✨Trust the Process✨
What I have learnt from making SEASONINGS #01
Hello! This is HAFI (Hafizah Jainal)- the collaborator for SEASONINGS! A little bit about me - I work as a Creative Lead for a marketing team during the day, and I do illustrations, creative projects and collaborations on the side.
I never knew the day Pam slid into my DMs would lead both of us to this. SEASONINGS was born out of Pam’s persistent and addictive enthusiasm - and my weakness when it comes to meaningful passion projects and also, I admire what Pam does for Singapore Noodles, her curiosity is apparent when it comes to uncovering the depth and diversity of Singaporean food.
As a creative, I always strive to collaborate and work on projects that champion representation. A collaboration should not be purely transactional; it should push forth ideas and narratives that are waiting to be uncovered. Throughout this process, I always felt invigorated because of the constant conversations I’ve had with Pam, my mother, friends and cousins - discussing and learning about food eaten during Hari Raya Puasa.
SEASONINGS started with 2 hour long brainstorm sessions on Zoom where me and Pam cracked our brains and discussed the nitty gritty. We covered a lot during these calls - How do we market SEASONINGS? Who do we want to reach out to contribute? What dishes should we talk about? How many copies should we print? - it goes on forever! I am pretty amazed that we managed to complete a whole project remotely, and to think that we have never even met in real life. Welcome to the modern working world!
To me, the scariest part of starting this project was opening Indesign and laying out content. Pam and I agreed on how many pages the publication would be initially, but every week, we added more and more pages because we had so much great content from our contributors, who were so eager to share their knowledge on food!
SEASONINGS has taught me so much within a short span of time. I appreciate the processes that came with it, no matter how challenging they were. Making a food publication involves a lot of hard work and it’s definitely tiring but, with SEASONINGS #01 already being printed and produced as I type this, I also feel a great sense of accomplishment and I can’t wait to share the end product to everyone ☺️
You can pre-order a copy of SEASONINGS #01_The Hari Raya Puasa issue here!
Serunding
Rempah:
4 chillies, deseeded
1.5 onions
4 garlic cloves
4cm length turmeric
4cm length galangal
1/2 tbsp ground coriander
1/2 tsp ground cumin
55g oil
300g fresh coconut, lightly toasted until light gold
1 stalk lemongrass
3 kaffir lime leaves
Tamarind pulp to taste, about 1 tablespoon
Gula melaka to taste, about 2 tablespoons finely chopped or granulated
Salt to taste, about ¾ teaspoon
Make rempah. Toast coconut without oil until dry and flecked with bits of gold and brown, about 15 minutes. Heat oil, add rempah. Fry until fragrant with kaffir lime leaves. Add tamarind pulp. Add roasted coconut. Fry until it looks like a homogenous mass of orange brown floss. Season with salt and sugar if desired. Should taste sweet and salty.