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Inspirations come and go, but food is forever. Life without inspiration is like cappucino with no coffee, or lemon tea with no lemon, or chocolates without cocoa? W....whatt??? I guess composing profound philosophical quotes is just so not my thing.
What I was trying to say is...sometimes inspirations come from funny sources. Or at least, mine does.
There was an argument in the office...
At work, what would make us feel tinier than small potatoes?
- Job title? "Mochachocolatarita - Dung Sweeper" (Hey! That actually sounds kinda cool!)
- Salary? When it is simply not enough (...to cover essential expenses, don't even think about that piece of foie gras)
- Importance? (we need everybody's opinion on this project. Oh, except you. Remove all the staples from this mountain of documents, make 100000 copies and staple them back, please)
- Workstation? (a spacious corner office with a window, or that square meter spot between the copier and the shredder?)
- The way the tea lady treats you? (instead of calling you "Sir/Mam", washing your cup and serving you tea, she calls you "junior" and asks you to do the cups for her)
- How the upper management remembers your name? (oh yeah, they don't)
Oh my! Sucks, doesn't it? What a depressing discussion!
But the good news is...it got me thinking of a single, leftover small potato left in my spice bin at home. It's too small for a dish, but it's just perfect for baking some breakfast muffins.
Potato Choco Chips Muffins
Recipe
(yields 6 muffins)
- 1 cup all purpose flour
- 1 tsp baking soda
- 1/3 cup caster sugar (you can add more if you like it sweeter)
- 1/2 tsp salt
- 1 small potato, peeled, diced into about 1x1x1 cm pieces, microwave on high for 5 minutes, mashed, let cool
- 2 eggs (you can reduce to just 1 egg to make it taste less eggy)
- 1/4 cup olive oil
- 1/2 cup milk (or 2/3 cup yoghurt)
- 1 tsp coconut essence (or vanilla essence)
- semisweet chocolate chips (I like lots of it, i.e. at least 10 chips in each muffin HAHA! You can reduce to just around 5-6 chips each)
Preheat oven to 180C (350F), in a mixing bowl, combine flour, baking soda, sugar, and salt. In another bowl, beat eggs, add milk, oil, coconut essence and mix. Pour egg mixture to flour mixture, mix until just combined. Add mashed potato, mix well. You can add the chocolate chips now, but I like adding mine into individual cups after pouring the batter so that each muffin gets equal amount of chips. Pour 2 tbsp batter into each muffin mold lined with paper cup, add choco chips, pour the remaining batter and bake for 15-20 minutes of until toothpick inserted in the middle comes out clean.
The muffins taste absolutely divine. Potatoey, slightly eggy, creamy and chocolatey.
This post is dedicated to small potatoes everywhere. Cheers!
Huge goodnesses can come from a small potato.
I am very partial to cheap and cheesy souvenirs. Fridge magnets, souvenir t-shirts (think "My friend went to Hong Kong and all I got is this lousy t-shirt" or "I was lost in Hong Kong" or any tee from Hardrock Cafe), shot glasses, mugs, plates, key chains...you name it, I probably got it.
These days, I have a new souvenir-related habit. I buy less souvenir tees. However, I buy LOADS of cute props from everywhere. Cute tableware, adorable plates, place settings, table runners, tiny little baskets, vintage looking glasses, cups and bowls....
whose job descriptions are:
- looking pretty in pictures
- never to be used to eat/cook at all times (some of them are so teeny tiny, it is just impossible to cook/eat with them)
- occupying/taking over my tiny flat (Ialmost can't see my living/dining room floor anymore, and don't even think about the kitchen. Man, I need a new flat!)
Let me show off share some of my favorite new finds from Jakarta...tiny wok (Rp.5000) and a pair of gorgeous fork and spoon (Rp.1000 each). My, oh my, how adorable!...how could I ever resist them?
Minced Meat and Mushrooms in Spicy Worchestershire Sauce
On weekdays, when 24 hour is never enough, minced meat is the way to go. No butchering, no slicing, no nothing, pair it with anything, and it always tastes great no matter how I screw it up. This time, I am pairing it with red chilli, fresh shiitake mushrooms, and Worcestershire Sauce (it took me years before I could pronounce this right. We used to call it kecap inggris back home). I love the balance of flavors soy and worcestershire sauce in this easy and tasty dish.
