Tuesday, December 2, 2008

MEDU WADA


Ingredients:
Urad dal ....... 2 cups
Onions .........2 small (chopped finely)
Coriander leaves ... handful
Green chillies ...2-3
Baking soda ..... a pinch
Salt ............... to taste
Oil
Method:
1. Soak urad dal for 2-3 hours.
2. Add the chopped onion, green chillies, coriander leaves, baking soda and the salt.

3. Wet the palm of your hand and place little batter , make a hole in the center.
4. Deep fry the wadas.
5. Serve with coconut chutney or sambar.

Where to shop online

Remember get you Korean friend to help with ordering and paying for stuff online . Foreigners have a hard time using their credit cards on Korean web sites .

For all you cake making supplies here is the place to go
http://www.cakeplaza.co.kr/FrontStore/iStartPage.phtml

For General food stuff
http://www.eket.co.kr/

This is in English

For Costco this is in English but is the most expensive of the lot
http://ezshopkorea.com/

For all your cook book needs
http://ko.whatthebook.com/

Homeplus now have a huge range for foreign ingredients My local homeplus just got pepper grinders. Thyme,chives, rosemary and basil. They also got curry powders that I actually brought with me from home.
http://www.homeplus.co.kr/index.jsp


Roti Sosis Manis

2 Desember 2008, selasa,

Kemarin sempetin bikin bakpao, Mei makan 1 biji, tau tau besoknya nanyain lagi, mana bakpaonya, wah, uda abis, dimakan papanya semalem...hehehe.. wah agak agak mo nangis..hihi, trus gw bilang ntar bikin lagi deh...tapi bkin roti aja, bosen bakpao trus.Ya uda paginya sempetin bikin deh...ngebrowse sono sini cari resep yg pas...tapi bahan tepungnya banyak banget, pengin bikin sedikit aja...soalnya yang makan ya cuman berempat...hihi

Akhirnya ketemu deh resep ini
175 gr tepung roti
75 gr tepung ukuran sedang
10 gr susu bubuk
70 gr gula
5 gr his
1 telur
100 cc air es
40 gr mentega
sosis secukupnya - panaskan di ferifan
Cara
- campur bahan dalam mesin, diamkan 30 mnit
- bagi bulatan, pipihkan, masukkan sosis, gulung
- lakukan semua sampai adonan habis
- diamkan 10 menit
- oles permukaan roti dengan kuning telur , panggang 180 drajat selama 25 menit

Enak si, sayang gw nambahin tepungnya, soalnya lengket banget, ga bs dibentuk, mungkin gara2 itu jadi agak keras rotinya, tapi ga pa pa deh, soalnya laku juga, semua makan...hhihi

perkedel kentang

1 Desember 2008, kamis

Lagi kepingin makan perkedel kentang....kebetulan punya daging giling ayam, so dimasukin aja ke perkedelnya...aduk2, bentuk tinggal digoreng deh...
Bikinnya si simple, tapi perlu waktu hohoho, soalnya Xiang agak batuk batuk, kalo die bobo suka kebangun batuk, repot juga jadinya.
aaaaaaaaaahhh...
btw, menu malam perkedel kentang plus sambel nya...

tagged

I have been tagged, by red blood cells in his blog more than a week ago but was too busy to answer his tag. But since i am kinda free for a month or so, and have nothing to do and tired of rearranging furniture in my room, and then rearranged it back to the original position again, after i realised the original position was actually better, i might as well answer the tag.

I love tag, it gives us idea what to write, especially when your life comprises of only 3 main activities which are to dream what your future would be and wish that you will be richer, sulking on your boring daily routine activities and wish you are in thailand or mumbai right now where there are actually interesting activities going around, and regrating your past and wish you were born with singing talent and extremely good looking for you can make money by entertaining people instead of something else, answering tag is actually productive.

For your information (yes the three of you, please look like you are interested please), Red blood Cell was a student of mine, while i was teaching in the previous university, before i am attached to the new one, which by now most would already guess where it is.

And Red Blood cell is now a lecturer too.

He is a living proof of my achievement.

Eh wait a minute, i did not teach him, he was in a different tutorial class, but i did coach his friends and him Nasyid.

