Sambal Ikan Bilis

Resipi from Dina... belum try lagik.. so no pix... will upload once tried


SAMBAL KERING TEMPE DENGAN IKAN BILIS
Ingredients :

2 pieces tempe ~ sliced thinly
1/2 cup dried anchovies
1/2 cup chillie paste + blended onion
2 cloves of garlic ~ knocked
2 tablespoons dark sweet soya sauce
2 tablespoons sugar
2 tablespoons tamarind juice
salt to taste
1 Bombay onion ~ diced

Method :

1. Fry the tempe and dried anchovies (separately) till golden brown and set aside.
2. Add in the chillie paste and blended onion. Let it simmer till fragrant.
3. Add in the garlic, tamarind juice, soya sauce, sugar and salt.
4. When it's slightly dried, put in the fried tempe, anchovies, diced onion. I added red chillies as well.
5. Stir to mix.

gone baby gone..

auf wiedersehen! ...Till we meet again

It's been 3 wonderful years... and you remain to be one of the best driving experience for me.

sob.. sob..

Let's go sweeeeettt..

Unlike me, Rizal does not like to drink the good ol plain water... his drinks has to be flavored and chilled..! For that reason, we always to stock up on cordials at home. I have noticed lately that those cordials we purchased especially the F&N brand, is not like what it used to be. It is no longer concentrated enough but very very diluted - AND it is not that cheap!
Since we've had enough of those not-so-good commercial cordials, we thought we'd make our own. With coaching from mama, I managed to make my very own syrup cordial, which surprisingly, was quite easy to do.

All you need is basically:

1. Sugar = 1kg
2. Water = 6cups (1.5ltr)
3. Coloring = 2 table spoon (depends on ur liking more means darker colour)
4. Rose flavoring = 2 teaspoon
5. Pandan leave = 1 piece and fold

The ingredients

Methods:
1. Put in pandan, water & sugar. Bring to boil in medium heat. Stir to avoid sugar burning
2. Once the sugar dissolved, and the mix thickens, add coloring and flavor
3. Bring it to boil for a minute or so

Thats it. Easy peasy!

Taman Tasik Perdana

You know what they say - a picture is worth a thousand words.. actually sebenarnya malas nak menaip :))

so enjoy views of our very own hyde park, Taman Tasik Perdana, Kuala Lumpur

From Taman Tasik Perdana

The lake

From Taman Tasik Perdana

From Taman Tasik Perdana

Serene...

From Taman Tasik Perdana

From Taman Tasik Perdana

Pretty in pink

From Taman Tasik Perdana

waiting for the bus??

From Taman Tasik Perdana

From Taman Tasik Perdana

Save the best for last. My favorite shot of the day.

From Taman Tasik Perdana

That's it for now! till later... ciao

Fish Curry

Okay, this is not really a completed recipe since I am yet to find the perfect combination / measurements for it. Right now, I still need Rizal to help me with the tasting to tell me what to adjust. So.. Kalau x sedap.. consider yourself warned okie.

As usual lets start with ingredients. Pretty basic stuff:
1. Oil
2. Salt
3. Red Onions (pound coarse)
4. Garlic (pound coarse)
5. Curry leaves
6. Tomatoes (cut into four)
7. Asam Jawa (mix with water)
8. Curry powder (I use Baba's or Aligappa. Mix with water)
9. Fish (suitable fish: tenggiri, small kembong, bawal hitam (cut))


And here are the Optional things you can add on:
1. Lady's fingers
2. Coconut milk
3. Green Chillies

As you know there are different variation and type of curry, and the recipe I am sharing here was given to me by Rizal's mum.

This time I used ikan temenung. One of Rizal's favorite. According to him the fish meat is sweet thats why he likes it. Since I dont eat fish curry I just take his word for it


We have a Karipalley plant, so I just took the curry leaves from our plant ;). A hint on choosing the leaves, pick the old ones, it gives better flavor


Okie dokie, lets get rolling.

1. Heat the oil. Sautee onions, garlic and curry leaves


2. Once browned, then add curry powder mix

3. Let it dried up, until the oil surfaced. Org panggil naik minyak.


4. Add Lady's Fingers if you like. Also if want to put in santan, this is when you add it. I didnt put any santan. Just lady's fingers


5. Add the asam jawa mix, then tomatoes. Bring to boil


6. Finally, add the fish. Allow the fish to gently simmer, not actually boil, or the outside will break into pieces before the inside is done.


