A short story about american muslims

Just now I found this video on the net. An NBC News coverage about two american women who converted to Islam, Angela Collins and Julia Roach. They wear hijab yet they still maintain their american identity such as being outspoken and assertive.

Youtubeislam.com
The video was found on youtubeislam.com which at first I highly doubted it as a subsidiary of youtube.com and my doubt became true when I read their profile in their website.

We’re American Muslims who came to Islam from other faiths. We are happy to serve Allah and share Islam – without cultural, traditional or nationalistic prejudices and corruption. We love the true and pure Islam the message it teaches:
Peace; Submission; Surrender and Obedience to Almighty God. (Allah)

It’s really nice to know something like this from US, a superpower country (at this era) that (their government) always treats Islam and Muslims unfairly. May Allah bless them, fellow brothers and sisters!

home home home!

KL Sentral-Singapore, 14 June 2007

Time to leave Malaysia, before getting caught by immigration officer because of overstay. So we (my Mom, cousin and me) took the Express Sinar Pagi train to Singapore. It was a long 7 hours journey with a boring scenery. Scenery of Jakarta-Bandung train was much more beautiful than these flat lands and palm estates. Reached Tanjong Pagar Railway Station in Singapore on afternoon, greeted with “Welcome to Malaysia” banner and Malaysian flag… what the hell?? Just noticed that the station and also the railway along the Singapore belong to KTM, the train operator which is owned by Malaysian government.

Singapore, 14-16 June 2007
Took a cab from station to the hostel. It turned out that the driver was quite pain in the ass! Not friendly at all and blamed me because of not showing the map to the hostel. “If u had shown me the map, u would have paid less because I wouldn’t have taken u around and around” (he did not say exactly like that coz he spoke in his bloody singlish). So I replied “How should I know, u’re the driver, I’ve already shown u the complete address!” “I don’t know the numbering, if u want to complain, go directly to my company!” hah, he found his own excuse. Are all Singaporeans like this guy? When reached the hostel, he purposedly dropped us at the other side of the road, and did not help us taking out those 3 big briefcases from the trunk, huh… what a gentleman!

We stayed just nearby the Bugis Junction and the Bugis MRT station. Soh said the escalators in Singapore run faster than those in KL. Well, she was right. I was also surprised just after stepping my foot on the escalator at the MRT station… whoa! We spent the afternoon by cruising the Singapore River. The recorded voice in the boat said that previously the river was very dirty and smelly because of the trading activities on the river and it took 10 years to clean the river. Wow, how long will it take to clean the Ciliwung river in Jakarta??

The next day, it was raining in the morning and it stopped just before the friday sermon. We were going to walk around at the famous Orchard Road, but we were stuck inside the MRT station during the rain. So we decided to take MRT to Little India. We went to Mustafa Centre, the giant ‘toko kelontong’ or ‘kedai runcit’ in malay. Seriously, it looked just like ‘toko kelontong’ (what’s the proper english translation of ‘toko kelontong’ anyway??) based on the arrangement of goods that does not follow the esthetics of the ‘high-class’ department store, and we can find everything here, from clothes, i-pod, teapots, bags, chocolates, jeweleries, etc, etc… with relatively cheap price.

I did my friday sermon in the mosque just nearby the Mustafa Centre, it’s called ‘Anguilla Mosque’, the mosque of indian muslim community in Singapore. The khutbah (speech) was conducted in Urdu (or Tamil? not sure) and I fell asleep… oops!

Batam, 16 June 2007
Took a ferry to Batam and it spent around an hour. Finally came back to my country! Relative picked us up at Sekupang ferry terminal and brought us makan to a restoran padang. Finally felt the bumpy road after one full year even never saw it in neighbouring country. We stayed at relative’s house in an area called Tiban. Met Nuri and her friend at Megamall next to Batam Center, brought me to her place after wandering around some of Batam city (is that a city??) by ‘luxurious’ angkot (what could be more luxurious than a toyota twin-cam angkot?? it was on her of course, hehe), and treated me with good pizza and yummy donuts! Thanks Nuy!

