refleksi popiah basah

May 29, 2017

refleksi popiah basah

Time stamp : 2nd Ramadhan , 28th May 2017, Sunday

Location : Treherbert Street.

and literally the post will revolve around the making of popiah basah.

I had this random conversation with my house-mate about making popiah goreng for iftar, which requires us to walk a distance to get the outer layer of the popiah and I fancied some bean sprout as the fillings ( which bean sprouts will only be available in chinese stores ) , but we're just to lazy and suddenly there's this idea of making popiah basah instead.

Well I am not really a fan of popiah basah because sometimes I don't fancy its sogginess because to me popiah should be crispy on the outside and soft on the inside .

and it turns out that all the ingridients needed for the popiah basah is at home - the vinegar, the flour, the carrots and cabbages, the udang kering and all the onion, peanuts ( my mum sent me more of ground peanuts )

so popiah basah it is !

I did all the fillings - the condiments eiu condiments sounds not legit ( the sambal ) , the crushed peanut and the vege's while my housemate did the tougher part of it , the outer layer.

But I must admit she's a pro with this kuih melayu and whatnot - I tried once in the past with che mek molek but it turns horror, two hours of my life seems worthless , making the inedible che mek molek.

along the process there are plenty things to be reflected, it never crossed my mind in this three years that someday in one evening , I'll be making a popiah basah, its not a big deal for some , like mehhhh tu je but it is to me and my housemate haha because we rarely, like rarely cook something fancy.

Life had been revolving around tomyam or soup or most common one, the eggs and its variation.

and because you don't even like it at the first place, you tend to like not even feel like doing it but since its Ramadhan , I really enjoy doing it because the fact that we are feeding people who fast , Allah is surely very generous with his rewards.

Its not about the reward solely, but the feeling of feeding someone else, and the fact that I did that out of love ( because it's for my house mate hu hu) , it feels meaningful? I will forever savour this memory of making popiah basah.

And its definitely not an easy task , you got to like went through stages of process to make a legit popiah basah, hence it took so much of your time and energy - thank God I opt for a paprik today so I dump every vegetables I bought from Lidl yesterday in the pan and voila let the fire do its magic ( haha tipu , fire alone won't make a paprik out of vege's haha )

this reminds me of makcik makcik who sells popiah basah at the night market ( huwaaaa iMiss the bazar at intec huwaa ) , all these while we take things lightly, like buying popiah is as easy as saying 'Makcik popiah singgit' but when you tried it yourself, you tend to appreciate the whole entity of popiah alone - beneath it is someone who cooked the fillings, crushed the peanuts , make the sambal and most importantly they make a decent outer layer of popiah. We had to rewash the pan to remove the cracks and to start all over again - waiting for the pan to heat.

Now I am done for the day. I finished cooking at 8 and now lets wait for iftar at 9.17 I bet.