Visit Indonesia 2013 (Salatiga and Central Java)

For my dearie sis wedding, we flew back home from mid November to end of December. It was a wonderful, busy and hectic holiday. First it was a visit to my in-laws small city, where we get a lot of tasty local Javanese food. Then we flew back to Jakarta, the capital, to celebrate my sis wedding, to join the wedding a wedding ceremony of a cousin and to celebrate my grandma's 80th birthday. All those party and celebrations do leave their mark on my hip. Then we flew to Sydney, Australia. No wonder Fitzie, Hubby and me were all sick at the end of holiday. 

Anyway here are some pictures. First my MIL backyard, which she filled with orchirds. Salatiga, a small city in central Java is famous for its cool and clean air. It become a favourite tourist destination for the locals. I always enjoy my visit here and love to sit on the veranda to enjoy the cool evening breeze. 

Then here are some of the local foods. An Ibu (Indonesian for Lady) selling gudeg with its friends. Gudeg is stewed young jack fruit which taste sweetish. His friend are usually braised sweetish tofu, spicy stewed beef rinds, brownish hard boiled egg and some boiled cassava leaves. 

She sold all her food on the pavement in front of a small mini market: she only caters for take away and she only has whatever she brought for that day. A friendly middle age lady, we bought a lot on that day and she pleasantly whispered that she's giving us her best marinated tofu. 

We brought the Gudeg home and here how a gudeg looks like once they are assembled. From From top, brownish sweetish Gudeg, steamed white rice, some chili, marinated tofu, spicy stewed beef rind and boiled cassava. I wasn't feeling eggy that day so I didn't took the brown marinated egg. 

Indonesian is famous for their satay. Every region has its own version of satay. Hubby loves satay and in this area he swore on beef satay Suruh. Suruh is a small village near Salatiga and the owner came from this village, hence the name 

Look at those satays, the imagination of them simply makes me drool. Grilled directly on coal makes them smoky and charred but the flesh are still so juicy. Drenched with sweetish peanut sauce they are simply perfect. 

Hubby's friend is in the gastronomy business and his speciality is grilled chicken Javanese style. The grilled chicken are sweetish and spicy. He is accompanied with some raw cabbage and basil to balance out the meal. I also ordered an extra stir fried water spinach. Simply because I love water spinach and can't have enough of it. The food are very good suited for Javanese taste. The place is called Bon Rawit and I can recommend it, if you are in the area. 

Indonesian loves deep fried food. Almost everything is deep fridd. I think it has a lot to do with the humid and warm weather. Deep fried food can be stored for longer time. Here are some examples of these kind of food. First deep fried chicken and deep fried tofu and tempe. 

And here are some deep fried snacks, the famous lumpia semarang, some deep fried tofu and bakwan sayur. 

Another delish central javanese specialties is the sate buntel. It's minced lamb stuffed into its intestine and grilled to char. The first time I tried this satay, I was hooked! It's bold and spicy daring on the same time because it's sweet. It tampers the gaminess of the lamb. Combined with chilli, raw shallots and ricr. I can easily eat up two portion. 

So That's traditional Indonesian food centered on Javanese food. Next post will be about food in Jakarta, the capital. Here the food will be more influenced by different ethnics and I will chose some which I think interesting. 

Makrönchen from Jö Makrönchen

I'm entering the prime of my life aka my thirty something birthday. We don't plan any big celebrations this year. It just with our Fitzie's sickness we just don't have so much energy to do a lot. So because it should still be a special day. I ordered a pack of petit macaroon. 

Jö Makrönchen is a mail delivering macaroon patessiere. The mini macaroon are so cute and not overly sweet. All the ingredients are nature product so no artificial coloring and long list of ingredients we don't even recognize. I chose a mix box which has everything from raspberries, caramel, lemon, vanilla, chocolate and pistachio. 

I was happy to receive this and this small box of colour really does remind me that happiness doesn't mean pomp and circumstances but means cherising every little happy thing in life. 

Happy Birthday dear Me. 

Jö Makrönchen 

Daruma

At last we were discharged from the hospital. We are home since last week and we are coping with Fitzie's illness. She's such a tough girl and in a short week she's on to way of recovering. The road is still long but I believe with my persistent and her toughness, it can only be better. 

To celebrate that days in hospitals are over, I went to have a nice Japanese dinner with a dear girlfriend, Linda. She's been raving about Daruma for years. This is how she commented on Daruma: the tempura udon is a must try, the sashimi is best in town, the owner are real Japanese and they are so cute with their politeness and accent. She's right. Daruma is exactly how she described it. 

