One of them, about two to three hours into the drive, had BISWAS written on the side, in capital letters! Unfortunately I have no photographic evidence (we were in a bus)!

If you’re interested, check wikipedia or Amazon.com.

I know, I know, some of you Arabs/Arabic speakers (hmm do any read here?) will come and tell me what the actual significance of the phrase BISWAS is but for now…I prefer to imagine!

Travelling for so long makes it hard to distinguish between the days…the passage of night is hard,

All donations of food especially got and home cooked would be highly appreciated.

P.S. We did have a good hajj (hopefully accepted) and i didn’t overpack medicine.

Five years ago when my elder sister made hajj, I was impressed. I never thought I would be ready.

Four years ago when they talked of us making hajj soon…I mentally scoffed (I didn’t think I was ready, neither did I think I was able).

Three years ago when we were planning to make hajj (when Chennette got ill), I didn’t think it would actually happen.

Two years ago, it still wasn’t concrete in my head and we only cancelled some time in October after Chennette’s convalescence.

One year ago…well we intended to make hajj but…we knew about these babies beforehand. You know, they give you about 8 or 9 months notice so we knew although we planned and my brother’s parents-in-law planned to go that we wouldn’t. That would be fun. We all make hajj while our family in Saudi Arabia come back here to empty houses. And my sister in Guyana.

This year, it was still rather…unbelievable but when I left my job last July, I made sure of one thing, that I had my hajj money set aside…waiting…for whenever it would be…waiting…

Well, Insha Allah we are leaving home in three hours to catch a flight in seven hours. We have three flights. We finally have our passports with visas and hopefully everything will go smoothly for us.

I am very excited.

We have Chennette’s sony camera phone, mom and I have motorolas with funky so-so cameras for “snaps” and … elder sister’s point and shoot camera! with only 1GB of storage…so we shall judiciously take pictures because we have no computer!

Don’t expect to see us online…maybe we’ll be able to say hi but who knows…internet cafes? My brother’s phone line is down so no internet…unless he gets it fixed.

We’ll be gone until the end of December…so a whole month!

I’m going to keep a written journal and try to transcribe it when I come home. Wish me luck.

The only sour note is that half our group left Tuesday morning for Caracas on the same flight plan as us and are still in Caracas. The visas were only issued Friday for all of us. And they’re hopefully flying out of Caracas on the same flight as us (hopefully I say because there seems to be penalties for flight changes and I am praying hard we all make it)! We will share our food/snacks/money with them and Insha Allah both halves will make it to Jeddah Hajj terminal on time and able to complete the rites of Hajj this year!

I wish us all who are making Hajj a Hajj Mabrur (I hope I got that right…it means simplistically an accepted Hajj).

I’ll miss you and if your comments go into moderation, I’ll check them when I come back. If you’re not spambots and it goes into the black hole I apologise.

Also published here, Chennette and my hajj blog!

See Chennette’s post on her blog!

I even have lots of food-related posts in my head that haven’t materialized (the fact that pictures have made it to flickr amazes me).

It’s just I’m swamped, busy, tired, stressed and getting ready for Hajj. we leave in less than a week. And lots of trinis are saying it better. Maybe I should link but am tired…so I’ll just link to the Global Voices Online Trinidad and Tobago category and you can read it or not if you want.

Let’s see, flood, media and the PM, economy.

Oh and Trinidad Express still hasn’t properly responded to me. About what you say? Copyright Theft!

I’ll try to post goodbye before I leave for hajj/pilgrimage!

Your result for Howard Gardner’s Eight Types of Intelligence Test…

Logical

41% Logical, 39% Spatial, 39% Linguistic, 31% Intrapersonal, 24% Interpersonal, 16% Musical, 14% Bodily-Kinesthetic and 22% Naturalistic!

Take Howard Gardner’s Eight Types of Intelligence Test at HelloQuizzy

At least one.

:-D

Remember when last month the Daring Bakers made Lavash and I complained. I could’ve joined them. I actually made lavash from the same recipe that month.

Well guess what they baked this month!
See here!
Pizza.
From Peter Reinhart’s The Bread Baker’s Apprentice.

Yeah.
We all know what I have sitting in my freezer, right?
right?

In case you don’t know, let me refresh your memory:

And I still am not a Daring Baker.
*sob*

Maahay Ramzaan, originally uploaded by Lilandra.

