Lunch Meetings

In my old office, lunch meetings among the Partners and Directors were held every Wednesday until the last couple of years, it becomes once a month. We (staff) usually would be so happy when there's lots of left overs because we could bring it home :)

Board Room

Satays

Desserts

Bye 2009.... Bye left overs..
Hello 2010.... Hello new opportunities...

"HAPPY NEW YEAR 2010"

Mie Udang Singapore (Singapore Shrimp Noodles)

Craving for Singaporean noodles? I guess I don't need to fly to Singapore.... ;)

My friend has been talking about this house restaurant so many times. Well, I'm not so sure whether I can say it as restaurant since it's actually a house but the owner's turned their living room to be a restaurant from morning until afternoon (around 2 pm).

I had Mie Udang Singapore (Singapore shrimp noodles) . The noodles came with the ingredients of morning glory, shrimp balls, shrimps, sliced pork. Sprinkled with spring onion, fried lard (fat pork) and fried shallots. So delicious! The soup was enhanced by the shrimp broth.

This is my friend's favorite dish - Mie Goreng Kangkung Terasi. Fried noodles with morning glory, fish cake, beansprouts, sliced pork, shrimp, red chili, shrimp paste and sprinkle of fried shallots . I also like this dish too. It's a really flavorful spicy and I even could smell the nice aroma of its gravy from my friend's plate.

Address:
Mie Udang Singapore "Mi Mi"
Komplek Green Ville Blok B 1 No. 16
Tahap 4, Jakarta Barat

Disclaimer:The review and opinion expressed here are purely according to my personal taste. There's a possibility that the taste of the food might change later on, which could affect the review and opinion here. I also affirm that no monetary or non-monetary compensation has been received from this restaurant for writing this review.

Christmas Stollen

It's a tradition for my mom to bake Stollen every Christmas. Sometimes, my mom would make stollen as Christmas presents or she got some orders from our friends

Stollen is a traditional Christmas cake from Germany, made from yeast dough containing dried fruits, chopped almonds and powdered with icing sugar. Stollen usually shaped like a folded oval but this time, my mom made it different shape like fruit cake based on a request.

Christmas Stollen recipe from Zwickau
The recipe is to make three or four loaves. If it’s too much, then you can make 1/2 of the recipe.

For the day before:
5½ cups sultanas
5 tablespoons vanilla sugar
16 tbsp rum
4½ cups butter
3⅓ cups sweet almonds, skinned and finely chopped
¾ cup bitter almonds, skinned and finely chopped
1⅓ cups candied lemon peel, coarsely chopped
½ cup candied orange peel, coarsely chopped

For baking day:
5½ lbs. flour, sifted
1 cup yeast
1½ cups sugar
4 cups milk
juice and peel of two lemons
Butter and powdered sugar for the glaze

The day before:
Wash the sultanas two to three times and drain them. Then mix them with the vanilla sugar and the rum. Put the butter in a pot. Take out the almonds and the candied fruits. Leave the sultana mixture, the butter, the almonds and the candied fruit out overnight to warm to room temperature.

On baking day:
1. Pour the flour into a bowl and make a crater in the middle.
Mix together the yeast, three teaspoons of the sugar and ½ of the milk. Pour the mixture into the flour crater and work the whole thing into a dough. Cover and let rise in a warm place.

2. Mix the dough with the sugar, the vanilla sugar and the fresh lemon juice and peel. Work the butter (not melted) into the dough using as much tepid milk as necessary to make a smooth, but not sticky dough. Knead the dough until it pulls away from the sides of the bowl.

3. Then fold the almonds, candied fruits and sultanas into the dough until they are distributed throughout. Cover the dough again and put it in a warm place to rise for two hours.
Then knead it again and let it rest for another 30 minutes. Now divide the dough into 2 kg (4 lb.) lumps and form them into the shape of bread loaves. Using the back of your hand press a deep furrow all the way down the stollen, dividing the log into two differently-sized loaves. Fold the narrow length over the broader length.

4. Bake on a well-greased baking pan at 175° C (350° F) for 1¼ - 1½ hours or until golden.

5. Brush the stollen immediately after baking with melted butter. Sprinkle with icing sugar before serving.

Since these Stollens are based on request and look not like the authentic stollen, therefore, decorations on them become essential ;)

The decorations made from fondant.

Wishing you all:

"MERRY CHRISTMAS 2009
filled with love, hope and happiness"

Christmas Stollen

Christmas Cookies

One more week before Christmas day! Thus.. I can't help myself from not making cookies with the Christmas theme :)

I really enjoy "playing" with the dough, the cookies cutters and my most favorite part is when the cookies have been cooled down from the oven, then I can decorate them with royal icing. It's so much fun! ;)

p.s: I'm still using the same roll-out cookies recipe from Wilton.

A weekend in Singapore

I was spending my weekend in Singapore :) Singapore is not far from Jakarta, it only takes approximately 1 hour 40 minutes by an airplane.

I arrived in Singapore on Friday noon and directly headed from the airport to meet a Singaporean blogger named Misti for the first time. She brought me for a yummy lunch at Sophia Food Mall - Peace Centre on Sophia Road. It's really great to meet you, Misti and also thank you so much for the yummy lunch! :)

Hor Fun

A nice savory dish which is thick flat rice noodle with slices of pork, fish cake, mushroom, shrimp, and choy sum in a gravy made from tapioca flour and soy sauce.

