Wednesday, April 23, 2008

Sambal Goreng Jipang (Indonesian Spicy Chayote in Coconut Milk) & Cute Name Cards


A comment on a blog which pissed me off (thus should not be mentioned here) has made me realised that despite so many Indonesian food bloggers I've found on the net, there are still soooo many people who haven't been introduced to Indonesian food.

I am happy to learn that many of us embrace different food culture with great appreciation and interest. On the other hand, I am so amazed to find that some are arrogant enough to pretend that they know everything about a specific culture's food, learning only from briefly skimming the top search result from wikipedia (Sambal Goreng Jipang = hot sauce Japanese style??!!!! WTFFF????!!!!), dig a little deeper, please! And some are even more arrogant plus ignorant enough just to dismiss other culture's food entirely. I hope I will never be the latter two.

Sorry for venting my frustration here...:p but blog venting is proven cheap, effective and productive, plus I still have to wait for my bonus for a major retail or travel therapy later ;)

So here's my take on the controversial Sambal Goreng Jipang (Indonesian Spicy Chayote in Coconut Milk)

Recipe
(serves 4)
- 4 fillets of fish of your choice, slice to chunky pieces
- lime juice, corn starch
- a handful of dried ebi (tiny shrimps). Find this in your Asian/Chinese grocery shop
- 4 cloves of garlic, finely chopped
- 4 cloves of shallot, thinly sliced
- A small piece of ginger, crushed
- 3 large red chillies, thinly sliced (remove seeds if you don't like it hot, use small chillies if you want it even hotter)
- half cup of coconut milk
- 4 small chayote fruit (peel skin off, remove seed, slice to about 3 mm thick, wash)
- a few pieces of beancurd puff (you can replace with firm white tofu, slice to small pieces)
- salt, pepper, sugar, water, olive oil
- A bunch of corriander, chopped

Marinate fish with salt, pepper, lime juice, a bit of corn starch. Heat pan, heat a bit of olive oil, add some dried ebi, pan fry fish fillets until the meat is throughly cooked, set aside. Wipe pan with paper towel, add 1-2 tbsp olive oil, saute the rest of the dried ebi, add garlic, shallot, ginger, chilli, add chayote pieces, cook until softened, add beancurd puff, add coconut milk, adjust taste by adding salt, pepper, sugar when necessary, cook until the chayote pieces are soft enough for you, add chopped corriander, serve with steamed rice.

It may not be totally authentic, but the result is close enough to the classic version normally cooked by my nanny, Mbak Yem. More importantly, it is NOT "hot sauce Japanese style" ;)

Now...what's up with the cute name cards?

Currently, there are a few important cards in my life:
- My HKID card: we use this to breeze through HK immigration electronically-how cool is that! and I will be fined HK$1000 (around US$128) if I got caught roaming around Hong Kong without it
- My Octopus card: we use this to pay for public transport and it is accepted as a form of payment in shops all over Hong Kong
- My California fitness membership card: without which I could not eat like there's no tomorrow and still get my butt in shape as well as dancing, kicking and punching my anger away (waaaattchaaa!!!)
- My ATM card: without which I would be either spending my days queueing in the bank or on the streets begging for food

Wait a minute! How about my credit card? Hehe...I hardly use it...I am suchhhh a good girlllll (pppsssst...not really, I use my ATM card to pay for my shopping sprees LOL)

Recently, I received a package from Foodbuzz and saw this cute yet mysterious little box:

I was so excited to see what's inside...and I found these!

How cute?!! and what's even cuter is....at the back of these adorable mini cards...

I saw my name, my blog name with blog url on it! It's a Foodbuzz Featured Publisher card, how cuteeeeeee, "Hi, MEEEE!!!" I guess all of fellow Foodbuzz Featured Publishers must have gotten the same thing, but this is the first time I have suchhhh adorable name cards!! So pardon me for getting over-excited :) Yayyy!!!

(hidden agenda to my boss: let's face it, my work business card is not sexy enough) LOL

Now....I am thinking to use this to pay for my next overspending spree...(to the shop sales lady: Whatt???!! What do you mean not accepted? Here, take my library card instead. Still not accepted? How about my business card? My organ donation card?...)

