went to this malay wedding last night with Sb, nothing particularly interesting (except that apparently the bride is the sister of some TV host of some local show called 3R, which i've vaguely heard about). What was interesting was the dessert they served, Tapai with ice cream. Tapai is a dessert made from fermenting rice with yeast and sugar, or something like that, which is of coruse quite similar to making sake or wine. now, i've alays thought tapai was alcoholic, heck it even tastes midly that way too. i mean, makes sense doesn't it, fermentation produces alcohol as a by-product doesnt it?

did a little poking around, apparently at one point the Kelantan Islamic Council issued a fatwa proclaiming tapai as halal, arguing that a) tapai is consumed before the alcohol is produced and b) tapai is a food, not drink (which is completely beyond me since that would make eating anything soaked in wine halal too since its food, nice little loophole). not to mention that tapai sitting around in the fridge for a couple of days definitely starts edging towards happy hour.

i take it as another example of the clash between culture and religion and the adaptation of religion to survive and achieve acceptance. you can't take a centuries old tradition and just throw it out. which to me is fine, any system, be it religion or whatever, must be flexible and able to adapt to survive. what becomes a problem is hypocracy when flexibility is conviniently applied when some governing power deems so, and taken away when otherwise felt. I remember once reading somewhere that Muslims who wished to keep Chrysanthemum tea in a flask were advised to be sure that the flask contained no yeast or sago traces, because the bacteria in them could produce alcohol. you're probably in more danger of getting intoxicated from tapai than from a spot amount of ethanol from leftover yeast.