I promised ages ago to post a last post on Eid.
And of course I didn’t.
For almost a whole month I stood silent.

Well, a couple weeks ago I went to a Ladies Eid dinner (small group) where they also invited mom and her family to wish us a good hajj. They sang a couple qaseedas and I took the opportunity to leaf through the qaseeda book to find…tada! the song I tried to share with you earlier.

This is the song my grandfather used to sing every eid at every house.
It’s in urdu and if you want the translation, it’s here.

The food from this event can be found here and here.

Now maybe some of you are wondering if we did all the things we planned.
Well mostly.
I got to make my roasted red pepper couscous salad. You can read all about it at Chennette’s blog.

She took most of the pictures.

You can also see the lovely pictures of baklava she took that we timed with the arrival of our cousin and her new groom from the airport, thus delaying their sleep even longer.

It must be stated, our new cousin-in-law seems quite nice and Insha Allah they will be very happy.

And did we make the barfi for them? Yes!
We ordered chinese food for them when they were due back from Tobago and it was waiting and they enjoyed it immensely. It’s great to be back in Trinidad and find halaal food to eat…not just vegetarian and not just run by muslims but completely halaal chinese food.

And then later, we made barfi for my cousin so she could get it nice and warm. It was delicious. She stuffed some in her husband as he lay half-asleep.

Homemade Barfi, for Eid and the Cousin’s Wedding Visit,
originally uploaded by Lilandra.

I took pictures of the complete process and it’s deserving of its own post eventually but you can see the set here.

And I finally uploaded the pictures of my making the Cordon Rose Cream cheese cake.

When I say early I mean the un-Godly hour of say 4am or before.
During Ramadan, when we’re fasting, 4am is *very* Godly however…not fasting…take a break please.

Thankfully, we didn’t wake up until Fajr time! (5:15am)

So, she didn’t wake up looooooooooong before me and I was able to come downstairs and help or be sous-chef.

Here follows the extremely dry, minute-by-minute account of my day. Enjoy :-p

Mom instead made accra with 1lb of flour (as opposed to the planned 2lbs). A proper recipe will follow later.

We also sliced and fried the sahina.

We sent some of these fried goodies to the neighbours. I’m not sure if all of them got any though, I heard the receivers were a tad bit selfish and didn’t share.

I opened up the cans of milk for mom to make a small batch of sawaine. You’ll notice the size of the pot relative to the 14oz can. This is probably the SMALLEST BATCH OF SAWAINE THAT MOM EVER MADE! Historic!

Around 6:30 we put the kibbe in to bake (this was prepped and in the fridge) and it was ready before we left for the oven.

And at 8:00 we left home and arrived at the masjid to pray.

The Eid prayer is what we dress up and go out for.
On the morning of Eid, we all bathe, dress up in all our finery and make it down to the masjid to pray. The imam delivers a khutbah (sermon) (during which we don’t talk but I take pictures…), after which we pray two rakaahs (units of salaah/prayer) (and some people make noise with all their bangles).

Then, hug, kiss, salaams and outside to MINGLE…

and setup the snack table (for which I’ve mentioned ad nauseum, we made cheesecake).

Afterwards, we visited mom’s uncle and aunt. Since I hadn’t had ladoo (the little round dark balls) in ages, I had some of that.

Now, as I’ve stated many times before, our Eid this year was very low-key.
Because mom was sick (and mom can’t stay out of the kitchen if I try to cook some stuff), the neighbours invited us for lunch and dinner…so there we went and limed for a while.

After which we went home, limed with mom’s sister until she went and then WE ALL CRASHED!

Yeah, we slept.
Until around 5pm when mom dragged herself awake and me too.
Did we wake dad? Maybe dad woke mom.

And then, because I was STARVING, I had some of the kibbe we baked.

After which, the parents, who didn’t have dinner, and I went back next door and had…dinner.
Well the parents had dinner.
I watched them eat and refused everything.
Except.
Two hours later I was STARVING again.
I was very worried.
But starving isn’t good.
And there was some mention of HOT HOT HOT dhal so I had rice and dhal and yes it was HOT and it was Good. And no pictures.
Did I mention I was starving?

It was not a bad day.
I liked it.
Not so tiring.
However, dad (and I and mom?) did miss our homemade sweets.
Mom is the best…and people can’t compare. But it’s okay.
We manage ;-)

(more to come…Chennette’s visit and such!)

