Easy Chickpeas Salad

Chickpeas weren't my food before. 

I didn't know the existence and taste of chickpeas until I move to Malaysia. 

It's one of the important ingredient in Indian food.

The first time I ate chickpeas on its own was from Nandos three bean salad. 

It was soft, nutty, and filling (means less bread or rice intake, heheh...!)

Since then I am addicted to chickpeas. 

Mr use to add chickpeas to chili and curry too, 

but it has to be a lot of hassle making it.

Salad is the easiest way to enjoy chickpeas. 

I bought dried chickpeas, it lot of cheaper than bought in the tin.

I soaked 1 cup dried chickpeas with warm water for the whole night, rinse, and boil it for about 15-20 minutes. I turn off the fire after 5 minute boil, and let the remain heat cook the chickpeas.

Rinse again with cold water, that's it...

soft nutty chickpeas ready to go

Ingredient for Chickpea salad:

1 cup cooked chickpeas

1/2 cucumber, remove the seeds and cut

1 tsp chopped parsley

1 tsp chopped red chili

1 tsp chopped yellow onion)

Any other ingredient you like (tomatoes, bell pepper)

Salt, pepper, olive oil

Mix together and ready to serve

I enjoy it with sliced cucumber and soybean patties :)

EASY JAPANESE CURRY

I've been eating Japanese curry from restaurant in Mr's apartment. 

Which I think Japanese curry is totally different with any South Asian curry (Indian, Srilankan, Bengali, Mamak). Japanese curry is softer, sweeter and lighter. No greasy taste after the meal, I guess because they use flour to thicken the sauce instead of coconut milk.

Japanese curry is milder, sweeter, and usually served as a gravy. 

An "Animal" protein will cook separately either deep fried or baked.

Tired with queue and watching the huge portion of take away food. 

Yes, take out food nowadays always came in the jumbo size portion which totally not fair. 

Want not-throw not..??

Force me to look for the recipe to cook my own so that I could adjust the portion. And hey... Save money... (ha ha, not for this curry) the cost of cooking is higher than take away..!

Making Japanese curry is actually easier than making Indian curry,

but more ingredient needed. I adopt the recipe from here but then I found it too complicated, and the amount of butter and oil scared me out ($$$$, Kcal, run, hungry, &%^^$##@)

Here is my own version which the results are still have same taste...

Ingredient :

1 potato, peel and cubed

1 carrot, peel and cubed

1/2 cup frozen peas

1 onion, minced

2 cloves garlic, minced

salt, pepper

1 tsp cooking oil

2 cups water

1 tbs flour

1 tsp Worcestershire sauce

1 tsp ketchup

1 tbs mild curry powder (I use maharajah brand)

How to:

1. Heat cooking oil, and add in onion. Stir fried until onion soft and fragrant, add in garlic, stir in

    1 minutes. Add in curry powder, stir a bit 9about 20 second..? I guess).

2. Add in cubed potatoes, carrot and water, cover the lid. Boil until potato is cooked.

3. Add Worcestershire sauce, ketchup, salt and pepper.

4. Mix the flour with a bit of water, and put into the curry. Stir well otherwise it will lumped.

5. Stir in frozen peas, leave it for a couple minutes. 

After all thick, nice and cooked, served with steam rice and fried breaded chicken (or anything you like) 

Cooking is not difficult, eh...

It just need a bit effort and habbit

and I got plenty left over to share with the officemates tomorrow :)

Easy Chicken Tacos

Wonder what to do with all the leftover..?

If you got plenty left over from the last night party and bored about making sandwiches or soup, tacos are some of the options.

I got plenty chicken and salads from the Christmas lunch

There is no special recipe in making tacos but a nice Taco sauce and fresh salsa are the key ingredient. Make sure the tortilla warmed before serving too :)

No real recipe, just simply arrange and ready to go..

