::footprints of ie|en

Ketupat Anyone?

My company recently organized a Hari Raya open house. As usual in true Malaysian-style fashion, food came in abundance. There was a cendol/ABC stall, a Penang fried kuey teow stall, heaps of kuihs and all sorts of other food.

And in true Malaysian fashion as well, the following were observed:

• People took more food than they could finish. So the amount of leftovers win over the amount of food that actually went into everyone’s stomachs.

• Malaysians are like ‘hantu kelaparan’ (hungry ghosts). The gentlest of all will actually push around to get food.

• People crowded in front of stalls so that they could take 2nd, 3rd, 4th and God only knows how many helpings, thus depriving others of trying the food.

Anyways, a group of us from the same department decided that each of us should go to different stalls to bring back enough food for everyone as the queues were horrendous. I have to add that unlike those who took a lot and never finish their food, we did finish ours.

So … I went to this stall labeled ‘Ketupat & Lemang’. I took some lemangs and some ketupats that are still wrapped in coconut leaves and tied together. When it was time to dig into the ketupats, we realized that they were not cut yet.

Since I was the one who took them, I took the entire bunch back to the stall and the following conversation with the waitress ensued:

Me : Could you cut these open for me?
Waitress: I’m sorry but these are for decoration purposes.

Thank God no one was hovering near that stall. And the next time I see a ketupat, I’ll prolly burst out laughing and everyone around me will think that I’m a nutcase.

posted by ie|en @ 6:51 PM