here comes madinah

di madinah, kami buat blh tahan bnyk lawatan. and. kami ke bnyk tmpt, esp mosque(s) sampai sy lupe da name die. uhuuu. the most interesting part is, bnyk masjid tu, kami tunaikan solat sunat, cuz ada bnyk kelebihan cam pahala lipat kali ganda and so on. masjid nabawi - amat cantik, indah, mengagumkan, and idk what's the perfect word. sgt cam, Ya Allah, cantiklah! sgt moden ok. btw, suhu di madinah, mcm mekah jgk, x panas mane, around 27 Celsius je. tp sinaran matahari mmg panas, n angin kering. so automatically, dsane, mule2 taik hidung & hingus berdarah, bibir pecah kaw2, and kulit kering amat sgt. most of d ppl yg jual2 d sini blh ckp melayu ;)

rase2 mcm choc ni x de dkt mlysia kan?

sy sempat mkn 1~ sedap. ;)

ok. ni adalah bhgian luar masjid nabawi. tlglah tgk atap die nih!

sgt cantik, n moden, n gle high tech ok. yes atap ni d bhgian luar seluruh masjid nabawi.

yg hujung2 tuh, atap die yg masih belum terbuka. wow~

ok. this is a part of masjid. owh ye, dlm masjid, no camera.

so x delah gmbr. dlm masjid pon teramat sgtlah cantik!

time ni, baru lepas subuh. around 7am jgk ;)

nmpk x ade kubah hijau tu? itulah makam nabi. blh lalu dr luar shje.

dsinilah bg salam & sampaikan salam kwn2 pd Baginda.

dlm makam nabi tu, dlm bhgian masjid, bersebelahan dgn Raudhah.

Raudhah - salah 1 taman syurga. kecik je tmpt die.

dkt Raudhah, carpet die warne hijau / putih. tmpt biase dlm masjid warne merah.

dkt Raudhah, org menangis2 berebut nak solat. sbb dcni, salah 1 tmpt plg afdhal utk berdoa.

sy sempat solat n berdoa dctu wlpun hampir sujud d punggung perempuan arab '-__-

mcm nilah pintu2 masuk masjid. ade bnyk sgt pintu. n pintu die mmg mcm pintu istana.

besar2. dlm masjid, ade bnyk air zam2. yup, dkt madinah pun dah ade air zam2.

setiap wkt solat, sentiase penuh. sesak sgt amat. mcm2 org ade.

tgk! ni rangka atap die yg canggih tu.

belah kanan, atap yg tertutup sepenuhnya.

belah kiri, atap yg terbuka separuh.

sy sgt kagum ok~

ini close up atap separuh terbuka

this is the real atap yg mmg fully open. cantik!

dkt sini. terasa mcm dkt london. redup, ada jam besar,

ada bnyk burung merpati. merpati die an, sehat2! geram gle!

malas2 plak tu. lari2 je taw. ble da dkt gle baru terbang. haha.

mcm ni lah kedai2 die. time ni beli inai. mahal jgk~

mcm dkt mlysia je harge inai die. huhu.

tp. fyi - mekah lg mahal brg2 dr madinah.

bin - dawood. salah 1 supermarket yg faymes d madinah n mekah.

haha. ni je yg sy beli utk diri sdiri. tp. lg mahal dr mlysia.

tp. seingt sy last g bodyshop, dkt mlysia x de lg perfume strawberry tu.

maka. rembat je la. thank u abah ;D

slh 1 masjid kami g utk solat sunat d madinah. lupe da name ape.

g jgk masjid 2 kiblat, masjid 7, masjid quba'.

ni salah 1 kot. nyanyuk! '-__-

tgk tgk! kurma asli yg fresh sejuk2. bestttt. last skali mkn 11 years ago.

rase die mcm ciku, tp kepejalan die mcm jambu madu.

mcm ni lah dlm kurma tu.

aaaa. ni bukit uhud! perang uhud tuh.

sdeyh dgr sejarah die. Baginda sampai patah rahang berjuang ;(

dkt bkt uhud ni, ramai org jual mcm2. sy tertarik nak snap pixca ni sb...