Depok-Bogor, 18 June 2007
Shit happened on my first day home. I just got back from Universitas Indonesia and took a train from the station nearby. It was rush hour when people came back from their work and the train was extremely crowded and surprisingly dark! People kept pushing each other trying to get out of the train when it nearly reached the next station. I put my cellphone and wallet inside my bag and just noticed when I finally got a seat. My bag was teared off exactly at the part where I kept my cellphone and it was vanished. Luckily my wallet was still there. It hurt me so much knowing all my contact numbers that I’d been keeping for the past 6 years were suddenly gone!

Well, life moves on buddy! Welcome home!

Merve Kavakci

Just a few weeks ago, I happened to watch Al Jazeera. This Qatar-based tv station was reporting on headscarf ban in Turkey, a country where 99% of the population are muslims. Although a so-called muslim reformist party, Justice and Development Party (AKP, Adalet ve Kalkinma Partisi) has been ruling the parliament and its president has become the Prime Minister, headscarf ban for muslim women still continues. Headscarf is strictly banned in both public and private schools and universities and government offices. This results in inability of thousands of devout muslim girls who are dying to have education, yet cannot give up their headscarves, to get enrolled in schools and universities. Some of them who are lucky enough, choose to study overseas, where they can freely express their religiosity (ironically, in western countries which are obviously not recognizing “islamic value” whatsoever). When Al Jazeera interviewed one of the AKP officers, he said that headscarf issue is not the main priority, since AKP is currently more focussed to economic development of the country. To be honest, his statement broke my heart, even though I know that they are facing a very difficult barrier regarding headscarf issue. I also know that most of AKP members of parliament (MP) have wifes who wear headscarf, including the PM’s wife.

It seemed that the ruling party, which is rooted from its predecessor islamist party, Refah (which was also banned), cannot do much about this. Military is the true defender of secularism, which makes it like it is a “state religion”, and they are men with guns. AKP always identifies themselves as a muslim-rooted party that fully embraces secularism, which probably that was the cause of their winning in last election, rule the parliament, and placed Recep Tayyip Erdogan, the president of the party, as PM. Their identity is also accepted by military, by letting them rule the country. FYI, when Refah Party identified themselves as an islamist party, won the election and placed Necmettin Erbakan, who had a strong image as a devout and ‘fundamentalist’ muslim, as Prime Minister, it only lasted a year, between 1996 and 1997, before they were kicked out by military power. They considered Erbakan and his Refah Party as a threat to ‘holy’ secularism. Refah was then banned.

Regarding the powerlessness of AKP in front of the secular extremists, recently they finally withdrew Abdullah Gul, former IDB economist and currently Foreign Minister, from presidential candidacy due to strong resistance from military, opposition parties and turkish people as well. Why was the resistance very strong? It was because Gul’s wife is a practicing muslim woman who wears headscarf! And it became a problem because in Turkey, a President, in a way, is more powerful than PM and a decision maker of the national policies. The secular extremists, again, considered Gul and his headscarfed wife, as a threat to their ‘religion’.

Anyway, after watching Al Jazeera’s coverage on Turkey’s headscarf ban, I was then provoked to find out any news regarding this issue on internet. Until a few days ago, I found out about Merve Safa Kavakci. She was a former turkish MP of Virtue Party (Fazilet Partisi), elected in 1999. This party was also rooted from Refah, but they identified themselves as an islamist party. Their colleagues who had different opinion, later formed AKP. When she entered the parliament conference room to take an oath, proudly with her headscarf on, she was yelled by leftist party members, they were standing, clapping hands, yelling at her to get out of the building. Bulent Ecevit, he was the PM at that time, made a provoking speech by saying, “put this woman in her place!” After the incidence, Kavakci simply said with pride, “I was testing their tolerance, they failed!” Then horrible things happened to her and her family. The local mass media terrorized her by spreading full of hatred news all over the country. Her family was harassed, even her young daughters were psychologically bullied by their schoolmates. And finally 11 days after the incidence in parliament, she lost her citizenship and was forced to seek political asylum to another country. Now she resides in US.

