Kenduri Doa Selamat & Birthdays

On 9th Sept 2007, my sisters and I decided to organise a pot luck kenduri (feast?) for tahlil (prayers recitals) Abah's 10th Hol Almarhum and later birthdays celebration of my hubby, my eldest sister, my brother, Millie and my Mom. All July, Aug, Sept and Oct. birthdays they are. Loads and loads of food there was!

I prepared the white rice, padprik campur (that is beef, chicken, squid, long beans, onions, cauliflower, carrots, baby sweetcorn, chillies, all cut into bite size, cooked with garlic, ginger and mixture of tomato ketchup, soy ketchup & oyster sauce), lemak kobis (cabbage in coconut milk) and drinks (hot tea and cold lemon syrup). My younger sister brought sambal tumis udang petai (prawn & smelly peas in chillie paste) and ikan keli goreng (fried small catfish), my elder sister brought ulam (local raw vegetables) & sambal belacan (chillie with prawn paste), my eldest siter brought the birthday carrot cake, my sister in law brought fried noodles, my Mom brought fried dried kurau fish, boiled salted duck eggs and tapai ubi (fermented tapioca) and my youngest aunt brought grilled red talapia fish. And everybody brought fruits. There were rambutans, dokong, rambai, melon and grapes.

The people were the whole of my siblings' families, my youngest aunt's family, my Mom, my aunt-cum-mother (Mak Yah), the newly weds (remember posting Teluk Intan?) and the groom's elder brother (my cousin).

We had a really good time of course!! We started with Maghrib prayers jemaah with Haakem as the muezzin reciting the call for prayers and Syahmi (my 6 year old nephew) reciting the qamat. And then, as we sisters started to lay the table, my hubby led the tahlil & prayers, at around 8pm we started with the fruits and later the main course.

Birthday cake was cut at around 9.15pm and after more chattings, stupid jokes, bursts of laughters, hugs & kisses, the guests started leaving at around 10.30pm, with my brother's family being the last to leave at 12.00 midnight.

Mak Yah retired by 11.00pm and after putting Millie (a very tired little hostess), I continued rearranging the furniture with hubby, who by 12.30 is sound asleep. I asked Bibik to go to bed and continue in the morning. Meanwhile I did some clearing ups and rearranging of stuff and went to bed at 1.30am. At 4.30am I was woken up by the very strong wind. I got up to close all doors and windows.

Alhamdulillah it all went well and we didn't have any left overs!! Good planning!