Feast Vibes

Gathering around never goes wrong, especially when it goes with the love one. Good food and good people are things you need to be happy and left with unforgettable beautiful nostalgic memories to be reminiscence. I myself experience it throughout the year as I grew up. I came from a family with thick Chinese culture even though it’s been over century since our ancestors move and live in Indonesia. It has become a tradition that runs in the family to visit our grandparents house in the countryside. My family have a strong cooking skills and we would spend our holiday back in my grandparents’ home for few days or even weeks. We mainly would gather on holiday, our grandparents birthday, special events such as wedding and Chinese new year.

My mother’s brother and two sisters will all fly back to visit at the same time. My mother have 5 siblings in total, the other two of elder brother are living together and nearby my grandparents’ home. When we all gathered together, even now I could imagine how hectic it was. With all the laughing and playing sounds from adult to children. On top of it, there comes sounds and smells of foods from the kitchen and back area.

At one time where all family members completed, there would be a total of 35 people in the house. Excluding 5 family members of my uncle family which lives nearby, all 30 of us would squeezed ourselves in the five bedrooms with folded and rolled mattresses lay out on the bedroom floor.

As soon as I wake up, there would be a bunch of assorted breakfast wrapped in parchment paper and newspaper prepared on top of the table. All kind of traditional savory dish mainly will be bought by my grandpa short after he got back from morning walk. There would be ‘lontong’ (a compressed rice cake served with spicy coconut milk, piece of chicken and cracker), ‘nasi kucing’ (small portion of rice served with sambal prawn or fish), ‘martabak’ (type of savory pancakes stuffed with potato and eggs), ‘mie pangsit’ (Indonesian versions wonton noodle). I could not pick myself which one is the best out of those amazing dishes, it would be a dilemma to choose best of the best things to eat as soon as you wake up.

Soon after, it would be time to prepare lunch. On lunch time, there would be less people sitting to eat. It is due to the working time and some would eat less to get ready for dinner feast. Even though it is not as big as to prepare the dinner, still the table would be full of dishes of complete meal in large amount. It includes vegetables, soup, meat item and seafood.

In the afternoon time, family members would be scattered around. Children would be playing outdoor at the backyard, teenagers and adults would play games or harvesting fruits and vegetables planted at the backyard. Around 4 to 5 pm usually, we would gather at the tiled area of the backyard to have a little feast before the main one. It will be either fruits (such as durian or harvested fruits of rose apple and mangoes) or dessert (sweets and banana fritters) or even snacks item (‘pempek’ or a specialty fishcake dish)

On the day of the feast, the kitchen and back yard basically would get busy ever since sun rises to prepare all things required. As the highlight goes to dinner feast, all effort will never goes to waste. People will came to help to clean and prepare the raw materials as instructed, and the rest of family members would come and join to help with the preparation. Even the boys would be assigned to do the task regardless their willingness.

Since I was kid, I have been loving to watch all generations from my grandparents (yes, my grandpa know how to cook and he is excels in it, chinese cooking especially) to my mom and aunts getting involved in it. I don’t know why I rather choose to be there when I have a better option to play with my cousins, even when sometimes I would just sitting at the corner watching what they do. Most of the times, I would be at the preparation area where meat and seafood item preparation took place. As I grew and mature, I started to help in small things and now I would be able to help with major things to do.

Upon the preparation, all items will be cooked in the kitchen with various method. When it is close to dinner time, we would get ready by spreading out newspaper on the floor as mat creating a long rectangular line. Afterwards all foods will be served and family members would gather and helped on arranging items. It started when the elder start to eat. The feast includes menu items of thick crab meat gravy soup, prawn tempura, stir fried vegetables, Thenus (a type of lobster) in spicy soup, braised herbal chicken and roasted duck. It is undescribed able with words, you would be stressed out to choose what to eat first and next. At the end, I would end up with plate full of dishes. You know it is happiest moment on your life when you are left with full tummy.

I think my family has been a major influences on how I get to learn to cook and chose it as my life career. I grew and learned autodidact on how to cook by watching at my family cook all those meal with love and laugh. Up until today, I believed that I have retrieved those precious moments of togetherness which create wonderful memories reminiscences with the hope to create more beautiful memories in the future as how the good old days is.