Karipap !!! Karipap !!!

So, what did we do on Koninginnedag ?


We sold Karipap !!! On the street of Amsterdamweg in Amstelveen !!!


Can you believe that ??? I still can't believe that I and my DH, actually fried and sold karipap to the Dutch !!!


Here is our Karipap.... murah sangat !!! 2 pieces for 1 Euro




And here is our "gerai" .....

My DH was the one who really wanted to sell the karipap. Me? Makan boleh la!! So, with the help of our friend (the credit of making all these karipaps should really go to her), we made about 500 pieces. With semangat "Malaysia Boleh", we set up our gerai at 9.30 in the morning and ready to conquer the Dutch with a taste of Malaysian culinary cooking.

It was fun.... The Dutch were very cautious, they knew Vietnamese lompea (popia), they know sate (Indonesian sate that is), but they never heard of karipap. Before buying, they would ask what is inside first. But once they tasted it, they came back for more !!! We had a lot of customers coming back to get more.

Ohh !! lekker !! lekker !! They would say...

We even had free publicity by some of them. This Iranian guy, he was telling the people around us that it was "lekker!!" . No wonder !! First he bought 2, then he came back and bought 4. A while later, he came back with his family and bought more !!

There was this lady (I assume she was Dutch), had to wait for me to fry because she bought 10 euros !! She said that she used to eat karipap when she was small and that her mother used to make it. She didn't need to try, she just knew that it would taste nice!! Bless her mother !!! She even asked whether I had a store here in Amsterdam. I wish I had given her my number, not that I want to make a karipap business! but I know that my friend would enjoy making them for her....

Ilham sure enjoyed his time that day, he was our interpreter when we couldn't understand what the Dutch was saying. Most of the time when they said something that sounded alien to me, I would just say "Het is aardappel en kip" I think, what I said was, "It is potato and chicken"

In the afternoon, when our friend came, Ilham and Haikal's job was to be our promotion managers. And they both created this song...

Karipap !!! Karipap !!!

Het is super lekker

Karipap !!! Karipap !!!

Twee stuks voor een euro

It's a pity that I forgot to take their photos in action. Only have these ones with their orange getup .... :)

A pity that it was raining and very cold that day. The sun only appeared for a little while in the afternoon. The weather had been so good earlier in the week, with the temperature shooting up to 26 celcius, and yet on Queen's day, it went down to 10 celcius !! Otherwise we would see a much larger crowd.

By the time we finished packing up for the day at 6 pm, we sold most of the karipaps, but there was still about 40 pieces left. It was very tiring, but the most important thing is we had FUN !!!

And I ........

had this headgear for memory....

Hmm... maybe next time we should sell at 1 euro each !!??

Koninginnedag

Koninginnedag or Queen's Day is a national holiday in the Netherlands and is celebrated on 30th April every year. Queen's Day actually celebrates the birthday of the Queen of the Netherlands, however Queen Beatrix birthday is not on 30th April. It is actually her mother's (Queen Juliana) birthday. When Queen Beatrix succeeded her mother Queen Juliana in 1980, she decided to celebrate her official birthday on 30th April as a tribute to her mother and also for the very reason that her own birthday on 31st January prohibits outdoor festivities.

Most countries with royalty celebrate their monarch's birthday with pomp and ceremony, but not the Dutch. They, in contrast , hold a giant open-air market or vrijmarkt (freemarket). Vrijmarkt is very much similar to the car boot sale or flea market. It is the only day that ordinary folk are allowed to set up shop on the sidewalk without the trading license. As a result you will see every inch of the pavement in the city, town and village in the country is taken up with people squatting on rugs and plastics selling mostly useless but strangely intriguing bric-a-brac. In some cities like Amsterdam, some areas has been reserved for only children to set up stalls and activities (no adult allowed to sell at all). And all the while, semi professional and terrible amature bands blast out what passes as music from just about every corner of the street.

Queen's Day is also the typical occasion for oranjegekte (orange craze), when the colour of orange is a common sight. Orange is actually the name of the Dutch royal family, commonly referred as the House of Orange. On this day the Dutch will wear an extreme amount of orange clothing and also creative orange accessories. There are orange hats, orange banners, orange ballons, orange food and drinks.

What is interesting is that on this day, the Queen and her family shall visit one (sometimes more than one) area of the country. The family will visit the stalls and meet the people. Her children casually take off their blazers and join the locals in their games and activities. This royal activity was started in 1980 by Queen Beatrix when she succeeded her mother. This way, the people of the Netherlands get the opportunity to view the Royals upclose.

Lang zal ze leven !!!

