Last week I posted a blog about Ramadan and associated food rituals. That was two weeks after Hari Raya when I thought that the Open House (rumah terbuka) activities were finished, but since then I have attended four more Open Houses and am wondering how long this goes on for? My sources tell me that the Malaysian Open House period has been getting longer and longer and now covers one month. So, during this period, you might still receive invitations to an Open House where Muslims literally welcome family, friends, and friends of friends into their homes to enjoy food and company and celebrate the end of Ramadan. I would say that this event celebrates life itself. My friend Lekha Nandey tells me that, as a youngster, she might have attended ten Open Houses in one day, and that is at a time when fewer people had cars and had to take a bus or walk! Now for those of you unfamiliar with Johor Bahru, taking a bus or walking, is a challenge here even today!
For the younger members of the family, Open House is a time when they might receive a green envelope with money (duit raya) from an elder. This is much like the red packet tradition in Chinese communities during Chinese New Year. In Hong Kong, it was still the tradition, at least in the New Territories villages, that new clothes should be worn on Chinese New Year Day, and you often saw younger children wearing red. In Malaysia, families also like to wear new clothes during Hari Raya and you can see whole family groups colour-coordinated.
I have attended seven Open Houses this year and discovered that you really can’t beat home cooking! Some of these events were catered, serving much the same dishes. But, in two of the homes visited today, the food was home cooked and by far the tastiest. I resisted taking photos until the last house as the spread of food on the table was so eye-catching. This was the home of Lekha’s relatives so I felt more comfortable taking photos there.
The ingredients on the table came together to make ‘soto’, which is basically a chicken broth flavoured with star anise, cloves, cardamon, cinnamon, and coconut milk. To this you add pressed rice or rice noodles, shredded chicken, bean sprouts and fried garlic. I ate this also at the Cerebral Palsy Association’s Open House earlier this week, at that too was delicious. You can spice it up with a sambal, but I like it purely because it is not spicy. Earlier today I ate some Penang Laksa (as the host was from Penang) which is a fish-based broth but that had a chilli kick to it which I managed to temper with some kalamansi limes.
The last dish I will show you is called ‘mee siput’ or snail noodles. As we left out first Open House today, the hostess gave us a pink bag containing a food gift. I think this is a typical dish of Johor in which the noodles are deep fried in a snail-shell shape and eaten as a snack with a sambal (the red sauce). Snail noodles are not made of snails, although when you search the internet to identify foods, sometimes Google Translate leaves matters open to interpretation!
So, my thanks to all the wonderful hosts who found an unexpected guest at their homes today.
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