Filed under: food
Hendrik said that he wouldn’t mind eating this everyday 
hainan chicken rice w/ ginger-scallion sauce ..
Accidentally found this interesting website : livejournal and website and links to other bento bloggers hehe it still amazes me each time I find a new kind of blogger community 
It makes me want to try preparing a bento box lunch for Hendrik.. hmm maybe I’ll get a chance to do that soon :p But of course I won’t preparing anything fancy like this picture —>
That’s a special Lunar New Year bento :p
On the website, I saw Spam Musubi .. never heard about it before but apparently it’s a very popular snack in Hawaii and you can find them everywhere, even in 7-11’s. Just google it. Looks very simple, hmm I’ll put that on my to-try recipe list :p.
Still in the "interesting food" category.. have you seen a cubic egg ? or a hello kitty egg ? a star shaped egg ? teddy bear, car, rabbit egg ?.. I never knew that hardboiled egg can be molded hehe
These cute molds are available on ebay .. hmm thinking of getting one myself.
Filed under: food
would you eat something that looks like this ? You also have to use the pooper scooper :p hahaha 
hihi I did this afternoon in the office. Somebody baked this for a dessert contest and it won 2nd place. It actually tastes really good hahahaha … this is not the same cake that I ate.. I got this picture from Google, from which you also can find the recipe for this cake. heheh Dare you make something like this for a potluck ?
Friday night began with a Halloween picnic at Donner Park with people from work. It was raining so the turnout was really bad. I only went because I am a part of the group that organized the event. There were 84 people who RSVP-ed but I’m guessing only about 20+ showed up, I don’t blame the others for skipping. Who would want to eat out in a park on a rainy day ? But it was fun for those who came.I helped decorating the shelter with fake spider webs, it was pretty cool ! And everybody got to carve a pumpkin because we had enough for everyone! Stupid me I didn’t know that we’re supposed to cut the top and take out the inside first. I did that after looking around and saw everybody else doing that, but then I did another stupid thing – I threw away the top ! So my pumpkin at that time looks like an empty round bowl with a big opening. I had no clue what I wanted to make so I ended up just making diamond patterns on the pumpkin. 
Suddenly we heard a big THUMP sound – some big tree branches fell down and hit somebody’s car. The car got quite damaged. When Andy and I approached the cop who came to record the accident (we wanted to ask where we could donate leftovers food – we had probably $200 worth of KFC), there’s this black cat that kept crossing the parking lot back and forth. Andy asked if I knew about the superstition about a black cat crossing our path = bad luck hehehhee yeah yeah yeah..
Afterwards I went straight to Kas & Shahreel’s house around as I promised to help them with preparation for their party until it’s time to pick up Hendrik from the airport. When I got there, the family just came back from groceries – they were still unloading stuffs from their car. Hendrik would arrive in Indy at 11PM, so I could stay there for a couple of hours. Feli and Patty came too and soon we started working in the kitchen. Feli was assigned to peel the onions haha, Patty had the chopping job : lemongrass, onions, etc. I was asked to cut a pineapple. It was my first time ever cutting a real pineapple, why can’t we just use canned pineapples chunks ? hehehe it was not an easy task you know ! Oh then we found out that the blender was not working!
We tried a food processor, but it was also not working !! So finally we used the magic bullet, which is a small blender intended for 1 serving of smoothie to blend onions, sardines, mackarel, lemon grass, etc… so we had to blend each food in several batches.
Hendrik left me a voicemail saying that his flight from Austin was delayed for an hour, I checked online and found out that he wouldn’t arrive in Indy until past midnight, so I had an extra hour to help out. I left the house at 11.15 ( estimated driving time of 45 minutes to the airport ) — it was still raining. I backed my car out of the driveway and BUMP !!! @&$#@& I hit somebody’s car !!!!!!!!! NOOOOOO!!!!! I came out and saw that I had hit Feli’s car, her car was damaged at the driver side. I called her inside the house to let her know and to say SORRY !!! oh man, it must be the black cat ! :p Later that night the girls found out that the garbage disposal wasn’t working either !! What’s going on ?! Spooky ! Luckily my car was just scratched a little bit. Feli made me feel better by saying "Ok ok ga papa ga papa, gampang lah" when I told her that I’ll compensate her to fix the damage. Dui BU Qi !
the middle picture was Feli crying when she found out about her car – hehe no lah, her glasses got foggy when she was peeling the onions.