If you missed any of the Ramadan and Eid pictures, and for some reason want to see them, they’re all here in a set! :)

Psst! I think I’m all blogged out! Burnt out! Etc etc etc!

Well, I don’t know if this will help but it was a quiz and I got to select radio buttons and so why not?

Political Compass

My political compass
Economic Left/Right: -7.00
Social Libertarian/Authoritarian: -3.64

Advisory: I don’t completely understand economics…

Earl Grey Tea,
originally uploaded by Lilandra.

I’m sure I’ve said this many times but I’ll repeat it.
Since , this meant Ramadan ended at sunset on Tuesday.
So, we break the last fast of Ramadan in Shawwal, that is, on ‘Id-ul-Fitr.

For these reasons, we try, as we did last year, we made Chicken Biryani for the night. After all, why not celebrate at the start of ‘Id.

Chicken Biryani,
originally uploaded by Lilandra.

Oh my! You should’ve been there. To wake up to break fast to that smell. It was…heaven.

So, summarizing for the last day of Ramadan:

Tuesday 30 September 2008, Ramadan 29

Suhur: Hops Bread and butter and cheese

Iftar: Earl Grey Tea

Dinner: Chicken Biryani

Edit: When dad came from work, not only did he ignore mom’s directives and pass and pick up lamb, but he also bought a flower arrangement for her ;-)

Rose Levy Beranbaum’s Cordon Rose Cream Cheese Cake,
originally uploaded by Lilandra.

Traditionally, ‘Id-ul-Fitr is a many-day celebration as we, muslims (strict), have only two celebrations¹ and in muslim countries, this is honoured. Thus this will be the second of many posts commemorating ‘Id especially since Chennette won’t be arriving until Friday when we shall do some extra special cooking and thus have our ‘Id lunch on Saturday, as close to our whole family as we’ve been able to get any time the last four years, as my other sister, usually in Guyana with her offspring and spouse is now in the UK and my brother and his new family is in Saudi Arabia².

When I was a child, we used to go house to house (muslim), following the Imam and at every house there would be a table set with sweets and savouries and other things. And we’d eat. Can you imagine? Every house? Or every “muslim” house? But it was fun. When we arrived at a house, we would gather around and he would lead us in the qaseeda:

Ma hay ramzan chaldiya
Eida kadin nagaya
Eida ho subako mubarak
Eida kadin nagaya

The above is from memory. I don’t know how accurate it is or even any more than those four lines. But it was and still is my favourite (only?) qaseeda. I wish someone could tell me how it goes…and sing it like he did.

After awhile, this was discontinued. I mean we’d spend all day going and stuffing and somebody would have to be at the house waiting for the rounds and thus missing out on the rounds and some people we would probably never even see at the masjid. It wasn’t very fair all around.

Then, at some point, we started having people bring something to the masjid. You know, you fry some aloo pie, make some barfi, bring some. If everybody would bring a little of what they made, then we could all lime and celebrate a bit at the masjid before going back home.

I like this idea…except some times it seems people only bring sweet stuff, and then to compensate, the next year/next ‘Id they only bring savoury :-)

Our contribution this year was cheesecake. I made Rose Levy Beranbaum’s Cordon Rose Cream Cheesecake. I doubled the recipe and cut it into little squares to share. It was so rich that…even for me, that was a decent serving. I loved it…I think others did too.

Here’s a plate of what some people brought. Somebody put it together for my dad, and seeing as I’d been taking pictures all month, told me okay, Lilandra, take a picture and give it to him ;-)

‘Id Mubarak: Sweet and Savoury Potluck at my Masjid,
originally uploaded by Lilandra.

1. The two celebrations in Islam are ‘Id-ul-Fitr (at the end of Ramadan) and ‘Id-ul-Adha (the sacrifice). Some muslims may celebrate other events for example Meeladun Nabi (the birth of the Prophet) or Meerajun Nabi (the ascension of the Prophet) but the Prophet did not celebrate these, just the two ‘Ids.
2. And I, am in Trinidad, and also *from* Trinidad and Tobago, just in case you followed an old link ;-)

MORE LATER

‘ID MUBARAK!

Which is why from the first menu that rice dish appeared and quickly changed into biryani.

And, I was oh soo looking forward to it.

Then she decide too much work (which I have been telling her ALL ALONG) so even though I was happy and thrilled to remove it from the menu, this was the first set up.

