王力宏-需要人陪 MV

I am super excited with his new album. Listening to 3 of his HIT lists, i would say it is a little bit unusual, in a good way of course. They all belong to mellow and love romantic genre. As his biggest fans, i realized his previous albums always be a combination of chink-out and fun and different in a sense that you grow in love with the song as you listen to it more and more.

i would like to share one song from his newest album: 需要人陪- need someone's company. this song is dedicated for those feeling lonely, or in LD relationship. here's the lyric translation:

open up my window to let this loneliness out from this airtight room.

the sound of happiness has been thrown away in the air, like no gorgeous person left.

closing my eyes and unable to see clearly. This double bed has missing its warmth.

who could company me till dawn, breaking this misty loneliness

I slowly lost my consciousness, pretending that i am hiding away.

you fly to the corner of the sky, but i don't know where i am.

someone like me, need a dream, a direction, a tear and especially a person to light up the darkness

I already lost my power, could not resist nor turn back. in this silentness, i need someone's company.

My first walking Trip - Destination: Bukit Tabur

After few days of considering, I finally decided to pull this walking trip to real. I know that my darling might think I'm crazy to even think about this. But, she knew I got bigger things in my head and I have to get this over.

On Friday night 16, July 2010, I went to my bed a little bit early to give me that extra hour of sleep. I packed the normal gig as usual with few extra kilograms of water then set the alarm optimistically for 5:00 am.

The reason I set for 5:00 am because I the last thing I want to get is start walking with sun right on top of my head. But when you set for 5:00 am., somehow deep at the back of your mind you know that it is not going to happen :) so long story short, I leave the house at 6:10 am.

It took me almost three whole hours of walking, passing through a couple of bridges, schools, and few wrong turns before I finally get to the trail head. Of course if you can do your own math, you might cynically smile at me, I was just going to let myself exposed to direct sun for the next three hours on the hill. It is something that I have planned not to happen, but come on, 5:00 am is way too early to start the day anyway :P

I have been through this hill at least twice as far as I remember. But today is something that I will not forget for sure. I will let you look at some of the photographs I took today and let you imagine climbing and rappelling through those trails with a massive backpack behind you trying to pull you down at all times. It was a day-mare (not a nightmare) :D

Finishing the hike was a relief, but I still got another three hours of walk, back to my starting point. With not much energy left, I played a little easy on my way back. I made few stops to get my lunch and water and managed to get back by 3:40 pm.

I was extremely happy to be able to pull this off even though now I am literally disabled with two painful knees, bruised hip, and burned face. I am so going to get "I told you" from my darling because of this trip.

Cooking frustration

just found this incomplete posting in the draft status. well, here i am, re-posting as it is, without any picture.

Nobody home, i felt alone. What to do? Cooking, cooking and cooking.

Here are menu from my cooking frustration:

- Entree:

Tom Yam Fried Rice

Adobo Chicken/Squid

- Dessert:

Klepon

Kacang hijau dan merah

Tom Yam Fried Rice:

Ingredients:

- 2 cloves of garlic, chopped

- Onion (I don't use this, but it will certainly add taste)

- Squid

- Celery

- 3 Chilies.

- Vegetable (i used lettuce, just in time before it spoiled in the fridge)

- Tom Yam paste

- 2 tbsp of water

- Cooked Rice (leave the rice at room temperature, so it will not stick when you cook it)

Clean the squid, and make sure the bone underneath the skin is removed. Cut into bite-sized pieces. Chopped all the celery, garlic, onion, chilies and vegetable. Heat up the oil, and stir in garlic, onion and Tom Yam paste until fragrance. you may need to put in water to dilute the tom yam paste into a bit of watery state. Just a bit !!

Now, you can add the squid in, followed by celery. After everything cook, stir in the rice and mix well. You may want to do this in stages to evenly coated the rice. Last, add the lettuce and stir for a while. It is ready to eat :)

Gado Gado 3/30

This week's gathering menu is Gado Gado - an Indonesian style salad with peanut sauce dressing. My faithful guest, J and S, gave a positive feedback. It's pretty simple, and especially good if you try to clean out your pantry. Any leftover vegetable will do just fine. This time, i used an instant package to make the peanut sauce, but i'll post it how to make it your own.

Ingredients:

- vegetables (anything from lettuce, cabbage, carrots, cucumber, tomatoes, bean sprout)

- potatoes

- eggs

Peanut sauce:

- 1/2 cup JIF chunky peanut butter (any brand will do fine, you could also use smooth peanut butter)

- 1/4 cup hot water

- 1 tbsp sweet soy sauce

- 1 tbsp lime juice (optional)

Boil the vegetable (cabbage, carrots, etc) and blanch (put into ice water) afterward to stop the cooking and maintain the bright color. Boil the potatoes and eggs too.