I continued driving to the airport -I got there around midnight, but Hendrik didn’t come out until around 12.30AM – we went home straight and got home around 1.30AM.
Saturday morning I woke up at 9AM and started preparing tapioca pearls (sago) and konyaku to make Melon Sago for the party. I had to make a quick trip to Walmart just to buy a strainer for the tapioca. I got back from Walmart around 11AM and Hendrik was still sleeping. Patty, who spent the night at Kas’, called me at noon and asked why I was still home and that I need to get there ASAP! I just got out of the shower that time. She said Kas already loooked so stressed because it’s 2 hours to the party and they still had so much to do!! They needed help ! At first Hendrik suggested to go somewhere to eat first before the party but when I told him that we were already "summoned" he quickly showered and we got there at 12.30PM.
Kas, Mimi, and Patty said they cooked until 5AM and they woke up at 9AM and went back cooking. Hendrik and Shahreel went to Sam’s club to get the birthday cake and ice and last minute stuffs…. oh btw the party was a dual celebration - Tsaqib’s 2nd Bday as well as Lebaran. Feli this time she was put in charge of decoration hehehe she’s really creative with the balloons, Kas said now she knows who to contact for decorations for future gatherings.
Patty and I prepared the melon sago dessert. Ta-da.. this is the result.. pretty isn’t it ? 
By 2PM, we’re all ready and the guests started arriving.
The hostess and the Menu :
- Laksa Kelantan (kuah laksa + thick noodle)
- Nasi Kerabu
- Chicken Rice (Nasi, Ayam, Kuah, Tomato, Cucumber, Lettuce)
- Nasi Beriyani (Pulau Rice, Goat Curry, Acar, Dal)
- Nasi Impit / Lontong, Sambal Kacang
- Ayam Masak Merah
- Rendang Daging
- Kari Daging
- Sambal Ikan Bilis
- Lodeh
- Shrimp Curry
- Mutton Dish (like Dry rendang)
mmm I need to get the list of food from Kas.. I couldn’t remember what else was there
Yummy yummy yummy ! – Hendrik already asked me several times since Saturday for me to learn how to cook the Chicken Rice and suggested that we try making them for Thanksgiving 
Last month I asked Hendrik if he wants to come down here on 10/22 or 10/28. Btw this week was our 7th Anniversary. If he had come here last weeked, we’d have more time to spend together, and it would be more relaxing, but Hendrik chose to come down this weekend because of this party ! He didn’t want to miss all the good food! hehe .. Although he was exhausted from this short trip, there’s no regret
Here’s the bday boy with the proud parents. Look at all the gifts ! Tsaqib is a lucky boy !
I think there must be around 40 people who came .. but still plenty of leftovers. so we who stayed in until the end got plenty of ziplock bags to da-bao the food hihihihi. By "the end", I meant until the kitchen and dining room was back to Friday night’s condition, all pots, pans, dinnerware, table, chairs, clean and back in their place. Kathy did most of the dishwashing hehe. Everything’s done around 8pm. It’s all because we started the party in time and all the extra hands that helped — besides the hosts, I think Patty worked the hardest Thanks guys !
more pictures of the party here
Hendrik wanted to watch some movies when we got home.. and we ended up watching 3 movies back-to-back until almost 3AM : Dragon Tiger Gate, a HongKong movie, The Art of Fighting, a Korean movie, and The Amityville Horror. what a mix, eh ? 
so there goes our Saturday. Sunday, Hendrik panicked when he saw the it’s already noon when we woke up and told me to take a shower right away but then he realized it was Daylight Savings Time and we earned 1 hour so it’s actually still 11AM. He was so happy when he realized this, I didn’t understand why he was so happy just because we got an extra hour
We went to Sichuan restaurant in Carmel for a late lunch, I was so sleepy afterwards… but we still had plenty of time before he needed to get to the airport so we killed time at Castleton Square Mall, and then Best Buy, and TJ Maxx, and we still got to the airport 2 hours before his scheduled flight. Unfortunately there wasn’t any earlier flight that he could get into. Hendrik told me to go home and rest because I was so sleepy and tired – I reached home even before his plane left Indy.
