gawai Dayak Festival and here’s wishing everyone…
For the uninitiated, the Gawai Dayak or Harvest Festival is celebrated by the ethnic races here in Sarawak, one of the two Malaysian states (the other being Sabah) located to the east across the South China Sea from the mainland, in the northern part of Borneo island. If you are interested in finding out more, you can click and watch this very nice video on that very special occasion…
This festival coincides with the school holidays every year and when my girl came home on Friday afternoon, she said that the traffic on our Pan-Borneo truck road was very heavy and needless to say, it would be worse in the following two days preceding the festival when everyone would be rushing home to their longhouses and of course, the boats along the majestic Rejang River would be packed to the brim, ferrying everybody back home to the ones along the river and its many tributaries to celebrate this auspicious occasion.
We do not have any specific plans for the 2-week holidays which, I am sure, would go by very fast but on Saturday, my girl said that she wanted what her mum had the week before – the pili-pili grilled chicken rice (RM9.00)…
…so of course, we made our way there so she could get what she was craving for. It seems that she prefers this as she has never been fond of anything with raisins in it so she never particularly likes the nasi minyak/kunyit/kuning that we would cook sometimes as we would always have raisins in that…
*Archive photo*
She loved the chicken and the dips a lot – she said they went so absolutely well with the meat and also the rice.
She is a fan of fritters (or anything deep-fried for that matter) so I ordered what we had the other day (6 for RM1.00)…
…and shared them among the three of us and yes, she enjoyed them very much.
The ayam penyet rice from the nasi lemak stall was still not available so I ordered this nasi bryani Pakistan (RM8.00)…
…from the stall next to it. It was quite nice and that is about all I can say about it, even with the whatever dip…
…that came with it.
My missus ordered the mee goreng basah or fried noodles with sauce (RM4.00)…
…from that same stall but she did not say anything about it. I guess it is pretty obvious from the look of it that it isn’t anything to shout about.
I ordered this ang tao peng or iced red bean dessert (RM3.00)…
…from the drink/tumpik/cucur stall (No. 10) and it was very nice! They were so very generous with the evaporated milk so it was really very rich and creamy and there was a whole lot of gula Melaka (palm sugar) too so I had to stir it a bit to melt the ice or it would be a little too sweet for me.
I would have loved it more if they had used the small red beans instead of these bigger ones…
…but they were not too bad as well.
So that was our lunch that day, Saturday…to start off our eating spree in the weeks to come.
Moving away from that, I just want to add here that the wife of an ex-student of mine dropped by my house, Friday afternoon. She was helping a friend to sell these…
…and of course, I did not mind chipping in for a worthy cause. Actually, my girl was helping out voluntarily at that centre before she got her posting to her present school, teaching the special kids there without asking for payment of any kind but since she did not get a place in one of the schools in town, she was forced to stop as it would not be possible for her to go there every afternoon to do what she can. This food fair will be on a Saturday so that means my girl will be home and can go along with us and of course, we will be delighted to drop by to see what they may have in store.
It certainly was very sweet and thoughtful of my ex-student’s wife to bring along these…
…bars of soap to give to me – she makes them herself using all-natural ingredients, none of those chemicals, and according to her, she would be selling them at the fair too. I’ll give them a try and who knows, I may want to buy some more from her when the time comes.
So those of you who are from around here or will be in town on that date in question, do drop by and do your bit to help. As they always say, what goes around comes around…
...STILL CRAZY AFTER ALL THESE YEARS! 
The bars of soap look so “delicious” to me, muahaha, I think they must smell nice
Yes, very nice.
The chicken and rice….mmmmm. 🙂
So many varieties and versions to choose from.
Happy Harvest Festival!
Thanks.
Yep, two weeks school holidays.. But it will still be another ordinary day for us coz we’ll be working, and the boys still go to daycare as usual, just no classes, that’s all.. Ahh, ang tao peng, very rich and creamy, and looks very sweet too.. I like..
Yes, the extra gula Melaka made it very sweet – I had to stir for a while for the ice to melt till it was not so sweet, just nice for me.
Happy Holiday! Traffic was so smooth to office today 😛
Ahhhhh….school holidays, eh? They all come out later…and the malls would be so terribly crowded. 😦
Crazy hot weather like these days, that bowl of ang tao peng is most welcome. Look absolutely heavenly with the gula melaka and even better with santan. Slurpppppp!!!!!
Heavy rain here yesterday, at least not so hot. I don’t mind milk – last time around the 70’s, in Kuching, they only used milk, no santan…the ang tao cendol was different from Sibu and we loved it so much – open air one or St Mike canteen one! Now I think most people prefer santan. 😀
Evaporated milk? Is that another way of saying, condensed milk? Have to cut down on that, mother of all diabetes monsters!
Nope, two different things. Evaporated milk is not sweet…and what condensed milk? It’s all palm oil now, sweetened creamer, they call it…and “butter” is lepa susu, whatever that is! None for me, thank you.
Happy Gawai Arthur! It has been so long I didn’t drop comments here. Hahah…
I think you’ve improved your shooting skills. I can see the way you took the ais kacang.
Ya, I love the nasi minyak with raisins on top! 🙂
Yes, long time no see. Was wondering why you do not want to drop by anymore.
Not really, still the same ol’ not-so-good camera and the same old shaky hands. This was on a bright sunny afternoon so photos would turn out much nicer.
I love nasi minyak too, very fragrant.
Today Vesak Day over here…
Our Vesak Day was early in May – the dates vary in between countries, it seems and the precise dates may differ depending on which calendar is being used.
The bars of soap are adorable. I make my own soap also. This past weekend, I was knitting up a few washcloths for the BF. We already have plenty in our home. The verdict? He likes them very much, and was impressed that the knitted stitch, that was used – moss stitch, helped produce a lot of lather.
Oh? It makes a difference, does it? The one with the cute little witch is for the dishes – the other two are bath soaps.
Oh oh.. I am late here… Anyway, Happy Gawai to those who are still celebrating! The desserts are the ones I would love to taste!!
Too busy enjoying yourself mah! Good, good…have the time of your life, why waste it online…which you can jolly well do the same at home?
I like the first picture very much ya, did you edit it yourself??
Nope, I just cropped away the name of the political party at the bottom. 😉
I personally have not try this handmade soap before. I have a relative who venturing into this business. How come she never ask me to try.ahhahahah
You can always ask… 😉