Home Again! Cooking Again!

Every time I'm at home, cooking is a must. Yesterday for breakfast I had ebi furai and pasta (as usual, when I go home my mom bought me prawns. All fresh and taste sweet!). And this morning I had donut!! I made special plain donut with nutmeg and cinnamon. Hmmm... The aroma itself is mouth watering!! I don't really like overly sweet topping, simplicity is the best.

Home is my place of contemplation. I rest a while from the bustle of job hunting and rethinking my life plan. I must study again and learning something new so my brain will get back on the track!

Cats

When I went to a market accompanying my mom this morning, I saw these little cute cats among the bananas that being sold. So calm and peaceful, contrast with the hustle of traditional market. Really made my day.

Traveling Essentials

My ultimate things every time I travel. Usually I just bring a backpack, and this small sling bag that I put inside the backpack. When I walk around the city, I only take the small bag. Simple and compact. Between these things, I have two that highly recommended to be your favorite too.

MUJI Safety Case

I love this brand for its travel and home products. They are so simple, useful, and greatly designed. I don't usually bring my wallet, just some money and cards. I put that inside this mini bag, with some tickets and important paper. Kept inside jacket, it's more safe than having a wallet inside your pocket. It's so light and easy to take the things out. Price: IDR 185k.

UNIQLO Light Pocketable Parka

One of my most favorite apparel brand. Indonesia is so hot and humid throughout the year, so wearing jacket is a must when walking outdoor. This jacket is so light and feels cool. It can protect you from the harsh of sunlight but keeps your body from the wind or light rain. I still bring another jacket for keeping me from the cold (like in train), so whenever it isn't used, I can fold it so small so no worry to take wherever I go. Price: IDR 499k.

Happy traveling!

The Vibrant of Hari Raya... In Mall

Usually when Hari Raya, people visit one relative's house to another, or also known as "silaturahim". It's the reason people massively going to their hometown. But this year, i celebrated the day just with my little family. After the prayer ied we just had walk in... Shopping mall.

We went to Senayan City, a huge mall in the center of Jakarta. Surprisingly, the mall was full of people. And the same with us, they just came from the prayer with muslim dress. I just love the design of the atrium, it has different thing than any other mall (not just typical camel and dessert). It's unique and colorful. Not a traditional way to spend Hari Raya :p

A Scrumptious Meal for Today's Breakfast

This morning my mom came from the market carrying lots of fresh ingredients. Every time I go home, my mom always cooks special foods. Today she brought tempeh, ribs, and prawns. My mom wanted to make rib soup for lunch, and told me to cook the prawns for our breakfast. In my home, only I and my mom who can eat something like this. My dad can't, due to his high blood pressure and high cholesterol.

I cooked a very simple dish, prawns with garlic, chili, and ginger, in butter. My mom made "mendoan", very thin tempeh that quick-fried so the outside is crispy and the inside is soft. The mixture of many textures give very pleasant flavor. I add sambal kecap (sweet soy sauce mixed with chili and shallot) on top of it, and it tastes heavenly!

These are meals that only exist in home.

Happy Eid-al Fitr!

Very long time no post!! I've been very busy for my graduation. Yes, finally i have finished my undergraduate program!!! After all the struggles...

One month earlier was ramadhan. Most of Indonesian (which are muslims, which i am included) fasting from the sun dawn until sunset. And this week, ramadhan is over and we celebrate eid-al fitr! Many, many, many indonesian went to their hometowns, causing traffic jams everywhere. This year, my family spent our holiday in the capital city, Jakarta.

Jakarta was very lovely when eid-al fitr. The city not too busy, and the streets were spacious. No more traffic jam.

My dad and I pray Eid in the biggest mosque in Indonesia, Istiqlal. It's uniquely located face by face by a catholic church to symbolize religion tolerance. The mosque also designed by a non-muslim. This mosque can occupy hundreds of thousands of people, so you can imagine how crowded it was. But it's occasional, you can't meet it in another time. Before the day, there were some terror attack in Indonesia, so the security was very tight. Everyone must pass the security check before entering the mosque. Indonesian now getting accustomed to this kind of things, no more fear for us.

So happy I met this year's ramadhan. I hope I can meet ramadhan in next year.

Happy Eid-al Fitr for you who celebrate! Taqabalallahu minna wa minkum!

Gorengan, The Indonesian Tempura

Lastly, I've been watching Japanology videos on YouTube. It's a program originally broadcasted on NHK channel that tell about japanese culture. And there is an episode about tempura. Same with Japan, the process of deep fried was brought here and suddenly being loved by all Indonesian people until now.

Last night I bought these from a food stall near my house. Deep fried mushroom and chili stuffed with tofu. All just 7k IDR! So great to be eaten with white rice. All vegan plus very cheap.

In Indonesia, this type of dish is called gorengan. It's some ingredients that coated with flour mix and deep fried in palm oil. It can be tempeh, tofu, eggplant, mushroom, broccoli, beans, etc. The most popular gorengan is mendoan, a very thin tempeh that fried half-cooked, so it's crispy outside, soft and little bit chewy inside. The texture combination is so great. It's originated from my hometown and enjoyed by almost all Indonesian.