A few hours later Hendrik called me from Dallas. Guess what ?? His flight to Austin was delayed again !! He swore he’ll never fly American Airlines again!! Originally he was supposed to arrive in Austin at 10PM, but he didn’t get there until 12.30AM ! And then he had to wait a while for the baggage so he didn’t reach home until 1.30AM ! Hahaha I thought it was funny when Hendrik specifically told me to blog about this ! He was so pissed with AA.
just came back from the airport 1/2 hr ago… my flight was delayed 30 minutes from Memphis.. but it wasn’t too bad since I got upgraded to First Class hehe
This weekend in Austin felt so short.. We didn’t do much really… stayed at home most of the time… watched Law & Order SVU marathon on tv… I cooked and cooked…
we also watched 3 movies, 2 of them are Indonesian : Gie and Ca-Bau-Kan… and Shutter, a very scary Thai horror movie.. in fact I was still thinking about that ghost in the movie when I was driving back home hahahahah
*sigh* not ready to start another week at work… too much things to do this week 
This is Sosis-Brut ? hehe that’s what we call it in Bandung .. we can find this good stuff in most bakeries / toko kue.
I was inspired to make this after reading Joe’s recipe on his multiply …. it’s incomplete though so I googled and googled and googled.. and finally found its original Dutch name/spelling … saucijzen-broodje well I think that’s it..
But then I still didn’t have much luck searching for its recipe until I finally tried searching for "sausage rolls"
So.. my first attempt was succesful, I think everyone liked it at Girls’ Night just now.. oh and of course I enjoyed everyone else’s dishes too.. hmm but didn’t take any picture of the food this time :p
excited to play with Scottie 
at Warittha’s living room .. "Before" picture
"During" picture … I think Kas was talking and everyone was listening at this point. 
and this is the "After" picture … 2 hours later.. 4 conversations going on at the same time 
this past weekend was GREAT .. hmm where should i begin .. this is gonna be one long post
Saturday we drove to Houston, straight to Noodle House 88, and Indonesian-Chinese restaurant, I meant they serve the Chinese food we usually get back home -> for indo people in the US go check out their menu at the link above and prepare to drool. I could still take some dessert afterwards @ Juice Box, right next door. I tried their Mango Smoothie with Chinese Yogurt, which turns out to be Yakult-kind of drinks. It was good!
Then we went to Museum of Natural Science. I couldn’t believe how long the lines to get tickets were ! Hendrik wanted to see BodyWorlds 3, the current exhibit there. But we were puzzled to see the information showing that the next available time was 2.45 AM, so I asked somebody and found out that it wasn’t an error. The museum would be open 24 hours until Monday for this special Exhibit because Monday is its last day at Houston. It’s a travelling exhibition and the next stop is Vancouver, Canada. Hendrik really really wanted to see this, but I thought coming back at 2.45 AM was crazy !! So we were planning to buy a later ticket, like for Sunday morning or afternoon. After standing in line for 1.5 hours, we finally got to the ticket counter. Were told that they sold out on all later times. The only time they had available is from 3.15AM to 5AM. Coming back to a museum to see dead bodies at 3AM in the morning sounds crazy! I told Hendrik let’s just buy regular admission to the museum for now, without the exhibit. BUT, it was already 5pm and they were closing at 6! And then the cashier was nice enough to tell that admission for the last 30 minutes would be free. So we decided to just wait half an hour. Later we were relieved that we didn’t pay for the regular museum, because there was nothing out of the ordinary there! And I think we walked through the whole permanent exhibit area in 1/2 hour. We decided to buy the 3.15AM admission for BodyWorlds… Told Hendrik, this better be good ! But it must be good to see all these people in line, right ?
