Monday, February 27, 2006
Sunday, February 26, 2006
OHAYOO!
Finally I arrived back in Sydney nice and sound... Although there was a bit of a scare when the weather started to turn a bit harsh and it was a few minutes of bumpy ride... It was shaking quite badly though I'm ok with it... hehe
Because I usually am a lazy ass I usually arrived with the latest group to get a seat. This time it seems I was actually the last one to get to the ticket counter on time. So the only thing to pray for when you are in this situation is hopefully you get a good enough seat so you won't be stuck in between two old men (and fyi, I've been there, done that and trust me it wasn't a pretty sight) And because I 'insisted' nah that's not it. I was just plain lucky. So I got an aisle seat. The only problem, it's on the very last row. And it's actually a single centre row where there are no side rows. So I guess it should be alright. The only problem I noticed during the flight is that to my right is actually a storage locker and during the entire flight I was again and yet again being faced with the stewards's butts! YEAH! BUTTS! Because they apparently store the trays etc in that locker so I kept having to look disgusted at the full-frontal view! It was SO close I will certainly swear if they let out a bit of gas! So it was occasional full-moon for the whole flight. And the bit that sucked about this seat is that I can't steal a glance at the window because it's blocked by the locker. But otherwise having this seat is pretty good when you have no one besides you. When the plane was in taxi mode for a while I thought I might have a good seat since there was no one there besides me (so I can have the three seats all to myself and I can sleep lying on those three seats) but luck certainly wasn't on my side at that time. 5 minutes before departure the seat next to the other aisle was taken by someone. But I guess having an empty middle seat ain't that bad.
So it was all nice full sailing through and through except for the slight bad weather. Oo and a nice little fact that I never noticed before I can actually bring 40 kg of stuff if I ask for it. And I did! And it was soo damn good coz I brought a lot of stuff and food!
Yes. Talking about food. The last couple of weeks my mom speed up the cooking process for the Indo food that I love the most! First there was Hainan Chicken which was splendid! See the thing is with the rice it's not just plain white rice it's actually a rice that was cooked and marinated. They have all this ingredients put in the rice such as lemongrass, coconut milk and other spices and then my mom cook it in a huge wok until the coconut milk disappeared. And then what happen is that the rice is actually only half cooked so my mom has to steam the rice before you eat it. And the chicken is just steamed chicked but the thing that I love the most is the thing that goes with it, fried garlic and ginger. See what you do is you chop all the ginger and garlic and then you fry it with a lot of oil. When it's all brown and smells delicious you turn off the flame but don't throw away the oil coz it's what keeps the garlic and ginger crunchy. And my mom also made the chilli for it too. It's actually chillies and garlic boiled together and then after it boiled you throw the water away and grind the chillies and garlic until it mashed into a paste and after that you put in a lot of salt and mix it together and then you put some vinegar in a jar and then you put the chilli paste into that jar and mix it together. YUMMY! It was SUPER delicious~!
And then there's Lemper. It's a sort of cake to me but it's a savoury one. See what it is is actually sticky rice with a filling. The filling is chicken. So I helped with making this one too. I used to love it but I had too much already that this time I'm only eating a little. So what happens is that it's almost the same procedure as the Hainan Rice except this time you're using sticky rice. But the chicken this time is different. You steam the chicken until it's fully cooked and then you bone it. You strip all the meat away but you have to peel it until it's very thin and only strings of chicken meats. And then you cut it perpendicular to the strings of meat until it's little pieces of strings of meat... ... I know it sounds very complicated when it's not supposed to. I guess I'm just not very talented in describing something, I tend to stroll off for a bit of walk before I get to the point. So what happen after is my mom cook the strips of chicken in coconut milk and other spices etc etc and then afterwards it's when the rolling begins! What you do after, preferably straight after the sticky rice are done, is prepare all the plastics, spoons and your skill to make the cake. The sticky rice is a bit oily and sticky it is much better if you do this with plastic because that way your hands won't stick to the rice plus the rice can be very hot so it prevents your hands from getting burned (although it will feel hot afterwards at least your hands won't be burned completely) You put a thin layer of sticky rice on the plastic and then you put a heaped teaspoon of the chicken in the center of the sticky rice layer and then you shape the sticky rice to look like a long ball. And afterwards you cover the long side of the rice cake with pandan leaf and then you cover the whole piece with a piece banana leaf (of course they were already cut before hand to suit the size of the rice cake) and then you sticky tape or staple the ends of the banana leaf. And there you go~!
