Friday, July 3, 2009

Jungle Jim's

We have a really neat world food store down here called Jungle Jim's. They have acres of food from all over the world; each country has it's own isle or more.

Jungle Jim's by huggles_001.

The fresh produce area is the best. It is the largest one I have
seen anywhere.

Fresh produce section inside jungle Jim's. by huggles_001.

And that is just part of it. Sorry it's a little blurry, you aren't
suppose to take pictures inside so I was trying to hurry on my
phone. :-P

David and I use to shop there every time we needed to, but I
have decided to Kroger's is cheaper. You tend to spend a lot
more at Jungle Jim's because things are more expensive
plus you always find lots of things to try out. Tonight I got
some rigatoni and authentic Italian tomato sauce.
It was delish!

New Job!

Yes, I have a new job. For those on facebook I've not not said anything because some of my co-workers are on there and my boss doesn't want anyone to know right now so for weird reason.

So details: I start August 17. It is in the school system, my dream job. I will be working in 2 different school systems 4 days a week. It is part time for now, with the possibility of full time next school year. The job just dropped into my hands literally.

My dad was looking through the business section of the newspaper and saw an add for the job. He called me on a Sunday and gave me the lady's name and number. On Monday I called and we played phone tag a few times. When I was finally able to talk to her, she asked me to come in for an interview that Thursday. The interview was about half an hour and she said she would get back to me soon. She was also done working for the year so she had to get this position filled soon since it came up at the last minute. So Friday morning she called me and offered me the job! I am really excited about it. I am still going to work PRN at the nursing home, helping out on some Friday's and possibly on breaks and summer to make up the difference in my pay. With the school job I only work 148 days a year. I still get payed all year round though and I can make my own schedule. I will also be off holidays, summer, just like the kids. Can't work without them there!

My current boss was less than thrilled of course because I've not been there a year yet. I did give her 2 month notice though, and there are tons of COTA's around because there is a school down here. So she should have no problem finding someone to replace me full time. I am really looking forward to the change!

More pictures of nutmeg, and my trip to the north shore.

July 3

Boy, Hawaiians sure get up early. Or maybe farmers do, I don’t know, but my second morning in Hawaii I had a 7:45 a.m. appointment with Dean Okimoto, one of the founders of the Kapi‘olani Community College Farmers Market.
My directions for getting there were so easy that I didn’t even turn on the GPS, and in fact it was very easy to find, the only surprise being how far away I had to park at 7:30 in the morning. The place was packed.
I strolled around the market a bit and took pictures of nutmeg, as you can see in the first picture.
The second picture is just a detail from the first picture, because about a third of this blog’s readers are New Yorkers, and they’ve probably never seen a nutmeg fruit before.
Other than the nutmeg and a couple of other somewhat exotic fruits such as soursop — and mango and papaya if you count them — and the fact that the weather was more perfect than at most farmers markets, it was pretty much a farmers market. Dean explained that the inspiration for the venture came from time he spent in San Francisco. And indeed, it did have a sort of Bay Area vibe somehow, and lots of temperate-climate vegetables.
Those are new crops in Hawaii, Dean explained, driven in part by chefs who want to use more local produce, and by farmers who have been priced out of the pineapple and sugar cane markets by lower production costs elsewhere in the tropics (everywhere in the tropics, I would think, except maybe Singapore).
Dean himself is the head of Nalo Farms, which specializes in salad greens (indeed, I’d had some the night before at Orchids). I asked if it was a challenge to grow lettuce that wasn’t bitter, as the tropical sun tends to do that to lettuce, and he said that, indeed, it was, and in the summer they had to harvest the greens at a younger age than at other times of the year.
So that was interesting.
I snacked around a bit — a little pulled pork sandwich made by the culinary school students, some curry musubi, a bit of roasted corn.
There was a lot of prepared food at the farmers market, which I guess is okay, but Dean said they had 60 merchants at the market and a waiting list of 40 more who wanted to display their wares. I'd think I'd want to give priority to the farmers who are selling their own stuff, but I’ve never tried to run a farmers market, so maybe I don’t know what I’m talking about.
Then it was time to check out of the Halekulani and move about a block over the the Royal Hawaiian, a procedure that, given the one-way streets and the fact that neither the GPS nor I were sure, exactly, what little unmarked side alley we were supposed to drive down to find the hotel, took about half an hour. In fact, I tried at first to check into the Sheraton Waikiki, which is considerably less upscale than the Halekulani (or, as it turns out, the Royal Hawaiian). Sheraton owns the Royal Hawaiian, too, so the receptionists, even while managing a patient herd of tourists standing in line, were able to direct me to my proper hotel.
“The pink one,” one of them said.
The Royal Hawaiian is, indeed, pink. And there's no typical front desk there at which to check in. Instead there are several fairly opulent desks. You are supposed to sit down at one end, across from the uniformed hotel employee who will help you while you sip a light, refreshing beverage presented to you as you sit down. It’s very civilized.

