The Road Not Taken: Eidul-Adha at Down Under

Sunday, October 28, 2012

Eidul-Adha at Down Under

Two years ago the whole family celebrated Eidul-Fitr in Adelaide and now this year we spent Eidul-Adha here as well. The difference was the absence of my youngest, Adik, who couldn't join us as he has started his classes, in Cairo, Egypt... (miss you lots, babe!). The hubby and Kak Lang arrived from Malaysia in Melbourne on the 25th and after picking them at the airport, Bang Ngah and the two of them made the 16-hour journey to Adelaide... (it's not supposed to be that long but with stops along the way..) Anyway, they arrived about 8.30 pm Thursday night, alhamdulillah. (Bang Ngah couldn't stay long so he took a flight back to Melbourne yesterday morning) The next day, 26th October was Eidul-Adha and unlike Eidul-Fitr 2010 the prayers this time was held in a field at Bonython Park. The congregation must have multiplied since then...alhamdulillah. Here are some pics of the day (which was freezing - it must have been like 10 degress..brrr):

Waiting for prayers to start

The men's section..

The ladies section..

Bouncing castle to entertain the kids

The imam giving the khutbah.. (love the little girl's hair-do in the fore-ground!)

The daughter posing for a picture

Bang Long's friends enjoying the food we brought..

Joining in the picnic breakfast

Digging in..

The hubby with an Iraqi friend married to a Malaysian

Grandsons' antics..

The messy eater at it again..

Grandsons playing with friends

Umayr having a go on the bouncing castle before we went home..

For our Eid meal I cooked rendang (again) and nasi impit. This time the nasi impit was made the traditional way. Not that they don't sell the instant ones here but we forgot to buy them before the shop closed the day before. So here's a short tutorial for those who may get in the same boat! Well, you need to cook the rice in the proportion of: 1 cup rice to 2 1/2 cups water. Immediately after it's cooked (while still hot) you will need to press the soft rice into a squarish container (so you have more cubed-shaped rice).

Lay a clean plastic sheet on the pressed rice

Press again with your hands (and your weight)

Now you need to do this the night before because the rice needs to be really compressed and cooled or else you'll have difficulty cutting it. And over-night you'll need to put some heavy object on top.. so here's what I used..:

Heavy object to compress rice..

I couldn't help but chose the particular book title above (below Dan Brown's) as the tool.. now they could add the book as having one extraordinary use.. (lol)