Ketupat Daun Palas

This is my post for the coming Idul Fitri. This post will also serve to satisfy the craving for ketupat daun palas (palm leaves rice cake) by my brother Pakpayne who is so lucky (or unlucky) to be working in faraway land where the sands of the desert is more abundant than the green grasses and leaves back home in Malaysia. He had been salivating since I mentioned to him that I will be making ketupat daun palas(lets just call it ketupat) this coming Raya. Making not buying as I usually did. He wanted it so much saying that ketupat is his favourite and ordered some to be sent to him before Raya.
It's a no mean feat as this is the first time in my life I am doing this one delicacy that the rural Kelantanese must have on their table when it is time to celebrate Hari Raya. I was thinking of making the specialty from 2 kg gluttinous rice and my elder sister told me I could make 40 pieces of KDP and she wants half of it because she couldn't place any order for it and she doesn't know how to do herself. I doubt that I can make more than 40 as I am doing it for the first time after seeing and helping my late mum did it some 40 years ago.
When I mentioned to Pakpayne the cost of the delivery maybe prohibitive, we agreed on the ultimate solution of sending the daun palas instead via his friend Nik who is back for Raya. Pakpayne and his adorable wife Lil will attempt to do it on their own based on my description of how it is done in this blog.
Actually I have tried doing it with my wife Fatthiyah some 2 weeks ago. She herself had never done it at all as her family had been ordering it from their neighbour who made ketupat for a living. So it was really me recalling from memory, giving her instructions and ensuring her to do it the way I saw my late mum did it. The purpose then was to take some photographs to illustrate my article for a soon to be published magazine.
Fortunately the ketupat came out alright and we actually enjoyed eating it compared to those that I bought from the makcik at the last Friday sermons in Kota Bharu. Now I am resolved to make ketupat as my special dish for the coming Raya. My daughter who is coming back from Labuan is excited too because of the chance for her to learn handsdown on how this ketupat is made as her mum has never made it herself in the 25 years after she was born.
Pokok palas (licuala triphylla) grows in the wild in Kelantan. I saw them at Taman Negara Kuala Koh.I saw them near my mother inlaws home in Pasir Mas too.

To those who don't use the leaves for making ketupat, the plant is a weed. It is only for such occassions as Raya that the demand for the leaves increases. Then you will see people selling them in the market. The unopened shoot in the shape of a sword is the part required. Once it is opened the leaves become useless.
When the Hari Raya draws near, daun palas can be bought in bundles with the smallest bundle being sold at RM2.00 containing about 5 stalks which can yield about 30 casings.People selling daun palas at the Pasir Mas market.


I bought a small bundle and took it home to begin the first step in the making of ketupat. The first step is opening the leaves to make the casings. A casing is the leaf being folded into a triangular shell before it is filled with the steamed glutinous rice.

A few fronds of the palas shoot.


The end a single leaf is trimmed at the tip with a sharp knife so that the end will be straight and not serrated. One hand is used to hold the tip of the leaf while the thumb of the other hand is used to flatten the many ribs on the leaf. The process is repeated until the whole leaf is comparatively flat. It is quite a task as the leaf tend to close up again just like a concertina. When it is able to hold the flat shape, the first fold can be made.


Followed by more foldings. Care must be taken not to flatten the casing as the folding may result in ugly creases.
When the end of the leaf is near, the last fold will be a loop that will secure the leaf from opening up.

Making the last loop (above) is important before tightening up (below)

The picture below shows the correctly made casing (left) and the wrong last loop (right) which we call 'caping'.