But it being 10:30 a.m., my room wasn’t ready.
No matter, as I was driving to the north shore anyway to have lunch at a seaside place called Ola.
“Turn right on [brief pause] *ee *oy street,” the GPS said.
“On where?" I asked it as I found myself in the wrong lane to turn onto Piikoi Street.
The GPS isn’t very good at pronouncing those hard voiced consonants, but it does provide an interactive map, and its verbal instructions are also written on the screen.
“Recalculating.” said the GPS and she started pointing me to the airport.
I thought maybe she’d had enough of me and that her next instructions were going to be: “If you think you’re so smart, get out and find a way to fly to the North Shore, dip-shit.”
But no, we headed north and without too much fuss ended up at the Turtle Bay Resort.
Ola looks like a touristy seafood shack that sells fried clams, calamari and, if you’re lucky, cold beer. But instead I had a tuna poke salad, and baby octopus with orechiette pasta in a coconut milk sauce that might have had just a whiff of curry. I was kind of shocked by its deliciousness.

Here's how the menu describes those dishes:

Ahi poke
North Shore Limu, onion, Inamona, Kahuku sea asparagus, sesame soy.

Grilled baby octopus
Orechiette pasta, spinach, Maui onion, roasted pepper, citrus, lemon grass herb oil, crab luau cream.

Oh, and the chef is Fred De Angelo.


To view all the blog entries about my trip to O‘ahu, click here.

TAC 2009 (Think-Act-Change) The body shop bootcamp




Waktu tanggal 2 juni yang lalu, pas lagi ol fb, tiba-tiba ada message yang nongol.
Karena agak penasaran, siapa juga yg ngirim messag
e ke gue jam segini.
Dengan penuh hasrat akhirnya di klik lah tulisan in
box, dan muncul lah nama mba Candra (editor in chief majalah KaWanku) sebagai pengirim.
Masih dengan hasrat yang menggelegak bagai air mendidih *lebay* gue baca lah message itu.
Ternyata isinya adalah info tentang writing competition body shop, dan gue disuruh ikutan sekaligus memforward ke semua anak CCW yang gue kena
l.
Awalnya gue jadi antusias, membaca nama 'The Body Shop" dan berniat mengikutinya.
Setelah memforward, terjadilah forum diskusi, dan eng ing eng baru sadar gue, deadlinenya 4 juni. Artinya tinggal 2 hari. ckckck.
Sempet patah semangat, tapi... Inget kata mba Candra 'gue pengen ada anak CCW yang ikut' dan kata mama 'ikutlaaah de, mumpung ada kesempatan', walhasil gue menulislah naskah tersebut dengan serabutan dan liar.

Lagi-lagi gue sempet males, karena lagi enggak punya ide nulis, tapi usaha terus buat tetep nulis.
Dan tepat pada pukul 22.35 WIB naskah satu setengah halaman itupun gue email ke mas kukuh (orang body shop-email yg disuruh).