7. Once mixed well, that's it. Turn off the heat and serve!

Walking down memory lane

Last weekend, we went back to Seremban to have Ramadhan and buka puasa with my parents. Since its the long weekend, we stayed longer and had the chance to ronda2 a bit.

Anticipating the crawl on the highway, we decided to take the alternate route, which is through KLP (I refuse to call it MEX cos it doesnt make sense) , Sepang, Nilai and through to Seremban 2. Using this road, you would have to pass through kampung-kampung halfway through the journey - which suits me perfectly cos I wanted to snap photos, especially near to airport area.

We started out on KL Seremban Highway to avoid the Salak Toll on KLP. Joined the KLP at Sungai Besi and took the highway till the end and headed towards Putrajaya/Dengkil. There is one beautiful area along that road connecting Putrajaya and Nilai, just off the exit to Dengkil town. I think its an old mining site, and during sunset and sunrise the reflections on the lombong water was just mesmerising. Since when we passed it through around noon, there was no reflections of the sun on the lake, so I didnt snap any photos. But it remains as one of the spots that I would like to snap one day.

It was raining the night before, so when we set out I was hoping for nice beautiful skies, but was dampened when I saw KLCC was still hazy and skies was not so blue :(

Luckily for me, farther along the way as we reached Dengkil area, the haze decided to stay in KL and as a result, we had nice beautiful skies there. It was in my favorite shade of blue, with cluttered of charming white clouds.
(this photo doesnt do it justice, I didnt have polarised filter so cant really see the beautiful blue)

From BalikSban0908

Along the way Rizal kept raving about the views along the KLIA express (train route). So when we were in the vicinity of airport we decided to detour and try find the small road seen along KLIA express. We took this small kampung road, didnt find much there. but skies was so beautiful i told rizal to stop so that I could take photos.

From BalikSban0908

From BalikSban0908

From BalikSban0908

From this kampung you could see planes taking off every few minutes. What a beautiful sight... Green lush, planes taking off..

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There was once when I took this same route to come back to KL from seremban I saw photographers taking photos of Planes taking off along the big roads. Cant remember exactly the location, cant find it. It was nearly 4 then so we decided to just continue our journey.. Mental note: another spot to go ..

We passed through LBJ area... Photo of lonely road.

From BalikSban0908

Btw, I should remind myself nextime to go all the way to Mambau and take highway from Rasah. The Seremban toll is just soo congested, They really need to upgrade.

.........

On sunday we decided to go back to Kuala Pilah. The night before grandma had actually asked if I could take her to kampung, cos she wanted to see the progress of the renovation works at our kampung house and collect the bills. She was napping when we were leaving and was kinda tired, so she didnt tag along in the end.

Off we went then towards Bukit putus... I see the new road is already making way. Still dont know when it will be completed though.

From BalikSban0908

We drove on all the way to Kuala Pilah town from Seremban. We then proceeded towards Bemban cos Rizal wants to see the area. Bemban is just off Senaling, where ayah's kampung is. Grabbed some biskut Azan for ayah from the kedai-cino. From there we took the Senaling -Seri menanti route.
This road is popular for its landmines aka tahi lembu. Needless to say we saw lots of cows and goats dominating the road along the way. Enjoy...

From BalikSban0908

From BalikSban0908

From BalikSban0908

At Seri Menanti where mama is from, I asked Rizal to detour to my kampung.
My old kampung house. ...

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Along the way back to Seremban, we stopped by the roadside stalls to buy Daging & sembilang salai, fruits and other delicacies. In terms of prices it's not really that cheap, only that they sell things that we dont usually see or get in KL. Just for reference:
Daging salai - RM15 half kilo
Ikan sembilang Salai - RM10 sekilo (about 3 pieces)
Dragonfruit - RM6 per kilo for small ones, RM8 for big ones
Tampoi fruit - RM5 per kilo

Photo of fruits we bought..

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Daging Salai and belimbing Masak Lemak

As org nogori... of course I should know how to make Masak lemak cili padi. Masak Lemak is actually one of the easier dish to cook (provided you already have the pounded cilipadi). Masak Lemak is also one of the most versatile dish, you can cook it with chicken, meat, seafood or with vegetables, in short, everything goes.. ;)

Anyway, one of my most favorite variation of masak kuning is Daging Salai with Belimbing buluh. And today I am going to blog out a brief guide on how to make it.