Christmas Lunch 2013

Anyone stuck in Kuala Lumpur like us...??

yeah, a lot of us :)

Pity me, I can't travel anywhere because I have an exam on 28th Dec

Pity Rita, she couldn't balik kampong  cos MAS canceled her ticket and sell it to someone else...

BOO...!

Another girl stranded is Syaz, she has to stay in KL cos of her thesis...

We decide to gather and had some lunch together..

Simple roasted chicken and salad..

Meant to be a turkey, but way too big for three of us

*2 kg chicken is enough..!

and I made the easiest ever

Roasted Chicken :

1 big chicken (about 2kg)

olive oil

salt, pepper

2 cloves garlic, minced

2 stalks fresh rosemary (dry mix herbs will do too, like McCormick)

1/4 lemon

Clean and pat dry chicken, remove the excess fat (especially in bottom part)

Mix all the ingredients, and rub all over the chicken.

Be generous with the amount of black pepper.

Roasted on 170'C, for 2 hours.

Mean time I made boiled potato and simple salad.

yes, very simple.. (Way too simple)

Spinach mix salad

1 cup spinach leaves

1/2 carrot, slices like matches

1 tomato, chopped

1/2 cucumber, chopped

Mix all the ingredients, sprinkle a bit of salt, pepper, and squeeze bit lemon.

That's it.. :)

In the afternoon we continue the session with "teh tarik" with Syaz and her officemate.

Merry Christmas to all Christian friends,

Happy Holiday Everyone...

Hope you have a good day off

2013 ROUND UP

At the final month of 2013 

I would like to say thank you mainly for...

My Super Big Relief

Thesis

Finally I made it, after I enter - stop - lost every single cent of my life saving, power and hope -

I wake up...

start save from zero

 And register AGAIN to get what I've dreamed before

Life is so much easier if you put a trust on yourself 

*nototherpeople..!

Mambo Friends

I don't have many friends around, nor a hangout gang.
Most of the time I roam and travel alone.
But I have special people out from family color up my life and keep me feel like a human.

Thanks for staying around me...

Good Food All Year Around

Special thanks to my Mr ad his awesome cooking skills

Life is so tasty with you around :)

Never Ending Random Travel

It doesn't have to be fancy,

It doesn't have to be a place listed in Discovery Channel,

It doesn't have to be a luxury

Just book a cheap ticket, light pack, and Ciao...!

Of course there so many moments in 2013 I am thankful for I can't list them one by one..

It's been a joyful 2013

 And I am counting day to new year..

Jakarta Trip 5: Hari Raya Aidil Adha

After the train trip from Bandung, we arrive in Gambir Station, Jakarta around 6:00pm. The day has been dark and it is not so easy to get taxi. We have to wait at least 30 min in the queue to get Blue Bird taxi arrive. 

Most of the main road has been closed for Hari Raya Celebration ( takbir Akbar) so that the driver need to took further road to send us to the hotel. It cost us USD 5 for blue bird taxi from Gambir to Sudirman area, where the journey took about 40 min. Quite cheap yes...

We were way too tired to do anything, decide to have a quick dinner in Pizza Hut and sleep.

At 5:30 am we woke up and get ready to go to mosque for Hari Raya Prayer. When we arrive there people already line up with their newspaper and sajadah (prayer mat). We move the prayer on the main road because the mosque couldn't fit all the people.

It was actually burning hot when we sat by the road at 7:00 am,

but we still manage to took couple picture before the prayer.

Just after salam, we ran back to the apartment.

Both of us were hungry, and Mr been waiting for us for breakfast.

a weird breakfast combination

Something I really like about Indonesian food is our spring rolls.

Instead of yam or some radish, we use glass noodle or bean sprout as the filler.

We will fly back to Kuala Lumpur at the same day in the afternoon,

meanwhile we watch some random cartoon network and packing.

Shrek for Hari Raya day off : NOT BAD

At 11:00 am we took taxi to the airport.

