Bidan Terjun

What was supposed to be a quiet and uneventful weekend turned out to be a rather frenzied and a frantic one for me. It all started with a phone call from my best friend (pictured above) on Thursday saying that he needed some kueh, fruits and a cake for his cousin-in-law's engagement Saturday morning. I was like.....excuse me.. it's two days' to go?

No doubt he did mention to me a couple weeks back that he would need my (rather wifey's) help for three trays of hantaran (gifts) for the engagement-but it was not a firm request. It was difficult to say no (you now how you may-be-at-the-other-end-some-day kinda feeling - that's how exactly I felt) and I said yes of course without wifey's cocurrence (since she will be doing most of the decorating the hantaran etc) which incurred her wrath obviously (for not too long though).

First stop was the Bakery ( a french bakery in Ampang Jaya), owned by this lovely french couple which they opened a few years back. They fell in love with Malaysia when they visited their offsring here, that they sold off their bakery in Paris and currently making Kuala Lumpur their place of abode. Breads are freshly baked daily- our alltime fave is the sundried tomato bread (can be a bit spicy) we normally have it with kacang pool (mixed beans cooked in kurma paste with minced meat; this dish is quite famous in Johore and Singapore among the arabs especially. How it's eaten - kacang pool with fried shallots, spring onion and sunny-side-up put a dash of ghee and have it with a baguette or any type of bread..yummy!). Oopsie I have digressed.... Their quiches are nice too - three types (salmon; chicken mushroom and rattatouille- the last one is my fave). They serve good breakfast too! Anyway, we ordered mixed fruit tartlets and chicken mushroom quiche for the hantaran. A bit different, I must say....(the future-bride parents were expecting jala mas, akok etc.....as their future son-in-law is from Kelantan). BTW, apparently the owners have opened a new lunch place opposite Ampang Point which wifey and I are going to check out one of these days.

Second stop was Alexis bistro at GEM coz they have nice cakes and desserts (nice Sarawak laksa too!). We placed an order for a mixed fruit pavlova for the second hantaran. Wanted to order Charlotte au fruits from Chef Jerome but as it's not summer he doesn't do it ( I suspect that he only uses fruits from France - talk about being patriotic! - it's summer in OZ!)

Last stop was Petaling Street for fresh flowers and fruits......That completed the assignment. No, not really....the most difficult one was to break the news to wifey.....Truthfully, it wasn't that bad or that difficult..... : )! The promise of helping her did the trick...LOL!

The first tray above comprises of the tartlets and quiches with the floral arrangemnet done by wifey! Unfortunately, I didn't snap pics of the other two trays..... That was not my friend's only request - he asked us to attend the engagement ceremony the following day....Not really...it was the same day as wifey only finished doing all the decoration about one a.m. saturday morning! He pleaded like a little doggie in the window... Of course wifey refused as she was tired...she had to go to pasar tani like 5 hours later. Well, iI really had nothing to do in the morning anyway...(since Khadijah's French class was cancelled for DELF training) and I said yes.....

So ya....we spent one day of the weekend as bidan terjun (literally translated - the jumping mid-wife; its actual meaning is a person who is asked to do things on a short notice despite not having any experience).

All in all the engagement went on smoothly. My friend had to be the spokesperson for the ceremony (I would have p**** in my pants if I was asked to do that; which initially I was to which I had to refuse coz I knew nothing of this sort of thing.).

The icing to the cake was the nice pilaf rice which was served...not oily and kind to my tummy....had it with beef stew, beef briyani, sweet and sour fish, acar buah (pickled preserved fruits) and jelantah (a mixture of pineapple, onion and cucumber soaked in vinegar with a dash of sugar). And of course the traditional kueh served was brilliant too - not soo sweet.