Enggak nyangka, pas tanggal belasan gue ditelvon sama mas Martinus Kukuh.
Naskah gue lulus seleksi, dan harus mengikuti bootcamp selama 4 hari di puncak (bilangnya puncak, ternyata bogor)
Dan harus membawa dua orang teman yg juga masih SMA.
Gue pun memilih 'THE POWER PUFF GIRLS' aka
ditha mia dan gue (pastinya).



Bootcamp tanggal 25-28 juni 2009.

25 juni 2009---> Hari kamis yang cukup terburu-buru. Dengan rok hitam A-line dan t-shirt orange queen, gue berangkat. Sampe disana, tinggal gue ternyata yg belum dateng (haduuuh malu!) dan setelah gue menaiki bus dengan muka sok cool, bus pun melaju ke Bogor, villa tempat bootcamp. Gue deg-degan banget!

Akhirnya kenal lah sama yang namanya Kak Putri, yang biasa nelfonin gue dan smsan sama gue buat urusan ini. Hihi. Setelah itu, ada juga kak Rid
la dan tentunya mas Kukuh yang ngabarin gue kalau naskah gue lulus. Dalam bayangan gue, om Kukuh (gue selalu diskriminasi panggilan buat cowok dengan "OM") itu dengan baju formil dan bertampang lempeng khas bapak-bapak yang kurang ekspresif. Ternyata bertolak belakang banget, orangnya asik dan lucu serta seru. Dengan perut buncit dan kantong mata hitam legam dibawah matanya. (Pengidap insomnia katanya)

Setelah sampai sana dan di briefing, ada waktu sekitar 2 j
am untuk istirahat di kamar. tapi the powerpuff girls menggunakannya untuk ngobrol bareng kak putri dan mba rika (Bunda). Hingga muncul pernyataan dari bunda, "Eh coba deh liat, kenapa ya anak-anak jaman sekarang kalau foto gayanya sama semua, piss dua jari gitu." Saat itu, gue mia ditha aga menyangkal, "enggak juga ah." Sampe kepembicaraan tentang cowok kribo yang masih muda tapi bukan peserta, kak Putri cerita, ternyata dia itu anak warta kota muda yg ngeliput kita, dan dia masih mahasiswa semester 4. Sastra Perancis UI (kalo ga salah, berarti bener).

Pas jam 7 abis makan malam, kita duduk meling
kar dan saling berkenalan. Pesertanya ada sekitar 39 orang, 12 dari jakarta (termasuk aku) dan sisanya dari bandung. Ssst, dari Jakarta cewek semua lho! Dari bandung ada yg ganteng, putih dan aga bule, tapi cuma lucu diliat doang. Namanya Thebe. hihi. Pas perkenalan dan presentasi, kelompok dari bandung nampaknya mantab-mantab banget. Sedangkan gue enggak punya bekal apapun untuk ini, tapi ternyata lumayan oke kok perkenalanku. Dan akhirnya istilah KTP (Kekerasan terhadap perempuan) yang aku populerkan menjadi super eksis. haha.

Aku sekamar berlima, selain the powerpuff girls yg selanjutnya akan aku sebut 'ppg' juga sekamar dengan Sylva dan Gina, asal Bandung. Mereka ramah, terutama Gina. B
eda banget sama anak jakarta pada umumnya, anak Bandung cenderung ramah dan murah senyum. Gina cukup supel dan banyak bicara ketimbang Sylva. Mereka biasa menggunakan 'aku-kamu' sedangkan gue dan ppg lebih ke 'gue-elo'.

26 Juni 2009---> Bangun pagi langsung ngibrit mandi. Maklum tiap pagi gue mesti keramas dan mandi gue lama. untungnya ada air anget, jadi mandi gue lebih cepet. Setelah itu duduk nangkring sambil berdandan. Selesai itu sarapan dan ngeteh, udara puncak yang sejuk dan segar dengan pemandangan Lembur pancawati yang luar biasa bagus serta jauh dari keramaian kota yg bising, waaaw wonderful morning.

