Obento!

I haven't posted any recipes for quite a while, and that's because I am too lazy to cook nowadays. Whenever I'm out of food, I just order a take out. Of course, it doubles my food spending -__-;;

That's why I was kinda shocked when I had the desire to cook this evening. For some reason, I felt like making a bento. Yes, BENTO, a boxed lunch in which there are multiple kinds of food, complete with the vegetables no less (I usually just cooked rice and one type of meat).

Here is the result of the sudden-cooking-soul-appearance (it's not pretty but it's a good start) ^^


Rice, Tamagoyaki, Chicken Katsu, and Stir-Fried Vegetables

And here is how to make them (I don't really have the exact measurement since I usually just estimate the ingredients and the spices until it tastes good).

Rice:

1. Cook the rice as usual.


2. Put some furikake on top.

Tamagoyaki (Sweet and Plain):

1. Beat an egg with a little salt and some sugar.


2. Fry it.


3. Fold it into a roll.


4. Cut the roll.

** You can make different kinds of tamagoyaki by mixing the egg with dashi or some other toppings. Maybe I'll try this some other time.

Chicken Katsu:

1. Beat an egg in a bowl.


2. Dip the chicken into the bowl of egg.


3. Bread the chicken with some panko crumbs (Japanese bread crumbs).


4. Deep fry the chicken until golden in color.


5. Cut it into long narrow pieces.


6. Add some Tonkatsu sauce on top of it.

** I don't really like deep frying stuff because it's a waste of oil. I managed to cook it by pan-frying the chicken =P
** I don't have Tonkatsu sauce so I just use Unagi sauce. Some other people use Japanese Mayo instead. You don't really have to put any sauce if you don't want to.

Stir-Fried Vegetables:

1. Cut some carrots, zucchini squashes, mushrooms, and onions.


2. Stir fry the onion first until it smells good, then add the other ingredients.


3. Add some water, oyster sauce, sweet soy sauce, soy sauce, garlic powder, salt, and white pepper.


4. Cook until the vegetables are soft enough.

Daging vs Saos

Pada umumnya, kalo makan di restoran Asia di sini, nasi putih itu gratis. Mau nambah nasi putih sebanyak apa pun nggak usah bayar. Kadang, ada juga restoran yang gratis nasi sepiring kalo beli lauknya (atau harganya paket, udah termasuk nasi dan lauk), tapi kalo mo nambah nasi harus bayar ekstra. Yang pelit? Ada juga. Nasi nggak termasuk di harga lauknya, jadi harus beli secara terpisah. Emang sih pelit, tapi gue masih bisa maklum berhubung di Indo juga nasinya nggak gratis. Nah, biasanya kalo mesti beli sendiri-sendiri begini, terserah pembelinya mau makan pake nasi atau enggak. Yang jelas, harga lauk tentu aja udah termasuk dengan bumbunya.

Dua hari yang lalu, gue nggak sengaja nemu satu resto Asia pas lagi iseng-iseng lewat jalan laen. Hari ini gue dateng ke sono buat nyobain. Ternyata mereka jual nasi sama lauknya terpisah. Nasinya agak mahal, soalnya belinya harus paket nasi plus sayur-sayuran (kubis, ketimun, tomat). Berhubung gue nggak doyan tiga sayuran itu, plus di rumah gue masih ada nasi, gue memutuskan untuk beli dagingnya doang untuk dibawa pulang.

Ternyata sodara-sodara, ada yang janggal dengan cara resto ini berjualan. Saos untuk dagingnya termasuk dalem paket nasi + sayuran. Dengan kata laen, kalo nggak beli nasi nggak bisa dapet saosnya. Ibaratnya sama seperti ini:

Pembeli: "Bang, bakso satu mangkok."
Abang Bakso: "Mau pake bihun atau mie kuning nggak dek?"
Pembeli: "Nggak deh, baksonya aja."
Abang Soto: "Boleh, tapi nggak ada kuahnya ya, soalnya adek kan nggak beli bihun atau mie-nya."

Contoh laennya begini:

Pembeli: "Bang, beli sate sepuluh tusuk."
Abang Sate: "Pake lontong nggak dek?"
Pembeli: "Nggak bang, sate aja."
Abang Sate: *Ngasih satenya sepuluh tusuk*
Pembeli: "Lho Bang, bumbu kacangnya mana?"
Abang Sate: "Adek kan nggak beli lontong, jadi nggak dapet bumbunya."

Coba, nggak masuk akal kan? Akhirnya setelah memohon-mohon sama yang punya resto, gue dikasih saosnya, tapi gue mesti bayar ekstra (masih lebih murah daripada beli nasi sama sayuran sih). Huhuhuhu... Gila, pelit banget nih resto!

