KUCHING: In the few weeks leading up to the yuletide season, Christmas trees adorned with colourful lights and baubles as well as seasonal delicacies typically begin to pop up throughout Kuching.
Shopping malls and hotels here are usually decked out with cheery decorations as the festive spirit fills the air.
This year, however, the Covid-19 pandemic has in one way or another changed the way that most people would celebrate the Christmas season.
Nevertheless, many are quick to adapt to the current circumstances while continuing to uphold Christmas traditions as best they can.
One such example is Pullman Hotel Kuching in the heart of the city.
A towering Christmas tree and a life-sized gingerbread house are usually put up in the hotel lobby every year to usher in the yuletide season.
However, the hotel is currently being used as a quarantine centre for persons-under-surveillance (PUS) due to the ongoing Covid-19 pandemic. As such, members of the public are not allowed in during this period.
Despite this setback, the hotel has managed to adhere to tradition in the new norm by improvising a smaller model of a gingerbread house to be placed in their lobby.
It has also set up a Christmas booth in the adjoining mall, The Hills, offering a variety of Christmas cookies, sweet treats, and even miniature gingerbread houses for sale.
Nazianza Narang, a pastry chef at Pullman Hotel Kuching, said the gingerbread house is a traditional confectionery often used as a Christmas decoration which is popular in European and British regions.
“The process of making a gingerbread house begins with the dough. First, we weigh out all the ingredients, then we mix them and beat the dough until it becomes smooth.
“The dough needs time to rest overnight, so we bake it the next day to prevent the dough from shrinking,” he said in a recent interview.
He said once the baking process was done, the next step was to cut out the shapes for the house.
“The final step is to assemble the house using royal icing to join the pieces together, and then we decorate it with icing and ornaments,” he said.
He said the dough was made using mainly bread flour, butter, honey, sugar, golden syrup, ginger powder, and cinnamon powder.
Nazianza said that some of the key challenges faced in the process were temperature control and baking time.
“The baking time must be accurate to ensure a good structure. If it is not accurate, the product can get mouldy quickly,” he explained.
He also said that throughout the process, it was important to maintain a high level of hygiene.
“All the equipment and tools used need to be clean and we must use face masks and gloves throughout the process,” he said.
For the miniature gingerbread houses, he said that assembling each one took about half an hour, excluding the time required for preparation and baking.
As for the life-sized gingerbread house that the hotel usually set up for display in their lobby in previous years, he said these required about two weeks to prepare and construct.
“We would usually start the process about a month before Christmas, in order to have sufficient time for the dough preparation, baking, assembling, and decoration.
“Every year we would change the design of the life-sized gingerbread house. It’s a creative process, so we can alter the colours used and some of the designs as well to have varying themes each year,” said Nazianza, who has had eight years of experience as a chef, namely two of them with Pullman Hotel Kuching.
He said that due to the ongoing Covid-19 pandemic, a smaller model of a gingerbread house was made for decoration in the hotel’s lobby instead of the usual life-sized one.
He remarked that gingerbread houses, although technically edible, were often used just for decorative purposes while gingerbread men were for consumption.
He added that completed gingerbread houses could last between two weeks to a month, depending on the surrounding temperature.
This year, aside from miniature gingerbread houses and gingerbread men, he said Pullman Hotel Kuching also offered assorted cookies, cakes, pastries, and other Christmas goodies for sale.
Meanwhile, Ivan Ong, the Food and Beverage director at Pullman Hotel Kuching, said the hotel was adapting to the new norm by offering takeaway options so that diners could dine in the comfort of their own homes.
He said this year, Pullman Hotel Kuching had three roasts to offer, namely roast turkey, beef Wellington, and roast lamb.
“We have a variety of promotions and takeaway menus for our customers to dine at home.
“These can be found on our Facebook page. Alternatively, those interested can visit our Christmas booth where we have lots to offer,” he said.