Her website provides many of her talks and interviews videos, recorded from tv and other events. There are also videos about headscarf ban cases and victims. In one of her videos, she was giving a talk in Canada, and telling the absurdity of ‘secular fundamentalism’ (that is how she called it) practices in Turkey: There are two headscarf styles in Turkey, housewive/old lady style and educated women style. Old lady usually wears headscarf by letting the neck part not pinned, so it makes the neck area possibly uncovered. While an educated woman always pins the neck part to prevent the headscarf loose. The first one is ignored by the state, while the latter one is heavily considered as a threat. Another case; many of the AKP male MPs are devout and ‘fundamentalist’ muslims. They even did not really agree with Kavakci being an MP, very outspoken and wearing trousers. Many of them also grows beard, yet, they are not considered as threat to secularism.

Watching her talks and speech, and knowing the victims of headscarf ban in Turkey, I get very emotional. Hundreds of cases have happened, and most of them are harassment to headscarfed women, ironically, by their fellow muslims. “Muslims opressing Muslims”, said Kavakci. She even appreciated western countries more by valuing her beyond her look. So below is one of the videos that gives a description of headscarf ban in Turkey. I was going to embed Kavakci’s talks, but the duration was too long, makes it not possible to be embedded from Youtube.

After watching the video, knowing how hard their struggle to maintain their faith, hopefully it could inspire all muslimahs to appreciate deeper the true meaning of hijab!

Guru

I guess not many of us know that yesterday (2 May) is Indonesian National Education Day. I even just realized it when I saw Liputan6 news streaming on the net. There was this retired teacher who was being a guest on Liputan6 Pagi. Who was this retired teacher? He was Sartono. Still didn’t ring a bell?

Terpujilah wahai engkau ibu bapak guru
Namamu akan selalu hidup dalam sanubariku
Semua baktimu akan kuukir di dalam hatiku
Sebagai prasasti terima kasihku
Tuk pengabdianmu
Engkau sebagai pelita dalam kegelapan
Engkau laksana embun penyejuk dalam kehausan
Engkau patriot pahlawan bangsa
Tanpa tanda jasa

Yes, Sartono is the creator of that song Himne Guru that we used to sing it every May 2 during our school days. He is a retired junior high school teacher and now resides in Madiun, a small quiet town in Jawa Timur province. He never got promoted to permanent teaching staff level and stayed as a temporary teacher for more than 20 years until his retirement. He never got any royalty from the song that he created, except only a ‘priceless’ piece of certificate of gratitude from ministry of education which is still hanged neatly on his wall.

I was a part-time teacher for around 3 months before I furthered my study here. I was teaching mathematics subject in a vocational high school (Sekolah Menengah Kejuruan). I found that there were no full time teacher worked there. The school is owned by a middle-class consultant company, and all the teachers were actually consultant staffs who spent their extra time teaching at the school. There were some of them who really were professional teachers, but they were not permanent teachers employed by the school, but they were employed by some public schools nearby.

See the point here? Even if they’re permanent teaching staff, employed by public schools, they still need to teach outside. And it’s a common practice in my beloved country. They are underpaid! What could be more ironic than knowing that teachers, who are the pillar of education in a nation, are underpaid. To me, this is the major mistake of the former Indonesian leaders by not prioritizing the education sector as a core of nation’s development. When Indonesia, and so did Malaysia, had oil boom in the 70′s, both countries did the different way in spending the profit from the oil exports. Malaysia spent most of the money to develop their education system. They sent their teachers and graduates overseas, including Indonesia, to be educated and prepared to be given roles in their nation’s development. What did our leaders do? They prefered to buy all the imported goods and stuffs, beside enriching themselves with luxurious houses and the most expensive cars. They didn’t care of the education system. They didn’t care of many school buildings got older and nearly broke down. They didn’t care that many schools in remote areas didn’t have tiling so the students and teachers had to do their activities on dirt. They didn’t care of the limited number of classrooms in a school so the schedule had to be shifted to morning and noon. All that they did was changing curriculum everytime the president appointed a new minister, -and the students was forced to buy the ‘new curriculum’ textbooks without being able to use their seniors’ textbooks- changing the school name from SMA (Sekolah Menengah Atas) to SMU (Sekolah Menengah Umum) back to SMA again. They didn’t even think how much it costed to change the signboard over and over again, summed for all schools in Indonesia.

