Bedak Sejuk

I realized I went on and on about this bedak without explaining much about it. Having worked in Singapore and now in Miri, Sarawak - I realized things we take so much for granted in Penang/Kedah might not be familiar to people not from those areas.Bedak sejuk is made from fermented rice. Just normal rice. How my mom and grandma used to make it was they would soak rice in water for 6 months to a year (yes I am not kidding you!!). They would constantly change the water, which stunk like !%$@^!$!% until it becomes clear - that was probably an indicator when to stop soaking..I think. I used to run off to the farthest corner of the house (or better still, out of the house....) whenever it was stinky water changing time.

By the end of the fermentation period the rice would be something like a paste. The amount of water squeezed out from the paste would depend on how mom and grandma wanted to shape the end product. Sometimes, they leave it slightly watery, like thickened cream. Then using a teaspoon, grandma/mom would drop small droplets of the mixture onto a big piece of muslin spread out on a tray basket. The droplets were then dried in the sun and then kept in bottles for the family's use. An alternative method would be to squeeze out as much water as possible from the paste and make palm-sized medallion shapes from it. These were then also dried and broken further into smaller pieces and stored.

The dried bedak pieces were usually stored with jasmine petals and/or pandan leaves from our garden for that natural fragrance.Mom doesn't make bedak sejuk anymore...takes up too much time and effort now for her age. We buy them from the local kedai runcit instead. One bottle or container shouldn't cost more than RM2. If indeed this is the secret to delayed aging, it is pretty darn cheap!