Roast Pork and an award

So happy, when I heard that mom was going to make roast pork for lunch :)

What should I say after I finished a plate of mom's cooking beside yummy? Thank you, Mom! :)

This is how my mom made the roast pork served with red beets salad and boiled potatoes.

Roast Pork:
- 1.7 kg piece of pork from the shoulder.
- Make a cut every 3 centimeters or so on the meat.

- Rub the meat on all sides with 1/2 tsp ground caraway seed, 6 ground garlic, 1 tsp salt and 1 tsp white pepper.
- Brush olive oil onto the meat.

- On the base of a shallow roasting pan, put first the sliced onions, follow with chopped carrots and celery, then put the pork bones along, on the top put the seasoned pork.

- Preheat the oven to 180°C for about 10 minutes
- As soon as the pork is put in the low rack of oven, turn the oven temperature up to 220°C for 20-25 minutes, then reduce to 180° for the rest of the cooking time (total of 120 to 130 minutes).
- Occasionally pour some broth (or dark beer) - total about 1/2 liter to the roast.

Boiled potatoes and red beets

Red beets salad:
- Cut the red beets into slices
- Put in the bowl
- Mix with sugar and white vinegar

See how my little Vincent was sniffing the yummy fragrance from the roast pork lunch while I took the picture of it :)


An Award

Helene and Bits of Taste have kindly passed the "Kreativ Blogger Award" to me.

Thank you very much, it's so kind and thoughtful of you two! :)

The rules:

1- Thank the person who awarded you.
2- Copy the logo and paste it on your blog
3- Link to the person who nominated you for the award
4- Name 7 things about yourself that people might find interesting
5- Nominate 7 Kreativ Bloggers
6- Post links to the 7 blogs you nominate
7- Leave a comment on each of the blogs to let them know they’ve been nominated

So here are 7 things about me:
1. I love cold and gloomy weather
2. I love history and culture
3. I love languages
4. I love chocolate
5. I love collecting post stamps
6. I love kungfu movies
7. I love learning new stuff

I'm passing to 7 kreativ bloggers:
1. Food-4Tots
2. Cake, Batter and Bowl
3. Duchess of Tea
4. ChezWhat?
5. Dustjacket Attic
6. ♥peachkins♥
7. the ungourmet

Happy Weekend!

Kue Leker and A Monkey Dancer

To find kue lekker on the street in Jakarta isn’t easy, only certain places that have this vendors, but for sure, it’s very easy to find them in Semarang and Solo (cities in Central Java). According to the vendor, Kue Leker is originally from Lamongan (a small city in East Java).

The cart is on the bicycle.

More or less, kue lekker is like crepes/thin pancake.

I’m not sure whether literally kue leker means “Yummy cake”.

In Indonesian language, kue means cake.
Well there’s no word “leker” in Indonesian language, however Indonesia was colonized by Dutch for about 300 years and lekker means yummy/delicious in Dutch. A big possibility that the word that the leker word refers to lekker? ;)

Same ingredients as crepes/pancake.

The mini pan rotates on the fire and the vendor has to spin it manually with a handle tool.

The fire under the mini pan

For topping, you can ask for sugar, chocolate or strawberry condensed milk, cheese, chocolate sprinkles or banana, it's your choice! *wink*

The local bananas.

Fold the kue leker.

In a plastic bag.

Not really recommended actually to put in a plastic bag because kue leker has crispy texture at the beginning when taken out directly from the mini pan, so the yummiest way to eat kue leker is right away :)

Doger Monyet
While I was waiting for the kue leker being made, I saw 4 men with a monkey walking into our direction.


They stopped directly across the kue leker vendor and started to let the monkey to do a performance. 2 men were in charge to play "music" ( hitting small drums), 1 man handled the monkey by pulling and pushing with a long chain then the other man started to walk around with a bowl in order to beg for some money from the people who were watching.

