Assalamualaikum.
Due to seek for some adventures, knowing more people, I signed up as volunteer for iM4U program that was held at Pusat Jagaan Kanan-Kanak Rapha to celebrate Chinese New Year with them. It was good to know some people, made the kids there happy and realized that I have to be more and more grateful to be able having my parents by my side. I just couldn't imagine how my life would be if they are gone. My life would miserable, for sure. Oh Mum and Dad. I love you guys so much.
So, as arranged, on 15 Feb, I went to the address that was told by an operator. Arrived there, all I can see are male, male and male. about ten guys and one girl. All that I know is all of them were from Politeknik while the one whose had a small chat with me was from UIA Gambang. Pharmacist-to-be.
After the girls including me were done with cooking dishes(actually we just pre-heat them, cooked some simple vegetables dishes and slices chicken meat and cooked rice), and the lion dancers done with ktung-ktang,ktung,ktang, the children whose were just got back from The Church were allowed to enter the 'food court'(Dewan Makan). So, I helped with the kids to get their seats, and gave them chopsticks for a ceremony that is related with a type of dishes called, Yee Sang.
First of all, the person who was in charged with iM4U from KL were Malays. 3 of them are female, two of the 3 boys I'm sure there are Malays, Islam but the other one I'm not sure. They bought food from restaurant that I don't know the source; whether Haram or Halal. Because it was totally like, Chinese food. Just imagine, daun salad dicelur dan dihidangkan dengan Oyster sauce. The sauce, I was totally not sure what was the ingredients to make the sauce. And hey, hey! Not only the sauce but also other 3 more dishes. I wanted to ask them but, it would be probably end up like, "Hey, I'm Islam too!" So Sis Ilham and I were decided to never touch Yee Sang and other dishes. We would just have KFC fried chicken that sponsored by sponsors, and rice only. Well, the rice for about 70 people were cooked by me, so I guaranteed that it is Halal. Well, what can you pun in rice cooker? Pork? Haha.
And, about the Yee Sang. It was prepared by Sis Ilham, the other two Malay sis from UIA that I couldn't remember their names and me. Four of us. The ingredients of Yee Sang was just like pickled vegetables, fried chruncy stuffs, few packets of hell I don't know what it is, two apples, a pear, oil and souce. The sauce and oil was packed in a typical plastic that are transparent. Besides, all those ingredients to make the Yee Sang was in a boxes(there are two boxes of Yee Sang for two large plate of Yee Sang) the boxes was like... No halal trademark, nothing written in English or Malay but only some Chinese word that is traditional Chinese. I can only read simple Chinese words!
So, during the ceremony of 'angkat Yee Sang tinggi-tinggi yang macam dalam TV tu' the kids took the plates and put Yee Sang on their plates, add rice and some other side dishes. Meanwhile, I went to busy myself by distributing plates and, I don't really remember what I did at the moment. Suddenly, the iM4U from KL staff called me. I think he's Malay by the way he called me and he speaks Bahasa Melayu fluently with me. He's about in twenties.
Awak, awak, mari sini.
I turned around just in case that I would not make myself ashamed if he was intend to call other people, not me.
Saya?
Ya,ya, awaklah.
I walked to him. I saw Sis Ilham was sitting behind him with....her hand that was holding chopsticks. And the chopsticks was like...
Awak dah rasa ke belum ni?
He gave me a pair of chopsticks. I was totally flabbergasted at the moment!
Belum, takpa, nanti saya rasa.
I was hoping he will say "Ok". And we know that it did not happened.
Tengok ni, Yee Sang ni ada, err.. sayur... ada carrot... anda buah... boleh makan.
I know what was in the Yee Sang because I prepared them!(note: different type of Yee Sang have different ingredients such as salmon fish) He tried to convince me but it wasn't convincing at all. All I want was to reject him. And again, we know that it did not happened.
We was surrounding by the kids and about 20 of adult that sponsored the kids' living expenses there and they were all chinese. There were some Malays but Malays doesn't matter. I dig my brain to find excuses so that I don't have to eat in front of him right away. But nothing crossed my mind! I know that I have to read the du'a of Nabi Sulaiman more often than I used to pray.
I took the chopsticks and took the pear. The pear was cut by me so, I have all the confident to eat the sliced pear.
Lah,, sikitnya makan? Ambillah banyak sikit. Reti guna chopstick tak?
I looked at him in disbelieving... I was from Chinese school, remember? Of course I used to use chopsticks. So I closed my eyes and grab quite lot of stuffs in my chopsticks including pickled carrots. I looked at the carrots and some other pickled vegetables that was stains with unknown sauce. Then, sense got into myself. I took quite many. So I put it back, let it fall and grabbed some with small quantity and it just like... suddenly it was in my mouth. I smiled at him and walked away from him. The taste of sauce got into my taste bud. I walked faster to a roll of tissues and sat down beside Sis Ilham. I turned around where no one behind me and everything in my mouth was already in the tissue. Few seconds later I was in front of the sink. Spitted out everything out of my mouth. I couldn't believe myself that I didn't telan air liur for about 2 minutes. It tasted totally disgusting. I did not used with the taste. the taste was like... Oh my. Oh Chinese who is reading this, no offense, please. it just same as the way when you said you hate tart nenas. A chinese girl said it taste like poo.
Moral of the story... In a Chinese community places and surrounding with syubhah food, a Muslim should just say, "I'm fasting".
#I really hope that the iM4U staff really bought Yee Sang sauce that are from Halal restaurant or Chinese-Muslims restaurant... I really hope so.
No comments:
Post a Comment