Tracking down new and exciting foods and eating them has been my principle preoccupation since arriving in Malaysia almost six months ago. But I’ve also been happy to find old comfort food from my childhood that was tough to get back in the States. I lived in India for four years as a kid, and […]
Monthly Archives: May 2003
Islam in Canada
AltMuslim has a front page story on the rise of Islam in Canada. As has already happened in Germany, France and England, Islam is now the second largest religion in Canada, surpassing the Jewish population by a few hundred thousand. This probably has already happened in the US too, but, as the AltMuslim article alludes […]
Mawlid Parade
12 Rabi’ul Awwal, the day our beloved Prophet Muhammad (saws) was born, is a national holiday in Malaysia as it is in every muslim country on earth except one. In the city of Kuching, Sarawak, to where I had just moved from America, there was to be a large parade that morning as there is […]
Better than Hip-Hop
A little while ago, the Malaysian Music Awards were on TV. At the moment I tuned in, the winners for the Rap category were being introduced. Pop Shuvit, they call themselves. I cringed to see these jokers come on stage with their pants sagging, jewerly blinging and hair done up in cornrolls. They rap in […]
Strange Fruit, pt.3: Salak
I came back from my latest foray in the night market with a small bag of Buah Salak. These fruits are about the size and shape of a ripe fig. They are covered in a shiny, scaly peel that resembles snakeskin or armadillo hide. Inside, the flesh is firm, dry and crunchy, kind of like […]
Rabi’ al-Awwal
We are now in the first week of the blessed month of Rabi’ al-Awwal, the month that Allah Almighty sent the Beloved, Our Master Muhammad , the Best of Creation, the Seal of the Prophets. His birth, or Mawlid, is celebrated on the 12th of Rabi’ al-Awwal, and is an official holiday in every muslim […]
Behold the Power of Cheese
My stomach had been upset since the morning so I hadn’t eaten a thing when I stepped into a supermarket for a few items I can’t get at the neighborhood kedai runcit. As I wandered through the aisles, my eye fell on the farthest corner of the refrigerated section, where, past the cheezwiz-type spreads and […]