Today is the Sunday before Easter, known as Palm Sunday. There was a blessing of the palms in the Dewan Holy Spirit and then a short procession from the Dewan to the Cathedral to celebrate Mass. This is the beginning of the Holy Week. It commemorates Jesus� entry into Jerusalem on the back of a donkey. As He made His way into the Holy City, the crowd welcomed Him by waving palm fronds and laid their cloaks and branches on the path before Him. Palm fronds were symbols of victory and triumph during the time of Jesus.

The palm fronds that have been blessed will be kept in a place of reverence and then burned on the following year�s Ash Wednesday. The ashes are used to mark the symbol of the cross on the forehead of the faithful. This act of marking the cross fortify our faith in Christ and signify repentance before God. This is also to replicate the mark that was made on the forehead during baptism. Ash Wednesday marks the beginning of Lent, which is forty days to Good Friday.

At Anne�s invitation, I attended the RCIA Session after Mass. RCIA is the abbreviation for Rites of Christian Initiation of Adults. Today’s session was on the significance of baptism and the rites that we, the Elects, will be going through during Easter Vigil next Saturday. The RCIA is a process where men and women undergo a series of instructions and sharing of the Christian faith and then go through several significant rites before being initiated into the Catholic Church. That was the first time I attended the RCIA Session as the other times, Anne and Adel came to my apartment to instruct me.

The Cathedral also screened The Passion of The Christ after Mass. As I have watched this movie with Wuan last Tuesday I skipped it and attended the RCIA Session. While it was an enlightening rendering according to the Bible, I felt that certain parts of the account was overdone, namely the scourging scene where a full ten minutes was devoted to it. That is my only gripe to an otherwise gripping film. I shed tears on many scenes, the first when Peter denied that he knew Jesus and then realised that Jesus had foresaw that and told him so.

Those who have read the Bible can relate to The Passion of The Christ. Passion here means suffering, where Jesus was betrayed, mentally tormented, physically abused and then crucified on the cross. This movie, while helpful in buttressing the understanding of the Bible, has also invoked many questions. The Catholic Church was mindful enough to publish a book to answer questions that may arise from watching this movie. A counter was set up outside the Cathedral selling A Guide To The Passion � 100 Questions About The Passion of The Christ. I bought a copy to help me understand the deeper meaning of Christ�s sacrifice and suffering in those final hours.

Lucia Lai also blogged about the Holy Week and Palm Sunday in Mental Jog.

The daun kaduk is endemic to the tropical regions. It grows, uncultivated, usually by the fence beside drains and small plots of open land in urban areas. In the suburbs and rural area it grows everywhere. It thrives well under a little shade and plenty of moisture. Its scientific name is piper sarmentosum, and is of the pepper family which includes pepper used for cooking and the Indian betel leaf. Among others, it is known as betel leaf in English and sua lau hiok (wild betel leaf) in Chinese.

Daun kaduk soup
This versatile vine grows plentiful, is neglected and overlooked most of the time. However, those who know treasure it as a vital ingredient in their kitchen recipes. The daun kaduk has a unique pungent flavour which makes it irreplaceable. Mum used to pluck the younger leaves to make soup. She would stir fry dried prawns with garlic, then add water, daun kaduk and beat an egg into the soup. It was a simple recipe but one which I would long for every now and then. Other more elaborate recipes where the daun kaduk is an important component are the perut ikan, nasi ulam and otak otak. These are all Nyonya recipes.

The perut ikan is a curry of shredded leaves of kaduk, cekur, kafir lime, tumeric and kesum being its main ingredients and cooked with salted fish stomach. Literally translated, perut ikan means fish stomach, hence its name. I used to like this spicy and sourish fare. It is appetising and I could eat two servings of rice in one meal with just the perut ikan. Lately, my stomach does not agree too much with sour food and I have to cut down eating on them. At the same time, since Mum passed away and this recipe entails a lot of work in shopping for the ingredients, some of which are difficult to obtain, and the shredding of the leaves, I have not had a decent taste of good perut ikan for a long time.

Nasi ulam
When Wuan came last week, she brought two bagfuls of daun kaduk that she plucked from her garden. We decided to make nasi ulam with it. We asked our neighbour Mr. Tan who is adept at Nyonya cooking to be the chef for the day. Nasi ulam is a rice salad. The same type of leaves used for perut ikan are shredded and stirred in and mixed with the cooked rice and eaten raw. Salted fish, dried prawns, sambal, tumeric and kerisik are added to complete the recipe. It was simply delicious.

I am lucky that I have Wuan and neighbours who enjoy the same type of food as I. Whenever I miss Mum�s food, I would just tell them and voila! Although it will never taste quite as scrumptious as when Mum�s cooked it, it does appease my craving somewhat.