Education is the pillar of a nation. I really hope that the new government realizes that very simple statement. Definitely it’s not an easy work to do, but at least we can pass on the work to our next generation.

Selamat Hari Pendidikan Nasional!

Picture: http://www.bakti.org

Burning in KL

One thing that I hate about KL is its weather. To my recollection, I have never felt so hot and sweaty when I lived my first 10 years in Jakarta, 8 years in Bogor and 5 years in Bandung. During my 10 months stay in KL, it’s been very hot and humid almost every single day. When I walk in the busy streets of KL, it’s not only hot and sweaty, but also the sunshine is extremely bright which makes me can’t open my eyes fully. Gosh, it’s like there were 9 suns shining this city everyday. When I’m at home, turning on the the ceiling fan in the living room, or the desk fan in my room, is a compulsory to keep ‘survive’. And I think almost every house in KL is equipped with at least one ceiling fan in the living room, which is not a common practice in Bandung’s houses. When you go to LRT station, you also can easily see at least one big stand fan directly blowing at the ticketperson. He/she probably hates it everytime having rotational task as a ticketperson, knowing that his/her colleagues comfortably sit inside the air-conditioned ticket counter. In open public places like city parks, Sepang Circuit, even in my hospital’s frontyard, there are always mistfans placed all over the areas. Mistfan is a fan that sprays the mist, small droplets of water suspended in air. In an extremely hot weather, normally people gather around a mistfan, just to feel the cool sensation of the mist that touches their sweaty faces and bodies.

In my normal days, the places where I can feel comfortable is in the train (crowded but still I can feel the air-con), RapidKL buses, Metrobus (sometimes I happen to get old bus which its air-con does not function well anymore) and inside hospital environment, be it in computer lab, teaching room or oncology unit, the place where I normally carry out my project. Often when I’m the first to come to computer lab, I always turn on both air-con to get maximum coldness. Rooms in which there is a sophisticated medical modality like MRI, CT-Scan, Linear Accelerator, the temperature is always maintained at quite low level, around 16-18 centigrades. I always feel comfortable in such places to compensate the heat exposure that I get outside, whereas my coursemates (especially the skinny ones) always get freezed, no matter how many layer of labcoat covering their bodies. Back to home, again I turn on the deskfan in my room, though it does not affect significantly, due to sweat that keeps flowing out of my pores, until I fall asleep.

I’m wondering what makes KL so damn hot and humid more than Jakarta, I guess. My hypothesis is, KL has relatively low level of pollution (not to mention the yearly haze from my country) compared to Jakarta. You can still see the blue KL sky, while Jakarta is often surrounded by pollution haze from vehicles and factories exhaust. It is the haze that surrounds Jakarta’s sky that might block the sunshine to the ground.

Well, it’s my weak thought, without any scientific ground. Clearly, I miss Bandung, I miss its early morning cold water that made me lazy to take a bath, I miss the water vapor that comes out from my breath everytime I walked to my morning class. I will definitely go there once I get home!