It is ok if you dont get it right as it will hold just as well only that it is not right by the traditional way. Anyway this can be corrected later at the time of filling up.
The next process is preparing the glutinous rice to fill u the casing. This is usually done on the last day of the fasting month and this special day is called 'Hari Membuat Ketupat' (ketupat making day). In the days of old when the day of Raya was determined solely on the sighting of the moon determining the Ketupat Making day was a problem and thus the ketupat making is delayed till last so that should the moon be not sighted and Raya is delayed, the ketupat will be fresh and not hard.
'Beras Pulut' (glutinous rice) now costs at least RM3.00 a kg. My late mum would be shocked to hear of such a price. Anyway we are making our ketupat from 2 kgs of rice. The rice will be washed and soaked in water for an hour to soften it. This will hasten the steaming process.Then line up the steamer's bottom with sheets of banana leaves after making slits along the grain to allow steam to penetrate through. These banana leaves are necessary to keep the rice form falling through the many holes at the bottom of the steamer tray. If you in Dubai I guess you wont be able to find any banana leaves so you can use any other material like a muslin cloth or or new unused baby cloth napkin. Banana leaf is best because the cooked rice will not stick to the leaves.
At the same time santan (coconut milk) from 3 coconuts is put to the boil with a pinch of salt added. Add sugar to taste. If you like it sweet add more of course. Let it boil for ten minutes.
After an hour of steaming the glutinous should be done. Transfer the whole lot of cooked rice to a large container such as a basin or a large periok. Add the santan little by little while turning over the rice with a large spatula. When the rice is cool enough, use a plastic bag to cover your hand to turn over the rice so that it will be thoroughly mixed with the sweetened santan. This process is called 'mengarong'. Care must be taken to avoid any use of the bare hands as any contamination will shorten the shelf life of the ketupat.

When you are satisfied that the rice is thoroughly mixed, it is time to fill in the rice into the ketupat casing. By this time the rice should be cool enough to handle with the bare hands. If you have surgical glove it is best to use it. The fingers must be used to push the rice into the corners of the ketupat casing as tight as possible. After filling half way, put in some sambal daging or serunding daging as the non Kelantanese or meat floss if you cant pronounce the earlier two names. Fill up with the steamed rice till the casing is filled up to the brim while pressing the rice to compact it. When that is done continue wrapping the leaves until the ketupat attains a solid triangular shape.

Ensure proper compaction by pulling tight the leaf casing at every turn of the wrapping. Make sure that no rice oozes out from the corners called 'bucu' by the Kelantanese. To avoid the goey glutinous rice from sticking to your hand, apply some lime (kapur makan) to the fingers of your hands.

As in the making of the casing, the last loop must be correct and not 'caping' and pull it as tight as possible. Ensure that the casing won't open up by tying up the end of the leaf as per the illustration below.


The ketupat is now ready for the last process of boiling. The boiling can be done in any containers with a lid. The boiling will take an hour and should kill most of the contamination at the time of filling up.
Putting the water to the boil.

Immersing all the ketupat in one go.

Putting the lid will ensure the heat to remain within the pot

Remove all the water and after cooling down, cut the long stalk to make them look nice.

Ketupat ready to be served to your guests.

Ketupat lemak is not sweet as there is no sugar added. It is served with 'manisan cair' which is coconut sugar before it solidifies into gula melaka.
Do you know how to open the casing? Get some ketupats and start finding out how. If you try to open the knots, you may not be able to consume much because others will have eaten the rest by the time you finish opening up the knot. There is an easier way to do it. It is for you to find out.

Hopefully the above description is good enough to help you try it out. Should you fail to make it yourself, a visit to most pasars in Kelantan will ensure you will get your supply.

To all visitors to LAISI I would like to wish you Selamat Hari Raya. Should I have teased any of you in such a way as to hurt your feelings in whatever way, I beg for your forgiveness and likewise I will forgive you for any chiding which I believe to be all just for fun and never meant to hurt anybodys feelings.

Sorry folks, no time to make any corrections, will correct later.

Thank You Tracy

It is not often a small time blogger like me get praised for some of the blogs I posted.Most of such accolades comes from friends or fellow bloggers. The latest came from a complete stranger by the name of Tracy. I would like to share with you what Tracy wrote in my comment column on Labuan revisited Part 3, Places of Interest. It was posted on July 1st when I was in Labuan looking after my 1 year old grand daughter Balqis. This is what Tracy wrote in the comment column yesterday 24 th September 2008.

Anonymous said...