Business and Honesty

Yesterday, I went to a restaurant to get some food for lunch. There was this one dish in the menu that said "your choice of meat in garlic and pepper sauce". Hmmm... It sounded interesting to me so I ordered it with beef.

When the dish came out, I was surprised by what I saw. The plate contained mostly cabbage and lettuce, with around 15-20 small pieces of beef. What the heck?! They did not say anything about cabbage and lettuce in the menu. The menu should say "CABBAGE AND LETTUCE with your choice of meat in garlic and pepper sauce". The main point there should be the cabbage and the lettuce, not the meat.

I feel so disappointed, and cheated as well. Why? Because I'm more of a carnivore rather than a herbivore. If I knew it was going to be like that, I wouldn't order that dish especially since the price is so expensive -__-;;

All businesses should be honest, don't you think so? I really hate it when businesses have some hidden agenda or hidden fees.

Puisi Rindu

Aku kangen sekali sama dia
Dia yang tampaknya bikin hatiku WAH
Dia yang baunya bikin pikiranku WOW
Dia yang rasanya bikin badanku mandi keringat
Dia....



















Dia adalah AYAM BAKAR LEZAT!




Tiap gue pergi ke Foodcourt di Indo yang jualan ayam bakar n pesenan gue dateng,
rasanya tuh WAH banget kan,
baunya juga WOW banget gitu,
trus pedesnya bikin keringetan!!!!




HOHOHOHOHO xD

Cooking time!

Yesterday I spent 5 hours in the kitchen to play table tennis....

Triple duh! Of course not. I cooked 3 kinds of dishes: ragut ayam (chicken ragout), hotplet kangkung daging sapi dengan telor puyuh (beef and chinese watercrest hot plate with quail eggs), and tahu telor (egg tofu). Today, I also cooked bakwan sayuran (deep fried vegetable dough). The recipes come from Dekap and Keluarga Nugraha. Thanks a lot to both sites for providing the easy recipes.

The ragout took lots of time to make. The result was not as good as my mom's Risoles (similar food with the same filling), but it is still edible. I was actually proud to be able to make it. The hot plate was perfect! I bought the real kangkung this time. Last time I mistakenly bought a different vegetable that was too chewy, I still finished it though. Hehe... The tofu resulted in something completely different, because I ran out of eggs after making the ragout. It still tasted good =D The vegetable dough just needed a little bit of salt and pepper, otherwise it was great. Haha.. I guess I still need to learn more on how to cook better. But seriously, I'm so proud of myself coz three years ago I could only boil water, make instant noodles, and fry eggs. YeaY! Go go Pei!!! ^^

And to Mr. SanSan WaWa, I was actually gonna let you eat my food. Too bad you weren't here, so I'm just gonna present you some pictures of it now xP~~~


Ragut Ayam (Chicken Ragout)


Hotplet Kangkung Daging Sapi dengan Telor Puyuh (Beef and Chinese Watercrest Hot Plate with Quail Eggs)


Nasi Putih dengan Tahu Telor (Rice with Egg Tofu)


Bakwan Sayuran (Deep Fried Vegetable Dough)

Eating Healthy

Recently I'm trying to have a healthy meal everyday, though I realize this costs quite a big amount of money, as my spending on groceries becomes double than usual. But if it can help me to stay healthy, I don't mind.

I try my best to fulfill the principle that everyone in Indonesia has learned since he/she was in the kindergarten: 4 Sehat 5 Sempurna (in English it literally means '4 Healthy 5 Perfect'. Hmmmm... Sounds weird. Hahaha...) Well anyway, 4 Sehat 5 Sempurna states that for a meal, people should eat enough carbohydrates, meats, veggies, and fruits to make them healthy; to make it more perfect, they should also drink milk. That's the gist of it.

So here is what my last week meal looked like everyday:
Carbs - Rice, Garlic Bread, Muffin
Meats - Beef, Pork, Imitation Crab, Meatball (a.k.a Steamboat)
Veggie - Spinach
Fruit - Banana
Drinks - Chocolate Soy Milk, Water, Apple Juice
Desserts - a block of Dark Chocolate or a block of Ferrero Rocher, Chocolate Ice Cream
Snacks - Chocolate Hazelnut flavored Pirouette, Kebbler's Soft Batch Chocolate Chip Cookies
Others - Egg

Yeah, I'm trying to gain weight. But the weird thing is that I keep losing weight although I keep eating and sleeping. Hahaha...

