Ingenious cup-carrier of Kiliney Kopitiam in Singapore

Came across this simple but ingenious cup-carrier at Tanah Merah ferry terminal in Singapore while making our way to Bintan island. 

Left: Common cardboard cupholder. Taken at Starbucks in Changi Airport

Middle: Jazzed-up cupholder made out of napkins. Taken at Cafe Batavia in Jakarta

Right: Cup-carrier fashioned out of flimsy polystyrene. Quite the fashion statement eh!

 

Travel stories: Bintan Lagoon Resort at Bintan Island

This trip turned out to be a few "first" for us.

The 1st First. I consider both of us as travel-savvy. Hence it was highly inconceivable that we both set the wrong time on the alarm clock. Hubs thought he did but realised that it was set at 5am weekday and the day we traveled - Saturday. As for me, I overheard Hubs informed Pak Sumiran (our driver) that we wished to depart for airport at 'setengah enam' (literal translation 'half six'). I did not realise that over here 'half six' actually meant 'half to six' i.e. 5:30am and not as in the English way of 'half past six'. So I set my alarm to get up at 5:30am. So you can imagine the tornado-ish jump-out-of-bed-get-ready-in-5-and-mad-dash-out-of-the-house action that went on.

The 2nd First. We were SO late for airport. Home to airport should take about 45 minutes without traffic. We made it in 20 minutes. Traffic was a breeze coupled with some fast driving from Sumiran. Phew!

The 3rd First. Bintan is an island in the Riau archipelago of Indonesia. To get to Bintan, there's 2 routes: via Batam on "super" local airlines or via Singapore on Garuda Indonesia before catching a ferry to Bintan . Hubs opted via Singapore because he's not going to risk our lives boarding the "super" local airlines, i.e. these airlines do not have very good safety record. *touch wood* Can't believe actually got out of the country to get back into the country again after 6 hours on the road. Just filling up the arrival/departure cards can make one go into a state of confusion.

The 4 First. Bintan is a playground for Singapore and her expats. Or rather the part where all the resorts are situated. When we arrived at Bintan Lagood Resort, we could only check in at 3pm (like who in the world checks in at 3pm these days?!) and so we went to the resort's coffeehouse for lunch. First we noticed of the menu was everything was priced in SGD, although official transactions (read: hotel receipts and billings) are stated in Rupiah. Secondly, the place is overrun by weekenders Singaporean. Everywhere we went we could hear people "jiang hua yu" (speak Mandarin). And by the time we got to our room, I noticed that the hotel is equipped with 3-pin sockets instead of 2-pin. So out goes the window the universal adapter. 

But all in all, the resort is rather nice. Great pool, refurbished modern rooms and white sandy beaches. The staff speaks excellent English as well. Weekends are crazy with all the families and vacation groups. Go during weekdays if peace and quiet are what you are looking for.

Our room with a view - overlooking the pool, well tended gardens and the sea beyond.

Nice big pool with plenty of sundeck loungers

My usual activities: breakfast with a view, catching up my read and R&R by the beach

Recipes: Kue Lapis Legit

After I quit my job in June this year, I had a few months to kill before moving to Jakarta. One of the things I did during this time is to travel back to Kluang for some Asian cooking lessons from Mom. My Mom, she loves Kueh Lapis and annually for Chinese New Year, we will get one for her from Lavender Bakery in Pavilion.

Having saw how easy it was to make on Poh's Kitchen on Asian Food Channel and hunted down the recipe here, I convinced Mom to make this together with me. This original recipe actually works, but Mom and I have made some modifications to it, mainly the spice ingredients and tone down the sweetness. Try it out to impress family members or guests with your labour of love. :)

Kue Lapis Legit

6 egg whites
3 tsp vanilla essence
220 gm icing sugar
15 egg yolks
400 gm unsalted butter at room temperature, softened and beaten
120 gm plain flour
1/2 tsp baking powder
2 tsp all-spice powder
2 tbsp brandy

- Whisk egg whites and vanilla to soft peak. Gradually add icing sugar till stiff peak form
- Add egg yolks one at a time, beating well between each yolk
- Add butter and beat till well incorporated.
- Sift the flour, baking powder & spice powder together
- Fold in the flour mixture in three batches. Then stir in brandy
- Grease a 20-22 cm square cake tin with a lift-up base and line outside of tine with foil so batter does not leak through any gaps
- Turn oven to grill function
- Warm cake tin in oven for about 1 minute as this this helps to spread the 1st layer evenly compared to a cold tin
- Put about a third of a cup of cake mixture onto base of cake tin and spread evenly
- Put the tin under the grill for about five minutes or the top turns golden brown (Roughly takes about 3-5 minutes)
- Remove from oven and scoop the same amount of batter for 2nd layer. (No need to wait for the cake to cool between layers)
- Repeat the same process. Keep going until you have finish all the batter.