Dear Zawi,
I have just spent the past hour reading every word you have written in your Labuan post and think you have a real knack for travel journalism! Witty, non-judgemental and honest. I thoroughly enjoyed reading it. I am going to Labuan this weekend and had done a search to find things to do (I am a British tourist!) and your blog has given me my list of things to do.
I like the way you see life.
Warm regards,
Tracy

Wednesday, September 24, 2008

It is not that I want to bask in the euphoria of praises or accolades that I am blogging about this comment from Tracy. I just want to highlight to you that Tracy is a tourist who has found some use of what we write. If we tell them of what we have, somebody out there may read it and may find the information useful to them. In this case Tracy is a tourist why may want to find out about something of the place she will be going to. No doubt there are any other write ups about the place but since mine is quite the latest that she could lay her hands on.

Many official websites or brochures write beautiful things about a place with splendid photographs taken by professional photographers with non of the back lanes or dirtier side to show. This gives the place a false impression due to the omission of such information. Often times they are obsolete information which may not be true anymore. When the tourists come, they feel cheated. Personally I prefer to let them know the truth so that they won't be disheartened upon seeing the real thing on the ground.

I was fortunate in that I managed to attend a briefing by Virtual Malaysia courtesy of Tourism Malaysia Kelantan under the then Director Puan Hajjah Lijah Othman (now retired). We were told to post as many pictures of Malaysia as we can. It is the only way to let tourists all over the world know how Malaysia looks. So I did just that in my blogs, post lot of pictures and tell a bit about the place.

I am so happy that tourists like Tracy has seen it and I am convinced many more tourists has seen it too but they just didn't make a comment like Tracy did.

Let us promote Malaysia as a destination of choice by posting lots of pictures of the place where you come from. Places like Gua Musang, Dabong, Tumpat and others in Kelantan are unique in their own way. The only way for people to know about them is to post a story with lots of pictures for the world to see.

For you Tracy, I am honoured to have you read and comment on my blogsite. We wish to welcome you and hope you have a happy time in Malaysia. Please enjoy Labuan when you get there this weekend.

Look, What I Saw Yesterday (Updated)

With nothing much to do yesterday I rode my kapchai around Pasir Mas. Armed with my camera, I wanted to capture anything interesting that I might see. Since I wanted to do a new blog about Pasir Mas New Town for My Pasir Mas blogsite, I headed for the road leading to Rantau Panjang.

This house which belongs to Puan Sabariah the famous dodol maker in Pasir Mas undergoing a new paint job caught my sight.

This house with its ornate fencing and peculiar design has been featured in the local magazines for its aesthetic look. The inside of the house has a staircase that you usually see in a Hindustani movie. The signboard clearly shows you the business Puan Sabariah is in.

The owners of the mansion.

A Lamborghini or a Ferrari in the compound would complement this house.
Going further I saw this yellow hovercraft on its trailer wheel. A hovercraft in Pasir Mas is a rarity indeed. With a vast marshy areas around Rantau Panjang it must be extremely handy to go around the marshland to hunt or just play around. I was told the owner often use this hovercraft.


This worker posed beside the craft to show the relative size of the craft.
The pilot will sit infront. The craft is powered by a small car engine.

While buying my newspaper on the return ride home I saw this sleek car pulling off. The car's engine didn't roar so much so I didn't realise it came to stop right behind me. The awed look on the face of the newspaper man made me turn around and I too was amazed by the sight of the car. I grabbed my camera which was in my camera bag and managed to take these two shots. It was a Lamborghini no doubt. Its the Gallardo. The last time I saw such a car at MOFAZ KL, it was a Countach and was tagged at a cool RM4.5 million.
He came to buy a newspaper too so I guess he must be a local coming back to the parents house.

