In the name of Allah- the Most Merciful Most Gracious
Salaam’alaykum
TLC- Terrible Lousy Cooking
Saturday, 1 September 2007
I was getting very jittery that morning. Kept fidgeting in the internet café. Why? It was my turn to cook lunch and dinner that day! Argh! (well, it isn’t the end of the world, is it? HeE~)
Imagine; me, preparing dishes for ten people? :/ Oh well. I only prayed the best for that day. But thanks to Allah, Kak Khadijah and Kak Atiqah did help me that day.
Firstly, we went to the cyber center at 8 am. We did our online for 3 hours. Alas, I managed to upload some pictures. Hopefully they answered questions of those who want to know how Damascus looks like. ;)
Ummi and family, I hope everyone is entertained by looking at the (not as nice as kak ngah’s) pictures. :P
So back to my cooking story, oh no, my amazing cooking story. (amazing sangat…hah) As usual, we would do some shopping at the neighbourhood market, known as Souq Jumu’ah. I planned to cook a dish full of vegetables.
(A healthy lifestyle? You can say that again.)
So off we went to buy some groceries at a stall owned by an elderly man. Oh by the way, we had a really tough time which grocer should we go to since there are lots stalls selling the same type of things. Fortunately for us, we stopped at the mister’s stall, plus he allowed us to select which tomatoes we wanted as long as they weigh 1kg. How excited we were! It is kind of hard to find a stall which lets you choose the fruits and veggies wanted. Another thing which added to our excitement, is that after choosing the fresh, red and chubby tomatoes, we handed them to the stall owner and he said “Tamaam!” which means “exactly” while smiling and showed us the OK sign. How cute. Haha. From that day onwards, we vowed to buy vegetables from his stall and called him “polite uncle” or rather, “pakcik baik”. Hee~
After done with marketing, we went up the hills, through the alley towards our lovely home with our heavy black plastic bags. I can assure you that the way back home is a daily exercise for us. Ummi, you would surely love to stay here, We can lose kilos of fats everyday. Really!
The first thing we realized back at home in the kitchen, there were no onions at all. Oh boy. I guess it was my mistake for not checking the ingredients needed for my dish. But since I’ve bought a large cabbage, a few tomatoes and 1kg of chicken wings, I decided to prepare a so-called Kentucky Fried Chicken dish and a vegetable salad.
How was the cooking process, you ask? Heh.
Fried Chicken- Kak Khadijah and Kak Atiqah volunteered to help. So happily we cleaned the kitchen beforehand and prepared the ingredients. I cleaned the chicken wings just like usually did back in Singapore, and mixed them with the rest of ingredients such as the Kentucky flour. Later, I was left all alone in the tiny yet cosy kitchen. Fear. Yep, that was what I felt. Oh well, I did manage to fry the chicken wings but I was panicky that time and boy, how smoky the kitchen was! And how terrified I was to find that the wings were somehow…darker than I expected. I was thinking- how on earth are the sisters supposed to eat burnt fried chicken wings for lunch??
I hurried to my room where Kak Atiqah was using the laptop and asked for her help in the kitchen, with tears of exasperation and sweat trickling down my cheek. Kak Atiqah was rather shocked and amused to see my terrified expression and rushed to the kitchen. She laughed whole-heartedly and ate a chicken wing. Sis assured me that the wings are perfectly fine- they are of the right colour and texture. Phew! Praises to Him, but I was still afraid though. Then came Kak Khadijah Ithnin and Kak Shaheerah, our seniors. I wanted to keep a straight face but Kak Atiqah told them about my critical yet amusing state. They too guffawed in laughter. Oh my Allah. However, they said the wings are just nice. And Kak Khadijah too created her own dish during her first cooking experience here. Hehe. Kak Shaheerah even replied; no matter what we cook, they would still savor the dish. (whoa. Relieved, I was.)
Veggie Salad- I love this part. Why? Cuz Kak Atiqah has helped me a lot with this dish. *beams* A humongous cabbage was cut then put into a glass bowl, cubes of tomato, carrot, slices of boiled eggs and of course- salad dressings plus mayonnaise. Yummylicious, eh? Despite the fact that I do not quite fancy the sour mayo and dressing, still, I think the salad tasted quite nice.
