Tokaji

Percaya boleh percaya, but this Tokaji is really yummy. The one I've tried is Tokaji Aszú 3 Puttonyos. It is light, sweet and definitely easy to drink... pokoke yang gue doyan lah. Plus the bottle looks nice.
You can find more on Tokaji in here.

Float. Float.

baru nih gue ngerasain teh-float. perasaan tadi mesennya ice-tea...

Cabbage look in Brinjal color

My colleague asked me what I wanna order for take-away lunch. Since I don't know how good are the eateries in this area, I picked the safest one: fried rice. And it turned out to be what you see in this picture. Fried rice with odd-colored veggie. Looks like cabbage, colors like brinjal. Did any one encounter with this thing before? Any one?

Glug-glug Glögg

Couple of posts ago I talked about Julmust. A Swedish must-to-have-in-Christmas drink. Now I am talking about another must-to-have-in-Christmas drink, a Swedish traditional drink called Glögg.

Actually I bought this bottle back in December (together with Julmust), thinking to consume it during Christmas -the appropriate time. But alas, I forgot, so it sit nicely in kitchen cupboard until CNY. So it became a CNY drink.

Anyway, Glögg is mulled wine. It made from red wine, plus spices and normally served hot. The serving suggestion said you can add water or vodka before heating it. Hmm... since I don't have the second ingredient, so I just added water. Taste? Amazingly it tasted great. It has strong aroma of cloves and cinnamon. Love it. Will buy it again next December.

Buah Pom-pom Granat

Pada dasarnya doyan buah dan dah bulak-balik beli jus pomegranate tapi blom kesampean makan buah benernya. Nah, kebetulan kemarin ada tuh di supermarket deket rumah. Jadi belilah sebutir. Nyoba dulu, makanya cuma beli satu, itu sebutir aja cukup gede.

Kebayangnya kayak manggis, tau-tau pas di belah kok begini rupanya ya? Ngerokin butiran2 dari cangkangnya syusahnya minta ampun. Plus kalo mejet kekerasan suka pecah dan bikin bercak2 warna cantik di kaos. Bisa jadi pewarna organik nih!

Sesudah bersusah payah, dapet juga semangkok. Langsung disendok dan -hap!- masuk mulut. Rasanya... ya kayak yang jus kartonan tea. Dan karena emang doyan, ya enak dong. Rada gletak-gletuk aja ngunyah bijinya.

Setelah bersih2 (ngerendem kaos dan mandi) baru coba2 liat di internet. Nemulah bagaimana cara mengoncek pom-pom granat ini dengan baik dan benar di ehow.com tanpa brecetan kemana2. Ya suds, buat lain kali lah.

Must drink on Christmas

When browsing around Christmas cookies and Glögg, I saw a (probably) 6-year-old boy holding 2 bottles of Julmust, queuing at cashier with his mom. He looked happy and satisfied. The drink in his hands looked yummy. And with picture of uncle elf unloading presents from Santa's bag in its label, it also looked warm and homey. For one moment I thought uncle elf smirked and said 'pick me!'. So I grabbed one and walked to cashier. Then chilled it in refrigerator.

Julmust is a traditional drink from Sweden, appears only during festive season. Julmust (Jul = Christmas) in December and påskmust in Easter. Must itself simply means must. So it is a must-to-have-drink for Swedes during festive. Made of made of carbonated water, sugar, hops extract, malt extract, spices, coloring, citric acid, and preservatives. Hops and malt extracts give a somewhat beer-like taste, but it is not fermented and contains no alcohol. (Yes, non-alcohol, otherwise I've probably mistaken a boy with midget in Mickey Mouse t-shirt).

OK, my Julmust was chilled and ready to drink. It did smell a bit like beer but not the taste. It tasted like cough syrup with soda. I know that some of Christmas drinks are supposed to be consumed warm, so I left it out for a while and gave another sip. Still tasted like cough syrup. Drinkable, but not something you're looking forward when thirsty. Wonder whether that boy finished his.

Lovely Treat...

