Kenduris, Weddings, School Holidays, Good Food, The Baju Melayu, CROCS (bleargh) and Crocs that I'd wear BUT nothing much about motoring!

It has been a hectic four weeks for my stomach. It first started right about the time my family and I drove to Penang for my sister in law’s wedding and this had culminated over the last weekend in which I had attended 3 (out of 4) wedding receptions. I am can now live without the taste of nasi minyak, beryani rice and tomato rice as well as dhalca, ayam masak merah and boiled eggs for at least 5 months. Last weekend was also the beginning of the school holidays is usually the beginning of more weddings, kenduris, weekend traffic jams along the North-South Highway and so forth. I try to avoid travelling outstation by all means during this period but I think that things may have improved ever since major parts of the highway have already been widened to 3 lanes from 2.

Anyway the reason why most Malay folk like to hold weddings during the school holidays is that everyone can get together for the event and there’s no excuse that this person can’t come or has exams or what not. But I believe that it is because of this, blood pressure and sugar levels of older people will rise to extremely high levels due to the increase in wedding invitations. I dare to say that hospitals and clinics usually have a rise in warded patients right after the holidays due to the phenomenon of everyone eating extremely rich food whether they like it or not. The same goes to the period right after Hari Raya. I mean, if you’re a close relative, you most probably be given some of the leftovers from the kenduri. This means that you will have the same nasi minyak and daging rendang for your breakfast the next day and this leads to more health related problems.

I am a connoisseur of good food but I also like having a decent blood pressure reading most of the time. So, it’s either I don’t eat a lot during the kenduri or I try to be more active than usual after I’ve eaten that large plate of nasi minyak so that I try to burn off some of that oily, greasy good stuff. So last Sunday, after having a plate of Nasi Minyak at a neighbour’s wedding I drove to a shopping complex and basically forced my wife and daughter to go window shopping. This was quite a fair thing to do as you will never lose any weight if you took your car up and down Genting even if it were a manual. The car is doing most of the huffing and puffing and not you. At the Gardens shopping mall I then realised that most of wedding receptions I attended over the past few weeks were held at banquet halls (hotel or club halls) that required me to actually ‘dress up’ to the occasion. This meant that I had to put on formal clothes, i.e the Baju Melayu (left, and no, that's not me in the pic. I'm more 'macho' than that wimp in the photo).

Now the Baju Melayu is the local equivalent of black tie or semi formal gear. (White tie is the more formal, i.e coats with penguin like tails and all, but no one actually knows about this here in this country and it isn’t for me to tell you about it as you could read it up by yourself elsewhere) This is the equivalent of a tuxedo and you should know how a tuxedo looks like. The thing is, a tuxedo consists of a black woolen suit with a black bow tie complementing the lapels, cummerbund or low-cut 3-button waistcoat, and patent leather Oxford shoes appropriately accessorize the tuxedo.

Wearing a tuxedo boils down to two main things, aside from the fact that most Malaysians do not look like James Bond to carry it off properly. The first is that it is rather costly. A proper tailor made tuxedo with satin lapels would cost you at least RM1,400.00 for the suit and waistcoat alone. The proper white shirt another RM200.00. That leaves you with a total of RM1,600.00 with accessories like cufflinks and the bow tie but without adding in a pair of proper English or Italian Oxfords (Bonia shoes do not apply as they're seriously crappy). The second thing is that even with a half lined tropical suit style coat, you are unsuited for our nowadays ridiculously hot and humid Malaysian climate. Even at night, things may heat up before you enter the air-conditioned banquet hall. You may even smell like the cow (or cows) that were recently slaughtered for the main course that day.

If you went out and bought your Baju Melayu, you’d find out that you could get brightly coloured linen and workmanship for around RM300.00 only for the top and pants. Add RM500.00 for a well made kain samping made out of hand woven songket material and about RM50.00 for a traditional songkok and you’re complete for a Malaysian formal function. I am an advocate for using linen in the Baju Melayu. It is extremely cooling to wear and does not have that sheen you get from those silky rayon, polyester like material that is used for most Baju Melayu which also does not allow good air flow and can make you feel sticky also. For totally formal occasions, a black Baju Melayu with a black samping with gold thread is a must. But for weddings, a bright cheery colour is most definitely allowed. In other words, why suffer by wearing a tuxedo or a suit if there are better and more breathable (cooling) local styled alternatives? You see, when in Rome, do as the Romans do.

I must also add that you should not wear a pair of CROCS with that outfit, ever. Unlike the story of the couple that I wrote in my previous posting. The only sort of 'CROCS' that are worth having are the ones shown in the pic below. Nice ain't it?

Trivia: Did you also know that Ferrari big kahuna Luca Di Montezemolo once vetoed a customer requesting a full crocodile leather interior for a factory customised Ferrari. Honestly, croco leather for seats and dashboard? Horrid. See? Crocs are despised if used in bad taste.