I thought the road will be in bad traffic like usual so that I initiated to leave the hotel early.

Actually the road was super empty...

It took us about 40 min from Jakarta city to the airport

we spent sometimes to silly around in the airport

free seat and aircond in Starbucks

I was quite drunk in the airport..

way to cheap to say goodbye to my half-bottle bombay sapphire

end up with throw the coffee and use the paper cup to make concoction

My Darling

Thanks for being patient taking care of this old-drunk-wrinkle woman.. behehehhehe...

at 14:00 we leave Jakarta Raya to back to Kuala Lumpur

BYEEE BYEE JAKARTA

SEE YOU AGAIN WHEN YOU HAVE CHEAP TICKET AROUND

Jakarta Trip 4: Bandung Day Tour

In the morning we woke up around 4:30am,

I felt horrible  coz I don't get enough sleep, decide to just have some coffee from the dining room and do my blogging.

Mr still asleep, I decide to check the breakfast and feed myself such a nice Sundanese food. Heavy but makes me super happy.

At 8:30am, the driver arrived. Forgot to mention that I book the tour from Fres-tour, the operator also helps me to book my return train ticket from Bandung to Jakarta.

The pricing is quite a bargain if we compared with all the itinerary. For USD 37.5 per person for whole day tour include lunch, car, driver and all the parking.

We enter the car and start the journey to Tangkuban Perahu. A crater lake with a famous story among Sundanese in West Java. The journey from hotel to the entrance of Mount Tangkuban Perahu took around 45min with a beautiful village and farmland around. 

Too bad when we reach there the guard mentioned that the Mountain is closed due to erupt. It was very disappointing because the main reason I visit Bandung was to visit the Crater Lake, nothing else.

The guide tried to change the destination to Sari Ater Hot Spring, which for me was I don't even know why we went here.  It was a hot spring pool for people to soak their body and relax around. We just watch and get some horrible coffee with French fries. 

. 

Well the coffee is actually not a horrible,  just a style of Indonesian makes the coffee by mix the coffee ground in the serving glass.

Sari Ater is like a play field for families. Many attractions are offered here such as riding horses, dirty bike, 4WD ride, ATV, flying fox and many more. I just didn't expect to have this kind of attraction, we just walk around and leave the place for the next destination.

The next destination was Lembang Floating Market. It's actually a new family tourist destination to spend their weekend around. Like other floating market, the place sells a lot of food,drink and many more. 

We bought nothing event though my brain keeps telling to buy satay, shiu may, batagor and many more. But the place was way too many people scared me out to fight for food.

This Jumbo size lake been change into local attraction which..

well, quite creative

Around the area the management design it as a mini village with all the plants meant to be edible

its kind of cute too

Fresh Water as the main element for Sundanese daily life

Paddy field and mini saung (hut)

Basil leaves and lemony mints

The next to paddy field they create some mini-strawberry farm where the visitor allow to pick their own strawberry to weight and eat.

The Strawberry doesn't look that appetizing,

Too small and not red enough :P

The other corner of Strawberry Park is the big lake with very colorful boat parks along the side.

When we go close enough, those mini boats selling plenty different thing majority edible stuff.

Way too many people

Way too many foods

till I don't know what to buy and eat

We left the place couple hours later to get some lunch. Look for Nasi Padang food is quite hard in Bandung. Most of the restaurants were Sundanese theme. Based on fresh water fish and raw vegetable. I love the food, but I wasn't sure Mr will like it. So I guess Nasi Padang is the best option since the way they cook are almost similar with Malaysian curry and gulai.

Another nice experience having a meal in Nasi Padang is how they serve to the customer. Instead of giving them a menu to choose what they fancy to eat, the waiter will present every single food  they have in  a small plates. One mini plate for one kind of food.