But the examination question papers that he had to sit for last time was set by me, so in a way, i did have impact on his future.

Boleh???

Anyway, lets answer some tag shall we.


The First tag



5 things bout Dzeng

**********************************
5 Things In My Bag

1. My laptop
2. My Wallet
3. My contact lenses and mini saline solution
4. My camera
5. Ciggy & lighters

**********************************
5 Things In My Wallet

1. Some cash
2. My IC and license
3. My ATM and credit cards, and bonus point cards
4. ATM slip
5. Pictures of 2 important individuals in my life

**********************************
5 Favourite Things Dalam Bilik

1. My Bed (although i usually sleep on the floor, and i throw everything else on the bed)
2. my computers
3. My lovely square vase which is now an ash-tray
4. my books and novels
5. and more books

**********************************
5 Things yang Ingin Dilakukan

1. visit europe
2. get a PhD and a VK7 status
3. Get laid (hehehe, just kidding), stop being lonely once and for all
4. own a single story bungalow with 10 acres of land infront and at the backyard, with small lake and few swans swimming in it (some black and some white ones).
5. Own a gun

**********************************
5 Things yang Sering Dilakukan

1. sleeping...
2. daydreaming
3. websurfing, and reading blogs
4. eating out and Lepak with friend at mamak and gossiping like there is no tomorrow as if everyone else is bad and should go to hell.
5. watching people





The second tag


7 Fakta Tentang saya
**************************************
7 fakta tentang saya :

1. sensitive
2. I think to much and i plan to much too.
3. Boros
4. Malas
5. Like to do things the easy way
6. Non artistic
7. too oppinionated


**************************************
7 perkara menakutkan saya di dunia :

1. mati
2. orang yang saya sayang mati
3. takut hantu
4. takut binatang berbisa
5. takut dengan orang yang suka menyampai (sebab saya suka bercerita)
6. takut dengan penipu
7. perang



**************************************
7 lagu buat masa skrg :

1. Fix you : coldplay
2. viva la vida : coldplay
3. Say : One republic
4. Bila rasaku ini rasa mu : Keris patih
5. Deep purple : soldier of fortune
6. Crush : David Archuleta
7. How to save a life : The fray



**************************************
7 perkara selalu sebut :

1. Ko dah kenapa?
2. Nak kena pukul?
3. Tu lah tu
4. Pastu
5. No
6. Boleh?
7. Maybe


**************************************

7 perkara yang amat bernilai :

1. My mom
2. (still searching)
3. my family
4. my friends
5. my consciences
6. my mental faculty
7. smiles



**************************************

7 pertama kali dalam hidup saya :

1. My first real headache
2. first bus ride to kelantan
3. my first arm robbery(not mine, i was the victim)
4. first being Emcee
5. My first real enemy
6. my first complete McDonalds' premium item collection (the cocacola glass)
7. My first orgasm, hik just kidding




**************************************

7 org bertuah menjawab tag ni :

1. Dopey
2. Grumpy
3. Doc
4. Bashful
5. Sleepy
6. Sneezy
7. Happy

and

8. Snow white

Danku

December 2

Behold Danku, the second unit of what identical twin brothers Bruno and Filip van Hoeck hope will be a multinational chain.
It’s already multinational, as its first unit is in Antwerp, the van Hoecks’ hometown (that’s right, two Belgian brothers are opening Dutch restaurants). But with just two units, it’s not a chain yet.
Within the next year they hope to open another two units in Antwerp, another nine in New York City and four in Kaliningrad, Russia.
The food is sort of Dutch, but with other things that Americans like, such as frozen yogurt (plain and açaí flavor) and salads and panini. They also offer Indonesian food, as that is the street food of the Netherlands, like Indian food is in Britain and Mexican food is in much of the United States.
Perhaps the centerpiece of the menu, and certainly the hook, is the krokets, which are cylinders of fried food that the Dutch traditionally fill with beef and eat with mustard. But at Danku the van Hoeck brothers decided to fill the krokets with other things. Much in the tradition of Rickshaw Dumpling Bar and Empanada Joe’s, Danku is filling Dutch snacks with such un-Dutch things as Indonesian chicken curry and spinach-artichoke, and each one gets a different sauce. The beef-and-bean kroket comes with avocado sauce, and tartar sauce is provided for the dill and salmon. The traditional Dutch beef one has honey-mustard.
Another part of the restaurant’s schtick is environmentalism. Everything’s compostable, the food’s all organic, you can get four different yerba mate beverages.
The place opened for a couple of hours on Sunday and then went full swing yesterday, and Bruno von Hoeck says business has been good, with the combos ( two krokets with salad, or satay or Indonesian stew with a rice or noodle dish, for $7.50) are the best sellers.Here’s Bruno, taking a break from a hard day’s work to let me interview him. He and Filip both studied at hotel school and have owned bistros in Belgium, including one called Daily, another called Afspanning de Hand, and what I hope was a Spanish place called Las Tapas del Sud.
At Danku, the food is being done by Christof Roothooft, whose picture is on the left. In good chain restaurant fashion, he calls himself the R&D chef. Roothooft has worked in hotels in the past, and also has been a personal chef, which is how he got his current gig as he was the chef of one of the restaurant’s investors.