Let's start with the shopping list.

1. Meat. I usually ask for the BatangPinang (Striploin). Its about RM23 per kg and for this purpose let's cook for 500g. BTW, traditionally, in kampung ways sometimes they use buffalo (kerbau) meat rather than cow's meat. Apparently the kerbau meat is sweeter in taste. I dont really know the difference and to me cow's meat is good enough..

2. Belimbing Buluh. I dont know if there is an english name to it, anyway, for those who dont know what it is, this is how it looks like. This particular ingredient is not easy to buy as it is seldomly sold in the market. I usually get it from the tree itself . Choose the ripe and big ones. To cook for 500g of meat maybe you'd need around 2 handful.

3. Santan (coconut milk). Amount: 1 biji

4. Cili padi. The amount? depending on your taste bud. I would say for the half kg meat you'd want to pound about a handful cilipadi. This one, I dont know how to explain how much cos I just estimated it, and add and reduce as necessary.

5. Serai (lemon grass). About 4 stalks , pounded

6. Kunyit (tumeric). You can use dry tumeric though fresh tumeric is recommended (if using fresh tumeric pls pound it as well).

Wokeh, now all the required items are sorted out. Let's start the cooking.

Preparing the meat (daging salai)
-Wash it first of course.
-You need to smoke the meat, and to do this, you need to cut the meat in fillet like about 4cm in thickness. Then mix it well with a bit of tumeric and salt (like you would when frying fish).
-Next, you grill / smoke it. I usually just use the stove top kind (see photo) since I dont have a bbq pit or a place to start an open fire. It would have tasted and smelled better though if we use good old smoke fire.



- anyway, cook the meat evenly, becareful and keep the fire low in the beginning to ensure that the meat is properly cooked.
-Okay. Once that's done. What we need to do now is sliced the meat thinly (see below).

Preparing the belimbing
- Cut the belimbing in two or fours, like the photo below. The objective is basically so that you dont take the seed.
- Why...? i dont know. My uwan just asked me to cut it that way.

Preparing the Cilipadi
- Pound the cili padi. See picture

alrighty, now that we have done all the prelimenary work, lets start cooking

1. Put in the sliced meat, pounded cili, pounded lemongrass, salt and tumeric. Cook in slow fire
2. Mix it well, and usually at this will produce slight water. This is when you taste it and see if its pedas enough or not.
3. When the water dried, put in the santan cair
4. Once it has boiled over twice, then put in the belimbing and the santan pekat
5. When it boils again, voila... it is cooked!

Ada Apa Dengan Jakarta

The trip to Jakarta was a very short one, and one that was without much plan, as I only decided to go 2 days before going. Rizal told me about his trip to Jakarta earlier, but I didnt really put much thought about it, since he said he was only going for a day. Anyway, on friday morning when he emailed me his jakarta trip details I then quickly checked the flights, and walla.. the flight is just RM351 return, and departure / arrival time is just within 15mins of Rizal's flight. The rest is history and on monday I first step foot on Jakarta soil.

BEFORE THE TRIP
Here is what I usually do before I go on any trips - I usually googled the place, and look at various travel sites to find out more about the local attraction, which usually provided more than enough information for me to chart my routes. Unfortunately for Jakarta, information on the tourist attraction is scarce, and I didnt really learn much before I go, except checking all the important things such as Power voltage and Plug type, currencies, weather conditions, Local attractions and best mode of transportation to go around.

DAY ONE
Arrived Jakarta at 6.15 pm. I love the layout of Jakarta airport, it is very cosy and homely. Unfortunately I didnt snap any photos cos it was getting dark, and I was rushing in case Rizal customs process is faster. However, here are some beautiful shots taken by others of the airport, just to show you how beautiful it is.





Once reunited with Rizal at MAS's baggage carousel, we walked out to the arrival hall where our ride was already waiting. By then it was nearly 7, and I was surprised to see that it was already so dark outside. Our hotel is in the business district area, which is downtown, and it took us roughly around 45mins to arrive to the Crowne Plaza Hotel.

Once we have checked in the hotel and freshen up, we walked to Plaza Semanggi which is just about 200 metres away. The restaurant we went to was at 6th floor, and it was on an open space area, so the ambiance and view from there is quite nice. I was pleasantly surprised to also find a maybank branch in Plaza Semanggi.