Bedah buku AAC di KBRI

hi! Posting kali ini lagi-lagi ttg novel fenomenal Ayat-Ayat Cinta. Khusus untuk pembaca yang mengapresiasi karya sastra islami. Untuk Nuyi dan Indra para akhwat gagah perkasa, sepertinya posting kali ini tidak cocok untuk kalian, hehehe…

Jadi ceritanya kemaren aku pergi ke acara bedah buku Ayat-Ayat Cinta-nya Habiburrahman El-Shirazy di aula KBRI Kuala Lumpur. FYI, novel ini dah diterjemahkan ke dalam bahasa melayu di Malaysia, dan sekarang dan memasuki cetakan kedua. Sebenernya sih ga pengen pergi karena aku dah baca buku itu sejak pertama kali terbit, tapi karena ini ta’limat dan selain itu juga bisa ketemu dgn ikhwah2 penghuni KL dan sekitarnya, akhirnya aku pergi juga. Dan bener juga… ngga nyesel deh dateng ke acara itu, karena penulisnya langsung yg membedah dan seorang lagi pembicara adalah Akh Alwi Alatas, penulis buku Revolusi Jilbab yang sekarang lagi jadi grad student di IIUM alias UIA (Universiti Islam Antarabangsa). Wah, kebetulan banget aku punya buku dari kedua orang itu, sayangnya kedua2 buku itu aku tinggalin di Bogor, kalo ngga kan bisa minta ditandatanganin.

Hal baru yang aku dapet adalah sumber inspirasi penulis dalam penulisan Ayat-Ayat Cinta, yaitu surat Zukhruf 67: Teman-teman karib pada hari itu saling bermusuhan satu sama lain, kecuali mereka yang bertakwa. Berdasarkan ayat itu, penulis ingin mendeskripsikan cinta yang suci adalah cinta yang berlandaskan ketakwaan. Cinta seorang ayah kepada anaknya, ketika tidak berlandaskan takwa, akan menjadi bumerang di akhirat nanti. Ketika si ayah memanjakan si anak atas nama cinta dan membiarkannya terjerumus dalam maksiat, niscaya anak itu akan menjadi musuh ayahnya di yaumul hisab kelak. Dalam novel Ayat-Ayat Cinta, jujur aja aku tergugah ketika membaca cerita Fakhri yang yang terancam dihukum mati karena difitnah telah memperkosa Noura. Aisha membujuk Fakhri agar bersedia menyuap polisi untuk membebaskan dia dari tuduhan pemerkosaan, namun Fakhri menolak. Alasannya adalah karena ia menginginkan cinta antara ia dgn Aisha berkekalan hingga akhirat kelak. Menyuap polisi adalah maksiat, dan itu dapat memisahkan dirinya dgn Aisha di akhirat.

Setelah baca novel itu, aku baru tau kalo suami istri yang bertakwa akan kembali disatukan di jannahNya. Ketika itu aku diskusi kecil dgn Ust Dahlan – beliau alumni Madinah dan baru selesai master bidang tafsir hadis di IIUM – dan memang ada hadis yang menyatakan hal itu. Bahkan ketika Rasulullah ditanya oleh seorang janda yang pernah menikah lebih dari sekali, Rasul menyatakan bahwa di surga kelak, ia boleh memilih salah satu di antara suaminya yang paling dicintai. Dan suami yang lain akan dipasangkan dgn bidadari surga. Wow, how lovely! Lalu Ust Dahlan nyindir, “Abis baca novel itu, apa perubahan yg dirasakan antum? jadi kepengen nikah?” “Sebelum baca novel itu juga saya udah kepengen nikah stad!” jawabku sambil cengengesan. “hehe, bagus bagus!”