Recipe
(serves 4)
- 4 cloves of garlic (crushed)
- 4 red chilli (chopped)
- a pack of shiitake mushrooms (remove stem, sliced, you can adjust the quantity)
- 1/2 lb of minced meat (beef, pork or chicken)
- light soy, dark soy, sweet soy, and worcestershire sauce
- olive oil
Saute garlic and chilli until fragrant, add minced meat, add mushrooms, season to get the perfect balance of salty, sweet and acidity. Serve over steamed rice or noodles.
By the way, my brilliant Indonesian blogger friends, a group of super talented photograpers, host a monthly Still Life Photography event at multiply. I've learnt soooo much about photography from this event and I always enjoy admiring the technically brilliant and/or the creative shots and settings from everyone. This event is in Bahasa Indonesia, but I think language is not really a barrier for us to appreciate great works of art, eh?
Here are my two initial submissions for the second challenge, Books:
It's a book I am currently reading (Kitchen Confidential by Anthony Bourdain. I guess I am pretty outdated hehehe - alllllmost finished though), borrowed from Hong Kong Public Library. This photograph was taken beside my living room window, on a small wooden table. The background is a baking sheet, the bookmarks are a fork and a knife, and the book is placed on a roasting rack.
Is it my eyes or does Bourdain look kinda hot in this tattered book cover?
Below shot was taken in the kitchen, the book was placed in the oven (which is dark and dirty)...and I don't think you'd wanna see how I contorted myself to take the shots...
...I never thought that I could be so....acrobatic.
I was contemplating posting another eating spree from my Jakarta trip, but I changed my mind, fearing that I'd piss off my fellow Indonesian bloggers living overseas, who might be missing the posted food absolutely terribly (hehe joooking!). Plus, I need to get my groove back.
If I stayed off the kitchen for too long....
- the cooking skill downgrade might cause more kitchen disasters (entertainment for some of my readers, but not so much for my patrons)
- I will have less budget for fashion, as more money will be spent on dining out (NOOOO!!! I need shoes. More shoes!)
- my pricey kitchen appliances might be depressed due to lack of activity and might need to go on some kind of therapy
- my credibility in front of sc's parents will dramatically go south
- my coworkers who normally get some free baked goods will stop helping me at work...
...and my life will effectively be ruined.
Enough exaggeration.
I didn't feel like doing anything complicated. The risk of a disastrous dish is too high, and I've never been much of a gambler. Fortunately, we received some Chinese sausages and preserved duck meat from sc's mom. Oh yeah, I could do a dish with maximum flavors and it requires minimum effort.
Chinese Sausages & Preserved Duck Rice
The red ones are the regular Chinese sausages, and the darker ones are the liver sausages. That reminds me, I should put on some sunblock when going out, or I might get as wrinkly as these sausages.
If you don't eat pork, you can opt for this preserved duck meat. Once steamed, they go tender and tasty, infusing loads of flavor into your rice.
Ingredients
(serves 4)
- 2 pcs red Chinese sausages (each piece to be cut into 3 parts)
- 2 pcs dark (liver) Chinese sausages (each piece to be cut into 3 parts)
- 1/2 piece of Chinese preserved duck breast (cut into 4 pieces)
- 200ml chicken stock
- sesame oil
- a bunch of fresh corriander (chopped)
- salt, white pepper, sugar, dark soy sauce
- 2 cups of rice
- water
Pour 2 cups of rice into rice cooker, pour chicken stock, add water up to the required level as indicated on the rice cooker, drizzle some sesame oil, add a pinch of salt, white pepper, and sugar. Wash and wipe dry pieces of sausage and preserved duck meat. Place pieces of sausages vertically into the rice, place the preserved duck meat on top of the rice, and start cooking. Once the done, pour some dark soy sauce, add freshly chopped corriander and mix well (leaving some fresh corriander for garnish).
If you don't have a rice cooker, you can do it in a regular sauce pot with a lid (a non stick one would be better), or a claypot.
The rice comes out richly flavored by the sausages and meat, smoky from the dark soy, and satiny smooth from the oil. The freshly chopped corriander added the needed freshness.
Watch out, people. I am officially back. Man, it feels good!
The moment I stepped into this place, I instantly fell in love. It was my first year of university, with my classmates and seniors, getting assignments, exams, projects and deadlines off our heads. It totally helped.
It's just the kind of place we'd all adore. It's charming, fabulously old (Since 1932. Wow!), and indeed one of the city's iconic place. A couple of swanky new places which have been sprouting around it does not shake its popularity.
Ragusa is famous for its ice cream. It's light and refreshing, perfect for Jakarta's balmy weather. 