There is only one family in Pasir Mas who can afford and would indulge in such luxuries as I have seen sometimes back one of them driving a Mercedez 500 CLK. I rode to that house and true enough, the car was parked in front of the house.The Merc was in the house compound too but I wouldn't dare to go inside to take a picture.
I requested one of the family members whom I know to get the permission for me to post the picture of the car infront of the house and I have their consent. Emir not only managed to get me the permission but also some informations about it.
Depending on the specifications, a Lambhorhini Gallardo costs between RM1.75 to RM2 million in Malaysia. A full tank can easily fill RM300 worth of petrol at the current price. That will take the car a distance of 300 - 400 kms depending on the road traffic. The owner did a test drive at Sepang F1 circuit and he managed to top 230 kph. How is that for speed?
Click on the name of the car below to see the brochure image of the car.

Lamborghini Gallardo

Price New

USD$160,000 (without Malasyian import tax and the other taxes)
Production
1300 a year (projected)
Engine
5.0 liter DOHC all-aluminum V-10, variable valve timing
Horsepower
493 @ 7800 rpm
Torque
376 lb-ft @ 4500 rpm
Curb Weight
3350 lbs
Miscellaneous
6 speed manual, all-wheel drive
0-60 mph
3.9 seconds (projected)
1/4 mph
12.2 @ 122 mph (projected)
Top Speed
192 mph

Well when you are rich, you can afford anything, be it a large mansion, a hovercraft or a Lamborghini, or you can have them all.

The Last Of The Great Doctors of Kota Bharu

Remember these pictures from my blog Kota Bharu In Pictures Part 3?

The clinic is still operating but I wonder if Dr. Bates is still seeing his patients there. I think Dr. Bates is a former British citizen who settled in Kelantan a long time ago. Will somebody from Kota Bharu enlighten me?

J.T. said...
Hi Zawi

Wow.. more familiar names of the KB. As mentioned in my blog, Bates Dispensary is the one place I remember most among others. I am not sure what happened to the Bates family after we left KB. My parents knew Dr Robert Bates. If my parents were alive today, I would call them immediately to ask about Dr Bates and how he got to KB to set up his practice.Medo photo studio sounds familiar. I think that is where our family and personal photos were taken. I need to check the back of some old photos. It has been too many years. :)Oh Zawi, even with limited memory of KB, I could go on and on about some of the street names and who and what I remember of those places. Thanks for another walk down memory lane.
Monday, January 28, 2008
Zawi said...
j.t.

I think Dr. Bates is still around. Email me your fathers name so that I can use that name to tickle Dr. Bate's memory of the old times when I approach him to allow me to do a write up on him.Did take a picture of the Merican Dispensary at the corner of the shop near to Bazaar MPKB. Dr Ezanee was the proprietor but I doubt that he is still practicing as the last time I saw him, his eyesight was so bad that he could hardly see. That was a decade ago.The joy is mutual j.t. Me happy to make somebody like you happy :). Please come back to Kota Bharu.I will check on your site about the Dr. Bates.

Those were the exact posting on my Blog about Kota Bharu In Pictures Part 3.I was presumptious when I made the remark that Dr. Bates was a Brit. Dr. Bates is an Australian.

That was what triggered the desire to blog about the doctors of Kota Bharu. Yes, J.T. of Jaqui's Curve who commented on the above pictures that did it. Anyway it was so long ago that I promised her to blog about it and it is only now that I get to do it. It wasn't an easy task really as my only personal aquaintance with Dr. Bates was a visit to his clinic once for my hypertension. That too was a long time ago. I could not really figure as to how receptive Dr. Bates will be to the idea.

In later interactions with J.T. I found out that her family had a close mutual family friend who is a lawyer by the name of Foo. Hey that brings the connection. Mr.Foo Say Ghee is my ex teacher's husband. Via Yahoo Messenger I solicited Mrs. Foo's help to send words to Dr. Bates of my intention to write about him. At a chance meeting with Dr. Bates, Mrs.Foo poked the proposal to which Dr. Bates asked her why should anybody wants to write anything about him?. Mrs. Foo was wise enough to answer that he was the last of the Greats which is exactly right and that gave me the idea for the topic of this blog. Anyway Mrs. Foo got the greenlight for me and conveyed to me that Dr. Bates wants me to see him anytime in the afternoon as he has less patients at such a time.