For peanut sauce, slowly adding the hot water and stir until it smooth. Adjust the consistency by adding more amount water/peanut sauce. Add 1 tbsp sweet soy sauce and lime juice and stir well.

Arrange vegetables and other ingredients. Pour the peanut sauce on top of it, and Viola...your gado gado is ready. that's easy, isn't it? and you would not feel guilty eating this pretty healthy food.

Chili Egg - 3/26

This one is inspired by Singaporean Chili Crab recipe. With my thinking cap on, I came to believe this would be a good milder version of "Telor Balado".

Chili Egg

Ingredients:

- 5 hard boiled eggs, peeled and sliced in half

- 1 tbsp vegetable oil

- 1/2 medium onion

- 5 cm (2 inch) fresh ginger, finely grated

- 3 cloves garlic, chopped

- 3 -5 red chillies

- 1 tomato

- 2 cups ready made tomato paste sauce (my version: 3 tbsp tomato paste with 1 cups water)

- a dash of soy sauce

- 1 cup of water

- 2 tbsp sweet chili sauce

- 2 tbsp brown sugar

In food processor, chopped the tomato, onion and chilies. (I add extra 2 dried chilies. Trust me, if you are not an extreme-spicy type, please do avoid this step, and reduce the chilies to 3.)

Heat oil in the wok, add garlic and ginger, cook until fragrance. Add the onion-tomato mixture, stir for about 5 minutes. Pour in the tomato paste sauce, water, soy sauce, chili sauce and brown sugar. Adjust the spiciness by adding water. Simmer and return the boiled egg into the sauce. Cook for another 2 minutes, and bon appetite.

you could also add potatoes in this too.

Does it looks spicy to you? here' the conversation at dinner:

Jes (from Nepal) : "this sauce scares me. "

Me (from Indo) : "yeah, it is spicy. I already diluted it with a lot of water, but it still spicy"

Sam (from Africa) : "What are you guys talking about? I don't feel it at all"

Jes + Me : "What?!! something is wrong with you, sam"

"Please cook responsibly"

Happy Cooking

JN

Rendang Nangka - 3/25

Phew...I am about to move out again next month, which will be my 4th moved within 1.5 years living in this town. While screening through my pantry, I found a sachet of rendang "bamboe", a can of jackfruit, some cabbage and tofu leftover. I thought of rendang nangka, which would be perfect for my vegetarian's guests. You might think i am going a bit crazy with the ingredients, but i do prefer having leftover ingredient end up on my food rather than my trash =)

Rendang Nangka - no meat version.

this is no fancy recipe especially with instant package. This is a vegetarian version, and you definitely could substitute the first three ingredients with beef or chicken for original version.

Ingredients:

- 2 cans of young jackfruits -make sure the word "young" printed on the package. don't confuse it with jackfruit in light syrup.

- 1/4 head of cabbage

- 1/2 package of firmed tofu

- 2 red chilies

- 400 ml of coconut milk

- 200 ml of water (if you don't like it to be too coconut-fatty)

- 1 "Bamboe" rendang package.

Cut tofu and jackfruit in block. chopped the chillies and cabbage. Put a bit of vegetable oil in the wok. Stir the rendang package until fragrance. Pour 200ml of coconut milk and water in, then add chilies and jackfruit. Let it boils. Add the rest of the coconut milk, cabbage and tofu. Cook uncover in low-medium heat until the water reduce in half (it takes about 30 minutes or more, so your patience is virtue in here). Serve over with rice.

PS: if you have slow cooker, i think it will be even better. You could get perfect tenderness on the jackfruit. but make sure to reduce the water/coconut by at least 25%.

Happy Cooking

JN

Welcome notes

Hi...

This is my first time blogger. Being inspired by the movie "Julie & Julia", I decided to start blogging my food experiment. This is another past due new-year-resolution, just like my other eating-healthy effort and 12-weeks-work-weight-loss program.

Anyway, here i am, presenting my first food blog. Thanks to partner in crime, who will keep me motivated and will later on also contribute on this food experiment. (I promise i will complete the recipe from your book too. just bare with me :p )

Stay tune...and Let's get the party started....

"Tell me and I will forget, Show me and I may remember, Involve me and I will understand" - Chinese proverb.

JN