Growing up, I always looked forward to Hari Raya for a few reasons, one of which was the yummy ‘kuih’ or cookies only available during this festive season. My favourites included cashew cookies, peanut cookies, ‘bahulu’, makmur cookies, batang buruk and putu kacang, to name just a few.
‘Bahulu’ and makmur cookies were an extra favourite because these were made by my great-aunts who made these the traditional way, and each year they had orders by the thousands from their regular customers.
As time went by, most of these cookies are now easily and readily available, but after tasting one or two, the quality of the cookies sold now are a far cry from the traditional ones from yesteryear.
One of the reasons may be due to the fact that the ingredients used have changed and been altered to suit the nature of the business these days where it is required for the cookies to have an extended shelf-life, and of course, cost.
While this is all good, and it helps create some awareness of some of the long-forgotten cookies, we can’t help but yearn and mourn for the loss of the tradition of baking cookies just a few days before Eid, while families come together and gather for the big celebration.
Perhaps in this fast-paced world, we compromise on tradition in favour of speed and convenience. However, of late, there are still a few people who try and uphold the old traditions, and hopefully this practice will catch on and be a ‘trend’ amongst the newer generation who might be interested in reviving and maintaining a bit of their cultural heritage.