Anyway, this week is a week of cooking! I cooked a lot. Seriously... For someone who lives by herself, I cooked 4 kinds of dishes. Cool huh? Yesterday I made Teriyaki Beef and Ayam Bakar ala Edo (Edo's BBQ Chicken), though the chicken was not successful at all. Just now I made Cah Sosis Jagung Manis (Frank & Sweet Corn) and Tumis Sapi Lada Hitam (Black Pepper Beef). Yeay! Now I don't have to worry about not having any food to eat but lazy to cook. The Black Pepper Beef is kinda bold though. If I eat it without rice, it will be too hot.

The recipes for Tumis Sapi Lada Hitam and Cah Sosis Jagung Manis are from this website. Thanks for the site-owner ^^


Tumis Sapi Lada Hitam. I didn't put kapri (I don't know the English word for it) because I don't like it.


Cah Sosis Jagung Manis

break time

Before resuming my studies, let me share some stories that I have in these couple of days.

I haven't surfed on people's blogs for weeks, and it just happened that Friendster gave me a notice on updated blog. So I opened this blog, not realizing whose blog it was. It was my high school teacher's blog. As I read and read and kept reading, I realized that it's so beautiful, I mean her feeling and dedication as a mother and wife. And her husband, who was also my high school teacher, gave her a comment in one of her post which is so so sooooo romantic. So nice...

Anyway, onto the next topic. As a part of my continuing research, please answer this question: Do you think avocado juice is an Indonesian food? (or should I say drink.) By this I mean no other countries ever have avocado juice. It's just that everytime I talk about avocado juice to people from other countries, their reaction is like 'huh?! Avocado juice!???' So I had this little research and here is the result. My baby darling -and he's from Malaysia- said he never tasted avocado not until he came here and ate sushi. Ms. YL, also from Malaysia, didn't even know what avocado was. Ms. A, from Japan, said that avocado is only for California rolls (a sushi type). I also remembered my sis said Mrs. PP and Mr. SP, from USA, never tried avocado juice. So, my conclusion is avocado juice is an Indonesian drink. Is this right? Or do you know if avocado juice is from the Netherlands? (since Indonesia was colonialized by the Dutch so I thought maybe we got an influence from them.)

Belajar bahasa Indonesia versi tidak gaul

Komik... sejenak telah menghapus pandangan dari obyektif semula. Namun pagi ini mimpi itu datang: mimpi di mana tes Computer Architecture II akhirnya datang menghadang. Menanyakan hal-hal yang tidak masuk akal, karena tak pernah terasa satu pun material terlihat oleh mata. Hanya sepuluh di antara 30 soal-soal essai yang mampu terjawab. Yang mengenaskan hati adalah pertanyaan '3-bit Booth's Multiplication Algorithm' tak mampu pula terpikir otak. 'Ini mah parah!' pikirku 'Aku perlu belajar!' Maka pagi ini seusai rutinitas pagi hari cepat-cepat komik dihabiskan. 'Mekakushi no Kuni' volume satu sampe tujuh sudah habis kemarin; sisanya nomor delapan dan sembilan dihabiskan siang ini. Keinginan membaca 'Parfait Tic' pun muncul lagi, tapi tidak!!! Mimpi terbayang di dalam pikiran, seketika itu juga buku manual Computer Architecture II mulai dipelajari. Hihihi... Kalau tidak diingatkan ya mana bisa ingat?

Setelah beberapa waktu akhirnya telah didapatkan sedikit kepuasan perut, yang sedari dulu sudah meraung-raung meminta makanan yang biasa ada di Indonesia. Ingat Bread Talk? Dari dulu ketika cuma ada di Singapura, hati ini sudah terkait dengan yang bernama Strawberry atau Peach Pastry. Hmmmm... Waktu berkunjung ke salah satu chain bakery lokal, rencana awal hanya untuk meminum es coklat, tapi begitu sang Pastry (cuma ada stroberi) muncul di hadapan mata, es coklat pun tersingkirkan. Hmmmm... yummy! Berikutnya ingat juga kue Manju? Dulu sempat dijual di Mal Taman Anggrek sekotak besar cuma 30 ribu rupiah. Kuenya manis kecil-kecil, dalamnya diisi krim vanila atau coklat. Toko kue manju itu akhirnya hilang entah ke mana, namun ternyata di sini kue tersebut muncul dalam bentuk yang lebih besar. Disebut Custard Cake, merk Orion. Wah wah wah hati ini pun senang!!! =D

Don trai dis et houm!

Gue lupa kalo karbohidrat itu menyerap aer...

Peristiwa ini terjadi minggu lalu. Bahan makanan untuk sarapan pagi macem cookies dan susu sapi udah abis. Maka pilihan makanan sehat satu-satunya adalah mie instan dan keluarganya (sehat di sini maksudnya kalo dibandingkan dengan junk food macem Burger King).