My sis and I went there after a day of shopping (again?) in Pasar Baru, trying to avoid traffic jam, and resting our exhausted feet. I ordered a Chocolate Ice Cream Soda, which came pink, thanks to my sis who thought Chocolate starts with an S (Soklat, as it might be pronounced in Javanese accent) and wrote (S) on the order form (the code for Strawberry). I can't blame her. This is what a day of crazy shopping could do to you. It's not all euphoria, it too, could get you a bit delusional.
We also ordered a cup of classic Mocha Ice Cream. Just sounds so perfect for my blog, innit?
We gossiped (oh, I meant share valuable experiences) for hours, and just enjoyed the cool ambience. The crowd; the group of gentlemen just beside our table; the singer who did a beautiful rendition of the golden oldies such as Let It Be Me, Love Me Tender, and Only You (oh...all my songs!); the jamu gendong lady and other street food vendors delivering foods from outside the shop; the servers in neat uniform; the parking attendant who were downing a bowl of steamy noodles by the street; the sun setting behind the trees; the sound of the rain just outside the door....truly a feast for our senses and soul.
We were still stuffed from the huge lunch of noodles earlier, but we couldn't help ordering two servings of our all time favorite...
Krupuk (crackers) drizzled with palm sugar syrup and peanut sauce
We had to leave before we were tempted to order another plate of these bad boys.
Ragusa Es Italia
Jl. Veteran I/10"
Central Jakarta
Indonesia
Tel.: (62)(21) 384 9123
Everybody has their own favorite seafood place. This one is mine. A must must MUST visit destination for me. The foods are so fantastic, I am missing them already!
The crew's obviously happy (They kinda have to. They are exposed in an open working area. Hehe), no wonder they made such great food! This is something I can't get over in Indonesia. I pretty much didn't have to ask their permission to take pictures (although I did anyway), as once I took out my camera, they instantly arranged themselves neatly into poses, literally shoving each other, fighting to be in the frame. I love you guys! PEACE! OK! Rock & Roll!
Now....it's seafood time!!!
Udang Goreng Mentega (Stir Fried Prawns in Butter and Soy Sauce). Even after we finished the prawns, we didn't want the servers to remove the plate, we mopped the sauce squeaky clean!
Oh my gawd, is that something from Alien-Ressurection? Nah, this beats that. It's Gurame Goreng Kering (Super Crispy Deep Fried Gouramy - thanks for the correction, Pepy), served with Sambal Kecap Manis (Sweet Soy Chilli Sauce). Its sore throat inducing power is so strong, remember take loads of liquid with it, and don't forget to pay the bathroom a visit before you hit Jakarta's notorious traffic. Believe us, holding your liquid in while being trapped in hours-long traffic jam is NO FUN!
All it took was forgetting to take the rice picture for a few moments, and the still hot and steamy rice was longgg gone. This is all I have for you guys, the wicker basket and banana leaf which held the rice.
Pondok Sedap Malam's specialty, Kepiting Lada Hitam (Black Pepper Crab). Spicy, tasty, and the crab roe...simply indescribable.
Just a plate of veggie? Kangkung cah Tauco (Stir Fried Water Spinach in Fermented Bean Sauce -thx, Rurie!). Yeah lots of protein and just a tiny bit of veggie. My version of balance diet, alright :)
This is something I always try to duplicate at home without using a proper grill. Surely, it ain't the same, baby! Gurame Bakar Kecap (Grilled Gouramy in Sweet Soy Sauce - thanks again, Pep!). The fish is perfectly cooked, velvety smooth, and the charred and caramelised skin....I think you got it.
Oh, crab! Here's another favorite. Kepiting Goreng Telur Asin (Crab Stir Fried in Spicy Salted Egg Yolk) In fact, my sis and I ate this the last, following our "Save the Best for Last" policy. I wanted to memorize the flavor...let it linger...that's until we were ready for dessert. Hehe.
It ain't just all food. You get some serious entertainment too! A few groups of singers/choirs paid us a visit and entertained us with songs of joyful rejoice, a little out of tune sometimes, but joyful still :)
A little tip: prepare some small change on the table. It was a little awkward having to dig our pockets/wallets for some money while we had seafood all over our fingers. To the singers: you might wanna consider places where we don't have to use our bare hands to wrestle with our food. You'd probably get more money ^_^
Remember...when you see this sign...
...you're in for a delicious ride.
What did I wear that night? Check it out here.
Pondok Sedap Malam, Pluit
(address and phone number coming soon)
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