Roti Prata
Indian pancake bread served with 3 type of curry saucesAnother version of roti prata with onion, egg and green chili

In the evening before dinner, I managed to eat the Azabu Sabo Hokkaido ice cream at Takashimaya food court at Ngee Ann city - Orchard road. It's a recommendation from Nic - Black Tie, White Lie. Thanks, Nic! Too bad, we couldn't meet up, next time, ya? ;)

Interesting how the ice cream is prepared.

I had a double scoops of double berry (a mixture of strawberry and blueberry flavors) and matcha (green tea). I think this is one of the best ice cream I've ever had! The texture is so soft and also creamy. Just perfect after a long hot day :)

Dinner at Food Republic at Wisma Atria shopping centre - Orchard Road, together with my ex-colleagues.

I had Nasi Briyani.

A very strong fragrant and savory fried rice with spices (i.e: saffron, ghee, cumin, cloves, cardamom, cinnamon, bay leaves, mint leaves, onion, garlic, coriander, etc.) and a nice crispy fried chicken.

One of my ex-colleagues had this noodle called Mee Rebus that she couldn't finish - not even half of the bowl although she was starving because it tasted too cloying for our Indonesian taste.

The next day, I was invited for lunch at Wee Nam Kee Hainanese Chicken Rice Restaurant, located at 275 Thomson Road #01-05, Novena Ville.

Although this restaurant doesn't look like a fancy restaurant but the food is wonderful delicious.

Black Pepper Crab

Fish Head Curry
Hainanese Roasted Chicken

Hainanese Rice

Sapo Tofu

Stir fried bean sprout

Cereal PrawnsBarley drink

I didn't take dinner because I was too full with all the food from lunch but then, at midnight my friends brought me to have a little snack at the Al-Meen Eating House, serving Indian food and also Thai food. It's located on Changi Road.

Lassi

A traditional Indian blended yoghurt with water, salt, pepper, ice and Indian spices. It's very refreshing.

Chicken tikka

Boneless chicken marinated with spices.

Last day in Singapore, before heading back to Jakarta, I had breakfast first with my friends at one of the Coffee Bean's outlets in East Coast Parkway.

Waffles

Salmon Egg n' Muffin

Brek O'day

Well..... I really had a lot of fun and enjoyed very much this short trip.... :)

Cute doggies cookies

Last week, my little doggies - Vincent and Bella, celebrated their 1st birthday :)

In order to celebrate it, I wanted to make something that resembles to my puppies and found out this cute doggies cookies recipe which also tasted really yummy especially because the chocolate chips and crushed cornflakes' filling inside it that make these cookies nicely crunchy. The great part of these cookies, there's no sugar or egg to make the dough! The sweet taste is from the chocolate chips and koko crunch.

Believe me, when you start to eat it then you might can not stop to eat the rest of the cookies! I'm so addicted to these cookies right now! *munches... munches...*

Ingredients:
adapted from Amanda
200g butter
200g flour
25g corn flour
25g milk powder

Fillings:
60g chocolate chips (or more)
20g cornflakes (crushed)

Toppings:
Koko Krunch (for the ears)
Chocolate chips (for the nose)
Food marker - black color (for the eyes)

Directions:
- Pre-heat oven to medium level (about 320 F)
- Cream butter till it becomes pale color
- Add flour, corn flour and milk powder then mix together
- Divide the dough into 10g each, flatten each piece of dough and add in the fillings (some chocolate chips and crushed cornflakes). Roll into balls. Note: If you like sweet, then you can be generous filling with more chocolate chips
- Decorate to make a dog's head feature. Insert 2 koko krunch to form the ears and chocolate chips in the center for the nose.
- Bake for 35 minutes or until golden brown
- Leave to cool
- Make the eyes with black food marker
- Store in an air-tight container

Happy baking! :)

Tukang Nasi Goreng Tek-Tek (Fried Rice Man)

Last time, sometimes when I didn't bring lunch to the office, I would go to buy fried rice from a street vendor that always put his cart beside the office building. The vendor sells not only fried rice but also fried noodle but my favorite is always the fried rice :)

I think there are more than 101 ways of fried rice, you can named from chicken fried rice, seafood fried rice, shrimp paste chili fried rice, and all those kind of fusion fried rices.

The fried rice street vendors are known as Tukang Nasi Goreng Tek - Tek (Tek - Tek Fried Rice man) because when they are selling around the neighborhood with their carts, instead of shouting, they always make a sound... "tek - tek - tek - tek" by tapping a wood :)

Inside the cart:

MSG, salt, oil and sweet soy sauce in bottles

1. a bowl to whisk egg
2. chili sauce for frying
3. blended spices: nutmeg, shallot, garlic, salt, oil

The way of making Tek - Tek Fried Rice:

A. Chop spring onions
B. Cut Chinese cabbage (choy sum)
C. Heat the oil in a wok, add spring onions
D. Add whisked egg with a pinch of salt, make like scramble egg

E. Add Chinese cabbage and blended spices no. 3
(like hot and spicy, add chili sauce no. 2)
F. Add white rice.
G. Cut some fried chicken.
H. Drizzle some sweet soy sauce and salt.

I. Stir altogether
J. Cucumber, bird's eye chili and carrot pickles

And not forgetting tapioca crackers plus fried shallot for final touch.
A plate of Tek-tek fried rice is so full filling... yum... yum... yum... :)

1 portion Rp. 6.000 (about 60 cents USD)