Tom Pepinsky

Month: February 2005

  • New Loudspeaker

    The big mosque next door to us got a new loudspeaker this week.  This means that instead of loud, the calls to prayer and general announcements are deafening, especially at four in the morning.  It is loud enough that it’s hard to watch TV; even with the sound turned way up, it just sounds like cacophony.  On the other hand, now we can tell what they are talking about when they make announcements.  For instance, the morning announcements (at 4:00 AM) start with "Bapak-bapak…ibu-ibu…sekarang waktu bangun…Bangun…Lebih baik bangun daripada tidur…Bangun…BANGUN…"  Which translates as "fathers…mothers…now it’s time to wake up…wake up…it’s better to wake up than to sleep…wake up…WAKE UP…"  After that there’s usually some sort of announcement about what’s going on that day.  Then the muezzin follows this with a very simple verse, sort of sung, sort of chanted, which he repeats for approximately six months.  OK, maybe only about 10 minutes.  This sounds like it’s in Arabic.  Then they do a prayer, which is also in Arabic, which they repeat a lot.  At which time we’ve had enough time to go to the bathroom, walk around, stare at the ceiling, and think about we hope it’s quieter in Malaysia.

  • Paket Pisang

    These are a great dessert.  It does require banana leaves though, so get on over to your local Hispanic grocery store and practice your Spanish.  You may even be able to buy them online if you like.  You also need a steamer.

    The bananas you use for this are not the regular big telephone bananas that you get for lunch.  Rather, these are small guys, like you’d get on an airplane, that are a bit less delicious if eaten raw but good cooked.  Their flavor is deeper than a regular banana with more of a tropical, honey-like taste than the big blunt flavor of the (still delicious) kind you normally find in the US.  If you cannot find these (again, look at the Hispanic store), you could try very unripe very large regular bananas, cut in half crosswise first.  If you are feeling adventuresome, you could probably get the right taste using a very ripe plaintain.

    Filling
    250 grams of glutinous rice, soaked in water for two hours.
    1/2 cup thick unsweetened coconut milk
    2 tbsp. sugar
    1/2 tsp. salt
    6 cooking bananas, halved lengthwise

    Wrapping
    24 8cm by 8cm banana leaf squares, softened by dipping in boiling water for a second
    string or toothpicks

    Steam the rice over boiling water for 15 minutes.  While rice is steaming, heat sugar, salt, and coconut milk over low heat until hot and blended.  When rice is steamed, add it to the milk mix and stir until the rice soaks up all of the mixture.  (The rice won’t be quite done yet; this is ok).

    Arrange two banana leaf squares, shiny side toward you, on a plate.  Place one-twelfth (like two tablespoons or so) of the rice in the middle, and squish a banana half into it.  Rolle the banana leaves up like an eggroll or a burrito, and fix shut with either string or toothpicks.  Repeat with the other 11 bananas.

    Place the banana packets in a steamer and steam over boiling water for 35 minutes.  Remove from heat and let cool to room temperature, then serve.  They look like this.