31st March 2012. Saturday. Sofiah's son, Firdaus, was holding the wedding reception at our housing estate. She lived across my house. Let's said it's an L-shape and my house was on the horizontal. She had asked that she might used my area as the reception area for the 2,000 guests invited, as the main cooking area for the guests and storing purposes. Noor and I were delighted and happy to oblige a neighbour and a friend whom we had known since we first moved here. My house was the end lot so we had the plot of land that was part of the playground. It is just opposite the playground. We knew it would involve a lot of work but ...I really did not expect to be flat out after the khenduri!!!!
It started on Thursday, 29th March. I came home late and found that they had already put up the 6 tents in front of my house. Thus, I could not enter to park my car. So, I parked it at the next lane. That night they had already put up some tables and chairs. Friday, 30th March, they started after solat Subuh. Din and company came about 6:45am and brought along all the cooking utensils, gas cylinders, pots and pans, .... the works. Half the porch was taken up. Luckily, Sofiah and her side of neighbours prepared breakfast. The week before, when Zin was here, Noor and he cleared out the plot of land. Two tents were erected for the kitchen and preparation. By noon, the 110 chickens arrived. It was cut into 20 pieces. Thus, we have a total of 2,200 pieces to clean up. It had to be done immediately so that they would not be spoilt. So, the ladies who had been around since morning started to clean up the chicken. Then, another group came to replace the first who wanted to go home for their prayers. Lunch was cooked by other neighbours. Just a simple buffet of ulam, sambal belacan, gulai ikan kering, ikan kembong goreng and sayur kubis. Sedap pulak makan ramai-ramai. After prayers, the men started coming to set up the stove and kitchen. So, Kak Wan, being the main chef, started frying the chicken so that they would not go bad. We started with the onions, ginger and so forth. By solat maghrib, the chicken were fried. Kak Wan prepared the chilli which took almost 3 hours to cook with slow fire. At the same time, the men started cutting off the beef when it arrived after 5:00pm. Pak Alang, who was in charge of cooking the gulai, prepared his rempah and started to cook it that night. By the time, we cleaned up for the day, it was almost 11:30pm. I was so tired! I put my head on the pillow and slept like a dead log!.
Saturday also started early. The main cooks came and started cooking at 7:00am. I had to go to school for the PIBG meeting. Datuk Lat Shariman, the Pegawai Tugas-Tugas Khas PM aka the PA came to officiate the meeting. I asked HM if I could go home earlier since I was having the khenduri at my house. He okayed it. I went back around 10:30am after Datuk Lat had given his opening speech. When I reached home around 11:00am, almost everything was ready. The men, led by Che Din, had steamed the nasi minyak. It was the first time I could observe how to cook this 'nasi apollo' as they called it here. Usually, women did not mix with the men so I had never seen it done. Now, it was at my house area, so I was free to go between the women and men areas. I stayed to watch and learn. I studied and asked questions on how to steam the rice. Interesting. I learned something new today. Alhamdulillah. I'm going to try cooking nasi lemak this way. By noon, the guests started to arrive. We were kept busy with the food, more cooking of the rice, making sure the dirty plates were washed, the tables were cleared up, the food replenished....we only took breaks for prayers. By 4:30pm, the guests were trickling down. We started to clean up. We finally cleared up everything including washing the pots and pans, clearing up the kitchen area, even sending back the kitchen utensils and everything by solat maghrib. I was beat! I was so dead tired! I think all of us were.
After solat maghrib, I just laid down on the bed and fell asleep. I was too tired to even eat. We were really feeling our age. :-) The moral of the gotong royong? When it's the boys turn....I'll opt for catering services :=D
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