Take a good look at the picture. Take a look at it again. Can you guess? Yes, correct. It's bakmi GM. Bakmi GM Spesial Baso. Delivered to your... oops, I mean, to our door.
You may say 'so what gitu loh'. But if you grew up with it, and in starving condition you can take 2 to 3 portions, plus you have no-access to any of bakmi GM outlets in last 6 months... you definitely find this is a lovely treat.
You may argue that frozen bakmi GM ain't gonna taste like the you-eat-on-the-spot. You may be right. But under the above circumstances... you still find this is a lovely treat. Won't you?

Burger Nanas from Bishan

We saw an article in paper on this new ang moh food stall in Bishan. So last time we were in that area we decided to try it. Crazy Ang Moh was written on the stall sign next to image of kangaroo wearing red boxing gloves. Yes, it belongs to Oz guys. My buddy told me that after featured in paper, the queue doubled. Well, it better be good.
We ordered the special: crazy burger. What makes it special is on top of beef patty, fried egg, cheese, and lettuce, they put beetroot and pineapple. And it comes with tips from the ang moh owner (who supposed to be crazy): to get the best taste, squash the burger stack then bite it all. Which we did. Tough and messy but manageable. Taste wise: good, no complain. Pineapple and beetroot did provide different flavor. Eat while the patty and egg are still hot. The only minus point is the bread. It just plain ordinary burger bread.
It was featured again in today's paper. They compare it with another ang moh's food stall: Botak Jones. For me... (since last time we ate at Botak Jones was months ago) I find no diff... probably need to visit both in the same day. But my buddy Panda seemed to prefer this one.

Mudik Membawa Nikmat

Seperti halnya pepatah 'sambil menyelam, 2-3 pulau terlewati' atau 'air beriak, lain lubuk lain ikannya', 'mudik membawa nikmat' adalah pepatah yang jelas bisa disangkal keabsahannya. Tapi bedanya dengan 2 yang pertama, yang terakhir tak bisa dipungkiri kebenarannya.

Mudik pasti membawa nikmat. Siapapun orangnya, dimanapun sarang mudiknya. Sekalipun perjalanan mudiknya sendiri bisa membawa derita dan nestapa, tapi sesudah mencapai tujuan niscaya hanya nikmat yang didulang. Betapa tidak! Begitu berjumpa dengan kerabat, handai taulan, mantan kecengan atau abang bakso langanan pasti segala penat dan cemas takut dicopet raib. Apalagi ditambah sambutan meriah dari lauk idaman di atas meja makan!

Begitupula dengan lebaran tahun ini. Mudik membawa nikmat. Kali ini tanpa derita nestapa perjalanan. Kenapa? Soalnya bukan saya yang mudik. Tapi tetap saya mendapat nikmat. Nikmatnya berupa lonjoran2 lumpia (atau menurut kotaknya: lunpia) semarang lengkap dengan saos ingus, acar, rawit dan bawang muda. Hihihi!

nb: makasih sedalam2nya buat teman saya yang telah mudik dan membawa nikmat.

Jacuzzi for Mister Crab

mister crab, mister crab
how are you today?
are your claws feelin' cold
after spent one fine night
in fridge with ben & jerry

mister crab, mister crab
jump over into bubbling water
join mister garlic and miss salt
in this nice and warm jacuzzi

mister crab, mister crab
come over, don't be shy
warm your feet and your shell
till they're scarlet red

Sabtu Nikmat

Sesuai judul, sabtu kemarin memang nikmat. Setidaknya bagi perut. Gimana ga, siang dijamu makan. Diawali dengan appetizer salad buah, trus disambut dengan nasi gudeg plus kreceknya yang pedes-pedes menggemaskan, lalu babak keduanya nasi putih plus gule kambing lengkap dengan segala jeroan dan tak ketinggalan krupuk kribo. Untuk pencuci mulut dimulai dengan cup-cake trus puding kelapa dengan taburan coklat. Brubung tetamunya agak malu2, jadi ada sisa buat dibungkus. Maka bungkuslah gule buat makan malem. Syedap euy! Sayang minumnya bukan limun jahe...