Poll update

December 2

Thanks for participating in the poll on the right side of this page. It’s nice to see that Food Writer’s Diary readers understand that the celebrity chef phenomenon is a complicated one, and so at the moment “it’s more complicated than that” is far and away the most popular response. If you feel like sharing your thoughts about celebrity chefs, do feel free to comment below.
Thank you again, and best wishes.

Bret

Sushi, best practices and a long day’s journey into food

December 2

As usual, I spent Thanksgiving with the family of my boss, Pam Parseghian, because they’re very nice people with delicious food, combining Armenian tradition with traditional holiday fare. Many years Pam serves mashed potatoes and rice pilaf, but this year she stuck with rice pilaf, which was fine by me. She also made mashed yams with a bit of truffle oil.
The main meal was preceded, as is the Middle Eastern custom, by a couple of hours of mezze, highlighted by Rose Arpajian’s yalanchi, or stuffed grape leaves. It is very important when eating with Middle Eaterners not to over-indulge in the mezze, because you are expected to eat a full-on meal afterwards. Be warned.
This year, as a pre-Thanksgiving meal, post mezze, course, we also all had Alaska king crab legs, which Pam won at this year’s IFEC silent auction.
The new thing I learned this year: Pam’s nephew Grant was a childhood friend of one of the Jonas Brothers. I forget which one — whoever would be around 21 years old now.
Also as usual, the day after Thanksgiving was a bacchanal starting at Joe’s Shanghai where, as usual, I met my friends Birdman and Rusty Cappadona. We were joined for the second year in a row by Rusty’s son Ryan, now nine years old. If it’s new food, Ryan will try it, although this year he was on a mission to try sushi other than the typical rolls that usually are presented to him. Someone — his teacher if I remember correctly — had described a dragon roll to him, and his interest was piqued.
I think this caused some minor conflict for Birdman, who is a sushi purist, but also a devoted friend and indulgent uncle-surrogate. If the kid wants a dragon roll, he should get a dragon roll, but if we could teach him the wonders of proper, traditional sushi, all the better.
Still, we started with the usual soup dumplings, followed by pan-fried dumplings not far away at a little shack that Birdman had found when he was on a grand jury. Manhattanites often learn about Chinese food when on jury duty, as Chinatown is very close to City Hall. It is the only perk of jury duty, as far as I know, in Manhattan, although in Brooklyn they actually have a computer room where potential jurors can check their e-mail and whatnot.
Next it was on to The Patriot, one of Birdman’s favorite dive bars owing to its bartender Lanie (or maybe Laney, I didn’t ask). Last year she introduced Ryan to Shirley Temples, but this year she had neither grenadine nor maraschino cherries, so Ryan amused himself with Diet Coke while the men drank a couple of pitchers of Guinness. I had never seen a pitcher of Guinness before, but I recommend them.
At The Patriot we were met by Gabrielle, a former student of Birdman’s from Borough of Manhattan Community College, where he teaches biology. Gabrielle was one of Birdman’s favorite students, and so he helped her transfer to our alma mater, Tufts — quite a leap if you ask me — where she is currently enjoying her first semester.
Gabrielle went with us to Great New York Noodle Town, and we were joined there by Michael, an ear, nose and throat surgeon who's an old friend of Rusty’s.
As a food writer, many people just have to ask me what my favorite restaurant is. They can't help themselves. I’ve gotten used to it, and I never know what my answer’s going to be, because it keeps changing, although I tend to preface it with some statement about not really having a favorite. It depends on the context.
So I asked Michael what his favorite surgery was. It seemed only fair. He likes reconstructive surgeries where you remove something from one part of the body and repurpose it someplace else.
Okay, maybe time for sushi, we thought, but Michael, who is something of a Vietnamese-food aficionado, suggested we go to an old favorite of his on Doyers. Turned out it was that yellow-signed restaurant in the basement just a storefront or two away from Apothéke. We had spring rolls and a couple of salmon soups — one in a clay pot and the other in a sort of mild Southeast Asian broth redolent of fish sauce and cilantro that I really liked but that no one else much cared for. Oh well.
