Walking Walking Find Food - Mata Mata

Mata Mata Drink/Dessert

125 kilometres from the capital lies Kg. Toporoi, my weekend gateway from the city life with one aim - to taste and savour a local delicacy, the mata mata.

Mata mata is a term for a local delicacy which made up of young rice grain mixed with young coconut water/its flesh. Mata mata can be served either chilled and excellent for afternoon drink or dessert after meal.

Fresh young pandan leaves could be added into the mata mata drink to give aromatic smell to the drink. The mata mata can be prepared a couple of hours earlier to allow the rice grains to get softer before eating it.

Preparation for the mata mata from hill paddy (known locally as tidong) is quite a simple process. A bunch of young paddy grain (still in its husks/stalk) are harvested manually from the paddy field.

Young paddy in the field which will be harvested to make the mata.

After the grains are separated from its stalks, the husked paddy grains are fried for a good 3-4 minutes in a hot pan to ensure there are cooked for consumption. Next, the paddy grains are pounded in a traditional pounding hole or lesung to get rid the husks from the rice.

A woman seen here pounding paddy grain using a lesung

Ready to mix with coconut water, this is the mata mata.

Adding all the ingredients in for a mata mata drink.

Now that we have all the ingredients, we are ready to make a mata mata drink.
1. 2-3 spoonful of cooked and pounded young rice
2. 500-1000 litre of young coconut water and coconut flesh
3. 1 spoonful of sugar to taste.

*The drink can be kept in the refrigerator to last for a couple of days. Walla!!.

** Note: Walking Walking Find Food is a direct translation from the Malay words Jalan Jalan Cari Makan, a popular local TV program in Malaysia.

Enchanting Venice, Italy

It has always been my dream to visit the enchanting city of Venice and here I am! The city can be reached by aeroplane, train or car from Rome then a ferry or boat ride to the island. A feeling of amazement of the architecture and the authencity of such civilization is an eye opener for anyone like me to see the city from far as our boat approached the harbour which serves the gateway to the city of Venice.

We did a walking tour around the city passing the famous Rialto Bridge where a market is normally held for the Venetian, the Doges Palace and the Bridge of Sighs. The Guggenhiem Musuem, one of the 3 such museums in the world by world renowned philantropist Mr. Guggenhiem , is located here. (The other two museums are in New York and Bilbao in Spain - I visited the latter on my Easter holiday in Basque State, Spain).

Rialto Bridge on the background.

The streets or walkways of Venice are narrow and crowded with walking tourists. I wonder if anyone ever fell into the canal (possible drunk at night)was one of my wild imaginations looking at how deep or cold the water could be especially in winter. We also visited the strategic landmark of St. Mark's Basilica and ate lots of ice cream at St. Mark's square. Here at the square are rows of restaurant serving famous Italian cuisines including the pizzas, apart from local boutiques and mask shops. Next we visited the Venetian traditional craftspeople at work - glass blowing and lace making.

If you ever in Venice do not miss to cruise the canals by gondola. The gondolier, who wear standard uniform is a type of profession inherited from their fore father passed down to the current generation. For them it was an honour to be a gondelier. Gondola taxis are also available for the Venetian as well for the tourists.

Gondola - a stylish mideaval boat is a trademark of Venice.

Links to other places that I have visited:-
• Amazing Lauterbrunnen, Switzerland
• Places of Interest - Paris
• Lost in Paris