Bukan Hayam

Seperti yang tertulis di judul, makanan di foto samping ini bukan berasal dari unggas bertampang sok tau cuma bodo. Daging ini berasal dari uler. He-eh, uler python ceunah. Warna dagingnya putih mirip hayam cuma lebih kandel. Mungkin juga karena hayam dikondisikan ga banyak olahraga supaya gendut makanya dagingnya lebih empuk. Tulangnya rapet2, kayak tulang ikan.
Rasanya? OK loh. Cukup mirip hayam dan klenci ceunah. Mungkin juga karena dimasak bumbu kuning ala hayam goreng. Yang pasti ga ada bau2nya. Yang ga tau itu apa daging ini legal di pulau ini...

Minuman Jaman Esde

I have seen this canned soda in every hawker center. Definitely an apple based drink, since there is Apple word and image smacked in the middle chinese characters. Apple juice mixed with soda. Kinda like German's apfelsaftschorle, which I like. A lot. So on one fine day, I picked up the yellow-colored can and gave it a try.
Bwaaza! It didn't taste like apfelsaftschorle. But this taste reminded me of some drinks that I had when I was in primary school. Bottles of colorful drinks sit in the push cart sold by abang in our school's empty yard (which years later became school's parking lot). It costed 50 perak per serve with ice. Lots of variaty to choose, there were orange, apple, grapes, cola, coffee as well as other unknown flavors that came in green, light blue and other non-food kinda colors. You can pick one flavor (or color) but you can mix them too! The wierder the cooler! Kids (including me) were flocking the cart, eager to be the first to be served (off course no queuing). Although probably the coloring agent used was textile coloring agent and the ice was made from uncooked water. Definitely unhygienic. But we didn't care. I didn't care. I remember we were sipping the colored drink from the plastic straw in the hot day after school, comparing the color with friends, walking home happily and will do the same thing again tomorrow. Shh... Kinda missed those days.
Anyway back to this apple drink. This thing is not recommended, unless you feel like to taste your childhood's favorite treat...

Botak! Botak!

Nah, yang ini tentang botak. Bukan sembarang botak, tapi Botak Jones. 've heard this place for quite a while. Been planning to go for months. But we never ate there, not until couple weeks ago. Great place for meat eaters and burger lovers. Food is great and cheap! Check out the famous triple-burger (plus additional bacon strips!)... Need no explaination, rite?

Otak! Otak!

Udah lama ga nulis nih. Biasa males. OK lah, yang kali ini ngomongin otak-otak. Critanya diawali dengan ketidakpuasan (dalam segi jumlah, bukan rasa) makan otak2 selama di Jakarta, ditambah benda wenak ini ga dijual bebas di sini, jadi sejak dapet resep otak2 ngebet bener pengen bikin. Setelah tertunda2 beberapa wiken, brangkatlah ke supermarket mencari daun pisang (dan bahan baku lainnya). Diwarnai dengan bingung2 karena bahan bakunya buat 20 biji otak2 tapi cuma jadi 12 bungkus... akhirnya jadi juga nih otak2nya! Rasa? Pasti enak dong! Nyam!

Kimchi Peudeus @ Bt Timah

Today we've taken long lunch. My colleague brought me to Korean stall at Bukit Timah. She said that this small restaurant is managed by Korean family and the food is pretty authentic, plus cheap! So there were we ordering bbq chicken & pork, rice cakes, spicy seafood+tofu soup and famous Korean seafood pancake. While waiting for our meal, we were nibbling kimchi, free-take-as-much-as-you-like-from-pot kimchi. This kimchi is great, fresh, sour, spicy and you can't stop eating it. Then came the bbq thingy, which also tasted great. One thing that I didn't expect: they're all quite spicy. Then the rice cakes arrived. This one also had element of spiciness. Then the soup came. This one was even hotter & spicier. I started sweating, which normally only happens when I eat Padang or Manado's food. And still you can't get enough nibbling the kimchi! The last meal to arrive was the seafood pancake. It also came with spicy sauce! Well-well-well, what a heavy and hot lunch we had! Nett-nett, taste-wise: great for those who can stand spicy food; price-wise: thumb's up, it was quite cheap. Will be back someday.