Afterwards it was still too early for dinner hehe so we went to the Galleria, one of the nicest mall in the US that I’ve been to, Window shopping lots of stuffs we can’t afford YET hehehe… By 9.30PM we were ready for another meal went back to Chinatown and this time we picked Sichuan . We were too ambitious and ordered 2 hot dishes with a hot appetizer. Couldn’t finish any of the 3 plates. Food was very good, but we should have ordered something not spicy. After that fiery dinner we needed something sweet. Stopped by a crowded Star Snow Ice. I finally got my fix of bubble tea. Hendrik tried their shaved ice bowl with 4 toppings. He chose read beans, green beans, barley, and another nutty topping.
It was late and we went to the hotel to rest. Probably got in around 11 pm and we slept right away. Set the alarm clock at 2.40AM. Remember the museum ? 
We got back to the museum just in time. I still couldn’t believe the place was so packed. We couldn’t even get a nearby parking space. And even inside we had to see the exhibit IN LINE, a slow moving line. It was good, though. Glad we went. Fascinating stuffs.. made us wonder how in the world did they make such a thing ? Worth waking up at 3AM for ? hahaha yeah maybe if we got a better parking spt. I learned 1 thing : What is the heaviest organ in a human’s body ? It’s our skin. The pic to the left shows a man holding his own skin.
Sunday we stopped by IKEA on the way home, bought some stuffs for the house, and we spent Sunday night moving and re-arranging Hendrik’s home office. We cleaned up the bedroom that all his junks were in and moved his desk, computer, books, to the 2nd floor living room area. Now he has a nice office with 2 desks, lots of books, shelves, a futon, and a stereo system. Finally had a place to put up our pictures.
Monday we checked out the new Round Rock Premium Outlets, only 15 minutes from our house. Nice outlets ! Smaller than San Marcos’ but hey it’s in Austin !
PS. IKEA is opening a store in Austin very soon !! We don’t have to go to Houston anymore, but we’ll still go to Houston for Noodle House 88 and all the yummy drinks ! Thx to Feli for the recommendation !
Filed under: food
here’s another pic that’s worth a thousand words
that was Saturday’s dinner and Kas & Shahreel’s residence .. Yummmmmmmm
this is Hendrik after all that food
btw we had a lunch buffet @ Sichuan restaurant in Indy the same day
Filed under: food
last night 6 of us went to greenwood for dinner at Buffalo Wild Wings. spent 40 mins each way to get there and back.. 15 mins waiting for the table and about 45 mins waiting for our food.. all that just to eat wings It was 35 cents Tuesday :p We had 100 wings ($35 hehe) on the table hahaha (in the end we da-bao about 30+ leftovers) and probably 7-8 different flavors ..
reminded me of those summer days back in purdue where we ordered wings delivery from A.J.Wingers. ate together in Lia’s tiny little apartment with rice ;D gosh how many years ago was that ? ;D
I run out of ideas what to put as my blog title .. this will be just another diary of my weekend :p and eating out .. hehe food food food
I hosted a Girls Night :p in my place Friday night … 7 gals … no man allowed .. I believe everyone had a good time, I had not had that much laughs in a long time :p mmm I should have taken a few pictures of us. I prepared some cincau ..had a little bit of hard time convincing Jamie that I made the cincau. Yes, I used some instant janggelan powder, but technically I did make it It’s not those canned ready-to-eat kind. Girly chit-chats, snacks in between, a lot of laughs, and wrapped with a movie .. we watched Just Friends .. it was an okay movie .. not bad, but not that great either. This was the first time we had a girls only gathering, .. we’re gonna try to make it a regular thing ..
Then Saturday, 10 of us went to Garam Masala in Indy for an Indian dinner. Excellent food and excellent service, probably the best service I’ve ever seen from an Asian non-chain restaurant ;D Honestly Indian food would probably never be my first choice for a meal .. It’s not that I don’t like it.. I actually like some certain Indian dishes. Back in college, Hendrik and I used to frequent an Indian buffet for lunch .. It’s just that if I am asked to choose between Korean, Thai, Japanese, Vietnamese, Malaysian, Italian, etc .. Indian would probably always come last. .. The reason we chose this place was because there are quite a few Indians among us .. but we’ve been going for Chinese, Chinese, Chinese, Thai, Chinese, Japanese the whole time..
PS. Just posted the pictures from my trip to Chicago 2 weeks ago.. go back 2 posts .. check out the sushi picture ;D