We start the long meal with yakitor. Usually I avoid Yakitori, because I know most Japanese Cheap Eateries buy frozen yakitori and they just heat it up in the oven. But here, no way it's freshly grilled on coal. See the charcoaled blister on the picture. That's what makes a yakitori worth eating. The reason why I ordered this, because on the menu they stated that we are allowed to choose between to flavour; salt or soy sauce. This statement ensures me that they make the yakitori on site. We chose soy sauce as flavoring and it tasted so good that I thought I wanna grab the other yakitori from Linda's hand. The meat are juicy and succulent, sweet and salty from the soy sauce, slightly bitterish from the charcoaled blister. A great way to start a meal.

Then we have an adegashi tofu. Adegashi tofu is always my favourite, I have a thing for deep fried food. This adegashi tofu didn't fails me too. Slightly deep fried with starch then soaked into soy sauce and topped with green onions and grated radish. It's warm and the grated radish soaked up all the greasines from the oil. I even drink up all the soy sauce simple because the combination tasted so good. 

Then we had the must order sashimi. From top; Loup de Mer, Salmon flower bud, Hamachi (Yellow fin), Tuna and marinated sardines. See those two cute dollops of wasabi. Linda and me share everything so the cook thoughtfully prepared everything for two person. The fishes were fresh and thickly sliced. I was so  happy that I kept chowing down without even really talking anymore. 

After this we had the must have tempura udon. What a wonderful udon soup. The udon is chewy and the soup is clear tasting with tasty green onion. We were served with three shrimps tempura and one chrysantemum green underneath those shrimps. This is the frist time I encounter Chrysantemum Tempura. Surpried that that it fits to the picture so well. Brightly green and very pretty with those irregular leaves in its batter. This Udon is so simple but oh so good that we drank up all the soup till the last drop.  

The tempura was so good that we decided to order an extra tempura for us to feast on the deep fried food. Three shrimps, one kobocha, on slice of lotus flower, one portobello mushroom. Crunchy but moist in the inside. I always wonder why the Japanese are so good with their deep fried food. Indonesian also deep fried A LOT. But our deep fried food always taste so thick, oily and heavy. Whereas the Japanese counterpart can be so light. Whatever the reason is, I love tempura and life is so much beautiful with perfectly deep fried tempuras. 

To end this wonderful meal we ordered green tea ice with red bean paste. Perfect Matcha Ice cream, slightly bitter ice cream but so creamy and soft perfectly combined with sweet red bean paste. I sigh at the end of the meal. Why can Japanese food can be so simple but so deeply satisfying. 

The food in Daruma worth every penny. It's not cheap but you have the quality. This is not a cheap Japanese joint where they bought everything frozen and heat it up. But everything is made to order. The restaurant must have been past his glory day (They still have oh so old fashioned but so cute machine to read the credit card) but it doesn't mean the quality of the food deteriorates. I love everything about Daruma and wouldn't hesitate to recommend it right away. 

Daruma 

Stadtdeich 1

20097 Hamburg 

040 326632

U-Steinstrasse 

Hospital's food

Fitzie is sick. It started with fever, eye infection, lung infection and lastly seizures. We are already hospitalized for 3 weeks and now we are still here in hospital. Yuck! Not fun. But my new year resolution is to post more. So i thought I drop a word, say hi and post our lunch tray. 

It's fish with mashed potato and salad. 

Organic veggie box from Bio Hoflieferant

My daughter, Fitzie, started her solid last summer. Since then I ordered an organic veggie box to cook her solid food. I'm very satisfied with the boxes, the veggies are fresh sometimes the carrots are delivered with some dirts too. Once I even had romaine lettuce plus a worm. Hubby told me surely sign of no pesticides and we even got some extra protein :)

Here are some of the examples of the boxes that Bio Hoflieferant sent. They are mostly regional vegetables so I got a lot of carrots, various type of cabbage. But there're some exotic stuffs that I've never seen in the supermarket too like colorful swiss chard, may turnip, purple carrots. Stuffs that you only get when you go to farmer's market. But these are delivered directly to your doorstep. One small box costs €10 and I cook Fitzie's 2 weeks food ration with it and there're always leftover for hubby and me. 

See the colorful swiss chard down there. It's surprisingly sweet and pleasant to the eye. And of course Fitzie loved it.

Here're box with some fresh fruits too.

Some extra herb for summer day too.

In case you want to order organic box and you have no idea where you can get it. I can recommend the boxes from Bio Hoflieferant. This is not a sponsored post and I'm not even paid for this. But I just want to highlight how wonderful fresh vegetables can be. And I can't stop myself taking pictures of colorful veggies.

www.bio-hoflieferant.de

T.R.U.D.E.

