Hari Raya in Tanzania

Muslims the world over recently celebrated Eid. In Malaysia we call it Hari Raya which, when translated literally from Malay, means Celebration Day. The Engineer noticed that Eid is celebrated in a more sombre manner by the Muslims in Tanzania compared to those in Malaysia and I must say that I agree.

Back home, there'll be "lagu raya" or raya music blaring in every shopping mall in the weeks leading up to the big day and this never fails to evoke the raya spirit (I suppose this is an unfair comparison between Kuala Lumpur and Dar Es Salaam since there are no malls here from which to blare anything!).

Certain streets, even in the middle of KL, will be lined with little stalls selling Malay cakes, cookies, curries and other goodies every single evening throughout the fasting month. This is to cater to busy Muslims who don't cook at home when they break their fast every day.

However, an observer would notice that Malaysians (and even expatriates) from every race, religion and walk of life will throng these little stalls for a taste of excellent Malay cooking at very affordable prices.Thinking about all this left the Engineer and I a little homesick so we decided that we couldn't go home to Malaysia then we'd have to find a way to bring a little bit of Malaysia to us.

So, I downloaded some of our favourite Raya songs online and played it full blast while we both cooked up a very Malaysian meal - nasi lemak. It's a very simple and delicious dish of coconut rice and boiled eggs eaten with a spicy, sweet anchovy sambal (sauce). This is what we came up with:




Considering that we were both previously good only at eating nasi lemak and had never tried making it (we usually wait for our mums to cook it up for us), we thought it turned out pretty good.

Silver lining: We didn't capture the true feel of the Malaysian Raya spirit but now, at least, we know how to make a pretty good nasi lemak!