OK, next food on the menu is DESSERT~! ICE CENDOL~! If you have been to Indo you most likely have tasted this even though you don't know the name. It has small pieces of long green jellies inside and they put a huge spoonful of palm sugar and also another layer of coconut milk. IT IS D.E.L.I.C.I.O.U.S~! It is one signature dish that you can't go past. I'm not sure whether this dessert is actually Indo or not coz they have it in Malaysia too. So I guess it must be typical of South East Asian countries. But for those of you who don't know, the green of the jellies are not usually artificial green colours (unless if you're buying it off food stalls in the streets they most likely do that, to save on costs that is) it's actually a type of plant that they have grind until it looks like a green paste. And what my mom did is actually mix this one type of flour (which I have no idea what it's called) and then mix it with water and the green paste to make that lushious green colour that is just so tempting to the eyes, and then you mix all the green paste to the flour until the green paste and the flour mix perfectly and then you add a lot of water and add jelly powders (of course the jelly powder has to be the Indo ones because I noticed over here the jelly is not as bouncy and hard) and then you cook the liquid until the mixed ingredients boil and turn into a liquidy-jelly-like substance. Before it can cool down you have to prepare the thing that makes the jelly long and small. Ok I really can't describe this part coz it's just get a bit confusing from here on. What my mom did is put the jelly stuff onto this device and then let it drip onto a large bowl of icy water so it'll harden quickly and maintain its form. And voila~ Ice Cendol is ready to serve. The palm sugar and coconut milk is easy to do so no need to describe it ^--^
'Twas all the food that I can think of. It was all good~ very good~!
I ABSOLUTELY HEART INDO FOOD ^--^ !!!
So for the moment being I guess I will be forced to wait until the end of this year to taste all those delicacies once more, twice more!, A LOT MORE~! Hehe. Okies then I better go all this talk about food is making me hungry.
Dadah~
Because I usually am a lazy ass I usually arrived with the latest group to get a seat. This time it seems I was actually the last one to get to the ticket counter on time. So the only thing to pray for when you are in this situation is hopefully you get a good enough seat so you won't be stuck in between two old men (and fyi, I've been there, done that and trust me it wasn't a pretty sight) And because I 'insisted' nah that's not it. I was just plain lucky. So I got an aisle seat. The only problem, it's on the very last row. And it's actually a single centre row where there are no side rows. So I guess it should be alright. The only problem I noticed during the flight is that to my right is actually a storage locker and during the entire flight I was again and yet again being faced with the stewards's butts! YEAH! BUTTS! Because they apparently store the trays etc in that locker so I kept having to look disgusted at the full-frontal view! It was SO close I will certainly swear if they let out a bit of gas! So it was occasional full-moon for the whole flight. And the bit that sucked about this seat is that I can't steal a glance at the window because it's blocked by the locker. But otherwise having this seat is pretty good when you have no one besides you. When the plane was in taxi mode for a while I thought I might have a good seat since there was no one there besides me (so I can have the three seats all to myself and I can sleep lying on those three seats) but luck certainly wasn't on my side at that time. 5 minutes before departure the seat next to the other aisle was taken by someone. But I guess having an empty middle seat ain't that bad.
So it was all nice full sailing through and through except for the slight bad weather. Oo and a nice little fact that I never noticed before I can actually bring 40 kg of stuff if I ask for it. And I did! And it was soo damn good coz I brought a lot of stuff and food!
Yes. Talking about food. The last couple of weeks my mom speed up the cooking process for the Indo food that I love the most! First there was Hainan Chicken which was splendid! See the thing is with the rice it's not just plain white rice it's actually a rice that was cooked and marinated. They have all this ingredients put in the rice such as lemongrass, coconut milk and other spices and then my mom cook it in a huge wok until the coconut milk disappeared. And then what happen is that the rice is actually only half cooked so my mom has to steam the rice before you eat it. And the chicken is just steamed chicked but the thing that I love the most is the thing that goes with it, fried garlic and ginger. See what you do is you chop all the ginger and garlic and then you fry it with a lot of oil. When it's all brown and smells delicious you turn off the flame but don't throw away the oil coz it's what keeps the garlic and ginger crunchy. And my mom also made the chilli for it too. It's actually chillies and garlic boiled together and then after it boiled you throw the water away and grind the chillies and garlic until it mashed into a paste and after that you put in a lot of salt and mix it together and then you put some vinegar in a jar and then you put the chilli paste into that jar and mix it together. YUMMY! It was SUPER delicious~!
