Mie Ayam (Chicken Noodle)

Here in Jakarta, there are so many kind of noodles carts on the streets.

This time, I'm posting the simple Mie Ayam (Chicken noodles).

It's so easy to make this chicken noodles that you can actually make it by your own ;)First, pour veggie oil, salty soybean sauce plus MSG (Yup... Food on the streets commonly contains MSG - Monosodium Glutamate, as a flavour enhancer) in a bowl then put the noodle and the vegetable called "Cai Sim/choy sum" (similiar to "Chinese cabbage - bok choy") into the boiling water for about 2 to 3 minutes. Drain the noodles and vegetable. Mix it altogether in the prepared bowl. On the top of the noodles, pour the minced chicken cooked with shallot, garlic and sweet soybean sauce (plus don't forget the MSG!)

Voila.... and you can start to enjoy the chicken noodles :)

A bowl of this simple chicken noodle costs Rp. 6.000
currency rate:
1 USD = Rp. 12.100; 1 RM = Rp. 3.300; 1 SGD = Rp. 7.900)

Tukang Roti (bread man)

"Rootttiiiiiii....... Rooottiiiiii....... Roooottttiiiiiiii......"

The typical shouting that you can hear from those men selling bread on their bicycle/motorbike-carts around almost all Jakarta's residential neighborhoods every early morning starting from 5 am to 8 am.

I usually see this Tukang roti (trans: bread man) with his bicycle-cart on my way to the office when I pass this small street.


And most of the times, I see him feeding a stray cat with his fresh bread. Isn't that so sweet and kind of this bread man?

Yes, Nic (khkl)! Cats also eat bread sometimes ;)

There are breads with several filling like chocolate, grated peanut with sugar, grated coconut, and also cheese. Each bread costs Rp. 2.000 (less than 20 cents US).

A loaf of bread costs Rp. 5.000.

Btw.. out of topic, I saw a guy selling toys on his bicycle :)

Gokana Teppan Restaurant

I had lunch together with my mom and her friend at Gokana Teppan Restaurant located in Kelapa Gading Mall -North of Jakarta. It's my second time eating in this restaurant.

The place is nice, food is quite good and the price is also reasonable for a restaurant in a mall but not convenient at all for those who like to pay with their credit cards because this restaurant only accepts cash.
The sign on the right big jar says, "Do not take me to be thrown away!"The tapioca chips tasted salty and sweet then there's a light bitterness at the end of the taste. Uhmmm... a funny taste! :D
My mom had Chicken Yakiniku. According to her, it tasted ordinary good.
My mom's friend had Chicken Teriyaki - a bit too sweet but delicious.

And for me, I had a yummy Chicken Teppan :)

Donat Kentang (Potato donut)

Some people say that Indonesia is the heaven of donuts in Southeast Asia because we have all the big donut franchises such as:

Despite of the donuts' demand at those big donuts' franchises, the traditional Indonesian donut made from potato is still existing. We called it as Donat Kentang (trans: donat = doughnuts, kentang = potato).

You can find it the small stalls in the malls or you even also can find the traditional donuts on the streets
Let's compare the prices ;)

1 pc assorted Dunkin Donut Rp. 6.000
1 pc J.Co glazzy donut Rp. 5. 000 and 1 pc assorted donut Rp. 5.500
1 pc Krispy Kreme original glazed Rp. 5.800
And guess what? 3 pcs of Donat kentang is only Rp. 5.000

(currency rate: 1 USD = Rp. 12.000, 1 RM = Rp. 3.500, 1 SGD = Rp. 8.000)
If you want to try to make it by yourself, below is a simple yummy recipe of Donat Kentang from my friend.

Ingredients:
500 gr flour (high protein)
200 gr steamed potato then mashed it
12 gr instant dry yeast
50 gr milk powder (full cream)
75 gr butter or margarine
100 gr sugar
1/2 tsp salt
4 egg yolks
100 ml cold water
oil to fry the dough

Directions:
- Put together flour, sugar, milk powder, instant dry yeast in a bowl, then add the mashed potato and egg yolks, mix them altogether until a soft dough is formed
- Put butter and salt, until elastic
- Leave first for 15 minutes.
- Devided the dough into small balls size of 50 gr each
- Leave again for 20 minutes to rise
- Make a hole in the middle of each ball
- Fry those dough in the hot oil in a medium sized pan until become golden
- Remove from oil and drain
- Let cool then you can put toppings like powder sugar, chocolate sprinkles or cheese on it

Btw, I recently received 2 awards, yay! :D
The first is from Yasmeen. Thank you, Yasmeen!
She made this lovely award by herself as an gratitude and pass it to all the bloggers who take time to leave encouraging comments and useful suggestions at her blog.