Starting at Great New York Noodle Town and continuing through our Vietnamese food, we talked about the problems of standardization. I think it began when for some reason Birdman started railing against ISO practices — a system of procedures and processes that the European Union has embraced — and that led to a discussion of the notion of “best practices,” which are procedures in training or food manufacturing or bowel resecting that everyone agrees is the best way to do it.
Of course, the problem with that is that standardized procedures tend to stifle innovation. If you’re forbidden from taking a new approach, how do you learn? Sometimes you mess up, of course, but that happens when following standard procedures, too.
And of course any entrepreneur will tell you that they succeeded precisely by not following the rules.
So that's what we talked about as Ryan tried to eat rice with chopsticks. I used a spoon.
Having eaten almost constantly up to that point, we headed over to Marshall Stack for beer and Diet Coke. I had a hoppy Arrogant Bastard and I don’t remember what everyone else got, except for Ryan’s Diet Coke.
Michael said good-bye and the four of us who started at Joe’s Shanghai walked up to Jewel Bako for proper sushi.
Much to Birdman’s and my relief, they don’t offer dragon rolls.
We had pretty standard stuff — mostly a selection of nigiri sushi that sounded good to Birdman — although as an amuse-bouche they sent out a little nagaimo with gingko and gold leaf. It was the first time Ryan had eaten gold, although Rusty made a bigger deal out of it than Ryan did.
Keep an eye out for nagaimo. Also called yamaimo, it’s a slightly mucilaginous tuber from northern Honshu and Hokkaido that is slowly finding its way into the pantries of avant-garde Asiaphilic New York chefs. I’m not sure why, although it probably has something to do with the fact that the Japanese push its healthful qualities.
The Japanese push the healthful qualities of everything they eat, but mainstream American chefs don’t seem to have noticed that yet.
Unlike his son, Rusty doesn't go out of his way to try new weird food, but he’s certainly game for it and will happily try anything that Birdman or I put in front of him. He admitted, however that he found the texture of raw fish (and rare meat, for that matter) to be off-putting.
But it turns out that Rusty had simply never had good sushi. He had had what Birdman called “suburban sushi,” although he admitted that New York City, too, has some god-awful versions of the stuff.
You know what I’m talking about — big hongkin’ slabs of mediocre (not to say unsafe; it’s probably safe) fish hanging over the edges of a lozenge of indifferently made sushi rice. Either that or rolls with salmon and cream cheese and mango and — I don't know, chocolate sprinkles or something. Good sushi really doesn’t take a lot of effort to understand. For the uninitiated, all you need is an open mind. And Rusty has that, so when the straightforward, unctuous fish landed in his mouth, he understood.
And he loved the sea urchin. He just loved it.
Ryan showed a distinct distaste for shiso, but he liked the rest of his sushi and showed no disappointment in not getting a dragon roll. He had recently learned in school that one of the foods likely served at the first Thanksgiving was eel. So we had some of that, too. Not surprisingly, it was his favorite.
Rusty and Ryan climbed into a taxi to get their train back to Connecticut and Birdman and eye hopped on the A train to Columbus Circle and walked from there to Bar Boulud, where we met up with Heidi, a friend of his whom he had met while scuba diving in Fiji, as you do.
Heidi works in information technology, but she is an avid scuba diver and shark rights activist. In fact, she has several shark tattoos, including a great white sort of wrapped around her torso (she showed me a picture).
Perhaps “shark rights activist” is not the right term, because it makes her sound stupid. Really, she wants to keep them from going extinct because she likes seeing them; she freely acknowledges that they don’t really have the capacity for long-term memory. We ate French fries and I drank a Côtes du Rhone followed by a splash of Calvados while discussing diving and marine biology.
And then we called it a night.