And then there's Lemper. It's a sort of cake to me but it's a savoury one. See what it is is actually sticky rice with a filling. The filling is chicken. So I helped with making this one too. I used to love it but I had too much already that this time I'm only eating a little. So what happens is that it's almost the same procedure as the Hainan Rice except this time you're using sticky rice. But the chicken this time is different. You steam the chicken until it's fully cooked and then you bone it. You strip all the meat away but you have to peel it until it's very thin and only strings of chicken meats. And then you cut it perpendicular to the strings of meat until it's little pieces of strings of meat... ... I know it sounds very complicated when it's not supposed to. I guess I'm just not very talented in describing something, I tend to stroll off for a bit of walk before I get to the point. So what happen after is my mom cook the strips of chicken in coconut milk and other spices etc etc and then afterwards it's when the rolling begins! What you do after, preferably straight after the sticky rice are done, is prepare all the plastics, spoons and your skill to make the cake. The sticky rice is a bit oily and sticky it is much better if you do this with plastic because that way your hands won't stick to the rice plus the rice can be very hot so it prevents your hands from getting burned (although it will feel hot afterwards at least your hands won't be burned completely) You put a thin layer of sticky rice on the plastic and then you put a heaped teaspoon of the chicken in the center of the sticky rice layer and then you shape the sticky rice to look like a long ball. And afterwards you cover the long side of the rice cake with pandan leaf and then you cover the whole piece with a piece banana leaf (of course they were already cut before hand to suit the size of the rice cake) and then you sticky tape or staple the ends of the banana leaf. And there you go~!
OK, next food on the menu is DESSERT~! ICE CENDOL~! If you have been to Indo you most likely have tasted this even though you don't know the name. It has small pieces of long green jellies inside and they put a huge spoonful of palm sugar and also another layer of coconut milk. IT IS D.E.L.I.C.I.O.U.S~! It is one signature dish that you can't go past. I'm not sure whether this dessert is actually Indo or not coz they have it in Malaysia too. So I guess it must be typical of South East Asian countries. But for those of you who don't know, the green of the jellies are not usually artificial green colours (unless if you're buying it off food stalls in the streets they most likely do that, to save on costs that is) it's actually a type of plant that they have grind until it looks like a green paste. And what my mom did is actually mix this one type of flour (which I have no idea what it's called) and then mix it with water and the green paste to make that lushious green colour that is just so tempting to the eyes, and then you mix all the green paste to the flour until the green paste and the flour mix perfectly and then you add a lot of water and add jelly powders (of course the jelly powder has to be the Indo ones because I noticed over here the jelly is not as bouncy and hard) and then you cook the liquid until the mixed ingredients boil and turn into a liquidy-jelly-like substance. Before it can cool down you have to prepare the thing that makes the jelly long and small. Ok I really can't describe this part coz it's just get a bit confusing from here on. What my mom did is put the jelly stuff onto this device and then let it drip onto a large bowl of icy water so it'll harden quickly and maintain its form. And voila~ Ice Cendol is ready to serve. The palm sugar and coconut milk is easy to do so no need to describe it ^--^
'Twas all the food that I can think of. It was all good~ very good~!
I ABSOLUTELY HEART INDO FOOD ^--^ !!!
So for the moment being I guess I will be forced to wait until the end of this year to taste all those delicacies once more, twice more!, A LOT MORE~! Hehe. Okies then I better go all this talk about food is making me hungry.
Dadah~
Tuesday, February 14, 2006
i heart indo food~!
I never realised this until now I much I LOVE absolutely ADORE Indo food! They're definitely exquisite...
Yesterday me mum made Sayur Asem (with the help of me of course it's more getting in the way of than 'helping') I help with the blender and that's mostly it... I know it's pathetic really... but anyway now I sorta know what the ingredients are. Most of the ingredients are traditional of tropical part of Asia (I think) and apart of lemongrass I have no idea how to convert the vegetables into English :P Sayur Asem is like a vegetable soup with the only difference is that you don't just put the vegetables into one pot and then cook 'em up there's also this paste that you have to make from the lemongrass etc to add that spiciness and wonderful taste. But no Sayur Asem is complete without the salted fish. There are different kinds of salted fish around here when you go to the market but the ones that I particularly like and especially good combined with Sayur Asem is kuro. It's one type of salted fish and don't get me wrong these fish are very strong in both flavour and smell and the saltiness of the fish meat is so salty if you just eat it on its own. And then we also made the chilli to go with the soup. OMG just writing about it is already making my tastebuds tingle ^--^