cantik batu2 tuh kan! skeee sy tgk.

next kami ke ladang kurma. n standard lah, ade jual kurma fresh kan.

tp ramai ya rabbi mcm giant buat sale. tgklah~

kurma nabi mencecah RM100 - 1KG

n sy ske budak ni. si comel yg pemalu. ;)

pokok kurma. mcm kelapa sawit, yg dah tua.

next ke pasar kurma. wayyyy cheaper than mekah!

cik borong gle bnyk brg. katenye utk cucu2 n sedare2.

sy n fmly x sempat beli ape2 sgt. seriously.

owh. 15hb sudah. bersedia bergerak ke mekah!

pakaian ihram. hee. naik bas lg 5 jam ok. jeddah - mekah.

abah, abah ngah, cik, mama ngah, kak lin & mama.

otw there, sy jmpe ini. comel gle bdk kecik berihram ;)

let me talk a lil bit bout madinah. madinah, jauh lebih moden dan bersih dr mekah. apa yg plg menarik bg sy dcni, masjid nabawi, makam nabi, Raudhah, masjid2 bersejarah, brg2 yg lebih murah dr Mekah. 1st time sy solat berjemaah di masjid nabawi, sy terkejut. amat sgt ramai org ke masjid everytime wkt solat. jd, ble dah ramai, sesaklah & berebutlah. dcni, sy da nmpk mcm2 perangai. hurmm... ape yg blh sy simpulkan, most of msyrkt d belah2 cni, arab, turkey, n etc, mereka terlalu kejar akhirat semata - mata. mksd sy, mereka hanye jage hubungan dgn tuhan, taw solat je, tp amalan Islam yg lain, langsung x ikot. kecewa act. seriously. mekah lg mcm2 perangai taw...

masjid nabawi - menjanjikan 1000x pahala atas setiap ibadah yg dilakukan. tp, di dlm masjid... erm. bygkanlah, kte berebut tmpt solat, then kte da ddk dgn org sebelah dah bersentuh lutut pun, kalaw die nak menyelit jgk, die berdiri je tgh2 kte, then main solat je, nak x nak kte kene la mengalah, sbb nak solat jgk, tp sempit gle la jd. then, mereka main langkah je taw sejadah, main langkah je al-quran, main langkah je kte mengaji / solat. langgar? tayah ckplah. mmg mereka main langgar je kte if die org nak lalu g mane2. kte solat ke, ngaji ke, die org x kesah pun. and die org main pijak saje sejadah, tmpt sujud kte. yup, mereka selfish. tu ayat tepat kot. sedeyh la tgk mcm tuh. mereka langgar org tak pe, org TERlanggar, mereka bsing sgt. kasar~ tp sabar jelah. pk nak beribadat je. hurmmm...

bau? bkn apelah. tp mcm2 bau ade. jubah mereka, mereka buat mcm sweater taw. pakai tah bape kali x basuh2. tp agak2 lah, kte kan nak jmpe tuhan. dlm Islam pun ckp kene bersih2. ni takkk. tp tahan jgklah. oh ye, mereka ske menderma. i mean, tgh tnggu wkt solat ke an, nnt die org ske kasi choc n kurma yg dlm plastik, tp mereka akan baling je choc / kurma tu secara random. so kte senyum je dkt die. tnde ucap terima kasih. try kte baling kurma dkt mlysia, mesti kene lepok dgn makcik2 n dicop 'kurang ajar' an. huhu. bkn tak de yg baik, yg senyum dkt kte, yg tak selfish, ade tp kan... erm. 1 dlm 30 - 40 kot. huhu. well. itulah. antaranye~ cara solat. mmg mcm2 lah. tp ikot mazhab kot.

bnyk sy belajar. perangai org. sejarah islam. bnyk act. seronok! org2 die je x seronok skit. huhu. no wonder... Islam di turunkan di Mekah n Madinah act. sbb, org Arab org paling kasar, plg degil. bygkan sshnye Baginda nak berjuang dlu... sdeyh owh ingt! hurm. and act, belajarlah rase bertuah lahir d Malaysia. ;)

so. kte ke mekah selepas ni ;)

Passover Hell

If you are Jewish, you understand the gefilte fish at Passover thing.  A necessary evil.