After dinner, we just went back to the hotel as Rizal and his colleague had some work to do. Back at the hotel, I also asked them about their tour excursions. There are a few options, and in the end I decided to just charter a car with a driver to take me around. A whole day 9am-9pm costs Rp650 000.

DAY TWO

At around 9 am my chartered car was already there to take me around. I have marked the locations that I wanted to go the night before, and showed it to Pak Abas the driver. He recommended that we first go to the Monument Nasional (or popularly known as Monas). Jakarta city has this 3in1 rule, where during peak hours, only cars with more than 3 passengers could travel on the major roads. Since there were just me and Pak Abas on the car, we had to take the jalan belakang to get to Monas, which gave me pretty good sight of the city's day to day life.

At Monas, Pak Abas kindly walked me to the entrance of the building (Monas is surrounded by a small park, so there is a bit of walking to reach the monument building. There is a ride as well, so if you dont like walking, not too worry. Anyway, to get to the base of the monument you will need to walk through this tunnel, till you reach the ticketing office. The cost to enter Monas and to go up was Rp8000, insurance included. At the base of the monument is some kind of museum with history of Monas, Indonesia and its progresses. Monas is a memorial dedicated to Indonesian fighters during the independence revolution in 1945. What's special about this monument is that at the peak there is a torchlike structure covered by 35kg of gold. I was hoping the capture that, but unfortunately the weather was kinda grey and not much sun to highlight the gold. I didnt spend much time inside the museum area, just walk around a bit and then decided to go up the tower instead. To my disappointment, at the platform where you take the ride to the top, the crowd was already building and the queue is long. I think it must be some kind of school holiday that day, cos it was full of school rombongan. I queued behind a large group, but after 40 mins i decided it was not worth the wait, cos there are tonnes of kiddos in front of me, and the lift to go up could only take 11 at one go.

From Jakarta'09

By the time we left Monas it was nearly noon, so no problems on the road. After Monas Pak Abas took me to the Nasional Museum. The entrance to Nasional Museum was quite cheap just Rp2500 per person. The place wasnt really packed like Monas, but then again, there was nothing much interesting there. I wanted to take the photo of the museum building which has those beautiful large white pillars, but by then it has started to rain so we just left after paying the Rp4000 parking fees (pretty steep for a short period).

From Jakarta'09

From Nasional Museum we headed towards Jakarta Old Town which is locally known as Kota Tua Jakarta. On the way, we passed by Jakarta's China Town. What is interesting at Jakarta China town is that unlike other Chinatowns I have visited in other cities, Jakarta Chinatown was full of locals rather than those of Chinese descendents. Apart from the tanglung thingy, there is little to indicate that it is the Chinatown - as the place looked very much like any other part of the town; which is quite unique to me, cos usually Chinatowns in other cities looks and feels very Orient.

From Jakarta'09

While the Chinatown was nothing to shout about, my next destination, which is Jakarta Old Town, is whole other story. I absolutely love the old buildings there. Pak Abas took me to some kind of Square, which is surrounded by few interesting buildings including the Fatahillah Museum, the Fine Art & Ceramic museum, Batavia cafe and Puppet Museum. The first building I entered was the Fatahillah museum which is actually the old city hall in the 18th century. Fees to enter is Rp2000, and the building is a two storey housing antique furnitures dating back from old days. At the backyard of the building is another single storey building, looks like an old school but I am not sure what it was cos I didnt go in there. Enjoy photos I took around the square below, and if you do go to Jakarta, I highly recommend you to visit this place.

From Jakarta'09

From Jakarta'09

From Jakarta'09

After that I went to Kelapa Sunda, where it all begins in Jakarta. Many many years ago, Kelapa Sunda was the heart of the city as it was the one of the port for major shipping companies. The Dutch Colonisation had digged a canal as they did in Holland and use it as a harbor. Today, Kelapa Sunda remains as a port, where large wooden ships are seen docking along the canal, either releasing or loading their cargo. These days most ships carries only beras, cements, teaks and stuff like that to and fro from Jakarta to other parts of Indonesia like Kalimantan, Sulawesi or Java seas. Kelapa Sunda is located not too far from the Old Town, entry fee is Rp2500 per vehicle. I kinda like and would recommend a visit to this place as well, as you will see and experience some unique activities you dont see everyday, especially the lines of ships docking in various colors and designs.