That was still along time ago. I still didn't have the courage to go and see him to ask him probing questions pertinent to what I had in mind. I had exactly nothing in my mind so how on earth would I know what to ask of him? The most important thing is to find out why on earth that he set up shop in Kota Bharu such a long time ago when the place was just a tiny dot on the map of Malaysia.

Finally barely a month ago my friend Datuk Dr. Mahmud Awang Kecik, a urologist and former surgeon at Ampang Puteri Specialist Hospital was down in Kota Bharu and he called me for lunch. After exhausting all ideas to talk about, I broached to him about my idea to sort of interview Dr. Bates. I told him I was having problem on how to break the ice with him. Smilingly Dr. Mahmud asked me to take him to see Dr. Bates. They are aquaintance!

It was some 38 years ago that a young boy of 19 years of age by the name of Mahmud Awang Kechik had come to see Dr. Bates to get his health certified. This was a prerequisite for him to enter medical College under the Colombo Plan. Later when Dr. Mahmud had qualified and became a doctor in Kota Bharu they get aquainted again. So I came with a mutual friend to see Dr. Bates. The meeting between two close friends was a happy one as Dr. Bates had been trying to locate Dr. Mahmud for sometimes. I recorded it on camera. After that it was easy for me to personally tell him about my project to which he said you can come and see me any time.

Datuk Dr. Mahmud, not a practitioner anymore but a successful businessman on the international scene.

Dr. Mahmud posing with Dr. Bates.Two good friends reunited.

On 9th August 2008 I went to see Dr. Bates again to get some basic informations about Dr. Bates. He was in a hurry so I had to work very fast to get some basic informations about him.

Dr. Thomas James Bates graduated as a doctor from Adelaide University Asutralia. It was also there that he met a Miss Yeip I Bee an Art student from Kelantan. The young Dr. Bates had fallen head over heel for Miss Yeip. His proposal for her hands in marriage was accepted on the express condition that they get married and live in Kota Bharu.

The love was so strong that Dr. Bates readily complied and thus in 1968 he opened up a private clinic in Kota Bharu. When his parents were alive they used to to travel to Australia to meet them. Since they have both died, there is nothing much to go back to anymore. Malaysia is home to Dr. Bates and his family. From his marriage, he has two children, Steven and Christopher. Steven is the head of anaesthetist in a hospital in London whereas Chris is a dentist working in Singapore.

When I mentioned JT to Dr. Bates he remembered her as a small child of a certain height which he gestured with his hand. That was that long ago. JT remembered Steven as the leader who lead her siblings to Church in Kota Bharu.

Of the five pioneering private clinics in Kota Bharu, The Bates Dispensary is the only clinic that is still going with its founding doctor still practicing. The others like Aziz Clinic was closed soon after the demise of Dr. Aziz. The picture below shows where the location of Aziz Clinic near the Kota Bharu Bus stand. Mrs Lim, an avid reader of my blogs who used to live five doors away from Aziz Clinic and she confirmed the location of this place as the former Aziz Clinic, which is now a phone shop. The shophouse where Mrs. Lim's family used to live in is now a convenience store of the 7 Eleven chain..

Aziz Clinic was located where the phone shop is after the Super Roti.

Another clinic that is still operating is The Merican Dispensary belonging to the late Datuk Dr. Ezanee located not far from The Bates Dispensary. I remember going to his clinic once and had the chance to be examined by the good doctor himself. His sight was so bad that his glasses was almost an inch thick. On top of that he still had to use the magnifying glass to write. Despite all that many loyal patients insist to be examined by Datuk Dr. Izanee himself.

The Merican Dispensary is located infront of Bazaar MPKB.

A close doctor friend of mine used to work for Merican Dispensary. It was good business while he was working there but he was not happy with his salary. He experienced the wrath of Datuk Dr.Izanee when he proposed that he be paid on per patient basis instead of a fixed amount. This young doctor later set up his own clinic in Gua Musang and made his fortune there.