But, if you are like me, you also have your standards and you refuse to eat fish from a jar.

A conundrum.

It therefore means you have to make your own gefilte fish.  Horseradish, too.

Oy veh.

So here we go.  You're coming with me on my "Passover Hell" journey.  By the time we finish this, you guys are gonna wish I was still blogging about Meyer lemons. 

Here's what I don't get about Passover food.  It's heavy.  Really heavy.  It coincides with the beginning of spring when we all want to lighten up our menus and escape from the soups and stews of winter.  It shows up when I don't want to eat brisket, gefilte fish and matzoh ball soup!

Alright, I had to say that.

Guess we have to start with gefilte fish, which starts with fish stock.  Yuck.  You really don't want the recipe, do you?  All it does is stink up your house as you simmer it for several hours.  Unfortunately you need it so you can poach your fish balls in it (yeah, that's what gefilte fish really is).  In my case, I used 10 pounds of whole tilapia which I simmered with onions, carrots, celery root, whole peppercorns and cinnamon sticks.  I'm surprised every cat in the neighborhood didn't come sniffing around my house the day I made it.  (In the interest of full disclosure, I made it last week and put it in the freezer).

I'll thaw it out tomorrow and make the fish balls on Sunday.  Stay tuned for that exciting event.

Haha, here's what happened when I made the stock last week.  I had two huge stockpots simmering on the stove.  When the stuff was finally done, I carefully strained it into containers and threw the solids in my kitchen trash can (lined with a 13-gallon garbage bag).  It was around 9pm, we had finished dinner and cleaning up had commenced.  Henry offered to take the bag out to our big trash can in the garage.

You know what's coming.

Stubborn bitch that I am (who, me?) I ignored his offer and lugged it out there myself.  It was heavier than I expected, but I wasn't about to ask for help.  I heaved it up into the big green trash can, didn't quite make it, the bag hit the side of the can, split apart AND DUMPED THAT FISH GORE, GUTS AND BONES ALL OVER THE GARAGE FLOOR.  My language at that moment cannot be repeated here.

Poor Henry.  He immediately came out, opened the garage door to let out the smell and began cleaning up my colossal mess.  He deserves a medal.  Especially since I lost it and started laughing hysterically at the whole thing.  I mean, what else can you do?  It was actually pretty funny.  I think he wanted to kill me, though.

The good news is we dumped enough Clorox around so there is no residual odor.  Well, except for the Clorox....

On to horseradish.  Fresh, that is.  No jarred stuff for me on this one either.  Let me tell you though, this is not for the faint of heart.  It will pretty much take your head off and it makes wasabi look like cream of wheat. 

KILLER HORSERADISH

1/2 pound fresh horseradish root, peeled and chopped into 1/4-inch pieces
1/4 cup white vinegar
1/4 cup water
Pinch of salt

Place about 1/4 cup or so of the peeled, fresh horseradish in food processor.  Pulse until horseradish is ground, then add rest of horseradish in small handfuls.  Add vinegar and water and blend until mixture is ground up with no lumps remaining.  Add salt (to taste).

Be very careful when you remove the top to the food processor after grinding the horseradish.  Trust me, the fumes will bring you to your knees.  I had no eye make-up left after my experience with it. 

This is probably enough horseradish to kill everyone

at both Seders

Yield:  about 1 cup.  Use it judiciously.  It's lethal.