Then at night, after two sessions both lunch and dinner of Sayur Asem (and I'm still not tired of it!!) my dad brought home durians after work! DURIANS!!! OMG~~! I LOVE DURIANS! You cannot come between me and the durians. It is the one fruit that I love the most but unfortunately you can't eat a lot of it or you'll get a headache and don't get this wrong but I've been there, done that so a warning to all of you durian lovers don't eat one whole durian! Durian is such an interesting fruit with its spiky skin and really foul smell... Don't get me wrong but to me the smell of the durians are like the smell of a juicy steak that makes your mouth tingles. But I guess for a first-timer it is very difficult to taste this tropical delicacy. One time I saw this food show that shows a man travelling throughout Asia to find strange culinary delights. He was going through Malaysia at the end of his tour and tried to eat the durians but can't he popped a whole meat of the durian (the meat covers the outside of the seeds of the durians these are the part that you can eat but the inside of the durian is like few different rows of those seeds and meats so basically it's not really that huge it just sound huge, btw you won't understand what I'm saying unless you actually HAVE seen a durian) and spit it out again. Afterwards he said that he cannot swallow the thing because out of all those strange things that he had eaten throughout his journey he cannot eat this one thing. And he also said that it taste like foul smelling rotten onion!! The light of him! But I guess we've been having it since we were kids so we enjoy the taste very much and can't get over it. I was soo happy that my dad brought home those durians but don't get me wrong choosing a delicious durian is something that is hard to do even though my dad's a pro when it comes to choosing one of these fruits it's still hard to find that very delicious ones over a pile (unless they are already from a great flock) so the last night's durians weren't that great but it's close to it. I've tasted better. Hehehe ^--^
*sigh my mom said that she was gonna make Chicken Rice (hainan chicken) but I guess she's in no mood to do so. There's still a lot of food that I need to taste before I leave Indo and I definitely have to have 'em all before I go back to Oz or I'll regret it for the rest of the year (coz even though I go to an Indo restaurant it will NEVER be as good as my mom's cooking or even the cooking of the nearby street stalls)
Until my culinary curiosity is fulfilled I will not be satisfied! But till then~
Bye ^^
Yesterday me mum made Sayur Asem (with the help of me of course it's more getting in the way of than 'helping') I help with the blender and that's mostly it... I know it's pathetic really... but anyway now I sorta know what the ingredients are. Most of the ingredients are traditional of tropical part of Asia (I think) and apart of lemongrass I have no idea how to convert the vegetables into English :P Sayur Asem is like a vegetable soup with the only difference is that you don't just put the vegetables into one pot and then cook 'em up there's also this paste that you have to make from the lemongrass etc to add that spiciness and wonderful taste. But no Sayur Asem is complete without the salted fish. There are different kinds of salted fish around here when you go to the market but the ones that I particularly like and especially good combined with Sayur Asem is kuro. It's one type of salted fish and don't get me wrong these fish are very strong in both flavour and smell and the saltiness of the fish meat is so salty if you just eat it on its own. And then we also made the chilli to go with the soup. OMG just writing about it is already making my tastebuds tingle ^--^
Then at night, after two sessions both lunch and dinner of Sayur Asem (and I'm still not tired of it!!) my dad brought home durians after work! DURIANS!!! OMG~~! I LOVE DURIANS! You cannot come between me and the durians. It is the one fruit that I love the most but unfortunately you can't eat a lot of it or you'll get a headache and don't get this wrong but I've been there, done that so a warning to all of you durian lovers don't eat one whole durian! Durian is such an interesting fruit with its spiky skin and really foul smell... Don't get me wrong but to me the smell of the durians are like the smell of a juicy steak that makes your mouth tingles. But I guess for a first-timer it is very difficult to taste this tropical delicacy. One time I saw this food show that shows a man travelling throughout Asia to find strange culinary delights. He was going through Malaysia at the end of his tour and tried to eat the durians but can't he popped a whole meat of the durian (the meat covers the outside of the seeds of the durians these are the part that you can eat but the inside of the durian is like few different rows of those seeds and meats so basically it's not really that huge it just sound huge, btw you won't understand what I'm saying unless you actually HAVE seen a durian) and spit it out again. Afterwards he said that he cannot swallow the thing because out of all those strange things that he had eaten throughout his journey he cannot eat this one thing. And he also said that it taste like foul smelling rotten onion!! The light of him! But I guess we've been having it since we were kids so we enjoy the taste very much and can't get over it. I was soo happy that my dad brought home those durians but don't get me wrong choosing a delicious durian is something that is hard to do even though my dad's a pro when it comes to choosing one of these fruits it's still hard to find that very delicious ones over a pile (unless they are already from a great flock) so the last night's durians weren't that great but it's close to it. I've tasted better. Hehehe ^--^
*sigh my mom said that she was gonna make Chicken Rice (hainan chicken) but I guess she's in no mood to do so. There's still a lot of food that I need to taste before I leave Indo and I definitely have to have 'em all before I go back to Oz or I'll regret it for the rest of the year (coz even though I go to an Indo restaurant it will NEVER be as good as my mom's cooking or even the cooking of the nearby street stalls)
Until my culinary curiosity is fulfilled I will not be satisfied! But till then~
Bye ^^
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