After Fitzie was born, we rarely eat out. Bringing a baby to a restaurant is not easy. At first, because I was still breast feeding her. I was always afraid that she will wake up and want her milk and I need to do public breast feeding. Honestly in Germany, breast feeding is very normal, it's not frowned upon and no one will give a breast feeder a second glance. My friend even breast feed her baby in park during a festival and another mom looking for a spot also joined her. But me being an Asian, I'm still need my space and I prefer to do it in the comfort of my home. 

Anyway back to eating out. so after the 6 months period were over and Fitzie started her solid food. We start to eat out again. Mostly in places near our home, Barmbek. So I was excited to find out that one decent restaurant is actually very near my home and that's TRUDE. I can highly recommend their Sunday Brunch Buffet. but today's post is not about the buffet. 

Ute, a neighbor, Andy's mom and a surrogate oma for Fitzie celebrated her birthday there and these are what we ate. 

Giant Curry Wurst with two sauces; one is tomato based and the one in the right is curry based. We all prefered the tomato based ones. It was really a giant curry wurst. Hubby couldn't even finished all those french fries. 

Here is the Hamburg specialty; Matjes Filet mit Bratkartoffeln. Matjes filet is like the name already said, fileted herring which are soak in brine. Those who loves it, raves about it. Those who hates it, complained about its fishiness and its texture like an rotten fish. Btw if you are looking the fish is actually in the jar. 

Bauernfrühstuck lit. means farmer's breakfast. Roasted potatoes with bacon and egg. It was alright but not memorable

TRUDE
Maurienstr. 13-15

22305 Hamburg

U/S-Barmbek

Fitzie says her Hello

I've mentioned, my baby, Fitzie a few times already. Since this is her birthday month. I think it's appropriate for her to say Hello. She was born in January last year. Born in the year of dragon, better said, the last few weeks before the year of dragon's end; dragon's tail is how my mom described it. She's named after a famous jazz legend. Hence Fitzie is her nickname. 

She's been a good baby. Quiet and calm, a thinker who rarely smiles. But never makes a big fuss and learn her way fast. It's been a joy to watch her grow up. I never know that being a mom can be so addictive. I was always afraid of the responsibilities and lack of freedom being a mom of young children, but I must say after I have Fitzie, it's different than what I thought it would be. Of course it's tiring and we never can eat out peacefully anymore. But the joy and the pleasure of watching her is really "unbezahlbar". enough of my bla bla. Here is she. 

That's her being bullied by her uncle Andy and papa. At that time she was around three months. Blissfully unaware of stuffs around her. Look at those chubby cheeks. 

Here she is wearing her first duffle coat. The picture is blurry cause she won't stay still. But she laughs her hearts out here. So I thought hell with it and post it after all 

Breakfast at Dat Backhus

What kind breakfast do you like? sweet and light? hearty and savory? Me? I'm hearty and eggy type. Give me an English breakfast with bacon and baked beans. I'm all happy. But hubby, he's such a sweet breakfast type. His perfect breakfast consists of a toast with nutella and a black coffee. Since he's not such a breakfast eater. I tend to follow his suit and join him for his nutella toast.

But one day, while pregnant with my daughter, Fitzie, I crave for a good hearty breakfast. One local bakery, dat backhus offers breakfast till 11.00. Because I'm not in the mood to crack eggs or stand beside hot Elektro-herd while carrying my big tummy around. So off I went to got my egg.

..... and got myself not one, not two, but THREE scrambled eggs with bacon and a sun flower seeds Brötchen.

They called it scrambled but I called them omelettes. They were good, the eggs were fluffy and I love that they topped it with chives. It gave an extra ommph. Only the bacon was sad, soft and damp, overly salty and burnt on their sides. I've seen better bacons. To the rescue the Brötchen was good. Crispy exterior, soft interior and crunchy from the sun flower seeds. 

Here's another view of my meal, this time with a glass of Orange juice to wash away the greasiness. 

Homey Korean food cooked by your next door Ahjumma

Sushi Bar Dehnheide

Note this name. I'm sharing a secret here. This is a place to go when you are not in the mood for cooking and just want to have a cozy meal prepared by an aunt. Operated in a run down Korean Imbiss,  Don't expect fancy fusion sushi a la Stefan Henssler or some high grade Korean BBQed rib eye and pork. No! this is all about the side dishes; imagine all the tasty Korean ban Chan, like Spinach salad, radish kimchi, bean sprout salad, stir fried green beans, Jap Chae, All those simple but so time consuming Ban Chan that Korean mothers made daily. 