I don't have much information about the other two great doctors by the name of Dr. Ng Oon Hwee who owned Victory dispensary and Dr Choo Eng San who also had a clinic in Kota Bharu. Both have ceased operation. Of the two only Dr. Ng is still alive and he is living in Singapore.

Kota Bharu had quite a number of expatriates family back then and these are Dr. Bates major clientele. I have met a few of them such as Datuk Wrigglesworth who was a lawyer. He came to visit my foster father the late Raymond Hall when I was staying with him when I was schooling for three months in Sultan Ismail College Kota Bharu. During that time my foster father brought me to see another expatriate ex planter residing in Kota Bharu.

English was well spoken by the people of Kota Bharu then so Dr. Bates had no problem communicating with his patients. Over the years Dr. Bates caught up with the local dialect and converse well with them in the Kelantanese dialect. The locals have faith in him as a good doctor. I remember my wife's late grandmother insisting on to be taken to see Dr. Bates whenever she was ill.

Mrs Foo my ex teacher reminded me of another Indian Doctor by the name of Dr. Aru who set up clinic almost opposite to Dr. Bates Dispensary. He was a comtemporary of Datuk Dr. Izanee of Merican Dispensary meaning that he set up clinic even earlier than Dr. Bates himself. His family moved away from Kota Bharu after his death.

Beside medical doctors Mrs Foo recalled two private dentists by the names of Dr. Chiam (deceased) and Dr. Wee who opened up private practice from the 50's. She remembered Dr. Chiam as a thourough person who would look into every nook and corner of the her mouth. Using the foot powered drill (never had the chance to see one myself), Dr. Chiam would drill every cavity however minute. She remembered the pain to have reached the 'bone and the head'. No wonder Mrs. Foo still has her own set of teeth as the fear of another drilling even with the latest laser drill made her look after them well. The thought of going to the dentist bring shivers down her spine.

These are the great doctors that had served in Kota Bharu. Dr. Bates is still serving after 40 years at it. If it was money that these doctors were looking for, then Kota Bharu was a wrong choice. So money wasn't the main criteria for them. Service was and still is paramount.

Looking hale and hearty, I guess Dr. Bates will continue to serve his patients for many more years to come. He is the last of the great doctors of Kota Bharu who is still serving.

BUAH GOREK

In my post about Friday Ceramah In Kota Bharu I did post a picture of buah gorek as it is locally known. It is really the seed and not the fruit of the gorek plant or Caesalpinia bonducella as it is scientifically named.


Biji gorek as was posted in the pervious post.

Well what about it? It caught the attention of a reader who used to comment as LadyZ on my blogs. She and hubby whom I will call Nik can be considered as my good friends by now and become a referral to me whenever I need to find out the botanical name of a plant so that I can pretend to be knowledgeable whener I talk about plants by indicating its botanical names.Their being a biologist and biochemist respectively make them quite an authority on the subject. Probably with a home library as big as my old school library, they are a source of information next to Google or Yahoo itself.


A few days back she sent me an email seeking request to help her find some buah gorek as her husband is lecturing again and needs some stock of buah gorek to research on. Unfortunately my stock of buah gorek is only 20 in numbers which is too far short of his requirement of at least half a kilogram or better still if I can get him one kg. Both of them have failed to get any after searching for the past two months even after enlisting the help of his nephew who works for MPKB Kota Bharu.So I said OK I will help.


My stock of 20 biji gorek (Caesalpinia bonducella), and 2 biji beluru. The biji beluru (Entada phaseoloides) is called buah gomok in Awang Goneng's Trengganu.

Anyway to shorten the story, I went early to Kota Bharu at the place where Tok Guru and others usually give the ceramah. Immediately after walking into the area I found my previous peddlar who sold me my 20 numbers of biji gorek and bought a kilogram from her at RM23.00.





She sold me the biji gorek.
This is the remaining stock of biji gorek.

Since Nik is in KL, he asked his nephew to collect them for him.It was while waiting for Nik's nephew to arrive and pickup the biji gorek that I moved around the area taking pictures as well as listening to the sermon for the day delivered by Dr. Mazian who is also an ADUN and the main speaker Ustaz Nasaruddin in the place of Tok Guru who needs to rest and recuperate from an illness.