Mr told me to not go crazy over the food which I was starting to. In this kind of Nasi Padang restaurant, we don't have to eat everything they served us. They only calculate the food which touches or contaminated by us. So yes, just touch the plates you are going to eat. The rest they will bring it back to the kitchen to re-heat.

After a very late lunch we head to Train Station. It was a crazy rain where we don't really have time to visit any factory outlet to buy something. I was just too paranoid and stress about the traffic jam and getting late to train station

We arrive bit too early, where we have around 40 minutes to roam around, take some pictures and look for some ice cubes to drink in the train.

Jakarta Trip 3: We off to Bandung

It was 9:30 am when we reach there and the train departed at 10:50.
For Malaysia time it is considered early, but here it is a quite late time.
5:30 am in Jakarta is already bright like 8:00 in Kuala Lumpur.
I must be the most uncivilized people where I keep expecting everything like in KL.
We had some coffee to kill the time and wander a bit around Monas (National Monument).


The business class we took wasn't that bad. Not a super comfortable but it doesn't kill me or makes me feel "eww". The airconditoning work OK, it worth for USD 7 ticket price.

Trip to Jakarta - Bandung took about 3 hours with plenty view of the Jakarta slump area and greenish beautiful village in the West Java. Damn my murky window makes me can't take a good picture.

Along the way the view is quite amusing. It's remind me with my college life with all the green and nature.

Stunning Green View

We arrive in Bandung at around 13:00 hrs and straight attacked by illegal taxi. I call it illegal because they use their family car and offer you a ride with some pay. We got quite a nice driver and send us to the hotel. It was cost us USD 6, for about 1 hr ride to reach Dago area.

When I search in Internet about the cool area to hang around in Bandung, many website talked about Dago. A lot of cafes, pub, and drinking place around. I kept thinking about an area like Kuta or Seminyak area where mini pub and drinking place are spread along the road. But I guess I translate it wrong.

Bandung Railway

I book a hotel in area Dago Atas (upper Dago) which more to traditional village in the highland where I should look for a hotel in Dago Bawah (Dago lower land).



For the beginner who never touch down to Indonesia especially Java island, you need to be understand that nobody control about the level of noise so call it noise-pollution. People can put their music on loudspeaker as loud as they wish at the time God-knows.

The Village view around

In Malaysia the government won't allow people to make a noise at certain level include Asian (prayer call), they still manage it at low-reasonable-volume. In Indonesia you will surprise how loud they are.

Anyway, it doesn't really matter to me since I am half deaf. I still can sleep or do my activity with the noises.

After we check in to the hotel, we look for lunch nearby. Stone cafe was the nearest, and it's selling beer too. With the concept of Sundanese style of Saung, a noise from crazy motorbike, and cold from the rain, we enjoy our lunch here.

Saung at Stone Cafe

On the evening we just hang around the hotel, watch tv and nap. Nothing really in Dago Atas. Such a village with not much thing around but people and their overprice cafe.

In the evening after prayer call we went out to get some dinner. The first place we visit was Laos Cafe. The building look good but not really impressive, so we walk further to go to Congo Cafe. The sign-board said that the cafe only 300 meters from the main road, so we decide to walk.
Actually it much more further than we think. We have to walk round the golf course, about 3KM. At night, quiet, along the jungle and bushes.

super tiring walk to Congo Cafe

Nothing really impressive here, we decide to go back after dinner and watch TV at the hotel. I kept thinking I must be grow too old, I can't take any activity too far from my bed at night. I don't feel safe or something. We slept early cos we need to get up early for city tour tomorrow morning.

TV and Sleep

Jakarta Trip 2: Jakarta in My Point of View

The last time I landed my feet in Jakarta was in 2006,
Picked by Intan my good old mate to join her work before we went to her house.


How I familiar about Jakarta..? Zero..!!
What is my opinion about Jakarta..??
When you don't have money, its a HARSH PLACE to live.
I just can't stand watching myself drink a cup of coffee where the price is the same amount with someone's whole day wages work in a grocery store or wet market.

