Lemang is quintessential Malay holiday food, impossible to find throughout the year, impossible to avoid come Hari Raya. Lemang is glutinous, or sticky, rice cooked in coconut milk inside a length of bamboo and roasted over an open fire. The work involved in making it is considerable. First, locate and chop down a giant piece […]
Tag Archives: ketupat
Mysteries of the Coconut: Ketupat
A ubiquitous icon of the Ramadan season is Ketupat. Ketupat is to Hari Raya what candy canes and tinsel are to Christmas: innocuous, non-religious cultural symbols that are inextricably linked to the holiday. Images of ketupat are plastered on greeting cards, banners, cut-shots between TV programs, and so on. Decorative ketupats made of ribbon are […]