Tukang Kacang Rebus (Peanuts Man)

Twice a week, I see this 75 years old man selling braised peanuts and Bogor peanuts in front of my office building.

3 hours of cooking in boiling water with a pinch of salt to make the peanut soft and tender.

These are Kacang Bogor (Bogor peanuts) named after a city "Bogor" which located 60 Km from Jakarta and well known as the Rainy city.

A cup of peanut costs Rp. 3.000

Warung Desa

Warung Desa restaurant opens 24 hours from Mon - Sun, located at Jl. H. Agus Salim (more known as Jalan Sabang) No. 55, Jakarta Pusat. It has various menu (Western food, Arabian food, Chinese food, and Indonesian food).
Quite interesting to see the menu under the glass cover on the top of the table.

The view of Jalan Sabang (Sabang Street) from the Warung Desa's window.

I ordered Nasi Pepes Bakar Isi Ayam (Roasted steamed rice with sweet soysauce chicken filling) wrapped in banana leaves. It's really good!
My colleague had a yummy Kwetiauw Goreng Seafood (Fried seafood flat rice noodles/char kway teow).

Currency rate:
1 USD = Rp. 11.750
1 Euro = Rp. 16.100
1 MYR = Rp. 3.225

Translation:
Warung = Small shop
Desa = Village

Tukang Sayur (Vegetable man) and awards

Me: "Mom, do we still have tomatoes in the fridge?"Mom: "I don't think so. Just wait for the Tukang sayur to pass by and I'll buy some for you."

Everyday, there'll be several Tukang Sayur (men selling vegetables on their charts) passing by our house from the morning until the afternoon. So, here in Jakarta (and I believe also in other cities in Indonesia), if you need vegetables and too lazy to go out to buy at the fresh/wet market or supermarket, you just need to wait in front of your house and there'll be a vegetable man passing by your house with his cart.

What's great of these Vegetable Men beside that you can choose many kind of vegetables on their charts. Well, not only vegetables, but also meats such as fresh fish and chicken. There're also fruits such as oranges, avocados, papayas and bananas. And guess what? The prices are very slighly different to the prices at the fresh/wet market :)


This man is specializing for only selling Morning Glory, also known as water spinach, kangkung or ong-choy.


And now.. time for awards! Recently, I received 2 awards.

First: Mica from Mica Pie tagged me this blog award. If not mistaken this one called Lemonade award. Thank you, Mica!

And now, I'm passing this award to:
1. Cumi & Ciki
2. Mimid3vils3. Nazarina A4. Donna-FFW

Second: Katherine Aucoin from SmokyMountain Cafe passed me this "Friends Award". Thank you, Katherine!
Along with this award comes this message:
"These blogs are exceedingly charming. These kind bloggers aim to find and be friends. They are not interested in self-aggrandizement. Our hope is that when the ribbons of these prizes are cut, even more friendships are propagated."It also says : "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."
I am passing this "Friends award" to:
1. Sam from My Carolina Kitchen2. Mary from One Perfect Bite3. MaryBeth from Dunkin Cooking the Semi-Homemade Way4. Yasmeen from Health Nut
5. Nihal from Turkish Food Passion
6. Monica H from Lick The Bowl Good7. Sapuche from The World Tastes Good8. Donna-FFW from My Tasty Treasures
Have a nice day!

Selby's Cupcakes

Last year, I’d been trying to make cupcakes but then always no success because my cupcakes were sinking all the time although I tried the cupcakes recipes from those famous bakers. I actually already gave up on making cupcakes.

Yesterday, I got inspired to make cupcakes again after I read Big Boys Oven post. He made these beautiful yoghurt cranberries cupcakes with white chocolate cream.

From BBO’s recipe, I made some modifications because I don't have confectionery sugar, no yoghurt, no sun dried cranberries, then since I don't self-raising flour so I added baking powder. Hmmm.... it sounds that this is not following BBO's recipe at all, hahaha....

Ingredients:

220g unsalted butter, softened
160g sugar
1 tsp vanilla powder
3 medium eggs
220g flour
1 tsp baking powder
100 ml milk

Everyone who loves to bake, definitely know the basic method of making batter which is mixing the butter and sugar first until light and fluffy then when adding the eggs, it supposedly one in a time after each addition. And guess what kind of silly thing I did? I mixed the butter, sugar, vanilla power and the eggs altogether at the same time! Oops!!!

If other people bake cupcakes between 20 – 30 minutes, my cupcakes were almost 1 hour in the oven! But, hey! Surprisingly... my cupcakes were not sinking at all!!! Wooohooo… finally, I made it! So happy :)

As for the topping, again.... I didn't follow BBO's recipe because no white chocolate and icing sugar. Thus, I melted the dark chocolate and put the small flowers which I made it from sugar fondant on the top of my cupcakes.

Not bad, huh? ;)

Lotek (Sundanese vegetable salad)

Ibu Rose (Mrs. Rose) has been selling Lotek since year 1970. She has a stall in front of her house. It opens daily from 9 AM - 2 PM and only for a take-out because ibu Rose doesn't provide a place to eat.

What is Lotek? Lotek is the traditional Sundanese (West Java) vegetable salad with peanut sauce. It's similiar to Gado-gado (the famous Indonesian traditional dish) but in lotek, there's an additional ingredient which is galangal (kencur), dried shrimp paste (terasi) and garlic (bawang putih).The steamed/boiled vegetables:

Usually, Lotek is eaten with lontong (steamed rice wrapped in banana leaves)

Chips from sago.

The bamboo's root is to grind the peanut and other ingredients to make the peanut sauce. A bamboo's root will only last for less than 1 year. It will become smaller and smaller after being used.

How to make Lotek?

First grind the salt, dried shrimp paste (also can add the chili padi for those who like hot flavor) and garlic.

Then add the mixed water of kaffir lime and tamarind.

Grind it.

Grind the young steamed jackfruit to add the tickness of the peanut sauce.
Cut the fried potato, fried tofu and fried soybean cake.
Add the vegetable.
Mix it all together with the peanut sauce.Put and wrap the lotek in a brown paper.
And the final touch, sprinkle fried shallot and kerupuk aci on the top of lotek.

It costs Rp. 7.000

(currency: 1 USD = Rp. 12.000)

Selamat makan! :)