Kegiatan setelah sarapan adalah penajaman ide dan presentasi. Presentasinya lebih spesifik, karena di bedakan menjadi tiga kelompok. Yaitu : HIV/ AID
S, Global Warming, dan KTP. Tentu aku masuk ke kelompok KTP sesuai ide cerita yang aku tulis. Pas presentasi, aku sadar sih, aku lebih ganas dengan kata-kata yang aku ucapkan. terlalu berapi-api dan lupa diri.

Pas bagian tujuan...
Mia : Tujuannya adalah Speak up, Unbeatable, dan Think logic.
Mami (mba Ukke) : Unbeatable? Kayaknya gue kenal deh tuh. (sembari nengok ke ka anggi--reporter kaWanku--yang senyum senyum gimana gituuu) <>

Setelah usai mengakhiri presentasi, banyak kritik dan komentar. Yang paling aku inget adalah kata-kata Mami yang bilang jangan juga jadi malah mengint
imidasi cowok, yang berujung pada pertanyaan persetujuan dari si cowok kribo yang bernama Saviq itu. Dan dengan sangat sigap Saviq menjawab, "sangat" terintimidasi. haha.

Pas lagi asik ngeteh siang-siang, tiba-tiba kak Ridla ngajakin turun ke lembah ke sawah ke sungai di lembur pancawati. Ditantang begitu ppg langsung mengiyakan. kak anggi juga ikut. Astagaaaaa, turunnya aja capek. tapi di bawah foto-foto dan bermain air. Abis itu naik lagi. Sumpaaaah, enggak lagi deh. Naiknya dengan tangga curam banget. Jauuuh dan banyak anak tangga, capek mampus. Mau pingsan rasanya. Si ditha lagi, sok-sok ngambil short cut yang ternyata membuat jalurnya makin jauh. hahaha.

Sore sore menjelang malam, mba Baby yang seorang seksolog, menjelaskan soal seks. Hingga penggunaan kondom. gue juga membuka bungkus kondom, memnuka gulungannya, bahkan ditiup dan dijadikan balon. Hmm moment ini di abadikan oleh kak Anggi dan saviq, tapi belum ada yg menguploadnya. huuuh! Ternyata bermain kondom seru dan lucu yaaa. ahaha.

Malamnya, setelah pemantapan ide dengan
komentar dari Nia Dinata, ppg konseling soal ide ini ke kang om erik, yang sepertinya menyesal mau membantu kita. ahahaha. Yah, paham sih perasaannya jadi si kang om. bayangin, lagi serius ngomongin ide cerita, tiba-tiba dialihkan kepembicaraan lain karena ada yang nyambung gitu dari kalimatnya, terus balik lagi, ngomongin cowok yang bernama ********s lah, yang ngomongin caesar lah. Dan dia pun pamit untuk ngopi katanya, tapi enggak balik-balik. hueeeeh.

27 Juni 2009---> Hari ketiga, hari yang cukup menggelisahkan. Pasalnya, pada hari ini kita akan melakukan tes praktek membuat film dokumenter edited by camera. alias langsung di play tanpa di edit komputer. Hari ini si Kribo enggak ada, uda pulang. haha. (enggak penting) Setelah sedikit ada briefing, maka waktu untuk hunting film pun dimulai. Dan ppg lebih milih ngeteh sama kak Ridla sambil facebookan. Barulah setelah makan siang kita pergi keluar dari arena villa Lembur Pancawati ke jalan. Niatnya ngambil film soal kampanye, tapi berubah haluan ketika ketemu Bu Sri pemilik warung gorengan yang ceritanya lebih menyentuh.

Si ibu yang hidup berkekurangan bercerita, sempat tutup 3 bulan karena enggak ada modal. Sedangkan si bapak sudah enggak kerja. Warungnya cukup strategis, tapi juga enggak terlalu ramai. Dia pun bilang, saat ada tukang rerongsokan yang pengen kopi padahal punya uang cuma 15oo (harga kopi yg dijual 200) ibupun ngasih dan ngebolehin dengan iklas. Gilaa, beliau yang masih susah aja mau berbagi, kenapa kita (gue lebih spesifik) enggak mau?? hebat!