Hal baru yg lain, penulis sedikit membocorkan proses pembuatan film layar lebar Ayat-Ayat Cinta. Penulis dgn produser udah membuat semacam agreement bahwa film ini adalah film islami dan harus dilaksanakan dgn cara2 yang benar2 islami. Penulis juga terlibat dalam penentuan para pemain2nya. Ternyata penentuan pemain yang akan memerankan karakter Aisha adalah yang paling berat. Gimana ngga berat, kalo harus cari artis perempuan shalihah yang keliatan seperti blasteran jerman-turki-palestina. Pertama kali, produser menawarkan Luna Maya sebagai Aisha. Waduh, penulis keberatan dan dgn bahasa yang baik, beliau mengatakan bahwa image Luna Maya sangat tidak sesuai dgn karakter Aisha. Tawaran yang lain lagi: Tamara Blezynski! wuaaa, penulis bilang kalo Tamara terlalu tua untuk memerankan Aisha. Aisha itu kan masih mahasiswa undergrad. Dan terakhir setelah melalui proses casting, and it seems to be perfect according to the producer, mereka menawarkan… believe it or not: Nadine Chandrawinata! Waaaa, sontak para peserta bedah buku yang mayoritas akhwat setengah berteriak, “ihhh nggak mauuuu!!!” Penulis pun saat itu juga kesulitan untuk menolaknya, karena Nadine memang, professionally, sangat tepat untuk memerankan Aisha dan telah menempuh casting terlebih dahulu. Akhirnya penulis dengan tegas menyatakan kalau ia sangat keberatan dgn artis non-muslim memerankan karakter Aisha yang seorang muslimah shalihah. Dan setelah melalui diskusi yang panjang, akhirnya disepakati untuk mencari artis Mesir untuk memerankan Aisha. Bukan berarti artis Mesir pada shalihah semua, tapi penulis bilang ada seorang artis muda yang cocok, ia juga berhijab, untuk memerankan figur Aisha, kalo ngga salah namanya Hana Al-Turk. Tapi problemnya lagi2 soal klasik: artis itu pasang harga 1 juta pound Mesir, atau sekitar 1.5 miliar rupiah! Wahh, bocoran selesai sampai di situ, kelanjutannya ga tau deh.

Kalau betul film ini jadi, mungkin akan jadi film yang paling ditunggu-tunggu, dan berharap akan jadi sarana dakwah dalam aspek seni dan sastra. Karena Rasulullah saw bersabda: Lembutkanlah hatimu dengan rehat, karena hati itu tidak terbuat dari besi atau batu. (Al-Hadis)

My life

During my pleasure time of ‘doing-nothing’, suddenly I found these images that perfectly match my current daily life…….

Arrgh… scary… madesu…

source: PhD Comics: Piled Higher and Deeper

such an enlightenment!

It’s very amazing when you know how the moslem scientists back then discovered lots of natural phenomenon about the earth, the sun, the moon and the stars. Nowadays we call it astronomy. Do you know why the moslem merchants always traveled from one city to another at night? During the era of islamic glory, the islamic kingdom lied between Spain (Al Andalusiyyah), northern Africa, all the way to Pakistan (huge, wasn’t it..). Large part of it is desert area like arabian peninsula and Sahara. As we know that desert could be very hot. In order to avoid being burnt, they decided to travel at night. When they traveled, they always saw the stars, since the desert sky is often very clear. So it is how the dicoveries started. At the beginning of astronomical observations, the moslem scientist used to observe the stars on the minarets. Minaret is a mosque tower, people used to call for praying (azan) from the top of the minarets, so that it can be heared by people surrounding the mosque. And the scientists used the minarets as a stars observatory. It is a strong evidence that islamic science grows from heart of Islam. Islam and science is like two sides of a coin.

Behold! in the creation of the heavens and the earth, and the alternation of night and day,- there are indeed Signs for men of understanding, (190) Men who celebrate the praises of Allah, standing, sitting, and lying down on their sides, and contemplate the (wonders of) creation in the heavens and the earth, (With the thought): “Our Lord! not for naught Hast Thou created (all) this! Glory to Thee! Give us salvation from the penalty of the Fire. (191) -Surah 3, The Family of ‘Imran-

As the science grew, the scientists built observatories with many specific purposes, like measuring the earth inclination and the orbit of solar system. A lot of observatories were built during the Abbasiyyah dynasty.