Posting the updated menu a few minutes ago, I mourned the loss of biryani and thought why not tonight (instead of this shrimp and saim and dhal and such but I am happy to have less work for us.

So, as I am on my way to shower and she is out (we’re doing another last minute grocery), she says to me why can’t I make biryani tonight? Why this extra food?? I informed her I not getting involved in no decisions to give her more work because I will lose out regardless…

So, she set me up again…menu change, biryani tonight and I already posted.

*sigh*

Let’s not even talk about our communication problems…her definition of special versus mine.
She wants special sweets and such for ‘Id and vex with my choices, never mind she is making the granddaddy of all special sweets, sawaine (which will probably not be made in my house). So do I. Her definition of special is traditional (which to me equals BORING and milk-laden). My definition of special is something exciting, new or that we’ve not made before or recently (which to her equals expensive (not true!) or Lilandra gone crazy).

Yeah.
Dad doesn’t get involved.

Mom, I still love you…hope you feel the same ;-)

Please remember you’re not feeling well, and neither am I and…how much work can we give Chennette to do?

Every year we make big extravagant plans…and then Chennette has to come and bail us out.

Edit: Mom also said we making Jalebi this year. Oh my!

Monday 29th September, Ramadan 28

We didn’t wake up for suhur. We made it for Fajr prayer. And because mom and I are sickly we knew we couldn’t keep the fast without suhur. Dad fasted.

But when I woke up at a more reasonable hour (10ish) mom wasn’t feeling well so we rushed to the doctor. Insha Allah she will get better.

so,
Iftar: Dad had dates.
Dinner: Rice and black eye bean from yesterday. Mom and dad had lamb. I fried some frozen shrimp wontons and we all had that.

Update on the ‘Id Menu:

For ‘Id:
Saturday:

• Make Sahina (not fry, roll it, freeze it etc) Done!
• Make cheesecake

Sunday:

• Unmold cheesecake and cut into squares, store by aunty next door.
• Spiced nuts
• Cheesecake made!

Monday:

• Cheesecake unmolded and cut into squares, very soft but fits in our fridge

Tuesday:

• Almond cookies (maybe I do this on Monday…or at least start) Not making anymore
• Mom shows me how to make Rasgullah
• Make kibbe (lamb and little vegetarian) In the process of being prepped. But no known vegetarians coming
• Slice cucumbers and tomatoes

Wednesday, ‘Id-ul-Fitr:

• Fry Sahina
• Make sawaine
• Bake lamb kibbe
• Make Chicken Biryani We will suffice with pelau in the masjid

For ‘Id celebrations when Chennette comes:
Thursday:

• Make doughnuts from pizza dough and fry them! Most likely not happening. Some other time when Chennette comes maybe

Friday:

• Mom shows Chennette how to make Fat Kurma
• Baklava
• Lamb Pastries

Saturday:

• Bake veggie kibbe
• Harissa seasoned baked and fried potatoes
• Couscous salad
• Have dad BBQ lamb

The week after ‘Id for a certain newlywed:

• Make hot barfi!

Banana Herb, originally uploaded by Chennette.

Did you know, that the Banana comes from a HERB???

It’s not a tree but a plant?

Of course this comes from an unverified source (okay I know the source of which she speaks…I think and so trust said source but to you the reader…how can you trust it?).

24th Iftar,
originally uploaded by Lilandra.

Wednesday 24th September, Ramadan 23 (also Republic Day)

I made corn muffins from our bread machine cookbook. It was supposed to be a bread but I made it in muffin tins. It was supposed to be corn meal and chick pea flour. I used corn meal and split pea flour. It was supposed to be hard cheese, finely grated like parmesan. I used cheddar, coarsely grated.

Despite all this it was fine.

Except.

I kept wanting it to be sweet. It wasn’t. There was no sugar…and I didn’t think about adding any.

There are still some left. I intend to brush them with a honey glaze and reheat them in the oven or toaster.

Suhur: Bread and butter.

Iftar: Pholourie from over de road, kachorie from down de road and corn muffins.

Dinner: Parents had curry fish and rice. I forced and had the last of the macaroni pie (from last week when Chennette was here) with stewed red beans.

24th Fast: Our Iftar Table,
originally uploaded by Lilandra.

Thursday 25th September, Ramadan 24

Suhur: Chocolate pudding, toasted dhalpuri and avocado.