Setelah malam menjelang, film yg tadi di shootingpun di putar langsung ke semuanya. Alhamdulillah, hasilnya film tentang si Ibu yang dalam film sempat meneteskan air mata, mendapat tanggapan positif dan dikategorikan baik. Sebelum aktifitas hari ketiga ini diakhiri, ada sesi foto rame-rame, sekalian sama teh Nia Dinata.


Saatnya balik kekamar dan tidur, kita malah mampir ke bungalow anak bandung. Ngobrol sampe pagi. Sebelumnya, abis dinner ditha diledekin mau kenalan sama Thebe, si Thebe keGRan banget, padahal kita cuma seru-seruan doang. Kita (echa, mia, ditha, rere, nike, karid, gue) ketawa keras mengomentari segala hal konyol dan menjebak ditha lebih jauh. Tiba-tiba dari bilik sebelah bersuara.
Cowok bandung dari balik bilik : EHEM MAU TIDUR. Ehem Kecilin volumenya.
kita : EHEM Enggak ada remotnya. EhEM manual.
(ternyata suara cewek-cewek bombastis meringis bengis sekali.)

Pas mau tidur, dikamar sampe jam setengah dua, ppg dan Gina n Sylva saling tuker cerita antara Bandung dan Jakarta. Tentang sekolah homogen dan gaulista jakarta serta sekolah dan gaulita bandung. Berbeda. Sangat beda. Seruu dan bikin malam terasa palsu.

28 juni 2009---> Last day! Enggak sanggup deh menutup empat hari seru ini begitu saja. Workshop atau bootcamp yang sangat bermanfaat buatku. Ini dunia film, film dokumenter terutama, sangat berbeda dengan duniaku yang seorang penulis amatir. cckckck.
Beraaat rasanya. Seneng-seneng yang berasa liburan bagiku ini enggak ternilai harganya.

Think-Act-Change 2009, paling hebohhh dan rame. Seru dan menyenangkan. Semoga pulang dari sana dan menyelesaikan proposal, naskah proposal ppg bisa lolos lagi ke tahap berikutnya. Amiiin.


Don't blame the tequila...

So yesterday was my birthday (which was amazing, by the way) and Mark and I went out to a local Mexican restaurant for dinner. In the middle of dinner, his dad first called his cell and then mine. Neither of us picked up, figuring he was calling to wish me a happy birthday...and we would call him back when we left. Well, apparently the table next to us over-heard. And for the record, we were not talking loudly and this table wasn't really all that close. And so this over-hearing gentlemen must've been disengaged from whatever the two blondes at his table were discussing over their frozen margaritas, just as a side note.

The table gets up to leave and they're walking out to their car. The gentlemen turns around and says over the patio fence, "Happy Birthday", all the while starring into my eyes. Hmmm, strange.

Fast-forward 20 minutes and out comes the restaurant staff with the big'ol sombraro ordeal and a shot of tequila, singing "Happy Birthday" (in English). Mark darts me a wide-eyed look and exploded with, "I swear I didn't tell him." And he hadn't. And I sure hadn't told him. Mystery. Wait, no. No mystery...it was the eavesdropping gentlemen who'd left 20 minutes prior.

After the shot and some pondering of the situation, I declared the mystery man to be the Garth Brooks. Who resides in Owasso, Oklahoma (where we live). Yep, it must have been Garth Brooks. While I'm a fan of his music and country music in general, I'm no guru. I may not even be able to pick-out Garth from any other gun-rack-in-the-truck-laden cowboy in town. Though I will say, the supposed Trisha Yearwood was wearing a scrunchy which is just shameful, especially for a world-renouned country music star.

Whether it was Garth and Trisha or not, I'm going with it. And after taking that lovely tequila shot (I do love me some tequila), I immediately remembered my scheduled run for the follwing morning...this morning. Oops.

"Oh well, sister. Suck it up", I thought to myself. But of course, one tequila shot won't damage this fish's devoted workout plan. My run is done-and-done. Don't let tequila be an excuse for your lapse in exercise plans, either!