Above is my new knowledge after I visited the Islamic Science Exhibition in KLCC yesterday. There were many scientific discoveries and inventions that can make you stunned. Indeed, islamic science ahead of its time! Yesterday was also enlightening, at least for me. I spent the lunch time with Ng, one of my coursemates. We had a small talk, and later on it became very serious argumentation about the existence of God. We never agreed, since both sides used different frame of thinking. Then I decided to go see the exhibition in KLCC and it definitely brought me such enlightenment.

Image: Minaret of Blue Mosque, Istanbul, Turkey

Donal Bebek

If you’re a ‘Friends-a-holic’, you should remember when Chandler asked this ‘mind-boggling’ yet funny question:

You know what’s weird? Donald Duck never wore pants but whenever he comes out of the bathroom he always wraps a towel around his waist. What’s that about?

Well, just now I got two versions of answer to that question. The first one is from Disney website, so let’s call it the ‘official’ answer:
Donald puts a towel when he gets out of the shower to dry off! When he gets out of the shower he’s pretty wet and doesn’t want to drip water all over the bathroom floor.

The other version I got it from Yahoo! Answers and was chosen as the best answer by the asker:
It’s very simple actually, dry feathers are fluffy. Wet feathers aren’t. Fluffy equals good coverage. Wet feathers are not so good of coverage.

Haha, that’s a very good one!

Speaking of Donald Duck, I used to subscribe the comic (Donal Bebek, Bahasa Indonesia version) since I was 10… I guess. But actually I already read it way before that. I remember the price was only Rp 400. The last time I checked, may be a year ago, the price was Rp 8000 something. The early Donal Bebek comic was in poor thin paper, including the cover, and each piece of paper contains one page in black and white and either one in color. The content was all the stories of Donald’s life and sometimes plus additional stories of his cheapskate billionaire Uncle Scrooge (Paman Gober in Bahasa Indonesia version), the brilliant yet naive inventor Gyro (Lang Ling Lung), lovable Mickey Mouse (Miki Tikus), retarded Goofy (Gufi) and so on. The comic did make some improvements. Not long after I subscribed it, it came with additional features like readers’ opinions, rewarded crossword puzzle and Donald Duck drawings a la readers. I used to solve the crossword puzzle in every comic issue and mailed the coupon-sticked postcards that contained the answers to the comic publisher, hoping to get the reward. And one day, a courier came to my house delivered a big wrapped box, addressed to my name. I won! I got the Donald Duck merchandise of stationaries. I was so happy that time, and bragged about my winning the next day in school, showed off my cute stationaries to my classmates.

Well, up until now, that was the only time I won such rewarded game.

crispy "oysters"

Note the quotation marks. What I mean by “oysters” is oyster mushroom or Pleorotus ostreatus (betul ga Cy, nama latinnya?), one of common mushrooms that people normally consume as food or drugs (CMIIW). Anyway, I went to KLCC yesterday to buy a book in Kinokuniya. During my way home, I intended to buy some cemilan to accompany me working on my assignment or watching TV. So before I headed to LRT station, I went to a supermarket there and I ran into this mushroom when I’m wandering in the vegetables section. Suddenly I remember that I used to eat this kind of mushroom as a soup or snacks back then, and it was really nice. So I thought the instant way to process this mushroom. I can’t cook this as a soup, it’s too tedious for me. How about snacks? Suddenly this fried-crispy-oyster-mushroom idea came across my mind. Yup, that’s it. It’s very simple and all I had to do is to buy the instant crispy flour which is normally used to cook fried chicken.

The following is how I simply did it:

• Prepare 2 plates for egg and flour to be put on, respectively, and off course, the mushrooms.
• Break the egg and put it on a plate, and then shake it.
• Put the crispy flour on the other plate.
• Heat the cooking oil with medium flame. We can also add a teaspoon of margarine into the cooking oil, just to make it taste juicy and greasy.
• Dip the mushrooms into the egg until it’s totally covered, then dip them in to the flour until it’s totally covered as well.
• Deep fry the flour-covered mushrooms until they turn brown.

It tastes nice, but with a little bit bitter taste. Hmmm, probably I should’ve boiled the mushrooms first… hehehe