Anyway, after 3 hours flight we were landed in Sukarno-Hatta International Airport.
Very big airport (accordig to me).
We are at terminal 3.
With help from some collegue he lend us his driver to pick and send to the hotel.
It was massive traffic jam with crazily thing around.
Where finally we managed to reach the apartment at 5pm.


Along the road's view was quite interesting these periods because we are the Muslim is going to celebrate Hari Raya Kurban (Sacrifice Day),
many goat and cow tight just on random trees or the road divider waiting to slaughter on Hari Raya.

Things I like about Jakarta is the taxi.
They are at least Vios or Honda-city.
Not an old rustic smelly wage which you don't even want to breathe.
The taxi driver also wears a decent shirt, showered and have a pleasant look.
Not half-drunk uncle or some grumpy man whom no bother about everything but money.

Tips: get a bluebird or gamya taxi as they have the most reputation compared to other.

Another view that amuses me is the number of food stalls on the road. 

Different with Malaysian style where road stall more like pick-up van, plastic chair and umbrella, Indonesian style is more like a mini-wooden cart pushed by an old man.
They will either stand somewhere or just move along the road.

These pushed cart have every single food I want to eat: Siomay, bubur ayam, empek-empek, satay, tahu goreng.. Owh My Weight...!!!





We went to plaza Semanggi for dinner. Was meant to have "dining in the sky" but I guess its not a successful version. Most of the restaurant are close. I guess because the price of yhe food is very high for local rate.
Yes, on my opinion food here is  bit expensive (or it is because I am so stingy).
Most of the food sells at minimum RM 15 per portion.

Not allow to order western food tonight :-P

The dinner was good by includes a couple of Indonesian food Mie Ayam, Capcay and some fried rice.
Thinking to go to the pub for a drink but I wasn't really keen.
Jakarta style of drinking place as I know is a noisy club for people to dance and drink.
My old-kampong-soul can't take it.
I would rather sit in an anti-social quiet lounge or pub to chit chat or blogging with my tab.


I know it must be a weird way of travel. Most of the people will roam around to explore the city but I end up with just bought couple can of beer and some lemonade to take to the apartment.
Watch Dr. Pol in the living room and sleep.

Our apartment

In the morning me and my sister went out to look for some street food, While I left papa-san to have his coffee in the lobby.
The food adventure might be interesting, but diarrhea won't be fun.
We bought some bubur ayam and deep fried Tempe.
After one spoonful of the food came to my mouth, I realized how much I miss this kind if life.
Cheap, humble but delicious.

Our humble Bubur Ayam Sukabumi (Sukabumi's Rice Porridge)

Chicken intestine and liver satay

Yeeww...???

NO ITS A YUMMEEEEHHH......

Deep Fried stall in front of the apartment

But I couldn't make it trough I need a cup of coffee to wake me up.
So I am back to the hotel's coffee shop to get one.
Mr was already there and stare at bunch Arabic tourist messing around with the local girl.
Kind of...aaaiyyooooo...what lah you guys doing...

Back to breakfast my sister said that the driver asking a ridiculous amount of money for sending us to Bandung. I said NO.
If I bring a bunch of family Rp. 850,000 for one trip, then the money spent to pay a driver is worth.
But only two of us going yet the car is not even good.
We decide to take a taxi to the Gambir train station and go to Bandung by coach.


Executive ticket was sold out because of public holiday.
We get to business class for 10:50 departure. It was still early when we arrived there decide to get extra coffee to add in body's calories.

Gambir station is the station which departs an executive train from Jakarta to all over part of Java Island. Most of the train is quite acceptable, nothing really exclusive even it said an Executive class.
It's comparable with standard Malaysian KTM commuter from Rawang to Seremban.
We got the business class at price USD 7 per person.

For our 3 hour journey.
Pretty lucky for last minute buying ticket eh.. :-)