LEMANG - THE MALAY DELICACY.

This is how the cut lemangs look like.

 

 Lemang is a must during the fasting months of Ramathan in Malaysia. A traditional delicacy, it is used to break the fast in the evening. Together with the rendang ( a form of paste chicken or beef curry ), they form a really filling meal.

Thick gravy chicken (or beef)
curry is normally eaten
 with the lemang.

   Many roadside stalls will spring up during the days leading up to Hari Raya Aidilfitri or Hari Raya Adha cooking and selling this delicious food.
Made from soaked glutinous rice, coconut milk, salt and sugar over a slow burning fire, this aromatic lemang is really a mouth watering tempatation.

a)  Soaked glutinous rice ready for packing into empty bamboo tubes.

b)  The rice is then poured into the hollow bamboo lined with banana leaves to prevent sticking and to give the lemang its distinctive aromatic taste.











c)  A mixture of coconut milk, salt and sugar is then poured into the bamboo tube.

d)  The rice is now ready to be cook over a fire. The green banana leaves are to prevent the rice from sticking to the bamboo and also to impart it distinctive aroma to the lemang. The lidi (coconut leaf stem) is to allow steam to escape from the bottom of the bamboo so that there is no spillage.

e)  The fire from wood and coconut shells is used to cook the lemang. The bamboos are rotated frequently so as to obtain an evenly cook lemang.

f)  The bamboo is then split open to access the nicely cooked lemang inside.

g)  This is how a roadside lemang stall looks like.







Many thanks to Yeop Lemang.
Encik Zamri Bin Ramli: 017-5226320.

Rock Blasting.

Recently I was taken to some rock blasting operation by my friends who is an expert rock blaster. At the quarries that we went to I was shown the different steps, procedures and apparatus used for blasting. I would like to share here the photographs of the whole operation.

1.   Hydraulic crawler drills were used to bore holes of about 50ft-60ft into the rocks. Drill holes were normally 18 meters deep (depending on the bench design) and 89mm in diameter.

2.   The pink coloured cast booster connected to the pink coloured shock tube.

3.  Pink coloured shock tubes with the detonators (for starting the explosion) were then inserted into the cast boosters (dynamites). These were then lowered into the drilled holes in the rock. The end of the shock tube is the detonator.

4.   A mixture of oxidising agents are then pumped into the hole on top of the cast boosters. This bulk emulsion as they are called are used for the secondary explosion. The secondary explosion creates a rapid expension of gas which breaks up the rock.
A rough formula for the amount of bulk emulsion used is 0.4 -0.5 kg per cubic meter of rock. When the cast booster explode, it will create detonation speed that exceed the speed of sound so that the bulk emulsion can be detonated.

5.   The brown coloured bulk emulsion.

6.   Red coloured surface delay detonator connects the pink shock tubes from hole to hole. Delay time is 25 milliseconds.

7.   Black coloured surface detonator together with the yellow shock tube are for row to row detonation.  Delay time is 67 milliseconds.

8.   Blasting site is cleared of people. Alarm is sounded and the blast master made his round to make sure all is cleared before lighting the fuse. Safety fuse burns at 1 second per cm. Normally 4 minutes are needed for the person lighting the fuse to move to a safe distance.

9.   Beginning of the detonations.

10.

11.

12.

13.   Completion of blasting.