Day 664: Jumillah, Capsicum, Turmeric & TEA!

14 September, 2011

Given that over the past year I had been extremely overworked and that recently even the hubby seems to be having the most hectic schedule, we decided that it was time we allowed ourselves a little bit of luxury. And thus we took the call to get a live-in maid. Someone who would take care of our house and us and make us feel pampered with some good home-cooked food every other day!

So today I brought home Jumilah, my new super cool maid! Jumillah is an Indonesian but has been working in Singapore for different families for several years now. Most importantly, she has worked for other Indian families before and hence knows how to cook Indian food! Which was all that we asked for!

So Jumilah came to my house and I showed her to her room. And that's pretty much all the work I did. Before I knew it, she was changing bedspreads, washing them, cleaning out the kitchen, and generally tidying up my house as if her life depended on it. At one point in time, she looked appalled by the fact that my bedspreads are not ironed (just imagine!) and even more appalled when I told her that ironed bedspreads is a novel concept to me.

Later I took her out for some grocery shopping. Given that I never cook, we had to buy a lot of the basics. Initially Jumillah was asking my opinion every now and then.

So she would say, "What do you like to buy, ma'm?" (yeah, she calls me "ma'm" which I find super amusing!). And I would say, "Oh the usual... you know.. potatoes, tomatoes, onions...". But after these three, I kinda got stuck. So I SMSed the hubby, currently in India, and asked him what he would like us to buy. "Capsicum", came the reply. OK then.

Just as we picked up the much required capsicum, Jumillah reminded me that we need to buy ginger. So I went to the aisle where ginger was kept and picked up ginger. Jumillah glanced at the ginger in my hand and looked up at me.

Jumillah: Do you have turmeric powder at home, ma'am?

Me: Erm... yeah?

Jumillah: Then you don't need this.

Me: Erm...But I need ginger. This is ginger. What has that got to do with turmeric?

Jumillah: No ma'am, this is turmeric.

Me: But it says "ginger" on the pack. (I point triumphantly at the pack and show her).

Jumillah (picking out something else from the aisle): This... is ginger, ma'am.

Me: ... Hmm.... well... Sure, that too looks like ginger but are you sure this isn't? (I waved my pack of ginger at her).

Jumillah: Yes ma'am. It is yellow ginger. Same same.

Me: Yellow ginger? Oh. (Upon taking a better look at the pack, I realized it did say "yellow ginger"). Hmm.

Jumillah: Yellow ginger. Turmeric. Same same.

Me: OK then. (Slightly miffed, I placed back the "yellow ginger". She was probably not as smart as I thought. Surely I can recognize ginger! But it's her first day, so I decided to humour her and let it go).

When she went away to get some eggs and milk, I quickly googled up "yellow ginger" on my iPhone. It is indeed turmeric. Blah. These stupid English and their nomenclature skills. Snort.

Anyway, after this incident, she stopped taking my valuable opinion and did the rest of the shopping completely on her own.

Back at home, she quickly took over the kitchen and went about cleaning and reorganizing everything in there. Then I thought it was time to test her tea-making skills. Tea-making had the highest priority on the hubby's things-that-our-maid-must-do list. I asked her to make me a cup of Darjeeling tea.

Now if you remember, last year around November, my dad and I went on a trekking trip near Darjeeling. Before the trek, my dad and I went around Darjeeling during which we came across this small tea stall near some tea plantations. The lady there made us the best cup of tea EVER. I was so smitten by it that I had even written about it on my blog, which was very innovatively titled as "Darjeeling". Anyway, after having that cup of tea, I had immediately bought a few packs of tea from that shop.

However back in Singapore, when I tried to make tea with it, it came out pretty bad. I immediately figured what happened. That lady at the tea stall used high quality tea to lure us while selling us this horrid low quality stuff. What a cheater!

Anyway back to the point, I asked Jumillah to make me a cup of that Darjeeling tea - it was meant to be a torture test. If she can make a decent cup of tea with those crap stuff, then she should be OK in other cooking. You see the logic?

A few minutes later came a steaming cup of tea - nicely placed on a saucer (havent had that at home, ever!).

And Lo Behold!

It tasted pretty much like the tea in the lady's stall n Darjeeling! I was flabbergasted! I have the world's (or at least my world's) B.E.S.T chai made right in my house! Buhahahahahha! Needless to say I couldn't stop grinning like an idiot after that! This Jumillah lady not only knows her gingers well but she is the ultimate tea maker! (And yes, my apologies to the Darjeeling lady for mistaking her for a crook).

Then she asked me what I wanted for dinner. I said "Chappathi and Aloo Gobi". Within a short while, there was chappathi and aloo gobi waiting for me on a very well set table. And they were quite decent too! I felt so satisfied!

So there. As is evident, I am extremely happy with this "luxury". God bless Jumillah and hope she is happy in our little home for a long time to come!

336 more to go.