Iftar: Leftover tuna croquettes

Dinner: Parents had lots of freezer leftovers, I had rice and stewed red beans.

Friday 26th September, Ramadan 25

Hmm, we bought fried chicken. We broke fast with…???

26th Iftar: Mom’s Dinner,
originally uploaded by Lilandra.

Saturday 27th September, Ramadan 26

According to the second draft of the Eid menu, mom was supposed to make sahina and me cheesecake. Well mom made the sahina before I woke up…and I woke up at around 9am as we were going…Eid grocery shopping!

I went to Tarawih in the masjid on Saturday. You can read about the night of power and when it is and about the last ten nights of Ramadan anywhere else. I’ll try to find some links. I only stayed for 12 of the 20. I was getting rather dizzy.

Also, some people from the Jamaat (sort of…they used to live here but migrated…and then presto…met again there and got married…) gave an iftar.

Suhur: bread and butter?

Iftar: I didn’t take pictures. Too tired. Half-asleep. We had…GULGULLAH! (it’s like a sweet fried fritter with raisins) and accra (a bit tough, mom says batter/dough too stiff, needs more egg…but I still managed to eat a bit of it!!!).

Dinner: CURRY! I took a picture of mom’s plate and mine as she had more variety. I had my curry spread staples (roti, channa and aloo, stew chicken and salad).

There was, paratha roti, channa and aloo, stew chicken, curry mango, vegetarian biryani…and not sure if there was anything else. I can check mom’s plate.

27th iftar: Starfuit and what no,
originally uploaded by Lilandra.

Sunday 28th September, Ramadan 27

Soooo dead beat.
Today, with excellent preparation, I made Rose Levy Beranbaum’s Cordon Rose Cream Cheesecake. It looks very nice thank you very much. This needs to go in the fridge now, and tomorrow it will be unmolded and cut into squares and will wait to go to the masjid on Eid day to share. Um. Shouldn’t I taste it to make sure it’s good? That I’m not giving people…garbage???

Mom fried pholourie from a mix. Oh sooo very addictive with a nice fresh tamarind chutney.

Suhur: Honey Wheat Dark Rolls and Egg paste (salad). Parents had…I dunno bread? and boiled egg.

Iftar: Dates, grapes, addictive pholourie and chutney, starfruit (mom), raspberry and cream cheese pastry…anything else? It’s in the picture.

Dinner: Haven’t had any yet. Current just went.

Parents are having black-eye beans and rice plus fridge lamb. Mom was going to make a black-eye pelau…when she came down while I was making the cheesecake, she told me she forgot to take out the chicken, is rice and beans okay? I’m like yeah…

PS Our dryer is kaput and not here. We’ve run out of clothespins.

Last month they made éclairs. I was sooo looking for an excuse to make those and then to find out they did. I had no excuse…just people to eat. I let myself be governed by my tiredness.

This month I see this post in my RSS reader and wonder to myself…but it’s not the end of September yet but they made Lavash. I made Lavash. Then…when it finally loads (internet was down for a bit today) I see they made the recipe from Peter Reinhart’s Bread Baker’s Apprentice.

What did I make earlier this month? Two weeks ago?

I could cry!!!

It was that opera cake and party cake and napoleon and danish pastry and whatever that scared me silly.
Argh.
I’m so upset.

See the culprits here and here!

*sniffle*

You can see the first draft here.

For ‘Id:
Saturday:

• Make Sahina (not fry, roll it, freeze it etc)
• Make cheesecake

Sunday:

• Unmold cheesecake and cut into squares, store by aunty next door.
• Spiced nuts

Tuesday:

• Almond cookies (maybe I do this on Monday…or at least start)
• Mom shows me how to make Rasgullah
• Make kibbe (lamb and little vegetarian)
• Slice cucumbers and tomatoes

Wednesday, ‘Id-ul-Fitr:

• Fry Sahina
• Make sawaine
• Bake lamb kibbe
• Make Chicken Biryani

For ‘Id celebrations when Chennette comes:
Thursday:

• Make doughnuts from pizza dough and fry them!

Friday:

• Mom shows Chennette how to make Fat Kurma
• Baklava
• Lamb Pastries

Saturday:

• Bake veggie kibbe
• Harissa seasoned baked and fried potatoes
• Couscous salad
• Have dad BBQ lamb

The week after ‘Id for a certain newlywed:

• Make hot barfi!

How’s that?