Hence, I'm also passing this award to ALL of you who have been reading and commenting in my blog :)

And the second award is from Xo , Thank you, Xo!
this award means:
“This blog invests and believes the PROXIMITY - nearness in space, time and relationships! These blogs are exceedingly charming. These kind bloggers aim to find and be friends. They are not interested in prizes or self-aggrandizement. Our hope is that when the ribbons of these prizes are cut, even more friendships are propagated. Please give more attention to these writers! Deliver this award to eight bloggers who must choose eight more and include this cleverly-written text into the body of their award.”

So now, I will pass this Proximity award to 8 bloggers: Food for Tots, Pam, thenomadGourmand, CK Lam, Pearl, Eat Travel Eat, Heather, and Pisang Goreng .

Kembang Tahu - Tofu Flowers(2)

Last week, mom and I went to BSD city to visit her friend. BSD city is about 30 Km from Jakarta.

When we just arrived in front of the house of my mom's friend, I saw this Kembang Tahu's vendor (Tofu Flowers) with his push-cart and it didn't make me to think twice before I decided to buy 3 bowls of this Kembang Tahu. No.. no..., I didn't eat the whole 3 bowls of Kembang Tahu by myself! I shared with my mom and her friend :)


In Jakarta, the Kembang Tahu vendors are not selling Kembang Tahu on a cart, instead they are carring it on their shoulders like this picture below (for more pictures of Kembang Tahu in Jakarta, click here):
This guy is not only selling Kembang Tahu, but also cold soybean milk. I was a little bit tempted to buy a plastic of the cold soybean milk but, uhmmm... it's not a good idea to buy it during a cloudy weather, maybe I'll buy it when I visit BSD city again on a hot sunny day.

It costed me Rp. 3.000 for a bowl (less than 30 cents U$).

As soon as I paid for the Kembang Tahu, the rain started to pour.... It's definitely ok since I'd a bowl of warm Kembang Tahu in my hands ;D

Yummm... it's so nice to eat Kembang Tahu.... The texture is so smooth and silky, glides nicely down my throat... and the ginger syrup definitely warms up my body especially on a rainy cool day.

Es Cendol = Es Dawet

Who likes to drink Es Cendol? Please raise your hand ;)

I believe everyone who lives in Southeast Asia is familiar with this drink.

Well, I'd been wondering all the time where does Es Cendol originally come from, thus I searched in the internet and....

Ta daaaa...! I found it :)

So, according to Wikipedia, Cendol is a traditional dessert originating from Java, Indonesia, but is also popular in Malaysia, Singapore, and Southern Thailand (where it is called "lorkchorng singapore" ลอดข่องสิงคโปร์). The dessert's basic ingredients consist of shaved ice, coconut milk, starch noodles with green food coloring (usually sourced from the pandan leaf), and palm sugar. Red beans, glutinous rice, grass jelly, and creamed corn are optional additions. Cendol has become a quintessential part of cuisine among the multi-racial population in Southeast Asia and is often sold by vendors at roadsides, hawker centres and food courts.

In the Javanese language, cendol refers to the jelly-like part of the beverage, while the combination of cendol, palm sugar and coconut milk is called dawet.

A stall of Es Cendol on the street in Jakarta.

Some vendors will even add Jackfruit (Nangka) in their palm sugar syrup. I like if there's jackfruit in my cendol because it added a nice aroma and chrunciness :)

Rp. 3.500 per glass
(currency rate: 1 USD = Rp. 11. 700
1 RM = Rp. 3.400
1 SGD = Rp. 7.800)

Bubur Ayam (Chicken Rice Porridge)

Although people are saying breakfast is the most important meal of the day, but I usually don't have breakfast except in the weekend.

But then last week, a colleague told that there's a very delicious Bubur Ayam (Chicken Rice Porridge. Trans: Bubur = Porridge, Ayam = Chicken) near to the office, thus out of curiousity, I gave it a try..... and....


*rolling the drums*


Yup, it's true... it's yummy... :)

This is a common cart of Bubur Ayam on the street that you can find easily here in Jakarta in the morning.

The vendor is preparing the "take - away" Bubur Ayam.

Toppings for Bubur Ayam

From left to right (in the plastic jars): mustard green pickle (tong cai), fried soybeans, fried shallots, chopped celery leaves.

Sauces for Bubur Ayam

From left to right: Salty soya sauce, Chicken oil & broth, Sweet soya sauce, Chilli peanut sauce

The step by step preparation:
1. Pour the porridge into the styrofoam box.

2. then pour the chicken oil & broth and salty soya sauce.

3. Pour the sweet soya sauce.

4. Put the Kerupuk (sago chips) and Emping (malinjo chips)


5. Add slices of Cakwee (yaotiao/ yau char kway) and chopped celery leaves


6. Then fried soybeans and tong cai (mustard green pickle)


7. The final touch, chicken on the top :)

1 box of Bubur Ayam costs Rp. 6.000
(currency rate:
1 U$ = Rp. 12.000
1 RM = Rp. 3.300)