Pumpkin Carving

During our trip to Maastrict recently, we found this little shop in the village of Bemelen selling huge pumpkins at low prices. Never seen such big ones before, we decided to buy one well.... a much smaller one. Afterall, it's just over a week until Halloween and perhaps we could make a family activity out of the occasion.

So that Sunday, my dear husband and son were buzy browsing in the internet, looking for interesting designs to copy. We had never done it, so it's important that we did it nicely the first time. Having chosen the design that they wanted, both of them started their most important job of all for that day. It's not easy mind you, we did not have the sharp knife and tools that a fruit carver normally has.....

So, after poking here and there, a little stabbing (is it too strong a word?) here and there and scrape and scrape and scrape for what seemed like hours........ there that's the end result !! They were quite proud of their masterpiece. It might not win the best award but they did it !!

But what they did not know was that, they carved the pumpkin much too soon. By the time Halloween came, moles and fungus had started to appear on the inside and the carving was not that firm anymore. But they sure did have fun.......

St. Maarten

Elf November is de dag

Dat mijn lichtje

Dat mijn lichtje

Elf November is de dag

Dat mijn lichtje branden mag

This season of celebrations reminds me of another one celebrated by the Dutch recently, St. Maarten (or St. Martin) on November 11th. Children would go out that evening, carrying lantern and sing a St Maarten song from door to door. In return the occupant would give them candy, sweets and sometimes oranges.

You see, the Dutch do not celebrate Halloween, they have St Maarten instead. The story of St Maarten is like this : One cold winter night, Maarten was going home and met a beggar who was very cold. He felt sorry for him, he tore his coat into two and gave one to the beggar.

So that evening, Ilham had a chance to go and collect candy with three Korean kids. He brought along the lantern which he made during Dutch class and manage to collect a whole bag of sweets and chocolates. In the meantime, we had a few kids who came and knocked on our door. They squealed with delight when we gave them the Halloween candy.

Halloween

"Jangan lupa beli gula-gula untuk budak-budak", my dear husband reminded me on Friday morning before the Halloween. "Tapi kat sini depa tak sambut Halloween" I replied. So I didn't buy any....

But my dear husband said that some kids did come to the house last year, so he bought some on Saturday morning. "We don't want to disappoint them when they come". He even bought a vampire cape when Ilham asked for it. "This is just for fun...we do not celebrate Halloween, it's not our culture, but you can wear the cape to greet the kids when they come" he reminded our son

So that evening, Ilham waited anxiously wearing his cape complete with face painting, for the kids, any kid, to come. He even took out the pumpkin that both of them had carved the week before and put it outside next to the door.

He waited and waited and waited, but no one came......

Sinterklaas

The feast of Sinterklaas (Sint-Nicolaas or Saint Nicholas) is an annual celebration which has been uniquely Dutch and Flemish. Saint Nicholas' Feast Day is actually on the 6th of December and observed primarily as a feast for children. It is also celebrated in parts of France, Belgium, Luxembourg, Germany, Austria, Switzerland, Poland etc. and the tradition differs from one country to another.

In The Netherlands, the feast is celebrated on the eve of the Feast Day on the 5th December and children will receive their presents on this evening. Since the Eve has become the main occassion for gift-giving, other family members shall also receive their presents on this day. The Dutch has a rather unique way of giving or making presents. Tradition demands that the presents be camouflaged in an imaginative and often unexpected way, accompanied by a fitting poem which could be an embarrassing incident, funny habit or well kept secret. This is the essence of Sinterklaas : lots of fun where people are expected to make fun of each other in a friendly way. The recipient often has to go on a treasure hunt all over the house to search for the gift and is expected to open it and read out aloud the poem. The real giver is supposed to remain anonymous and the recipient shall say out aloud "Thank you Sinterklaas!" even if he/she does not believe in him.

Now each year, Sinterklaas traditionally arrives from Spain by a steamboat in mid-November. Exactly why he does, remain a mystery because Saint Nicholas was originally a Bishop in Myra in present-day Turkey. Sinterklaas is accompanied by two Zwarte Piet assistants who help him give candy and "kruidnoten" or "pepernoten" cookies to the children. "Zwarte" in Dutch means black.

At the ISA, Sinterklaas had arrived this morning to the enjoyment of the Lower School children. They gathered and waited patiently for Sinterklaas and the two Piets. You can tell by the loud cheering and singing that the much awaited Sinterklaas had arrived.

"How are you children? Have you been bad in the past year? Maybe I should rephrase that, have you been good? " to the chorus of "Good!", "No!" and "Yes!". Sinterklaas would then visit each class to talk to the children and give out "pepernoten".

It were the Dutch settlers who brought Saint Nicholas to New Amsterdam, USA where it was later americanised into Santa Claus....