Eating New York: Hot Dogs

Confession time.

I’ve always said that my last supper would consist of hot dogs. As much as I’ve tried to develop the outward appearance of a sophisticated foodie, I can’t shift this love of cheap sausages simmered in cloudy water and slung into a fluffy white bun.



Until now, I wasn’t fussy. I wouldn’t have specified brand names or quantities. Simply 'lots. With everything.' That would be my last request.

I’ve changed my mind. My final meal on earth would be these hot dogs. Homemade buns. Homemade relish. Ketchup. Mustard. Fried onions. And beef sausages.



Throughout Europe hot dogs are almost invariably made of pork. But with a historically large Jewish, and increasingly Muslim, population in New York, sausages here tend to be all-beef. It’s hard to find a kosher or Halal pig.

Your nearest Middle Eastern supermarket will be the best place to pick up beef hot dogs.

NB Recipe inspired by and modified from one in Gourmet magazine.

To make 16-20 hot dogs (more, even, than I could manage), you will need:

16-20 beef hot dogs (no kidding, Alex, get on with it)

Relish:

A medium sized cucumber cut into little tiny pieces
A small onion, also cut into teeny tiny pieces
150ml white wine vinegar
50g caster sugar
Thickener (I used xantham gum, my new favourite multi-purpose ingredient but cornflour works fine)

Mix all these together. That’s it.


Buns (can also be used to make burger buns – more on that later)


350ml full fat or semi-skimmed milk
150ml double cream
200ml warm water
800g plain flour
7g packet dried yeast
75g sugar
two teaspoons of salt

To make the buns, bring the milk and cream to a gentle simmer and leave to cool. Add the yeast to the warm water and leave for five minutes until it starts to foam like a rabid dog.

Mix the sugar and salt into the flour, pour in the foaming yeast mixture and then the cooled milk and cream (if it’s too hot you will kill the yeast, in the manner of a cruel Eastern European dictator wiping out a persecuted ethnic minority).

If you have a mixer, use the paddle to mix the wet doughy mass for about six minutes. If the dough is too wet, incorporate more flour until the dough just comes together.

If, like me, your mixer has exploded in a cloud of acrid black smoke and you are too scared to turn it on, you will be doing this by hand. Once the dough has been stirred together, turn out onto a floured surface and knead vigorously for about ten minutes. Add more flour whenever necessary – this is a wet dough.

Once you have a ball of dough and not a seeping puddle, tip it into an oiled bowl. Bear in mind that it will at least double in size. Let it prove for a couple of hours, covered with a damp tea towel



Turn it back out onto a floured surface and knock it back down by kneading it for another couple of minutes. Divide the dough into 16-20 equal sized pieces, roll them into a vague sausage shape (about six inches) and then place them evenly spaced on a baking sheet.



Leave a couple of centimetres between each one and let them prove, again covered with a damp tea-towel. About 45 minutes should do it.



Once your buns are touching and have near doubled in size, bake them in a pre-heated oven (about 175 degrees C) for 15-20 minutes, moving them from the top of the oven to the bottom about half way through. This will brown the tops whilst making sure they are cooked all the way through.

Remove them from the oven and leave to cool for ten minutes before putting them on a cooling rack.




To complete


Slice the bun down the middle, fill with fried onions (you don’t need a recipe for those, do you?), pop in a sausage that has been simmering away in murky water for six hours (if you want the really authentic NYC experience) and top with relish, ketchup and mustard.

This is without a shadow of a doubt the best hot dog I’ve ever had. The buns are light, soft and delicious but don’t have that cloudy, fluffy texture of bought buns. The relish is sharp, cool and sweet, the perfect counterpoint to the rest of the flavours and textures.



And the sausage? It’s a hot dog. You know not to expect artisanal spiced cuts of premium Saddleback pork. But that doesn’t make it any less tasty. Here’s to the guiltiest and most pleasurable of guilty pleasures. Perfect for July 4th.

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