Mak Buat Bedak Sejuk ....

The other day I turned on the Radio Klasik channel and the topic for that day was "Bedak Sejuk". That reminds me of Mak making her own "bedak sejuk" when I was a kid... The process for 'pembuatan bedak sejuk" is quite tedious and it's a long and tedious process. Mak will soaked some rice with water in a small pot ("bekas/tempayan kecil") and will cover it with a cloth. The soaking process will normally takes about 2 to 3 months to ensure the "beras" really "hancur".... Mak will keep the pot somewhere at the far corner of our "dapur"... as the fermentation process come to the second month, it produced foul smell indicating the next stage of "bedak sejuk" production process is about to commence. When the rice had totally "hancur", the whitish substance (beras hancur") will be separated from the water using "tapis (tepung) halus" and poured into a small container (I used to call it " besen", orang Perak should know). The "bears hancur wiall then be poured into a coned shaped "acuan" normally from "daun" and Mak will squeezed the substance onto a thin white cloth spread on a "talm/dulang".This will be when I will eagerly assisted Mak is aqueezing the "beras hancur" as I liked to see those white small droplets took their places onto the white cloth. Normally Mak will do this at nights and would managed to complete two or three "talam". The next day, Mak will put the trays ("talam") under the sun for the "menjemur" process to dry up those small droplets. This will take about a few days and "daun pandan" will be put onto the tray so that it will be "wangi" in aroma. After a few days, it's time for me to be busy again as the next process is to detach the droplets from the white cloth into "bekas bedak sejuk". The droplets will be detach using a knife to "kikis" off the dried "bedak sejuk". This is the last process of Mak being a small time producer of "bedak sejuk" as she again put "daun pandan ricik" into the "bekas bedak sejuk". Every evening, after I had a bath - normally at 6.30 PM Mak will dressed me up in my "baju tidur jalur -jalur" with "bedak sejuk" on my face!!!! That was years ago when I was a small kid and the last time I saw "bedak sejuk" was on a shelf on a shelf of "kedai runcit" at the Little Infdia, Lebuh India .... How I missed Mak's "bedak sejuk", it's the best and softest of all the "bedak" in the universe ......