Gawai This Year With Diesel Woe

This year is quite different from the previous years. One obvious different is that both my maternal grandparents are no longer with us. We went back to my mom’s kampung this year for Gawai visiting to visit those relatives that I totally have no idea about. They had helped out during both the funerals and as a gratitude, it’s best to pay them a visit.

While on the way to Serian, dad wanted to refuel the car(we needed diesel) so that we could go visiting to the other kampung later. Guess what!?!? All the petrol stations along the way in Kuching, Shell and Petronas, had no diesel anymore!! *HORROR* Luckily when we’re at Kota Semarahan, we decided to try our luck at the newly opened Shell station. YAY! They had stock. WHAT ON EARTH IS GOING ON!! AARG!! *ANGRY* Immediately not long after that, more and more vehicles coming in to get diesel -.-” Imagine hunting for diesel all over Kuching and had to go till Kota Samarahan to get it, the agony… If this problem still going on you’ll defintely see all the chaos in Malaysia. Maybe no subsidies of fuel might help? This is not my opinion, I read it from somewhere, don’t remember where. It stated that the subsidies are making it worst. *SHRUG*

My first time visiting so many houses during Gawai and OMG so many unknown relatives I have *LOL*. Just for your information, I didn’t attend both funerals due to some unforeseen circumstances so I’ve never seen most of them. All these years, my parents only brought us to visit those relatives closest to us instead of the further ones. This year is really different and exhausting. The weather didn’t help much too as it’s hot and humid and later in the evening it rained! Had to coat in the rain when we visited the last house and when going back to our car.

Anyway, main aim is to show you the must-have during Gawai besides tuak(rice wine). I’ve never drink any and my mom’s kampung doesn’t have it also because they don’t make it due to their religion. Here are the local delicacies that you will usually see during Gawai.

Left: I’m no sure what people call this :p We call this “beehive” hehehe… The sweetened flour(not sure which type of flour though) batter is placed in a mould and deep fried. It would float out to the oil surface from the mould once it’s cooked.

Right: This is known as kueh jala, jala means net. I would say this is the most popular among the local. These are not made from beehoon/vermicelli, it’s also from sweetened flour(not sure which type of flour though) and the batter is dripped with fast turning motion to make this kind of effect into the hot boiling oil using some sort of sieve, not the normal type of sieve though, it has many small holes, not too far and not too close apart to allow the batter to drip into the oil.

I DON’T KNOW HOW TO EXPLAIN!!! 😛 hahaha… But I think you are smart enough to figure out what I’m trying to tell you *LOL*

Found this video, you’ll see how’s the process:

Left: I don’t know what to call this hehehe… Some crispy snacks with peanuts and achovies.

Right: Lemang!! It’s a must too! Glutinous rice cooked in a hollowed bamboo stick lined with banana leaf.

That’s all 🙂 Frankly, I don’t really like to eat them hahaha… A bit can, not too much *BLEK*