In Bahasa Melayu, nasi means rice and kandar refers to the method Indian Muslim hawkers (a person who travels selling goods) would use to sell their rice and curries in the early 1900’s. They would carry their goods in pots which they hung on a bamboo or wooden pole over their shoulder. Nasi kandar originated in Penang, Malaysia and is considered a traditional Malaysian dish. It’s sedap (pronounced seh-DOHP), or delicious!
I listened to BTS’s new song titled “A Brand New Day” with Zara Larsson this week. Korean Pop, or K-Pop as everyone calls it, is very popular in Malaysia among young people. The entire song is sung in Korean! I had to look up the English lyrics.
My school held it’s annual Hari Raya celebration this week. Hari Raya is a religious holiday to celebrate the end of Ramadan, the holy month when Muslims all over the world fast during the day for an entire month. Students and teachers dressed in their traditional gowns called baju melayu, and we ate so much food, including ketupat, glutinous, or “sticky” rice, wrapped in coconut leaf!
This week, I finished up a book called Factfulness: Ten Reasons We’re Wrong About the World—and Why Things Are Better Than You Think. It’s a book about all the progress we have made towards solving some of the world’s biggest problems such as extreme poverty and access to education.
