KUALA LUMPUR – Raja Permaisuri Agong Tunku Azizah Aminah Maimunah Iskandariah today brought cheer to frontline workers in the capital city when she rolled up her royal sleeves to prepare bubur lambuk, or rice porridge, for them.
The spicy porridge, cooked using recipes from Johor and Pahang, had an added royal touch as Yang di-Pertuan Agong Al-Sultan Abdullah Ri'ayatuddin Al-Mustafa Billah Shah was on hand to assist the queen as she went about cooking the porridge at the Istana Negara main surau compound today.
Also present to render assistance in preparing the dish, which took almost three hours to complete, was Tengku Puteri Raja Tengku Puteri Afzan Aminah Hafidzatullah Al-Sultan Abdullah along with 180 Istana Negara Welfare and Sports Club (Keksin) members.
“I hope the bubur lambuk is tasty and the frontline workers will enjoy my cooking as I have cooked them to perfection with the right amount of ingredients. More importantly, it was cooked to my taste,” Tunku Azizah told reporters.
Tunku Azizah also expressed her wish to distribute packed porridge to the public at the palace gates, but this was not possible this year due to the pandemic.
Meanwhile, Keksin chairman Mohd Irfan Idrus said the cooking programme, which began at 11.30am, was an annual event organised by the club in conjunction with Ramadan.
He said four pots were prepared today, two of which were cooked according to the Johor recipe and the other two to the Pahang recipe.
Irfan, who is also the palace’s chief administrative officer, said 1,600 packs of bubur lambuk would be distributed to frontliners in Kuala Lumpur, in appreciation of their services in the fight against Covid-19.
The queen was recently the centre of the #DengkiKe controversy, as the term became the top trending hashtag on Twitter following a comment made by Tunku Azizah on her Instagram account.
A commenter had asked if the chefs working at the palace have been vaccinated after the queen posted several pictures of dishes that she and the chefs had prepared, to which she replied “dengki ke?” (are you jealous).
This came on the back of speculation that the Yang di-Pertuan and his family were among several Malaysian VIPs who received the Sinopharm vaccine – which has yet to be approved by Malaysia’s drug regulator – in the United Arab Emirates in January.
Malaysians then used the hashtag #DengkiKe to express their dissatisfaction at how members of the royal household were allegedly inoculated before other more high-risk Malaysians, and without going through due process.
Many of the posts bemoaned how “marhaens” (ordinary citizens) are often treated differently than those with power.
Artist-activist Fahmi Reza was also arrested recently after he published two Spotify playlists titled “This is Dengki Ke?”.
He was brought to the Dang Wangi police station under the Communications and Multimedia Act and Sedition Act 1948.
He was freed a day later, after the authorities’ application for a four-day remand was rejected, and amid calls by various quarters for his release. – Bernama, May 5, 2021
