Today while making chapati 1, I was brought to the time that was almost forgotten.
It was the smell of ghee.
My father’s side was the common malay family, breakfast will always be nasi goreng, roti canai, ubi kayu and so on. Differed so much from my mother’s side yang lagi suka breakfast dengan roti bakar with marmalade or dorina. Sometimes we will have nasi lemak from pasar dekat bawah.
What many people may not know is, despite my hatred for curry and Indian food there is the ‘khan’ blood that runs in my vein.
My late grandmother’s adik beradik and sedara-mara on my father’s side can be easily spotted with their sharp nose, brown eyes and some of them with strong pakistani features. [ You can even spot Nasir Bilal Khan during kenduri haha nak name drop jugak tu keji haha]
So it was no surprise that they can cook pakistan-related [seriously aku tatau camana nak describe sebenarnya] food well. In fact, they cook well lah senang cerita. If we hire caterer for weddings and such they still do all the cooking and believe me, they make the best-est ayam masak merah ever.
They even made a special maruku for my family during my er..err..cough wedding. Setap gilo I tell yew, sampai aku tak malu bila jumpa diaorang suruh buatkan haha.
Which bring us to my point, yang makcik aku suka buat chapati untuk breakfast. Although you might want tosnicker and said eleh chapati je, stop. I have never taste chapati yang sesedap makcik aku buat.
Seriously.
So when I smell the ghee blend with atta flour, I immediately can smell of my late atuk’s kitchen.
There was this small gobok kayu yang pakai selak kalau nak tutup – ada jaring-jaring sikit, a manually defrost refrigerator yang satu masa dulu tah sapa pegi toreh ais yang berkumpul tu pakai pisau lalu menyebabkan rosak. Lepas tu menggelupur takut kena marah.
And there was an old dining table, made of wood yang tak berapa nak wood because I can see the top of the table nak tercabut-cabut. To cover it, someone put a plastic table cloth on top of it. A blue printed table cloth with red flowers.
My atuk’s family was not rich, he was only an ex army but the food that we had on his table adalah sedap, full of flavour. Full of love.
Usually Mak Mi will do all the cooking. Her cooking is the bestlah. Pedas semua cukup.
Whenever she cooked chapati, she will never forget to cook sambal ikan tamban as well. It’s the dry ikan tamban, kira ganti ikan bilislah. Sebab ikan tamban lagi besar dari ikan bilis, the taste is more sedap.
I never had chapati cooked back in my house back then, we always eat things that I don’t like , sometimes we have sardine and bread but never chapati, jauh sekalila ikan tamban.
So whenever I wake up smelling ghee, I will get excited.
Yeay, hari ni makan chapati dengan sambal ikan tamban!
While biting the crunchy yet lembut chapati [crunchy bahagian tepi, lembut dekat tengah] dan di cicah dengan sambal ikan tamban yang gila pedas, I will berborak dengan dalam bahasa orang kampung sana, much to my mum disapproval. 2
Lopeh ni nak buek apo?
or
Dak Senaaaa [budak Sharina], meh kat pacik ni haa
or
Ku dukuih kepalo tu taula kao
I think you get itlah.
Dan keadaan akan menjadi riuh with my uncles yang suka nak usik aku and adik aku, suka kan nak kasi budak kecik nangis. Bila dah nangis menggelupur.
And atuk macam biasa akan marah-marah siapa-siapa yang kacau kitorang hihi.
Despite the simple dish, we always enjoyed ourselves and sometimes I had to control myself sebab ada orang tak makan lagi, so kene tinggalkan untuk ‘orang belakang’ , quoting my late atuk.
While we kids getting ready to get ourselves into trouble, I can see Mak Mi and my late Mak Su [ I miss her!] washing the dishes dan disinari cahaya matahari yang makin naik. The klentang klentang pinggan berlaga sound juga akan kedengaran.
It was such a simple panorama yet it was something.
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I almost forget all about it.
I almost forget the once chaotic moment that used to make me feel so happy.
Today, while I was eating my chapati, I realised I have never felt so lonely.
Suddenly I miss my late atuk and maksu :(
