Malay studies, what is it?
If you're wondering about what is Malay studies subject and what for, well then i'm gonna explain to you about it in the first place. Malay studies is the subject where we the international learn about the Malay culture starting from its history until learning and tasting about its food and trying their traditional clothes. If you asking me, rather than a class it is more like a weekly field trip for me because of the fun we have. And for the last, if you wondering what adventure have we been through, just check what written below.......
HAVE FUN READING !!! :)
First task: look for kacang pool
I think kacang pool is one of a kind unique food that I ever tasted in my life. The first time when I heard the name of this food, I think this food is a kind of a porridge of nuts. But when I look the real one, I was suprised that kacang pool did not look like the food that I Imagined. From a shape of a porridge it turned out to be a bread with some kind of a sauce to dip the bread into it. And the taste was fantastic. For a complete description, the food was tasty, unique, awesome, and definitely delicious for me. But too bad I got to ate it when it was cold. Because I make the order to take it home, and I did not get any time to eat it till night. But though even it is cold, like I said before it was a fantastic dish.
What next? Cloth?
We found the kurta that we bought in U Mall, it cost us 60 MYR for the attire, considering the design and the quality of the attire we got a relatively fair price. There are many types of kurta based on the colour, there are Kurtas that have 2 colours and there are Kurtas that’s only based on one colour. The one that we got is a maroon Kurta and it has a simple motive and plain. The colour brings up the fineness of the attire in our opinion, it has a similar motive like Indonesian attire called Baju Koko.
In our honest opinion this traditional Malaysian attire has a great look and design. The vibrant look and the flexibility of usage brings many positive outcome when you are wearing it. You can wear this great but simple attire everywhere you want.Mosque, street, and wedding party, are some of the occasion that can be attended using kurta (depends on the culture). Most muslim are familiar with this attire because this type of cloth is common to be used for praying.The great doesn’t have to be the most, sometimes using the simpler things can make you better. The ease of design of kurta made us like it because we don’t have to work hard to use it and its easy to look on the eye.
Duku? What is duku?
Malaysia has many traditional fruits like Durian and Rambutan, but there is one traditional fruit that people should be more known to a lot of people and it is calledDuku. Duku, is a famous tropical fruit that is spread around Southeast Asia and native to Malayan Peninsular tropical fruiting trees in the Mahogany family. Many parts of Southeast Asia have this fruit, from Indonesia, Malaysia, Thailand, Philippines are some part of the region that has Duku fruit grown in them. This rounded fruit has a sweet and a bit of tangy taste, the inside of the fruit is separated into several part just like oranges but has a chewy texture like lychee. This tropical fruit has a small seed on each part that are easily bitten but it has a bitter taste and it should be discarded if you feel the seed when eating this fruit. Duku isn’t a big fruit, it’s a small fruit and has a great nutritional value for us, it can give us energy because of the sugar in it and can also help revitalize through electrolytes, minerals and vitamins.
Duku is a seasonal fruit due to the fact it usually starts harvesting between July and october, but you can still find Dukung on other months but not as easy if you try to buy it on the harvesting months. This fruit are usually sold around the traditional market in Malaysia.
We are very familiar to Duku fruit because this fruit is available around Southeast Asia including Indonesia, our home country. We already know how it will taste and how to eat it because we have done it before, the sweet and sour taste can sometimes get caught to us because some of the Duku fruit are still not ripe yet and it resulted to some really sour part, but its easy to find the Duku that has a sweet and refreshing taste.The price isn’t something that is worrying to us, as a student the price of Duku is pretty relative especially when its still the harvesting months, but when its outside those couple of months its quite hard to find it and if you are able to find it, it will most likely cost quite a bit more.
We really like this fruit, its cheap, easy to carry, tasty and refreshing. Even though it may not be available all year round its still a fruit that you should try if you have never. Malaysia is one of the countries where you could find Duku fruit easily on the right time of the year. Its an interesting fruit that aren’t the same with other traditional and tropical fruit, the shape, the signature taste and consistency are just some factor that make this fruit special.
Even though Duku isn’t as famous as other traditional fruit of Malaysia, its still one of the most special one. The difference of Duku from all of the other traditional fruit made Duku the one and only one of its own, the fruit it self may not be the most like type of fruit by people but it will always hold a special place on the Malaysian traditional fruit collection. The refreshing sweet and a bit of sour taste make this fruit amazing, it has its own taste and its own texture. I hope more people will recognize this great fruit and give some time to try it.