Food Revolution Day in Malaysia

Food is a big thing in Malaysia. It's binds all ethnic background together. It brings joy and peace. It brings people who have one common goal and team together.

But lately, traditional methods of making food have been replaced by packets of instant versions as more and more Malaysian join the hectic pace of the rat race. While it was common to have mothers staying at home, now it's more common to have mothers at work.

And so stuff like peanut sauce was packed in vacuumed aluminium sachet, just heated like an instant tv dinner. Having spices like cumin was not a common practice. Powdered cystalized  gelatin replaced agar-agar which was easier to make.

To our horror, more and more mothers had lost nutritional intelligence. There was no guilt in spooning overly processed mashed potatoes or frozen yogurt from fast food joint. There was no guilt in giving blackcurrant flavoured cordial in a milk bottle. There was no guilt in a "pinch of salt" in the homemade baby cereal.

The HOMEMADE - Air Tangan Ibu Group (formerly known as HSFFYB) tries to change this. The number of diabetic patients in this country is a serious concern when the National Health and Morbidity Survey (NHMS) showed an increase of three million people with diabetes in 2011 compared to just 1.5 million five years ago. Health director-general Datuk Dr Hasan Abdul Rahman said the situation is even more alarming when two million people in this country who have high blood sugar have yet to make it checked out.

And thankfully, by joining the group, and sharing our knowledge and passing on our expertise to the community, more and more mothers are made aware of this. In the pursue of preparing healthy meals for their baby, they have even successfully changed the diet of other members of the family as well as themselves. It seemed that every mother from the 4 thousand members on HOMEMADE was starting to cook again and some have never even cooked a full meal in their whole life before becoming a mother.

And Food Revolution Day on May 19th was the PERFECT platform to celebrate this achievement because Jamie Oliver's TED speech that keeps the moderators doing what they do, sharing his wish of also wanting to "create a strong, sustainable movement to educate every child about food, inspire families to cook again and empower people everywhere to fight obesity.”

Had it not been for allowing me to become the Malaysian Ambassador, I could not have attracted the likes of Imelda Harris and Brian Chen - participants of the first Masterchef Malaysia. They later brought me to Asha Gill who did a media coverage of the inaugural Food Revolution Day via Capital FM Malaysia to spread the invitation to other Malaysians

Our Food Revolution Day celebration was a potluck of freshly made local cuisine featuring our famous baby food versions of real food, in the vicinity of a wonderful lushes green lake side park in the heart of Cyberjaya. It also included a huge playground so the kids can run wild and free.

We also encourage parents to bring toys as well for the kids to play, from bikes to even blocks so the little ones can get to join in as well.

With the mats and food and everyone nicely sitting, it was definately a "kenduri" (a gathering with delicious food served) . There was even a live demo of how to prepare fresh papayas by one of the founding mothers Maghfarah

Fresh papayas were served together with other delicious fresh fruits...

 For the babies/kid food we had:

• bread butter pudding
• fruits
• mini pizzas
• french toast
• oatmeal biscuits

Menus for the adults where local and western delicacies:

• Nasi Impit  
• Kuah Lodeh
• Sambal tumis ikan bilis
• Fried Rice
• Fried rice vermicelli noodles
• Salad
• Fruit Salad
• Peanut Sauce
• Vege Spring Rolls
• Milk Pudding made from Agar-agar
• Brian Chen's special no sugar almond special cake
• Imelda Harris's Frittata
• Capatti
• Chicken Curry

Imelda and Brian was creative enough to make this wonderful small banner for the day.

I am also deeply honored to all the fathers that attended for their continual support to our group and its events. Clearly they were there to enjoy the food and have a little down time with some new found friends.

We are also grateful for Chef Imelda and Chef Brian for taking their time off from the hectic schedule to miggle with the moms for a pointer or two on cooking healthy meals

Above all, we are glad to see the kids enjoying the fresh food and the smiles that are so priceless

Our heartiest thanks to Jamie Oliver for such a wonder idea, giving us a platform to reach out to many more people. Certainly we hope that the Malaysia's event for Food Revolution Day next year would be a more bigger event with more participation from all walks of life. 

photo credits goes to :

• Shehan Ismail
• Maghfarah 
• Suhana 
• Salamiah

Farah Rahim is the co founder of the Malaysian REAL FOOD movement; a local support group called "HOMEMADE - Air Tangan Ibu". She also advocates managing asthma, allergies and eczema naturally via NaturalAAE. She's the official Malaysia's ambasador of Jamie Oliver's Food Revolution. When not an activist she's a Stay at Home Mom to 3 girls who loves nothing but good ol' homecooked meals. Her full blog-list is above

Great Recipes from the Founding Mothers of HOMEMADE - Air Tangan Ibu

A year ago I started a local support group called HOMEMADE - Air Tangan Ibu with Fara Kertinawaty and Wan Maisarah because we were really passionate about trying to give our babies a healthy start. We went through books and books and articles on the internet and came up with so many ideas that where innovative.

Fara & Wan Mai did an excellent job of promoting this group. we recruited friends at first and then proceeded to advertise and recruit via the other local support groups, for example one that promoted breastfeeding.

Out of the many that came in after, it was Maghfarah & Shehan Ismail that showed great interest and was willing to learn, read, educate and inspired everyone.

So from 3 we became the fantastic 5. For me personally, these are the 4 founding mothers of Homemade that has made it strong until now.

Of course it would not have been fun without simple challenges to be innovative. As Team Leader, I see how much effort these ladies have put in creating their own recipes from scratch. Local ingredients that are fresh were used, lots of fruits and vegetables and a colorful array of menus - it was crazy because baby food to the masses were bland glop of puree but these...these were master pieces of their own.

