Lemang for the Eid

Traditionally, the lemang is cooked in a hollowed bamboo stick lined with banana leaf to prevent the rice from sticking to the bamboo. The delicacy originated with the Iban people on Borneo island and prepared for festivities like Hari Gawai, but now embraced by the Malay communities and enjoyed by everyone else in Malaysia. The lemang is made of glutinous rice and coconut milk, with salt added for taste. In my opinion, it's best eaten with chicken curry but my family preferred taking it with meat floss. It's really delicious. I've also heard that some people take lemang with durian but it is difficult to find the lemang during the durian season unless they coincide.

For this long weekend holidays, this picture is dedicated to all my Muslim friends, especially my old school pals (Abu Huraira, Abdullah Sani, Mohd Bakke and others), people from the chess community (Hamid, Ibrahim, Mas Hafizul and the rest of the Muslim chess kakis in Kuala Lumpur), Abdul Razak, Johari Low, Azhar Hew, Jasmine and the people at as-Salihin, Rosnita, Zailan, Mazlan and the rest of my Muslim ex-colleagues from Ban Hin Lee Bank (where, oh, where, are all of you now?) who are celebrating the Eid.