YB Dr.Mazian was the first speaker


Ustaz Nasaruddin was the second and main speaker.

The crowd listening to the speakers

It was while doing so that I heard another peddlar calling for customers to try is dark grey coloured liquid in bottles of 350 ml. He said its the air biji gorek, claiming it to be good for many illnesses. I approac
hed him and informed him of a friend's intention to scientifically study the seeds for it's chemical ingredients to find out what makes the biji gorek so good as an alternative medicine to cure those illnesses. The peddlar whose name is Nik Man was very happy since he will benefit from the research too. He will have scientific back up to the product's efficacy. Especially now since he has started bottling it at a place in Pasir Pekan. I bought a bottle of his biji gorek solution for RM10.00 and he gave me another free bottle in the hope that I will tell him the result of the study. He said his product is not labelled yet since he will just produce and will let others use their own stickers to market it under their own brand names. Pretty smart move there. That will allow his retailers to mark up their own prices and determine their own margin of profits.

Nik Man with his product

Air biji gorek in unlabelled 350 ml bottles.

LadyZ's husband Nik sent me another SMS asking for another kilogram of the seeds to which I told him to buy more as supplies maybe difficult due to the seasonal nature of the plant. He agreed and so when the nephew came I told him to collect another 5 kg of biji gorek at Nik Man's home in a village called Kg. Tar Tujoh quite close to my home in Mekasar, Pasir Mas.

These are the diseases claimed to be able to be cured by taking his product made from biji gorek:
1. Diabetes by regulating the sugar content in the blood.
2. Hypertension by thinning the blood.
3. Asthma
4. Heart Problem by making the veins in the heart to become normal again.
5. Gout by reducing the uric acid in the blood.
6. Piles by reducing constipation.
7. Obesity by removing wind and excess fat daily.
8. Acne (Resdung)
9. Kidney or bladder stones by slowly dissolving them and excereting them out.
10. Sengugut in females by normalizing the cervix, ovary and the uterus.
11. Stroke by reopening of blocked veins and arteries.
12. Vaginitis in females by using it as douches.
13. Toothache by using it as mouthwash when having a toothache.
14. Treatment of cataract by using it as eyedrops.
15. Badang (To be translated)
16. As an aphrodisiac, this is the killer. He claim that his product contain the archidionic fatty acid a precursor to the production of the hormone prostaglandin which can stimulate sex and helps in the attainment of the true climax. Wow!
Its a one medicine that cures all.
For me if it can cure me of my gout, that is good enough for the RM10.00 investment. Last night's dose seemed to have an effect on my faecal discharge which was earlier seem destined to be a constipated one. That is one tick for the eficacy of the product in preventing piles.
Pictures at the Fridah Ceramah on 12th September 2008

Here is someone who can help you to stop smoking. The Bates Dispensary is in the background. I have yet to post the blog about Dr. Bates because I have yet to get his OK.

Some non moslems enjoy looking around for items on sale at the ceramah site.

or participate in the economic activity as this guy in blue T shirt is doing.

There are donation boxes placed in many strategic places to collect donations. If you are the shy kind to put your donation in the box, you can put it in a cloth bag these guys from Unit Amal will be coming to the places where you are sitting.

If you have 'resdung' this guy will treat you there and then

An aching leg can also be treated. The piece of bone used seems to be abit scary.

A wheelchair ridden 'saudara baru' looking for donations.

No suitable dress for a meeting in Kota Bharu tomorrow? No problem, second hands ones are available and ready to wear. Just find one that suits you. Even a matching tie is provided.

Who says you have to go to the middleeast to buy dates? Kurma Arab is available in Kota Bharu

With that, my purpose of going to Kota Bharu was a success as I have managed to help some friends whom I have never met to get their supply of biji gorek.Now En. Nik will have so much research to do. Hopefully he will find out what makes biji gorek ticks and prove to the world that such humble seeds can provide so many cures.We don't have to wait for Pfizer to market it before buying it.