18 comments:

  1. congrats, finally have cute namecards huh... hehehe

    eat that sambel goreng jipang with authentic krupuk putih abang2 (white cracker)... yum ;P~
    tho i'm sure all of those ignorant and arrogant 'so called knows everything, and my food is always the best, other food (culture) is crap' chefs gonna think krupuk putih is just another unworthy food.

    to that arrogant and ignorant food bloggers:
    please open your mind and (at least) try to appreciate other culture, tho you might not like it, remember that other ppl might not like yours too, but they try to understand and don't b*tch abt it.

    enjoy! :)

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  2. Ini kesukaan ku...pake tahu goreng asyikkk, kebetulan lg musim jipang nih...harus buat ach.
    Biasa aku makan ama kerupuk udang, atau iya kerupuk putih abang.
    Thnx resep nya ya Rita !!!
    Liat poto nya bikin aku lapaer banget2.

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  3. love your cards! give them out to anyone, everyone! autograph them and one day they will be worth big money

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  4. Guess uv got a comment fr mr/ms know-it-all ya? yup, they suck. i have yet to encounter any and if i did, id be really piss too.

    Wrt the card, theyr so damn cute! i want one too. (hopefully the foodbuzz ppl are listening to my cry) lol.

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  5. Wow the name cards are adorable!
    Congratulations on that!!

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  6. You are so hilarious!

    Love the cards too, what a nice little treat...and keep working out, it is the only way for us food bloggers to stay in shape.

    The food looks delish as always.

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  7. bhs inggrisnya jipang iku chayote toh, wah aku due jipang ki nek kulkas.

    Congrats dear.. cardnya imut, smp kesini ga itu krt nama hehe

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  8. very cute cards! I want some with my name on them! haha. Despite having traveled to Bali before I haven't been exposed to too much Indonesian food before. Hope to try out your recipe sometime. It looks delicious.

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  9. Yes, blogg venting is a great way to blow off steam. Great cards!

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  10. That dish looks good though I have never had chayote. All of the other flavours sound really good. I am going to have to look for chayote. The cards looks really good. I like the full colour images on them.

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  11. Cutie cards! Can I have a signed one of yours :P

    Now I really need to find myself some chayote and experiment them in my cooking!

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  12. Oh so cute the namecards. I love them. I've not heard of this fruit chayote. What's it like?

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  13. yo sis, vent away! haha krupuk putih abang2 is a luxury good!

    hi mariena, iya pake krupuk pasti sipp banget dehhh

    yo jaden, the one with my right toe print will be a "special edition" collectible one HAHA

    s&t, the comment and blogpost weren't for me, i just saw it somewhere (not worth mentioning, i refuse to direct traffic to this website) and got so pisssssseedddd! hehe...i am sure foodbuzz people are reading ^_^

    hi cindy, thanks! hehe

    hi noble pig, yeah...the 1.5 mth recovery time after surgery where i wasnt allowed to exercise was such a painnnn

    yin, iya, aku jg baru tau pas research untuk bikin post ini hehe

    hi lina...gogogo, talk to foodbuzz :) hehe i bet u'll love indo food...hmm let me create an event where i can give out indomie hehe

    sgf...i just hope i didn't ruin everybody's happy mood ^_^

    hi kevin, go on and try it, give it your magic touch as always :)

    tigerfish...hohoho sure u can have em...maybe with a lipstick mark..hmm not too hygienic eh? lol

    hi singairishgirl, hm...they look like this raw:
    http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chayote

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  14. I bought a chayote last week but still haven't cooked with it yet.

    You mean Indonesian food isn't Japanese? ;) Yeah, sometimes I feel that way when people write about VNese food. I've learned not to let it bother me too much.

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  15. Looks yummy! I love anything spicy and cooked in coconut milk. Love the name cards too!

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  16. Hey I want my cards too. I just signed up to foodbuzz so hopefully I'll be receiving my cards too. Can I ask them to put your picture on it? :-)

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  17. Super duper flavours in this dish - ginger, coocnut and shallots are all winners for me!

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  18. ritaaa...aku kaykanya belum pernah makan jipang deh..apa rasanya say..:P, btw your food buzz name card are sooo cuuteee....

    btw..miss kerupuk putih abang2..hikkkssss...

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