4 countries in 1 day

assalamualaikum wbt. kawan2! hye. hee. maaflah atas kelewatan. teramat letih pulang dr sane. and and. ambil 1 hari utk transfer gmbr, resize gmbr. bkn ape, malas. haha. baiklah. 1st post ni maw cite ttg hari pertama shje dlu! hari pertame ni special, sbb 4 countries in a day, and fyi, utk sampai shja, 2x transit & we took almost 24hours utk perjalanan shje. wahhhh. pinggang sakit cam nak beranak ;P btw. let the pixca do most of d work ;)

since there r 7 of us, abah dptkan bas mini!

haha. terasa mcm pekerja kilang.

suddenly, mr barney muncul!

i've told him not to come sbb die x sehat. aiyoo.

btw, thanks 4 coming. u know i was surprised ;)

distance from KL - Hong Kong

these is 1 of the meal looks like.

dlm 24 hours, 2x transit - 5 meals '-__-

d HK, sy snap gmbr passport ni.

sbb rase gmbr cik (granny) plg menyerlah. hehe ;D

d snilah sy sempat on9 fb n update status 'currently at hong kong'

from HK to Dubai almost 9 hours ye tuan puan! ;(

then dubai - jeddah almost 3 hours. whoaaa!

turun je plane d jeddah, kami naik bas!

if dkt klia, international flight, kan kte naik train dah.

bangga dgn kemajuan mlysia jap ;D

so. inilah airport jeddah! erm. kecik je.

sampai2, kene q gle pnjng plak utk passport.

perjalanan belum abis! kami naik bas.

dr jeddah - madinah. 4 hours ;(

1st time mkn nasi arab. ayam + nasi je. no kuah2.

tp nasi die bapak gle amat sedap!

sampai je madinah. ramai sgt org keluar jln kaki d bndr.

baru balik dr solat jumaat. kagum gle. amat ramai.

if only org blk dr solat jumaat d mlysia camtuh. whoaaa.

masuk je hotel. kami mkn. d madinah ni, hotel best.

tp mkn die x best mane. tawar je. tp telan je.

sementara tnggu check in, jln2 dlm hotel. ye. cam best.

dlm hotel adelah shopping mall. mmg rambang lah.

ade giordano weyh! haha. tp lg mahal dr KL.

x kuase la kan maknenye.

after almost 2 hours tnggu nak dpt bilik.

akhrinya, nilah blk d madinah. selesa alhamdulilah.

well, sampai2 d madinah dlu. dduk d sane 11-15 march. 15 march bergerak ke mekah. madinah, hotel sebelah betul dgn masjid nabawi! seronok amat. madinah hotel best, makanan x best. mekah plak hotel x best, tp mkanan best. ok, bygkanlah bertapa penatnye sy utk perjalanan pergi shje. dlm flight? habis semua cite sy tgk, esp sleeping beauty & peterpan sampai da hafal lagu die, finally '-__-. wkt kecik2 kan ske tgk je. bkn dgr sgt pun pe dialog die. haha. lega ble sampai. tp sy culture shock. bkn ape. lihat mcm2 perangai org dsini! next post plz. ;)

owh ye. sy on 1 hp maxis. tp kan kwn2... erm. sy x blh angkt call or SMS lah an. mahal.

d HK, madinah & mekah -

1 sms = RM2

1 min call = RM 4.50

d dubai

1 min call = RM 15

maka. tak pelah. jom ke madinah plak! ;)

Let's Save Our Earth !

SWITCH YOUR LIGHTS OFF DURING EARTH HOUR!!

Saturday, March 27th 2010..
8:30pm - 9:30pm..

Save your lights..

Save the world!!

How to make a tandoor

March 25

Last night I had dinner with my friend Blain Howard at Tamba, a new Indian restaurant on that stretch of Lexington Avenue in Murray Hill known as Curry Hill. We were joined for much of the meal by the restaurant’s owner, Sikender Malik, a former civil servant from Delhi who for a number of years ran Malika Palace in Queens and Malika in Midtown Manhattan.

His wife Daljeet is the executive chef.

Since they’re from Delhi, the food at Tamba is mostly northern Indian, but, Sikender explained, the restaurant that previously occupied that space was a southern Indian restaurant, so they kept some southern dishes on the menu — dosai, iddly etc. — to try to retain some of the previous restaurant's customers.

Makes sense.

The name Tamba means copper, which Sikender said was good for you — that if you let water sit in a copper vessel overnight and then drank it, it had wonderful curative properties.

