Ramadan time

Here's to all my Muslim friends who are celebrating the end of Ramadan.

Why do I choose this topic today? Well.. I haven't been keeping track with this important month for the Islamic religion ever since I left Singapore. Not that there aren't any Muslims in Croatia but I believe they belong to the minority (Bosnian Muslims). There are no mosques like one would see in Singapore. (In Singapore, one can find a Muslim Mosque, Indian Temple and Christian Church on the same street and even side by side.)

It's odd not to hear prayers like I used to when I was living in the northern part of Singapore where the Muslim population is more dominant. It's odd not to hear someone telling us not to eat in their presence when they are fasting.

For my part of the town, the Mayor has plans to build a Mosque for the Muslim minorities. This must be a big step for the Muslim population in Croatia which has been ignored for ages.

To end my post, well wishes for all Muslims out there. In Singapore, the end of Ramadan is celebrated by the important Hari Raya Puasa! So Selamat Hari Raya Puasa!! :)

Change of Season!

Yeap the Autumn is here. No more Summer weather where the heat is enough to melt my skin even indoors. The Bura is back. Those chilly and piercing winds that have started to gain momentum over here and making a comeback. Time for me to pack up my Summer clothes and replace them with all the jackets to keep myself really warm.

Guess my body is still adjusting to the change in temperatures from 30s to 15 degrees Celsius this week. Over in Zagreb area, the lowest temperatures can go as low as 7 degrees C. Really cold in my opinion especially when accompanied by the notorious Bura.

All right. For those of you who are living in the temperates like me, take care of yourself. I need to nurse my cold too.

There's a fire! Come quick!

This happened about two weeks ago. And I almost forgot about it till I saw the picture again today. It was late at night sometime after 1am on a Sunday morning. We all decided to retire to bed after a really long night of chatting. We had two mates who flown in all the way from Australia and were staying over at ours for a couple of nights.

The balcony is situated right outside our bedroom window. And usually we do not lower the shutters (yeah the window shutters as I call it) all the way, making sure to leave a small gap at the bottom for ventilation. I sleep on the side of the bed right next to the window. Just as I was putting my head down to my pillow, I caught a sudden sweet smell coming from somewhere. It smelled like something was burnt. I was making a joke about someone burning cakes in the middle of the night.

The smell did not go away... so me and my fiance did a thorough search to make sure that there was nothing burning in our flat. Nope. So I drew the shutters and I saw smoke.. not lots of it.. but puffs of smoke coming from somewhere below. We headed straight for the balcony and stuck our heads out for check for any source of fire. Nope. But we could see more smoke and really strong smell of something burning.

What happened next was.. my frantic fiance rang up the fire department. Within minutes, two fire engines and about 10 firemen got out of them with equipment and all pulled up below our building. 5 of them dashed them with a water hose. One came into our flat to check out the smoke. When the source was identified, the firemen sprinted down the stairs and we could hear a loud hacking sound. Like someone breaking down the door.. Minutes later, we heard the firemen shouting at an old lady (in Croatian): "Do not do this in the future! It's dangerous!"

What we understood was.... we alerted the entire fire department that night. Thank goodness that they were the most efficient firemen ever seen and their professionalism (all equipped) even though we told them we only saw smoke and no fire. We had a good laugh as we felt silly for causing the false alarm. But who knows....

Croatia foods: Fresh Yeast

Being a baker, the yeast is my best friend. And when it comes to yeast, no other instant yeast can compare to fresh yeast.

Here in my new homeland, Croatia, fresh yeast (yeah homegrown in Croatia) comes in neat little cubes as small as 40g. Unlike fresh yeast in most countries that are only comes in 1kg blocks. For domestic bakers like me, 40g is a nice size as I break it up into quarters for each bread.

I still have not found the plains where this particular brand of yeast is from but I will post it here once I got it unless there are some kind souls out there who can help me out?