Btw, nibbling too much spicy kimchi apparently hazardous to my stomach, after several hours it started to turn and growl... and I ended up rushing to toilet. :)

Kwetiau Pinggir Pantai dan Sate Jawa

Bener2 enak deh. Liburan, nonton sunset di pinggir pantai Kota Kinabalu sembari makan kwetiau seafood goreng. Benernya rasa kwetiau ini ga lebih enak dari buatan uncle di hawker-center hdb block. Tapi berhubung suasana liburan dan rasa lapar, jadi wenak. Hah!Malemnya setelah berkeliling kota mencari sekaleng gas masak, perjalanan berakhir di kedai makan melayu, memesan sate daging (sapi) dan ayam. Dan kali ini satenya bener2 enak. Ga semanis yang ada di Singapur. Padahal sempet skeptis ngeliat bumbu cocolnya yang bau2 kari. Ga heran 20 tusuk langsung tandas dengan cepat. Yang menarik pas bayar kita denger si abang tukang sate ngomong jawa ke asistennya. Jawa? Ya, ternyata tukang sate ini asalnya dari Jogya dan udah 8 tahun di KK. Lha, pantes satenya berasa enak!

Es Jolly Korea

After having lunch, we went to this Korean grocery shop. My colleague was longing for Korean seaweed snack, while me, I didn't plan to buy anything. As I wondered around shelves full of instant noodles, funny-looking snacks and dried seaweed, I bumped into the chiller-box and saw this yellow-colored ice in odd bottle-shaped plastic container. Kinda reminded me with es jolly, which I had when I was in primary school. Cool! So I picked it up. The aunty-shopkeeper told me that it was a banana flavoured ice. That's even better! Taste wise: great, more sophisticated than the old-jolly-ice (which only contained water and syrup) my Korean-ice-jolly used milk as well. Nyah-nyah-nyah!

Dolma! Dolma! Tolong bawa saya...

At last, we found it! We have been looking for dolma for a while. Last time we had it, it was in 2005! Since we somewhat accidentely found dolma, we didn't prepare anything to go with it, so we had it with cheese and ham. Next time when we're more prepared, we'll have it with gyros or octopus and yoghurt... Yummy! Yummy!

from wiki: Dolma is a family of stuffed vegetable dishes in the cuisines of the former Ottoman Empire and surrounding regions, including Turkey, Armenia, the Middle East, the Balkans, Greece, and Central Asia.

Pelajaran dari Sosis

Ya, ini pelajaran dari sosis bahwa duit ga bo'ong. Ceritanya di bilangan Novena ada kedai sosis baru. Selain sosis juga jual esgrim. Kalo siang sih lumayan rame, setidaknya 4-5 meja sih ke isi. Penasaran dong, apa bener sosisnya enak. Jadi suatu siang pergilah kita makan ber-3 dengan Pak Panda. Ada lunch menu, pilihannya sosis dengan spagetti dan sosis dengan rosti. Plus minum dan sup. Gue pilih rosti. Sosisnya ok, cenderung enak. Tapi rosti-nya be ajah. Sup-nya bener2 ga ada isinya. Ya, gimana ya namanya juga mau murah.

Nah, pembandingnya adalah semangkok sosis di resto di bilangan Bukit Timah. Pas masuk resto-nya ada bau khas yang biasanya kita cium di toko2 makanan di Jerman. Hmm... Kayaknya ga salah kalo pilih bavarian pot with sauerkraut. Harganya ga lunch-menu price. Ampir triple gitu deh, tanpa mimik. Tapi bener2 wenak. Satu mangkok isinya 5 macem sosis plus mash-potato dan sauerkraut. Mustard-nya pas bener peudeusnya, jadi inget kedai bratwurst di Huerth Park. Sauerkraut-nya juga yummy. Apalagi abis mamam di tutup dengan dessert serba coklat. Emang duit ga bo'ong=)