bow - son

...bosan...
sepi~
! boring !
diam...
...silent
~empty

*wink wink*

to-do -list 4 tomorrow;
- go to the airport [ambik teh & family]
- beli present anniversary mama & abah
- beli cake!!! anniversary~
- beli present birthday my dearest lil cousin, aisyah
- and yet, belated bday present 4 akma & ayie.
- clean up my rooms, as they're coming.
- packing packing packing!
- take pictures.
- try to enjoy every moment of my day 2morrow!


*sleep early*


I am H5N1 human straind bird flu virus protected.

Gitu le kan.

I don't know what is wrong with me. When i see something that give hope, no matter how false it is, my hand will be very itchy and i must get it.

Yesterday, while i was walking in Jaya Jusco Klang, with the intention of just window shopping and listing things to get next month (next month half bonus, yeahhh) i came across this swirling water tank. This water tank, with few drops of some aromatic oil supposedly clear the air, by sucking the bad air and ions, and with it swirling mechanism will emit clear clean air that will cleanse the body and soul and leaving a more hygienic air to breathe in the room.

And, also the plant base Air purifying concentrate, they call it, are environmentally safe and non toxic and it can kill germs, including the Bird Flu virus (HN51) (they write it in big bold red ink somemore)

The next thing I know, the water tank and the expensive Anti-Tobacco (what else) aromatic oil is now in my office.





Well, it kills germ, I must have it.

It said to eliminates tobacco odour, sterilizing, anti bacterial & anti-fungus, and most importantly it eliminated 99.9999 percent bacteria, viruses and fungi. That is almost as good as 100 percent.



sorry, my phone camera cannot zoom.


And apart of the H5N1 virus it also said to eliminates, disinfection and control of (to name a few):

Proprionibacterium acne,
salmonella cholerasius,
stapphlococus aureus,
rhinovirus,
influenza A,
Hong Kong straind,
poliovirus type 2, and
E. coli,



(basically i have no idea what these viruses mean, but it sounded scary. Well maybe for e.coli, salmonella and polio, because i remember reading it somewhere, in school maybe)

Not only that, it also disinfect the athlete’s foot fungus, infectious diseases, avian influenza virus the HN51.

But what more surprising it also disinfect the Herpes simplex type 1 and HIV type 1.

Hey, it disinfect HIV, what more can you ask for !!!!!!!!!!


i am not very sure if it does work or not, but i am having serious headache in the office, its either i am alergic to the aromatic oil, or it does have effect to the sinus because the headache seems to centre around the temple and nasal area. Maybe it is killing the sinus bacteria, and he bacteria is fighting back the clean air (either that, or i am alergic to fresh air)

Yeah, i am a sucker for over commercialization and drop dead marketing.

But, let say, just in case, i somehow later died of the Bird Flu Virus, i am giving permission to anyone reading my blog to sue the company silly. Make sure you sue them hell, and take every penny from them, and leave them nothing.

Christmas is in the air...

(Nagoya Japan - Photo from David's Multiply)

I look up from both sides now with red leaves falling on my shoulders and telling me it's Christmas. Time to feel the celebration. I am hoping I can attend "simbang gabi" this holiday. The feeling of nostalgia drives me to do this thing again after not doing it for 18 years. Quite a long time. It made me reminisce now how lovers eat "puto bungbong & bibingka" after the mass. I never completed any simbang gabi, but this time I want to attend even just one night and I have my own personal reason for doing it. Somehow giving thanks to my creator and showing him my love, is worth to do after 18 years. If I can show my love in many forms and with immeasurable efforts, why not do it also with the one who gave me life to live.

Although there are different emotions for me this coming Christmas, there's always something for me to smile about when every single second of my life I see clarity. I will do more cooking and do more lovemarks not just at work but also with my personal life and with my Artist Chef.

Happy Holidays!

hugs,
joanie xxx