Saturday, March 21, 2009

Memasak

‘Memasak’ was one of considerably more popular project tasks with students judging by how quickly its slots were taken up upon the start of project registration. Apart from allowing these students a first-hand experience at the foods, other students were also introduced to these dishes when the memasak students presented a recollection of the process. Even better, each and every student of course was given a treat as the memasak students prepared these Indonesian traditional foods to cater to some 200 persons after the concert of colourful performances put up by their fellow peers. This would not have been possible if not for the gracious Ibus who welcomed the memasak students into their homes and taught them how to prepare the delicious Indonesian foods. Some of these included Tahu Isi, Bakwan Jagung, Klepon and Onde-Onde. ‘Live to Eat’ and not ‘Eat to Live’ seems to be popular with Singaporeans. With no exception, the memasak students’ love for food must have rendered their cooking sessions with the Ibus fun and successful. Some of these mahasiswa dari grup memasak also related how they thought the 'motherliness' in the Ibus made the whole cooking session even more comfortable and enjoyable! The Ibus too looked like they enjoyed sharing the Indonesian specialities of their hometown. And the other students sure looked like they enjoyed the treats as they helped themselves to the array of appetizers, sumptuous foods and yummy desserts catered for them by the grup memasak on the D-day!

Gracious Ibu Eli teaching her mahasiswas how to make the healthy appetizer, Tahu Isi and the delicious, crispy Bakwan Jagung. The two, are appetizers fried to golden-brown and crisp.

Mahasiswas having fun at their first attempt at cooking foods that were new to them

Conscientious mahasiswas at work

Tahu Isi, as the name suggests is a beancurd (tahu putih) stuffed with ingredients, largely vegetables like taoge, making it a very yummy and healthy appetizer. It is savoury and tasty. Fans of spicy foods may eat this snack with cabai hijau (green chilli padi). The secret to making delicious Tahu Isi probably lies in stuffing the tahu putih with the right amount of ingredients to prevent imbalance or the tahu from splitting open.

Bakwan Jagung is a dough fritter cooked with corn, carrots and spring onions. Isn’t it amazing that such simple ingredients can translate to such mouth-watering savoury-sweet bite-sized snacks?

The memasak sessions not only resulted in the production of some very delicious, novel-to-most-students traditional foods of Indonesia but also allowed the warmth and close-knittedness of the Indonesian community to be felt through the 'motherliness' exuded by the gracious Ibus! What a wonderful project!

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