Tapi berhubung gue anak malezzz, biasa kalo pagi bangunnya cuma bisa pas-pasan, sekitar 45 menit sebelom kelas. Waktu 45 menit itupun biasanya abis hanya untuk siap-siap, makan pagi, dan maen internet sebelom kelas. Ga ada waktu buat mandi juga -__-;; Hihihihihi... Tenang! Saya tidak sejorok itu...

Untuk mengatasi masalah 'nggak ada waktu buat mandi', gue pun memutuskan untuk mandi sebelom tidur. Solusi ini cukup berjalan kadang-kadang (kalo sorenya gue ga males mandi, kalo males ya terpaksa ga mandi 2 hari =P~~). Maka terpikirlah suatu solusi untuk masalah makan pagi keesokan hari itu, yaitu masak mie instan malem itu, simpen di kulkas dan microwave keesokan harinya!

Yak, sebuah solusi yang keliatannya cukup terpikirkan matang-matang. Mungkin eksperimen itu akan berhasil jikalau saya memilih indomie goreng dan sejenisnya. Tapi gue lagi ga niat makan yang goreng-gorengan, apalagi baru dapet kiriman bihun instan dari ayah dan ibu tercinta lewat sang sepupu yang baru berlibur dari tanah air pusaka. Huhuhuhu...

Rencana masak-memasak kali itu sih benernya udah gagal duluan dari pertama, soalnya bukannya disimpen di kulkas malah akhirnya berakhir di dalam perut gadis kiyut ini, abis bihunnya terlihat aduhai menawan hati sih. Hohohoho... ^o^ Trus setelah pilih-pilih lagi, akhirnya diputuskan untuk memasak mi murahan produksi negara ini. Biar enak dan lebih spesial, ditambah pake telor!

Langkah pertama akhirnya sukses ditempuh, setelah selesai mencuci piring dan sodara-sodaranya, gue kembali ke kamar dan memasukkan sewadah mie telor spesial ke dalem kulkas. 'Oke, bisa tidur dengan tenang sekarang...' pikir otak kecilku -> anggep aja otak kecil yang laper. Hihihihi...

Keesokan harinya, ketika selesai memanaskan sang makanan, ternyata kuahnya udah ilang bok! Ilang tong tong bolong!!! Nyaoloh... Trus mienya jadi gerendel-gerendel gede-gede gituh. Omaigad... Tetep si akhirnya gue coba makan, soalnya ga ada pilihan laen. Saya enekkk sama Burger King!

Akhirnya setelah separoh wadah abis, lidah gue nyerah. Ga enak bow rasanya! Uhuhuhuhu... Kesimpulan dari percobaan ini adalah: nggak ada lagi masak karbohidrat berkuah untuk disimpen lama-lama.

Ya gitu deh, saya hanya memberikan bahan ingatan untuk Anda semua. Jangan mengulangi kesalahan yang sama yo! Ihihihihihi... -__-;;

Resep-resep praktis ala Pei

Ajaib! Bukan sulap bukan sihir! Si Pei yang enggak bisa masak ini akhirnya masak juga lho. Hahahahaha... Sebenernya si masakan pertama yang gue bisa adalah bakso saos tirem ala Pei, tapi sayangnya ga gue abadikan! Makanya, yang kedua ini langsung de gue poto sebelom dimakan: nasi goreng ala Pei! YeeHaaaa!


Nasi Goreng ala Pei

Mari Anda-Anda semua yang ga bisa masak, gue kasi cara praktisnya dah.

Bakso saos tirem ala Pei
Bahan: bakso, bawang bombay, saos tirem, garem, merica, minyak goreng
1. Potong-potong bawang bombay sama bakso, gedenya atur sendiri
2. Panasin minyak di penggorengan/panci, atur dah!
3. Masukkin aja bawang ma baksonya, trus kasi saos tirem, garem, sama merica

Nasi goreng ala Pei
Bahan: bakso/sosis/dua-duanya, bawang putih, telor, nasi putih, saos tomat, kecap manis, garem, merica, minyak goreng, kalo doyan pedes pake saos sambel
1. Potong-potong bawang putih sama sosis/bakso/dua-duanya
2. Panasin minyak di penggorengan/panci, suka-suka elo mo pake apa
3. Masukkin bawang putih, telor, sama sosis/bakso/dua-duanya
4. Kalo udah agak mateng masukkin nasi, trus kasi saos tomat, kecap manis, garem sama merica, kalo doyan pedes tambahin saos sambel

Pesen: gue ga kasi takerannya soalnya sesuka yang masak si, yang penting entar akhir-akhirnya tinggal dicobain, enak, ya udah. Heuheuheueh....