This performance called “Doger monyet” and has been performed more than 100 years in West Java.

Doger (in Sundanese - West Java language) means a female dancer; usually in a people's theater, and Monyet (in Indonesian language) means monkey.

Anyway, looking this kind of performance broke my heart. I feel so sorry for this little monkey that must work for these 4 healthy men.


I donated some money but then in my mind, I got a feeling that the monkey might not receive her "right" of the income share. Just imagine, how much money actually would be earned everyday from this kind of performance, not much that's for sure and need to be divided to those 4 men for their living :(

Good thing, I remembered that the kue leker vendor provides bananas for topping, so I asked him for a banana (of course, the banana wasn’t free).


Look how the little monkey enjoyed her banana. She must be feeling very hungry *sobs*

I wish I could give the little monkey a hug or at least a pat on her head.

Tukang Es Jeruk (Orange juice)

A man is selling fresh orange juice on a cart.

He uses Pontianak oranges (Jeruk Pontianak) to make the juice.

Pontianak oranges come from West Borneo - Indonesia. These kind of oranges are also called as Siam oranges.

The orange juice man needs many oranges to make one glass.
Although the oranges are very sweet but the vendor adds white sugar syrup.

There is nothing more refreshing than freshly squeezed orange juice :)

A glass of Pontiank orange juice costs Rp. 5.000 (less than USD 0.50)

Kafe Pisa Menteng, Jakarta

Last night, my friend brought me to Kafe Pisa for a nice and yummy Italian dinner to celebrate my birthday :)

Kafe Pisa is a restaurant that offers authentic Italian atmosphere and a mini nice garden just like Italian patio. The restaurant is divided into the main Café, Garden area, and additional area.

We decided to sit in the additional area although we couldn't see the live music performance in the main Café area.

Our orders:

French Fries with tuna dressing
Price Rp. 30.000

Vulcano Pizze
Price Rp. 89.000
(Volcano style pizza with tomato sauce, mozzarella cheese, smoked beef and mushrooms)

Involtino Di Pollo
Price Rp. 77.000
(Rolled chicken breast stuffed with mozzarella cheese & smoked beef in mushroom sauce)

Kafe Pisa is famous for its gelato (ice cream), freshly made everyday without any use of additives.

Thus, instead of a birthday cake, I had...

Coppa Amore
Price Rp. 39.500
(6 scoops of Gelato served with crispy wafers, whipped cream, cherry, and chocolate sauce).

All prices are subjected to 18.8% government tax & service.
Currency: 1 USD = Rp. 10. 200

Address:
Jl. Gereja Theresia No.1, Menteng
Jakarta Pusat, 10350
Tel: 021-3100 151

My other related posts of this restaurant:
Kafe Pisa
Lunch at an Italian restaurant
Cafe Pisa

Martabak Mini (Mini Pancake)

A week ago, I was at a bus station when I saw a man selling Martabak mini on a cart.
Here in Indonesia, we have 2 kind of Martabaks (sweet and salty).

Martabak Mini is the mini size of the original Sweet Martabak (the diameter size is about 35 cm). Sweet Martabak is actually sweet thick crepes/thick pancakes - often filled with cheese, chocolate, or ground peanuts. Main ingredients are flour, water, eggs, baking soda and margarine.

Martabak Mini with chocolate sprinkler and banana.

Martabak Mini with chocolate sprinkler and ground peanuts.

Folded.

Final touch, brushed the Martabak mini with margarine.1 Martabak mini costs Rp. 700 (about USD 0.50).

By the way, this early morning, I decided to make mini pancakes ;)

My own mini pancake creation:
3 tbsp flour
1/2 cup milk
1/2 tsp baking soda
1/2 tbsp olive oil
1 egg

Mix altogether then fry on a mini pan.

Less than 10 minutes, 4 slices of mini pancakes are served to be eaten with homemade strawberry jam.

A perfect breakfast to start my birthday :)