Might be an Ayurvedic thing.

There is a copper statue of the Hindu goddess Lakshmi, wife of Lord Vishnu, on the bar. She looked well.

The place has just been open around nine weeks, but the Maliks managed to snag some good press.

And by good, I mean positive. This piece of — well, I don’t like to criticize other journalists’ work, but they said Tamba’s been open for three months, not nine weeks — not that big a difference, but still wrong — they spelled Daljeet’s name wrong and, at the end of the segment, Tony Tantillo, in praising the food, said to Daljeet, "that’s why you’ve been in business for so long.”

Even if they had been open for three months, that’s not a long time, even for New York. So it’s nice press, but it’s not good.

It does present a nice view of a tandoor, however, the traditional top-loading northern Indian oven.

Daljeet’s chef made her tandoor. That’s the custom: If you’re a tandoori chef, you know how to make a tandoor.

That was explained to me back in 1996, when I interviewed Jagat Ram, who at the time was chef of Rang Mahal, a high-end Indian restaurant in Bangkok’s Rembrandt Hotel.

He said a tandoor is made of clay mixed with some straw, jute and finely powdered glass. It’s shaped into a round oven, open at the top. A wood fire is built inside the oven and it burns for a couple of days, acting as a sort of reverse kiln.

Another layer of clay mixture is applied and then it’s fired again.

Next the oven is seasoned, literally, with a mixture of yogurt, salt, mustard oil and a coarse brown sugar called jaggeri. That’s used to coat the inside of the oven and it’s baked again, but more slowly this time, because if the fire’s too hot you run the risk of cracking the entire oven, and you’d have to start over.

That seasoning process is repeated five to seven times. It not only helps to insulate the oven (burnt, liquefied sugar is pretty serious stuff), but it also keeps the clay from flaking off onto the food. That’s particularly important because naan and other flat breads are placed directly onto the walls of the oven when they’re baked.

Anyway, that’s a tandoor.

What we ate:

pappadum — spiced crackers
lasani gobhi— fried cauliflower in garlic-tomato sauce
chicken dosa — a sort of south Indian lentil crêpe stuffed with chicken and served with a spicy sauce called sambar
“chicken delight” — little chicken pinwheels clearly intended for Western customers
goan lamb vindaloo — spicy lamb curry
palak paneer — spinach with cheese cubes
assorted naan
coconut, tomato, mint and tamarind chutneys
pistachio kulfi
masala tea
The seasoning mixture, along with the jute and clay, help to insulate the oven (burnt, crystalized sugar is pretty serious stuff.

Gateau Chocolate by blender

23 Maret 2010, selasa

Kemarin ada yang nanya bkin brownies, liat2 resep lama, kok jadi kepingin bikin kue yang berbau coklat akhirnya mendadak punya semangat 45 langsung bikin, walaupun ada bahan yg ga ada di kulkas, so gw ganti dah bahan di resepnya, kali ini bikin gateau yang paling praktis by blender...hanya dengan 1 buah blender, jadi deh kue.
Praktis ato malesss nih?? hahha

Gw catetin lagi bahannya
30 gr tepung terigu
3 bh telur
80 gr gula
20 gr cocoa powder
10 gr baking powder
50 cc susu
1 sdm minyak sayur

krim
100 gr coklat kue
50 cc susu

Caranya
1 campur telur di blender selama 10 detik.
2 tambah terigu, gula, cocoa powder,susu, minyak sayur cmpur di blender jadi satu, trus matikan, gunakan sendok untuk mencampur bagian di pinggir blender, blender lagi selama 10 detik agar semua bahan tercampur
3 Lumerkan coklat bersama susu, lalu campur dengan adonan 2, aduk rata
4 pindahkan ke loyang, oven 180 drajat selama 50 mnit

Di resep si oven 30 mnit, tapi kadang2 tengahnya kurang mateng, jadi tambahin waktu manggangnya. Hasilnyaaaaaaa...nyam nyam..boleh lah buat cemilan.