From Jakarta'09

After Kepala Sunda, I headed towards Ancol. Of all the places I have gone to so far, I think Ancol is the most modern, vibrant and commercial looking. Entrance to enter this place is quite expensive too. You will need to pay Rp12000 for the car, and Rp12000 per person. All in all I had to pay Rp36000 - mind you this is only the entrance fee to enter the area. To enter respective amusement parks there are other fees.

From Jakarta'09

Ancol is this big developed area, it has Fantasy world, Police Academy shows, Dolphin watchings, SeaWorld (underwater world), the beach complete with cable car ride, hotel, restaurant etc. If you are going with kids or just with bunch of friends looking to have fun time, this place is the place to go. Though I dont quite recommend the beach, the water was just grey and don't look too appealing to me. I think for beaches, you are better off going to other fantastic beaches Indonesia has to offer such as Bali etc.

From Jakarta'09

From Jakarta'09

After Ancol, it is then... shopping time. I purposely leave the shopping as the last stop, cos I was worried that I would not have the time nor the money to spend if I had gone there first. Anyway, as I didnt actually research much on the places to shop, I dont really have any preferences or specific place to go. Malinie suggested Tanah Abang, however Pak Abas did not recommend it as he feels that it is not safe for me to walk alone since there are many pick pockets cases, plus the items there are mainly sold as wholesale. He took me to Mangga Dua instead, which is not too far from Ancol. By that time, it was already nearly 3 pm, and traffic had started to build up. Though the distance is quite near, it took quite awhile to arrive. By the time Pak Abas dropped me at Mangga Dua's lobby, it was already 4pm. I wanted to be back at the hotel by 6. So that left me around just an hour to shop. Mangga Dua apparently is more popular for its fake goods (as I found out after I came back to KL). I am not into fake goods, so I didnt find the place too interesting. I was expecting embroideries, telekong and such, but there's not much there. So it was quite a disapppointment for me and definitely not some place that I would visit again. I didnt buy much, just a few tudungs and batik shirts for close family members back home. I didnt exactly know the prices of the kind of tudungs I bought, but after I came back and compare prices here, I think it is fairly cheap and good bargain. One thing that I wanted to buy was a telekong for myself, but after buying stuff for others I was short of cash so maybe some other place, some other time.

Back at the hotel, Rizal wanted to take us to this place he went before with his Jakarta colleagues for dinner. He didnt know the name of this place so we had to wait for his friend to tell us the name of the place - which is actually Kemang area , south of Jakarta. We took a cab to Grand Kemang hotel, which is within walking distance the dining place. This Balinese looking makan place indeed is a nice place.
Menu is in a wooden thingy, and even fork and spoon is served in a matching type of accesories.

From Jakarta'09

This makan place overlook a small taman, where this taman is srrounded by small shops selling all sorts of things such as souviner stuff and chocolates. Food there is reasonable, priced between Rp20000 to Rp 40000 per dish. After dinner we walked back to the Grand Kemang Hotel, and we took the opportunity to go inside. This hotel is very modern looking and it reminds me of the hotels I stayed at in Prague and Paris. You can check it out HERE

DAY THREE
Our flight later that evening is at 6, so that leaves me a bit of time to explore Plaza Semanggi in the morning. Nothing much in Semanggi Plaza, just like any other mall here. Definitely not to the level of Pavillion or KLCC, maybe just at par with Summit or the Mall. Went around a bit, comparing prices here and there which proved to be fruitless cos the prices are very much the same, if not slightly higher or lower. One item that I thought was cheap was local CD, which was priced about Rp45000 (roughly RM13). I didnt buy any though, cos I dont quite know most of the artists name and songs which is quite a bummer, cos I quite enjoy listening to Indonesian songs.

We have decided to leave for the airport around 3pm, just in case of traffic jam, or locally called 'mancit'. True enough, the traffic going to the airport was indeed jammed at some areas, but luckily we still arrive in decent time. At the airport, checking in was excruciatingly slow (at least for KLM counter). Fortunately I purchased online tickets and there are special counters for it. Otherwise I think I would have to wait an hour or so? .

My flight was quite full, and becos I was quite frustated that it took too long to reach my turn when I was checking in, I forgot to ask for better seats. So... my flight going back to KL was not a very pleasant one, cos I had to sit in the middle and the food wasnt really to my liking. Taking off took quite awhile, i think we had to wait nearly 30 mins before finally took off.

From Jakarta'09

All in all, the Jakarta trip was a pleasant short break for me, and most importantly was well within my budget. :))