But of course with the reading, it helped us to identify if the ingredients were suitable for each stage, the use of unsalted butter (which NO ONE EVER KNEW EXISTED), cheese that were LOW IN SODIUM, sauces made from scratch and not powdered from a sachet. We defyed our grandmothers that sweet potatoes were HEALTHY and via knowledge of reading we found out that if we introduced them earlier, our babies will get used to them. We chanted "NUTRIONAL INTELLIGENCE" every single day in the group, an idea we embraced from Dr. Alan Greene, author of Feeding Baby Green.

And the great part was, NO SALT or NO SUGAR was used in the making of these recipes.

These recipes are now a LEGEND on their own and so many version are being made and uploaded into the group photo albums everyday, that it makes me teary eyed because I am so emotionally happy that mothers all over Malaysia are starting to cook again regardless of how busy they are.

Here are the best from the very best of HOMEMADE - the 5 founding ladies that have kept the group strong

From the kitchen of Maghfarah

Oat Pudding

1 year and above

************************************************

From the kitchen of Shehan

Beefy Potato & Corn Mash

9 months and above

************************************************

From the kitchen of Wan Mai

Mickey Plum Hot Cakes
8 Months Above

************************************************

From the kitchen of Fara Kertina Awang

Vege Shaped Pasta

8 Months Above

************************************************

From the kitchen of Farah Rahim

Homemade Baby Rusk

6 Months Above

many more recipes can be found on each founding mother's blog - links are on your right under blog listing

Farah Rahim is the co founder of the Malaysian REAL FOOD movement; a local support group called "HOMEMADE - Air Tangan Ibu". She also advocates managing asthma, allergies and eczema naturally via NaturalAAE. She's the official Malaysia's ambasador of Jamie Oliver's Food Revolution. When not an activist she's a Stay at Home Mom to 3 girls who loves nothing but good ol' homecooked meals. Her full blog-list is above

BFF - FaeYust Maczam

I've never met this lady in person.
I went through 2 pregnancies - hers and mine - and we've never met officially outside of facebook. I can't even remember how we hooked up but we've been BFF (Best Friends on Facebook) like for ages.

One thing I love about Jamie Oliver's Food Revolution Day is that it really does bring people closer together. I was beginning to think that Yust (as I fondly called her) could not make it since she's already nearling the end of her pregnancy.

But she did. We met and we hugged. It was like homecoming.

And she "sponsored" a pair of jammies for my two younger girls for the Google Hang Out with Jamie Oliver on Sunday Morning as well...HOW SWEET!!

Farah Rahim is the co founder of the Malaysian REAL FOOD movement; a local support group called "HOMEMADE - Air Tangan Ibu". She also advocates managing asthma, allergies and eczema naturally via NaturalAAE. She's the official Malaysia's ambasador of Jamie Oliver's Food Revolution. When not an activist she's a Stay at Home Mom to 3 girls who loves nothing but good ol' homecooked meals. Her full blog-list is above

How I Met Jamie Oliver - Part 1

It did not dawn to me how big my role was until my husband mentioned I was sitting together with the "big guns" of food revolutionist and activist yesterday.

Yes I had to pinch myself real hard as everything was going SO FAST I was spinning virtually. I was still a daze when the Google+ team did the technical test on Friday morning and when I woke up that Sunday morning and sitting together with Robyn O'Brien, Alice Randall, Shane Valentine and Kimanh, I was like - SPEECHLESS.

I mean these are people I admired and to think Robyn O'Brien also knew about my work with the local natural remedies for Allergies under AAE (now known as NaturalAAE now) and how I'm teaching mothers here in Malaysia about REAL FOOD cooking.

oh gosh...where do I start?

Somewhere back in March, Jamie Oliver's Food Revolution Movement under the Jamie Oliver Foundataion had advertised in their website if anyone would like to be recruited as a local team in their country to help him stand up for real food.

The team writes :

Ambassadors are the spark of enthusiasm that can turn this into a local movement by connecting the dots of support. Food Revolution Day aims to give those who have been working tirelessly a platform to share their knowledge with the local community and open up opportunities for even more people to learn about real food through participation. 

I applied and wrote to them about "HOMEMADE - Air Tangan Ibu" which was a local support group I had founded a year ago. My aims where to inspire and educate mothers as well as to spark a bit of  enthusiasm in them, to go back to basics, start cooking from scratch and offer a healthier option to their children. In other words I am teaching mothers to understand and have the nutritional inteligence to know what really goes into their little one's digestive system.

The group was big on not giving diluted baby cereal before 6 months old which I can say is a huge problem here in Malaysia and not many parents know the dangers of intussusception. The group then continues to advocate the use of fresh ingredients to make baby food instead of the high processed ones available in the market. Besides that, we continuously teach mothers why it is important not to add extra salt or sugar or any other artifical flavors in the food as well.

In the beginning the group only consisted of 4 members who then became more than just friends - we were like family and they are my sisters who always mimic what I believe in. Everything is better if it is "homemade"

"Ambassadors are the spark of enthusiasm that can turn this into a local movement by connecting the dots of support."

This is a first part of my own journey supporting the Jamie Oliver Foundation on Food Revolution Day. Join me again tomorrow for part two of "How I met Jamie Oliver"

Farah Rahim is the co founder of the Malaysian REAL FOOD movement; a local support group called "HOMEMADE - Air Tangan Ibu". She also advocates managing asthma, allergies and eczema naturally via NaturalAAE. She's the official Malaysia's ambasador of Jamie Oliver's Food Revolution. When not an activist she's a Stay at Home Mom to 3 girls who loves nothing but good ol' homecooked meals. Her full blog-list is above