THE young leaves of coconut trees are highly sought after a week before Hari Raya Aidilfitri.
FOR THOSE SHORT ON TIME: Suryana Abdul Rahim says some customers have no time to weave coconut leaves and so they prefer to buy ready-made ketupat leaves.
WHERE IT ALL BEGINS: Siti Arifah sorting out coconut leaves before tying them into bundles.
MAKE YOUR OWN: A customer choosing coconut leaves for making ketupat.
A COMPLETE MEAL: Some traders sell ketupat together with rendang and satay sauce.
It is used for making ketupat, that delicacy synonymous with Malay Muslim festivals.
Ketupat is steamed rice in woven coconut leaves, usually eaten with rendang and satay. To enhance its taste, it is sometimes served with serunding kelapa (stir-fried grated coconut with spices) or peanut sauce.
Sourcing the young leaves these days is no easy task. Each tree has only one bunch of young leaves, which springs up vertically at the top of the plant.
Not only is it laborious to chop down the bunch, suppliers of the leaves are finding it tough to find enough of them to meet the season’s demand.
In recent years, some of the leaves were brought in from Sumatra to supplement local supply. Due to its scarcity, the leaves are highly-priced. This year, a bundle of 100 leaves is sold at about RM10 and the price varies from place to place.
Those who prefer to make their own ketupat but are too lazy to weave the leaves, can find ready-woven ketupat leaves that are sold at between 30 to 40 sen each.
Of course, the easy way out is to buy ready-to-serve ketupat, which you can find anywhere as the celebration draws near.
Siti Arifah Tindek, 35, has been selling the leaves for many years, especially a week before Hari Raya, at her stall at Kampung Usaha Jaya in Skudai, Johor Baru.
“The leaves come in a huge bundle. We have to sort it out as some are damaged during delivery.
“My customers buy from one to several bundles, depending on the number of ketupat they want to make,” she said.
It takes about 30 seconds for an experienced person to weave a ketupat casing by rolling a leaf into a coil before threading one end of the leaf through the body of the coil.
A ready-weaved ketupat casing has a small opening to insert rice before it is boiled in hot water.
Besides coconut leaves, Siti Arifah also sells daun palas (a type of palm leaf).
This leaf is used for making ketupat palas, a version of ketupat that is a mixture of glutinous rice and black-eyed peas, popular in the northern states of the peninsula.
But the weaving of palas leaves is more simple as the shape is triangular.
“These leaves are less common here. I sell each small bundle at RM2,” she added.
Sources : NST 1st October 2008
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