I was there for lunch and ordered vegetarian Bibimbap. The Bibimbap is different and much simpler, no hot stone bowl, no rice underneath, no runny egg yolk, no mixing. But I love this version too, I got to eat all the element by themselves and got to appreciate their own unique taste. The scrambled eggs are fluffy, the green beans are crispy and nutty, the spinach are marinated only with sesame oil and salt and shine through the minimalist marinade. the bean sprouts are sour and sweet. The jap chae are succulent and absorb all the soy sauce taste. The Kimchi are fresh, spicy and a bit sour. Oh the rice, the star of the meal, succulent and sticky, love every bite of it. For €6,00 this bowl of bibimbap worths its every cent. 

I was there more than once and ordered a lot of bibimbaps. Everytime there're new surprises. The components are similar but the Ahjumma add or exchanged her side dishes often depends on what's in season. Talking about regional cooking here :-) 

One more thing, here's another hush-hush. I don't even want to write this. Otherwise we all the Barmbeker need to wait in line every Tuesdays and Saturdays. Because on these two days, the Ahjumma prepares her buffet meal. For dirt cheap €8,50 you got to eat to your hearts contents. It's of course rough and homey cooking. But they have enough selections e.g. kim bap and sushis, all these Korean ban chans, miso soup, deep fried chicken wings, bulgogi, my all time favourite zucchini and veggies fritters, fruits, deep fried bananas. 

One more tip, be on time! On 12 o'clock sharp they start their buffet. Even before that, people stand in line to stormed the buffet. A lot  of times we come a bit later and we really do need to queue waiting other people to finish or to share a table with other guests. Now, got an Idea, how loved they are by us the Barmbekers?

Sushi Bar Dehnheide

Barmbeker Markt 37-3822081 Hamburg040 297188

Extremely Spicy Hunan Food at Chinese am Fleet

While I was preggie with my daughter, Fitzie, I wasn't really keen on eating. I lost 8 kg at my first trimester but after that slowly but surely I gain them all back in the last 6 months. After I got my appetite back, I always want to eat spicy food and here's the place that I frequently visit once the craving hit in. At last I got a good reason for all those cravings I've having for years (see the name of this blog). 

This place is recommended by a Hunan friend. Do I need to explain about all the difference of spicy? heck , if you are reading this, chances that you are acquainted with Chinese cooking but still i love to be teachy. So here are the difference of Hunan spicy and Sichuan spicy. with The Hunanese e.g. Mao Zi Dong (you know that big leader of Chinese Communist party) are spicy eater, if Sichuanese are more like numbing spice, Hunanese are hot spicy like chili spicy. But different to say Indonesian spicy. Hunan Spicy are more like biting and direct. Got it? Like the hotness is hiting directly and without all those cloying complicated spices in Indonesian cooking. 

My Hunanese friend took control of the night and ordered all the right food. Pork feet for pregnant lady is extremely important, "she stressed." They are filled with collagen and good for bones. Whatever the reasons are, This is one hell of tasty pork feet. Soft and succulent, sweetish but oh so spicy. I drenched the sauce on my rice after everyone finished and almost ordered another serving for me to take out. 

Spicy pork feet

We already got a red braised type of dish, so we need a quick stir fry and dry meal, so here is the vegetarian bean curd stir fried with slivers of veggies. Sounds so simple but again oh so tasty. The bean curd absorbs the sauce and the aroma of wok. Whereas the veggies stays so bright and crunchy. I love this dish for its straightforwardness yet complex with mixture of aroma and taste.

stir fried bean curd 

The last dish is a very traditional Hunanese dish, extremely spicy snail with chopped spices. Honestly saying, I wouldn't give this dish a glance, if I'm the one who do the ordering. Snail? Hello!! I want meat and seafood! not some lowly snail. But it's surprisingly tasty. I know I sound like a broken recorder with all these tastys. I can't help it. They are all so tasty. 

Hard and succulent, more like a gum, the snails need all those sauce to give them flavour. So, good job spicy sauce you give these snails great touch up.  They are not lowly food anymore, they become so lively and vibrant with the sweetness and spiciness. 

Spicy snails

If you are wondering, why the pictures are tiny. I did it with purpose. I was lazy to bring my dSLR kamera, so I just took them with my lousy smart phone kamera. I was so hungry and wasn't really in the mood to take pictures. So my hands shook due to the Fitzie hungerness :-) and it resulted in shaky, out of focus pictures. 

But don't let my lousy pictures keep you away from all these goodnes. Please give them a try and you will realize how good spicy stuffs can be. 

Chinese am Fleet

Borstelmannsweg 77

20537 Hamburg

Stadtviertel: Hamm Mitte

040 21909991