From Resipi Ondeh-ondeh to "Evening Is The Whole Day"

ToDAY, I just want to wax lyrical about Preeta, my dear friend from school girl days in Ipoh, who successfully chased her dreams, kinda like how we used to chase men around the school compound... well okay NO we didn't really chase them but it was fun to pretend... that there were men worth chasing... in the school compound, hahaa! Let's see there was - Muniandy the gardener, with muscles (ok, actually tummy) bulging under his darkblu shert as he hoisted pot(belly)s about, watered pavement n plants and ripped up weeds... all to Sr. Maureen's beck and call. The roti canai man, tall dark and um reeking of roti-dough, arms sinewy from all that kneading. And dontokk about the kacang puteh man, with his five o' clock shadow........ Hey we didn't have much choice back then okayy, the male presence in school could be counted off one hand. I could waste more time describing how hot n bothered some girls would get whenever St Michael's School boys came over to sell their Annual School Play tickets! Worrrrssse still if Ipoh happened to host Junior World Cup Hockey. O well whatudu, we just focused on chasing Real Men like Muniandy........................................

BUT... I digress, as always. I currently await the arrival of Preeta's debut novel Evening Is The Whole Day, once I get my skinny fingers on it, I think I might find myself back at Main Convent Ipoh in 1988. Probably sitting by the volleyball court sharing guava and assam with Preeta while she tells one of her neverending, effervescent stories... Those stories, they really snare you senses like an invisible force; no, like a television set! I can spend hours and DAYS transfixed by her imagination, it explodes, splatters and is delightful to savour, and coincidentally, she once told me a story about cheese on pizza in her oven that could be described with those very same words :-D Just ANY topic would become a lively colourful tapestry of thoughts, words and images - her liking for rust-coloured stuff, my uncle Sai Choy, tree lizards in her mailbox, my horrific misinterpretation of her drawing of a pair of scissors, boredom-skewed insects crawling out of our brain during Ad Maths... and possibly best of all, the sillypoems that used to form as we talked, joked, laughed, connected. Here's one that's still in my head; it was formed after English class with Mrs Joseph (not me!), also called The Glider (no intended inference to grace or aviatory streamlinedness there... unfortunately). She used to get very disgruntled with any expression, verbal or written, that was beyond her rather puny grasp. So all our work for her had to be kept simple and uncreative. I can't remember if we named this poem:

I like to sew, I like to cook,
I like to read some story book.
I see vindow, I go and look;
I see a very handsome crook!
I swim vith him along the brook,
He come and eat vhat I cook.
Then Mr Joseph come and look,
And he catch us by the hook;
I vill howl like a rook,
"Aiyo-yo, my handsome crook,
I think ve made a big mistook!"

If Preeta happens by this blog anytime, I vill ask her to plees to be correcting any mistooks in der poem, vokeii... :-D

Oh, and the weird blog title? Refers to her infamous Bahasa Malaysia essay on making ondeh-ondeh, those grated-coconut-flecked green glutinous balls containing palm sugar (gula melaka). Preeta's recipe calls for the use of a *syringe* to inject the filling into the balls; yea from memory of BM teacher (aiya, forgot her name) reading out her essay, the 'condemned' part is where you have to "guna picagari untuk menyuntik gula melaka ke dalam ondeh ondeh". I suppose for a regular school teacher, its preposterous for a 13-year-old girl to get the recipe SO wrong. WHERE got people use picagari to make ondeh-ondeh?? It was a good laugh, for everyone including poor teacher eventually, despite her attempt to express extreme exasperation - for the lack of listening comprehension for Resipi Ondeh-ondeh. Can't blame us la cikgu, so many distractions; Muniandy was probably carrying flower pots past the classroom that time...

For the benefit of those who would like a REAL recipe and some photos for better effect, here is a good place to ogle at a variety of the original -- its *Orange* Ondeh-ondeh but looks as delicious as the Green, and does not require a syringe http://bakingmum.blogspot.com/2006/05/ondeh-ondeh.html, permission to use link kindly granted from blog owner -- thanks BakingMum :-D

So to complete my goingonandonandonoquy, here is a scanned article from Jun 08's TimeOut KL magazine:


I tell you all ah ... Preeta write very good one!! AKU GERENTI DIA PUNYA CERITA SEMUA BEST HABIS... !!