Some thoughts...

“eat good food, do good job, day you try, night you cry (to Allah SWT)”

Eat good food

The saying starts with eat good food, which in a way telling us this is the priority in our everyday living. Elaborating on good food reflects a few angle of views. The first that usually came through our minds will be in terms of its taste. From the most expensive restaurants, to small shops and stalls (warung) we seek to find the best tasting food ever. Though I never had the chance to dine in KL areas back to my working days in Malaysia, I have heard several places well known to dine for lunch.

Ikan in banana leaves after being barbecued

One of which is the Ikan Bakar's (barbeque fish) place somewhere behind the Istana Negara in KL.

Mouth watering ikan bakar with air asam & chilli

It is very mouth watering to talk about ikan bakar, especially to those whom is now living far away from reaching this glorious seafood that can be abundantly found in Malaysia. Places where it is most famous for its ikan bakar is Umbai, Melaka and Port Dickson (there are several places, one of which is quite a distance away from the PD town).

Ikan Terubuk

Talk about fishes, what about steaks and lamb chops. I personally don’t fancy lambs, but steaks, I do fancy them BIG TIME! Name them all, Chillies, Victoria Station, Windmill, TGI Fridays, and the list went on and on..

Do good job
Talk about food during working days, that was when one of my Bruneian counterparts reminded me to eat good food during the day so that you can DO GOOD JOB. Right, this is the point I am getting into. The reason why we have to eat, is to live… not live to eat. What you eat, is what makes you are today. It is the reason why Halal food give guidelines to what food is good to eat and what not to eat. It is very simple to those who followed these guidelines, in a way it is building up a healthier being of your selves. Halal guided the preparation of meat (farm animals) to be prepared in a certain manner by looking at the slaughtering processes. For every ritual it is done, there is a reason to it. This will ensure that I will get clean and healthier meat. The opposite of halal is "haram" which is the things (including food) that is forbidden for Muslims. It is rather simple to think of, all foods are halal to be eaten, except poisonous animals (such as snakes & poisonous insects, spiders etc), animals with claws and fangs (such as such as tigers and eagles), amphibians (such as frog), blood of animals (or even humans) and most importantly pigs. Haram also constitutes food and drinks that are alcoholic (wines, beers, etc).

A healthy being is a happy being.. "good job, you will do" ( this sentence is Yoda style).

Day you try, night you cry

The whole saying comes together nicely rhymed. It was the saying of one of the respected Ulamak (I will try to get the quote later). At night, this is the time if we want to cry, we cry to Allah reflecting of the things we have done for the day. May it be good, or bad, Allah knows it all. How good it must feel to be blessed by Allah, we cry for this.. How bad it must have felt, if we turn our back to Allah, we cry for that too..

This piece of saying, I will not forget (Yoda style again). Perhaps because I feel it is very true..