(bukan nak puji diri sendiri tau! >.<)
The sisters who are staying in their newly-rent house also enjoyed the salad. I gave some to them since they didn’t have any cooking utensils at home and they hadn’t eaten since lunch. So that night, my housemates brought bowls of the salad and drinks to their place. In the end, we spent a night there. Hehe. Anyway, their house is just a 1 minute walk from ours. Nice? You bet. *winks*
Alhamdu lillah.
Visit to the Companions of the Prophet (pbuh)’s shrines
Tuesday, 4 September 2007
It was the second last orientation programme held by DMASYQ- Singapore’s student association in Syria. The purpose of this programme was to educate Singaporean students studying in Syria- that Damascus was once a land where most of Prophet Muhammad’s companions once lived, ruled, worked and most of all, fight for Islam.
The first maqaam or shrine we visited was the maqaam of Sayyidina Bilal ibn Rabah radiallahu ‘anhu- almu’adzinul awwal. He was given the name;
the First Muadzin by Rasulullah himself. Subhanallah. May Allah bless his soul.
Next was the shrine of a Omayad caliph named Al-Walid bin Marwan. He was a very good ruler and had done a lot of development for Islam during his ruling years. Beside his shrine, there were shrines of his royal family. Brother Zayd, our respected president of DMASYQ managed to explain a brief history of the companion’s shrines.
Later on, we went to a Muslim Cemetry where small buildings with green domes can be seen. Bro Zayd explained that the domes indicate that those are shrines of the Ahlul Bayt which means the descendents of the Prophet (pbuh). We visited Caliph Umayyah’s shrine, Sayyidatina Asmaa’s, Ummu Habibah and Ummu Salamah who are the Prophet’s wives, Sayyidina Ali Zainal Abideen- one of his descendents, and also the syuhadaa’ of Karbala.
Subhanallah. The visit really developed a sense of remorse, enlightment and appreciation in me. Praises to Allah who has given me this golden opportunity to be here in Damascus, the Land of Blessings. My gratefulness to Ummi and Abah and family plus friends who have prayed for me all these while.
Especially to Ummi and Abah, May Allah grant you great health and wealth plus reward all your deeds and sacrifices. I love you Ummi and Abah. And Long, Ngah and Mas. May Allah watch over all of you.
Till then, Insya Allah we’ll meet again. Do remember me in your prayers.
Wassalaam.
Salaam’alaykum
TLC- Terrible Lousy Cooking
Saturday, 1 September 2007
I was getting very jittery that morning. Kept fidgeting in the internet café. Why? It was my turn to cook lunch and dinner that day! Argh! (well, it isn’t the end of the world, is it? HeE~)
Imagine; me, preparing dishes for ten people? :/ Oh well. I only prayed the best for that day. But thanks to Allah, Kak Khadijah and Kak Atiqah did help me that day.
Firstly, we went to the cyber center at 8 am. We did our online for 3 hours. Alas, I managed to upload some pictures. Hopefully they answered questions of those who want to know how Damascus looks like. ;)
Ummi and family, I hope everyone is entertained by looking at the (not as nice as kak ngah’s) pictures. :P
So back to my cooking story, oh no, my amazing cooking story. (amazing sangat…hah) As usual, we would do some shopping at the neighbourhood market, known as Souq Jumu’ah. I planned to cook a dish full of vegetables.
(A healthy lifestyle? You can say that again.)
So off we went to buy some groceries at a stall owned by an elderly man. Oh by the way, we had a really tough time which grocer should we go to since there are lots stalls selling the same type of things. Fortunately for us, we stopped at the mister’s stall, plus he allowed us to select which tomatoes we wanted as long as they weigh 1kg. How excited we were! It is kind of hard to find a stall which lets you choose the fruits and veggies wanted. Another thing which added to our excitement, is that after choosing the fresh, red and chubby tomatoes, we handed them to the stall owner and he said “Tamaam!” which means “exactly” while smiling and showed us the OK sign. How cute. Haha. From that day onwards, we vowed to buy vegetables from his stall and called him “polite uncle” or rather, “pakcik baik”. Hee~
After done with marketing, we went up the hills, through the alley towards our lovely home with our heavy black plastic bags. I can assure you that the way back home is a daily exercise for us. Ummi, you would surely love to stay here, We can lose kilos of fats everyday. Really!
The first thing we realized back at home in the kitchen, there were no onions at all. Oh boy. I guess it was my mistake for not checking the ingredients needed for my dish. But since I’ve bought a large cabbage, a few tomatoes and 1kg of chicken wings, I decided to prepare a so-called Kentucky Fried Chicken dish and a vegetable salad.
