Minah Kuih
I found this pic on a fellow NIE student’s website, I think she was the official photographer of the cultural night we had last friday (the one where I was in charge of food?) Thanks Murni for taking a pic which can be used as evidence that we were in charge of food (see? That’s the aluminium foil we used to wrap the trays…)
Me and my buddy, Kak Shikin, we were the minah kuih, who ordered $300 worth of kuih, picked all 13 boxes of them from the kuih maker’s home, arranged the kuihs painstakingly on 3 tables, and frantically packed and forced everyone to take home what was left uneaten. Which was EVERYTHING.
Till today, I cannot bring myself to look at a putri salat without feeling sick. Good thing I was never a big fan.
It was a hectic night, but I will remember it always; the bitching, the complaining, the backing-each-other-up and the laughter of course. Lots of it.
Thanks kak kin for making the irritating bits (PEOPLE) of NIE bearable.
Actually, thanks for stopping me from strangling them. Yes, all TWO of them. 
Kuih Krazy
What a crazy night it has been. And I can’t believe I am sleepless after tiring myself out the whole freaking evening.
Well actually it has been a crazy 3-4 weeks since school reopened. I have been staying back in the NIE library till it closes (that’s about 8pm?) on Mondays and Thursdays. Tuesdays I have my ah-lien make up class (it never seems to end!) Wednesdays is Husband’s day off, and Weekends (which begin on Friday cos no classes! YIPPEE!!!) are family days.
Basically, I am tired.
Two of my lecturers thought it’d be a good idea to submit reader responses for every piece of weekly reading/tutorial. Both responses are due every Sunday (one at 8pm, the other at midnight), so midweek onwards, I’m just poring over loooooong readings/ researches and then analyzing them, and then typing my 300-400 word response.
Sometimes I’m just so tempted to type ‘Apa sey? Apa sey? Apa sey?’ (repeat 300-400 times) (can be loosely translated as ‘what the hell is this? what the hell is this?)
And most other times I’m so close to typing ‘no understand leh’ (repeat 300-400 times).
At least I got respond mahhh.
I haven’t even started on the assignments and presentations which are due from next two weeks onwards, progressively (meaning, every week i’ve got one assignment/ presentation to work on).
And you know what’s the best part about all this?
I love it.
Yeah, you heard me right. I love it.
I just have to think about what I would be doing now if I were still teaching and not studying. Needless to say, I am having a glorious time here in NIE, and would do it gladly ten times over compared to teaching. Well studying (and getting paid to do it) is definitely more enjoyable and enriching than any job, for that matter. Maybe Mr. Moe will pay me to study? Forever and ever???
Okay back to my story about my tiring night.
The ML dept in NIE organized a cultural event tonight, with the usual concert proper, poetry recital, dance, music (by my fave musicians Sri Mahligai) and drama. Since all of us HAD to contribute in one way or another, me and my friend Kak Kin decided, there is no way in hell we will be DANCING or RECITING POETRY, so we were in charge of food. Let the young ones do the performing, thank you. And let the mak budak do the kitchen work.
We were told to order $300 worth of kuih, so we did. And we ended up with SO SO SO SO much kuih, more than I’ve ever seen in my whole life. Imagine, the kuih aunty told me that for a wedding with 1000 guests, 5 trays of kuih is just right.
I ordered 3 trays for 300 guests.
And multiply that by 4 types of kuih.
Gulp. I smell coconuttttt……
We started arranging the kuih for the reception after the concert on three tables. Unluckily, the whole thing lapsed till 11 freaking pm that we ended up stuffing doggie bags with the four types of kuih and FORCING everyone to BRING THEM HOME. I made the lecturers bring back boxes and boxes of kuih, as many as they can carry. The other invited guests too were not spared. Anyone who lingered around the serving table would be shoved with at least 4 plastic bags of the assorted kuih. It was brutal but it had to be done.
We even contemplated on giving the workers at the construction site next to the theatre packed kuih too.
We HAD to leave at about 11.15pm (Kak Kin’s hubby was kind enough to send me home), leaving ONE buffet table still quite full with trays of kuih. It’s just not our problem, I guess. If we hadn’t ordered sooo much, knowing not many people are interested to linger around the most ulu part of singapore till 12am to eat kuih and drink marigold packet drinks, this wouldn’t have happened. But somebody insisted that we USE UP all the $300 (it was a do-or-die type of thing), so, that somebody answer the question lorrr….
And we told that person to have the reception BEFORE the event started at 8pm. It’s freaking friday night you know. Would you stay around in the godforsaken place after 11pm? Many guests were sneaking out to get away. I totally understand them cos hell, I would have done the same thing if I weren’t involved.
When a few of the students were leaving without eating, I ATTACKED them armed with bags and bags of kuih lapis and putri salat. They were glad and thankful for the doggie bags cos they were actually hungry but had NO TIME to eat (“last train at 11.30 tau kak!”). Poor things.
Kak Kin and I had a fair share of colourful kuih to bring home, and I really should open table and sell them tomorrow morning at the void deck or something. That’s how much kuih I have.
It was madness, us laying the kuih painstakinly onto the trays, only to stuff them into small plastic bags later. Waste my current only. Sigh.
Moral of the story:
1) $300 for 300 people is a sorry-ass budget for a formal function and nobody in the right mind will cook for $1 per head.
2) If you’re gonna spend $200 on 200 pieces of curry puff, please give me that money and I can make it stretch a loooooong way.
3) If you’re gonna make one kind sponsor spend $150 on 300 marigold packet drinks, please please please give me that money too.
4) Which means I will have $300+$200+$150 = $550 to CATER FOOD FROM A PROPER CATERER WHO WILL KNOW HOW TO ESTIMATE AND SERVE A DECENT SPREAD OF FOODDD AND AND AND CLEAN UP THE MESS!
Some people ah, really really really don’t know how to do things. Action like real only, but maths (and IQ) weak like anything.
…So now I can’t sleep, and I can’t get the smell of the coconut milk and the vibrant colours of the kuih out of my head…
I have 6 million more of these at home.
No, really. (Coffee not included.)
Oh what a night.
BusyBee
Yes. School finally STARTED last monday (after THREE long months of IDLING.)
And since then I’ve been busy busy busy. Right from day one assignments and projects and reader’s responses and presentation deadlines came gushing in, so…not really good news there.
I haven’t touched my laptop for ages, so both blogs have gone silent. I foresee it will be this way very often now because I have more modules to do this semester and more conscientiousness in my studies. Well at least FOR NOW (must enjoy this ride while it lasts!!!)
It’s great to be back in school again. (This is the canteen food talking.)
Boiled Noodles
Boiled noodles = mee rebus.
Now, whoever gave the name mee rebus to this dish, probably didn’t know much English. Or cooking. Because the only actual ‘boiling’ was to cook the eggs. And the yellow noodles, they are blanched.
This bowl of mee rebus you can’t get from the shops, loaded excessively with chillies, tauhu, chilli, bawang goreng and fried gerago shrimp. Or maybe I’ll sell it to you for $5?
It was a pity I was too lazy to get chicken wings, or else this dish will be nicely topped off with crispy fried chicken wings (goes VERY well with the gravy as a dip, trust me). No animals (SADLY) were hurt in the making of this dish (the shrimps don’t count).
And what more could a man ask for, than to complete his meal with a glass of cold homemade sirap limau?
And what more could disappoint the woman who cooked this than to hear the man say, “Errr….actually I had mee rebus for lunch today”. 
Don’t worry folks, he lapped it up anyway. 
