Emergency bothok

Bothok (botok) is one of my favorite childhood dishes. I always love the savory of coconut flake (parutan kelapa :p) combined with small fishes. Yumm..

One day, when I wanted it so bad, I decided to make it right away. Of course we don't have banana leaves here (to wrap the bothok). We also don't have petai cina/lamtoro gung (how to say it in English??? --> click here if you're curious). 

But who really cares? Let's just call it 'emergency bothok' :D

Voilaa~

Finding more ways to learn Japanese

About three years ago, my sensei asked me why my English was good while I never went abroad. To be honest, I don't think my English was that good (not even now :D )
You, my reader, might have better English than me!
But at least, at most of the time, I can convey what's in my mind.

Back to my sensei, I think he has a point. I noticed that one of the most important things in learning a language is practicing. During my undergraduate study, I realized that I was not good in English. That was how I eventually ended up writing this blog (in English). Now that I'm learning Japanese, I'm considering to try the same way.

Yes. I've made two blogs (written) in Japanese. Come to visit!
1. A blog to read information surrounding me:
http://dokodemonihon5.blogspot.jp/
2. A blog to practice writing Japanese (my online Japanese diary!! :D ):
http://narunonikki.blogspot.jp/

See you there!

Bakso (Indonesian Beef Meatball)

Back to Indonesian menu!

Actually, it had never cross my mind that one day I would have to make bakso by myself. I have to admit that I'm not a big fan of bakso. But life has its own way.. :p About 3 months ago, somebody (you-know-who) request me to make bakso. Just like my usual initial step, almost everything started with.. um.. bismillah, hehehe, of course google. Care to try? I found a simple recipe here (in Indonesian).

And, so it was.. After chopping here and there, mixing the ingredients, and boiling the mixed dough.. 

Voila.. Here's a picture of homemade bakso with Indonesian instant noodle (Indomie) :D

Enjoy!

Chicken gyoza

Gyoza is chinese style of chicken dumpling. Although it is really famous in japan, I had never tasted gyoza (before) since it's usually made from chicken or pork. 

One day, after watching one of cooking program in TV, K-man wanted to make gyoza. He's a good cook, so just I helped him a bit (hehe), especially when forming gyoza (put some filling onto a piece of gyoza dough and close each gyoza in a certain way). I was pretty much surprised. 

At first, I thought gyoza was very similar to siomay (popular style of chicken/fish dumpling in Indonesia). But at least it has two major difference, i.e., gyoza has chopped cabbage inside of it (while siomay doesn't), and gyoza is cooked by frying and steaming.

See this recipe (or this, in Indonesian) for better description.

Don't forget to dip it into the dipping sauce (soya sauce + rayu/chili oil + sesame). Ummm..

oishikatta :)

Random Taco

Another mexican dishes!

Several months ago, I felt in love with mexican dishes. My mexican friends held a mexican party and cooked for us some delicious meal and drink. They're just so damn nice that they offer me to cook with halal meat (so that I can also taste the dishes). 

I think I gave them a.. pretty much flat-face. but actually, they touched my heart at that moment :9 hehehe. thx guys

A few weeks ago, K-man and I found this tortilla when we went shopping to an international store in my town. I just made some random stir-fried dishes, put it on the top of tortilla, folded the tortilla, and toasted it a bit inside the oven. And here it is.. enjoy the picture, hehehe.
as usual, it tastes soo good.

Anyway,, do you think the tortilla looks a bit too pale? :-/

Naranja Colada

Weh.. I haven't posted anything in quite a time. 

(Kaigiman and I cooked and ate a lot recently. I was overwhelmed. I took some pictures in the beginning, but then I decided to give up, hehe.. I just didn't have much time to post and write.)

Anyway, now here I am :)

Have you ever heard Pina Colada? Its kind of pineapple (pina) juice with coconut milk. I tried it for the first time in Honolulu. And it tasted soo damn good (and refreshing). Oh, don't forget to say 'virgin' (i.e., virgin pina colada), or else they will put some rum (alcohol) inside your drink.

Back in Toyohashi, I was craved for Pina Colada. I couldn't find pineapple that easily that time, so I decided to modify a bit: using orange instead of pineapple.

Do you also want to try? I dont remember which recipe did I use, well.. try to google 'orange colada' if you want :)
Ps: actually, they have another name for it: Naranja Colada.

Homemade Mango Lassi

I used to bike 3 kilometers to my favorite restaurant, only for a glass of mango lassi. I have to tell you that this restaurant has the yummiest mango lassi in the town (though there are only two three Indian restaurant I've tried here). I always wanted to make a homemade version of mango lassi, but getting mango in Japan is a bit difficult (and expensive!). Usually I have to spend 400 yen (40,000 rupiahs!) only for ONE mango.

And you know what?
Several days ago, we found cheap mango in the market! Woo.. This must be a sign from the universe that we have to try making mango lassi by ourself.
Too bad I was lazy to get my blender out of the box, so I merely used a spoon (instead of blender) to soften mango. I also decided not to add any sugar (as I felt that the mango itself was already sweet).

Fast recipe:
LassiMix:
1 cup of milk + 1.5 cup of yoghurt
ToppingSoften:
1/4 part of mango

My friend said that I could get foamy lassi if I blend yoghurt and milk using blender.
Noted. Later we'll try a blended version of lassi ;)

Or even better: blended orange lassi. Humm.. sounds good.