Usually gorengan is sold in the streets by street vendor. It's a commoner's food, enjoyed by lower class people. The oil quality usually is so bad, and sometimes they even add plastics to the oil to keep it crunchy all the time. I and my family only buy it in some spots where we sure they have good quality foods. Or we just make it at home. Gorengan in Indonesia is vegan, to keep it as cheap as possible. So making it at home is a good saving of money!

Sate Padang

We usually see sate or satay as chicken skewers with peanut sauce. The meat can be either chicken, duck, rabbit, goat, lamb, beef, horse, buffalo, deer, snake, dog, or pork. Altough 80% of Indonesian are muslims, there are some parts in Indonesia where muslim is minority. Or there are some region where many muslims don't do their religion rules and still follow indigenous beliefs, thus make them not consider some food as non halal. So we still see pork, snake, or even dog's meat to be eaten. Just be careful, B1 is Biang (dog, some call it as RW or sate jamu) and B2 is BaBi (pork), particularly when you visit Medan and Manado which famous with the exotic food (mice, bats, etc) or Solo, where there are many dog's meat, or Bali, Kupang, and Papua where pork is common.

Javanese cuisine notably using palm sugar and sweet soy sauce. But in minang cuisine (padang is actually the capital city of West Sumatera, the term padang cuisine in fact refers to minang cuisine)  they never use it and use spices and curry instead. So do the sate padang. Sate padang is beef and cow's innards skewers (most of it are innards, btw) doused with thick curry based gravy and served with chunks of rice cake (ketupat) and spicy cassava chips (keripik lado, lada or lado in minang is chili).

Unlike javanese satay, sate padang is not cooked when we order, all were already cooked and just warmed in the charcoal. The gravy constantly cooked to keep the thickness (when it's cold, the gravy become watery). So the skewers don't include the fats. In javanese satay, as the satay to be burned as order, fats are tucked between the meat to protect the skewers to get burnt, and also to intensify the flavor. Of course you can order to not include the fats if you worry about your health (just like me and my parents).

The taste is.... well, some people love it. It has the hot, spicy, salty, and savory flavor. Other people couldn't accept the taste, because it against their palate (especially javanese who accustomed with sweet satay). The one i took the picture is a well known sate padang in a padang restaurant in Semarang. The flavor is so intense and the hotness is maximum. I and my family quiet enjoy it. Yeah, it's all about our own taste. Some people like it (love it, or even crazy with it), some people don't. But if you like spicy curry, you may try this.

Martabak, The Indonesian Pancake

Recently, the young people in Indonesia has created many traditional desserts and sweets modernized by using ingredients imported from what is famous in the west.

When it comes to Indonesian pancake, we can think about surabi bandung, a sweet dish that processed like pancake (but instead of pan, it cooked in a tiny wok pan fired in charcoal). The traditional version don't add toppings, just plain or with sauce that made with coconut milk and palm sugar. The modern version adds various topping, both sweet and savory. You can find surabi with pizza flavour, cheese, banana, or strawberry ice cream.

Surabi that I had in Waroeng Setiabudi when I visited Bandung, back in 2014.

The trend goes into martabak manis (literally means sweet martabak). In Indonesia, some call it kue bangka (because it is originally invented in Bangka, an Island in the east of Sumatera, before spread throughout the country), kue bandung (famous in Semarang, maybe because the dish firstly introduced there by Bandung people), or terang bulan (popular here in Yogyakarta). Basically it is a large pancake cooked in a pan with many holes that nested inside it, formed by the addition of baking soda. The standard cake just added with chocolate and chopped nuts, but lately people add some premium condiments like toblerone, ovomaltine, nutella, marshmallow, chopped kitkat, and anything else. Sure, those make it more delicious, but the prices rise very high. From the regular martabak costs about 20k IDR become more than 100k IDR! So... i never buy it. The regular martabak with chocolate topping is enough for me.

When i was visiting my sister a week ago, we decided to make martabak in home. My sister got the recipe from internet, and have tried successfully. Then we had crazy idea to buy many sweet treats to make the martabak even more premium than those sold outside. So I rushed to the convenience store to buy many things like matcha powder (to be mixed in the mixture), nutella, chunky bar (premium chocolate bar with cashew or almond, produced by delfi), cha-cha (a type of m&m-like candy coated chocolate), koko crunch (nestle's chocolate cereal), and many more. So here we go....

The mixture starts bubbling....

The first trial, matcha flavored martabak with chopped chocolate

Another variation, chocolate powder with crunch from chocolate cereal

Martabak four flavors made by my sister: Oreo, nutella, chocolate candy, and grated cheese, with the addition of condensed milk.

All of them taste sooooooo delicious!! No wonder, the toppings itself taste great. I take one plate back to Yogyakarta, the most beautiful and tastiest of all we made that day. I posted it in my instagram account (you can see the photos here).

So happy cooking together while gathered with families....

Looking at the sky

It's hard to be a telecommunication engineer.... Or anything else.

Enjoy your life!