The color green is the prominent and chosen color to symbolize the occasion of Hari Raya Aidilfitri/Idulfitri (Eid). From mall decorations, newspaper & TV advertisements, greeting cards and Hari Raya money envelopes, the hue that is the traditional color of Islam dominates the atmosphere, very much like red during Chinese New Year time.

In honor of the color green and just simply for kicks, I modified the rice krispies marshmallow recipe I played around with last year and decided to turn the sweet treats green this year!

After getting the main ingredients, I rummaged our kitchen cabinet to locate our bottles of food coloring.

However, my eyes bulged out in shock and amusement when I discovered that the colored food chemicals were way past their expiration dates. Why, one bottle had an expiration date as way back as 30 March 1993!

In spite of this shocking revelation, I decided to take comfort in knowing that my family has minimally used the food colorings to make our annual cookies and treats. (Yes, I do realize that this is an understatement of the biggest kind.)

I made a dash to the kedai mamak (convenient store) near my house and got myself a brand new bottle of apple green food coloring which cost me RM1.80. I now have three years to use up the stuff before its expiration year of 2007. I also bought a red one, which I did not use in this particular cooking session.

I followed the marshmallow recipe featured in this earlier junkfood article, the only difference I made was to add a little bit of the food coloring into the batch of marshmallows that I was melting in the glass pot.

Wow! Will you look at that. The bubbling gob that is my melted green marshmallows now reminds me an awful lot of palak paneer, that yummy spinach cheese concoction that goes incredibly well with nan bread. Isn't that freaky looking?

Tasia, who was cooking the marshmallows, said that it reminded her of lumut (moss).

Following true to the recipe, we quickly transfered the melted marshmallows into a mixing bowl and swiftly added in the Rice Krispies cereal bits.

After greasing a Pyrex bowl, we pressed the green rice krispies moulding it against the sides. I still couldn't get over the excitement of seeing the very green marshmallows! The wonderful smell of melted marshmallows and butter was enough to knock us into unconsciousness; we couldn't sample some of it because it was not time to break fast yet.

I bought some M&Ms to so-call garnish my rice krispies treat and make it more enticing. I started out just embedding the green M&Ms on there...

It became apparent to me that putting on just the green M&Ms was going to be boring, so what the heck, I began putting all the colored M&Ms on the slowly-solidifying treat for a more funky look and feel. Don't they look pretty!

A cross section of my green invention.
I call them "Mossy Marshmallows Treats!"

And of course, any junkfood cooked in our kitchen would be deemed unworthy if I don't get the approval and head nods of my junkfood council. In fact they insisted that the green treats were better tasting than the ordinary non-colored one. There was of course hardly any difference in taste between the non-colored and colored marshmallow treats. The green food coloring may have been called "apple green," but it does not add flavor to any food you add it into.

This little experiment did show me that color does indeed create distortion of perceptions. Especially when your niece and nephew are members of the food-tasting approvers.

So folks, if you're scratching your head on how to claim title for the host with most bizarre treats served at an open house this Hari Raya season, consider making these special green marshmallow treats and impress the shoes off your guests (if they don't slap you first for thinking that you were trying to serve them moss). I swear it only takes 15 minutes of your precious time! Heck, you can do this on Raya morning itself, 15 minutes before your guests are scheduled to arrive!

Fairy & MyIndo.com would like to wish

Selamat Hari Raya, Maaf Zahir & Batin.