How was the cooking process, you ask? Heh.
Fried Chicken- Kak Khadijah and Kak Atiqah volunteered to help. So happily we cleaned the kitchen beforehand and prepared the ingredients. I cleaned the chicken wings just like usually did back in Singapore, and mixed them with the rest of ingredients such as the Kentucky flour. Later, I was left all alone in the tiny yet cosy kitchen. Fear. Yep, that was what I felt. Oh well, I did manage to fry the chicken wings but I was panicky that time and boy, how smoky the kitchen was! And how terrified I was to find that the wings were somehow…darker than I expected. I was thinking- how on earth are the sisters supposed to eat burnt fried chicken wings for lunch??
I hurried to my room where Kak Atiqah was using the laptop and asked for her help in the kitchen, with tears of exasperation and sweat trickling down my cheek. Kak Atiqah was rather shocked and amused to see my terrified expression and rushed to the kitchen. She laughed whole-heartedly and ate a chicken wing. Sis assured me that the wings are perfectly fine- they are of the right colour and texture. Phew! Praises to Him, but I was still afraid though. Then came Kak Khadijah Ithnin and Kak Shaheerah, our seniors. I wanted to keep a straight face but Kak Atiqah told them about my critical yet amusing state. They too guffawed in laughter. Oh my Allah. However, they said the wings are just nice. And Kak Khadijah too created her own dish during her first cooking experience here. Hehe. Kak Shaheerah even replied; no matter what we cook, they would still savor the dish. (whoa. Relieved, I was.)
Veggie Salad- I love this part. Why? Cuz Kak Atiqah has helped me a lot with this dish. *beams* A humongous cabbage was cut then put into a glass bowl, cubes of tomato, carrot, slices of boiled eggs and of course- salad dressings plus mayonnaise. Yummylicious, eh? Despite the fact that I do not quite fancy the sour mayo and dressing, still, I think the salad tasted quite nice.
(bukan nak puji diri sendiri tau! >.<)
The sisters who are staying in their newly-rent house also enjoyed the salad. I gave some to them since they didn’t have any cooking utensils at home and they hadn’t eaten since lunch. So that night, my housemates brought bowls of the salad and drinks to their place. In the end, we spent a night there. Hehe. Anyway, their house is just a 1 minute walk from ours. Nice? You bet. *winks*
Alhamdu lillah.
Visit to the Companions of the Prophet (pbuh)’s shrines
Tuesday, 4 September 2007
It was the second last orientation programme held by DMASYQ- Singapore’s student association in Syria. The purpose of this programme was to educate Singaporean students studying in Syria- that Damascus was once a land where most of Prophet Muhammad’s companions once lived, ruled, worked and most of all, fight for Islam.
The first maqaam or shrine we visited was the maqaam of Sayyidina Bilal ibn Rabah radiallahu ‘anhu- almu’adzinul awwal. He was given the name;
the First Muadzin by Rasulullah himself. Subhanallah. May Allah bless his soul.
Next was the shrine of a Omayad caliph named Al-Walid bin Marwan. He was a very good ruler and had done a lot of development for Islam during his ruling years. Beside his shrine, there were shrines of his royal family. Brother Zayd, our respected president of DMASYQ managed to explain a brief history of the companion’s shrines.
Later on, we went to a Muslim Cemetry where small buildings with green domes can be seen. Bro Zayd explained that the domes indicate that those are shrines of the Ahlul Bayt which means the descendents of the Prophet (pbuh). We visited Caliph Umayyah’s shrine, Sayyidatina Asmaa’s, Ummu Habibah and Ummu Salamah who are the Prophet’s wives, Sayyidina Ali Zainal Abideen- one of his descendents, and also the syuhadaa’ of Karbala.
Subhanallah. The visit really developed a sense of remorse, enlightment and appreciation in me. Praises to Allah who has given me this golden opportunity to be here in Damascus, the Land of Blessings. My gratefulness to Ummi and Abah and family plus friends who have prayed for me all these while.
Especially to Ummi and Abah, May Allah grant you great health and wealth plus reward all your deeds and sacrifices. I love you Ummi and Abah. And Long, Ngah and Mas. May Allah watch over all of you.
Till then, Insya Allah we’ll meet again. Do remember me in your prayers.
Wassalaam.
p/s:for more pictures, visit www.faqihulmuzaffar.multiply.com :)
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