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| New Year's Brunch, Compliments of Friend S and Family |
My friend S (not to be confused with neighbor S) and her husband and daughter visited us for the New Year and brought us a platter of some traditional Sri Lankan New Year food - squares of milkrice (in the center), with a small container of lunu miris (a chili and onion sambol) to have with it, round wheel shaped kokis (similar to Swedish rosette cookies, but, made with rice flour and not sweet), semi-circular halapa (made with finger millet flour, grated coconut, and coconut treacle and steamed in banana leaves), pieces of butter cake, konde kavum (oil cakes made with rice flour and treacle, with a raised knob in the center - without the knob, it wouldn't be konde kavum and would b known by another name), diamond shaped aluwa (made with rice flour and sugar syrup, and dusted with powdered sugar), and homemade marshmallows. Plus bananas, as they are part of the traditional New Year's breakfast.
In addition, S brought us some stringhoppers (made with red rice flour), chicken curry, and tamales. We will enjoy them for dinner, tonight.
I'm watching replays of the Rose Parade on TV as I type this. It is a lovely, sunny day, with a high of 66F. We had a small (4.1) earthquake earlier in the morning, but, I didn't feel it. Or, maybe that was what woke me up from my sleep? Something woke me up around 8:30 a.m. and I went to the bathroom, but, didn't realize there had been an earthquake! Our small quake was nothing at all like the one that hit Japan, today!
My daughter and I are having a relaxed day. We will start on our almsgiving preparations in earnest, tomorrow!
Today, I am grateful for:
- A new year to look forward to
- Sharing New Year's Day with my daughter
- No damage in my area from the most recent earthquake
- Friend S and family visiting us for the new year with wonderful gifts of food
- A sunny day
Today's joyful activity was a visit from my friend and her family.
Yikes! So glad the earthquake wasn't any worse. Your meal looks great and I'm sure the parade was fun to watch. My mama watched it today, but I was napping when it happened. Happy New Year!
ReplyDeleteThank you, Mandy. Happy New Year to you, too. :) We enjoyed the meal my friend provided and there is one local TV station here that reruns the video of the parade all day, so you can watch any time! :)
DeleteSuch a lovely meal from your friend, it looks delicious.
ReplyDeleteI'm glad your earthquake wasn't any worse. I was thinking of my daughter-in-law's family today. They live in Takamatsu and I check online on the earthquake list. They have had some aftershocks and it must be a very frightening time for them.
It was wonderful to have some of the treats my friend brought for us to enjoy. Especially since I don't make a lot of them, myself.
DeleteI'm sorry to hear that your DIL's family might be affected by the earthquake; I hope they are safe and OK.
Sorry Bless, I didn't mean to mislead. No, my daughter-in-law's family wouldn't have been affected as thy are too far away from the earthquake's epicentre. I meant to say the area most affected are suffering aftershocks but thankfully they were spared a tsunami.
DeleteI can't imagine living with the fear of earthquakes, I feel for you too xx
Sorry, Eileen; I misunderstood. My fault - I should have looked up where Takamatsu was in relation to where the earthquake struck! Yes, I read that there have been many aftershocks. I think we tend to get used to the occasional tremors, but, I do dread the so called "Big One" that has been recurring at certain intervals and is currently said to be overdue!
DeleteS brought you quite a feast. I just read that we had a small earthquake here yesterday - definitely not a common thing. We didn't feel anything here, but did feel and hear one a few years ago when we had one about the size of what you just had.
ReplyDeleteYes, she did and we are still enjoying some of what she brought us! Earthquakes are rather unusual where you are, aren't they? I think you'd notice them more because they are so unusual.
DeleteI look forward to reading about the Almsgiving ceremony. Lovely looking food from your friends - but what on earth are stringhoppers?! They sound like an insect I wouldn't want to meet! Love FD xx
ReplyDeleteLOL, stringhoppers are called "indiappam" in Sinhalese and Tamil. They are a type of homemade rice noodles - a dough of rice flour, salt, and water is pressed through a mold with small holes at the bottom onto round woven wicker mats or trays. The dough resembles fine strings when they are pressed out and thus the English name of stringhoppers. You move the mold in a circular motion as the threads of dough are pressed on to each mat until there is a small mound of threads of dough on each mat. Then, you steam the mats until the dough is cooked. Once steamed, you remove the indiappam or stringhoppers from the woven mats and onto a plate. We eat them with curries.
DeleteWell! Your new year got off to a good start! Sounds like a lovely day and of course a delicious plate of food was delivered. It looks fabulous!
ReplyDeleteThank you, Lady Ella. Yes, the new year got off to a very good start! I hope that is a good omen! :)
DeleteBeautiful blog
ReplyDeleteThank you!
DeleteWhat wonderful treats your friend S brought over to celebrate the New Year. When you post a picture of your food treats I always try and decide what I would pick to eat. I think I would try the konde kavum. Although the homemade marshmallows ran a close second.
ReplyDeleteHappy New Year to you and your daughter too, Bless.
They are wonderful treats, if only because they take so much work to make them and I don't make the effort to make them, anymore! The konde kavum would have been a very good choice. Sweet and oily - they are called oil cakes in Sri Lankan English (although, I think that these days, even the English speakers in SL call them konde kavum or just kavum). S's marshmallows are delicious, too. :)
DeleteThank you, Debra; happy New Year to you and yours, too. :)
I enjoy the photos of the food that is so different from what we have around here! It is wonderful that it is homemade, too.
ReplyDeleteThank you, Bushlady. Yes, unless someone makes it, or, it is frozen and imported for sale at the store, these foods are not readily available, here. I still have my kokis mold and the stringhopper mold, but, I no longer make these - too much work!
DeleteI'm so glad you haven't experienced any damage from the earthquake.
ReplyDeleteI love hearing about your customs. It was nice of S to bring you the food.
I'm glad, too, Sharon, that it was a small earthquake and there was no damage. And, I'm glad I renewed my earthquake insurance! :) Yes, it was lovely of S to bring me the platter of food.
DeleteThank goodness it was only small quake. I hope your almsgiving preparations went well. Xx
ReplyDeleteYes; I was happy that it was a very small quake. The almsgiving preparations went very well, Jules, and the actual event went well, too. :)
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