Tips: After you have about 4-5 layers, it helps to use a weight of some sort, in this case I used a slightly smaller loaf tin and gently pressed down to compact the layers. This will ensure tight layers once you cut the finished cake. 

The batter sorta melts when comes into contact with heat, so this helps to spread it out evenly

Cake browning under the grill

How one layer looks like once browned

Voila! And it's done! :)

Weird vegetables

I'm not sure if this is a norm but have you ever encountered a half-cut capsicum to grow another offspring? Well I have. I used half of the capsicum and kept the 2nd half refrigerated for almost a week. And when I took it out over the weekend for another stir-fry, capsicum was growing another baby. Anyhow, all made it into the stir-fry, baby or not. Hehe

Recipes: Bintang Beer Bread

The interest to make homemade bread started for couple of reasons. I have got a lot of time on hand so wanted to try something new, apart from run-of-the-mill cooking and baking cookies/cakes. I also have an idiosyncratic allergy to wheat (as confirmed by skin-prick test) which is kinda peculiar. Because you would think I can't take anything that's wheat-based but somehow some wheat products are less allergenic than others. So it's a bit of a minefield for me. For all I know I could be allergic to some preservatives but I'm a bit blase to do another test. Maybe homemade bread solves the problem because no preservatives right? As for the wheat part, well we shall see about that.

I started following these 2 food blogs Rasa Malaysia and its sister site Gourmand Recipes, and stumbled across this idiot-proof (so I thought by just looking at the method) beer bread recipe which requires no yeast at all. Since I have no experience working with yeast, i thought "why not try this out". Hence earlier last week, I went shopping for all the required baking tools and ingredients and last Saturday was Attempt No. 1.

It was disastrous. I got a beer brick instead. Haha. Halfway into baking, the gas oven ran out of gas! And poor bread was sitting in the oven for a good 20 minutes cooling off. But I guessed that didn't factor too much (maybe it should be "at all" hehe) into the failure of Attempt No.1 when I realised belatedly last night that I had used the wrong ingredient right from the start: baking soda instead of baking powder. Didn't realised that baking soda and baking powder are two different thing altogether *sheepish blush* ;p

So here I am today, on my 2nd attempt. Turned out lovely. This is my first time eating beer bread and it's a crusty and rather dense loaf. This recipe (below) yielded a bread which is slightly sweet, so maybe I will reduce the sugar by 1-2 tablespoon at my next attempt. But otherwise I'm quite pleased with the result. And you can smell a hint of beer in it also. :)

Basic Beer Bread

3 cups of flour (the way to measure this is to spoon the flour into measuring cup to avoid packed flour)
3 teaspoon baking powder
1 tablespoon salt
1/4 cup sugar
1 can of beer
1/4 cup melted butter (about 50g of butter and 20 seconds on the microwave)

- Preheat oven to 190 Celcius or 375 Farenheit
- Combined all dry ingredient in a mixing bowl
- Add in beer and stir lightly with a wooden spoon until you get a lumpy batter-like consistency
- Pour into a greased loaf and add melted butter to the mixture
- Bake for 1 hour, remove from pan and allow to cool for at least 15 minutes

This is the basic recipe. You can make variations to this recipe by adding grated cheese and herbs instead of butter or use different type of beers. Which I'm going to try out at my next attempt.

Visiting Jakarta's wet markets at Tanjung Duren and Mayestik

I reckon by going to these places does transform me into a full-fledged housewife huh? ;p

I started exploring the wet markets about 1 week into my stay here. And seriously, it's a rather fun thing to do. It certainly brought back a lot of childhood memories of going to wet markets with my mom back in my little hometown of Kluang. But most importantly, it's about buying fresh food at cheaper prices. 

To be honest, groceries shopping at air-conditioned hypermarts or supermarkets are pretty much hit-or-miss affairs in Jakarta. Unless you are willing to pay "gwailo" prices, which so far the only decent place is Ranch Market in Pondok Indah. Most of the time it's a MISS because the quality is lacking, rather expensive and limited choices of Asian greens. I recalled one experience of going to Hero in Pondok Indah Mall (and this is a so-called "expat" mall) and man! one glance at their produce and I told Hubs "I lost the inspiration to cook" because not only are they not fresh, the greens looked tired and so limited choices. And the thing I hate most, the branding of "IMPORTED" because that's when the cleaver is out for a fun time in the slaughterhouse. For example, at this same place, IMPORTED celery cost like 3x the price of locally grown celery. Certainly I'm not that dumb to pay that sort of prices. 

For heavy-duty shopping, I tend to go to Pasar Tomang in Tanjung Duren which is in West Jakarta. This is MY favourite market. Although the journey is tad long due to traffic (it takes me about 2 hours to and fro from where we stay) but it's fully equipped and clean. Importantly to Hubs, we can get pork(!) because it is at a Chinese area. BTW not all wet markets here sell pork and this is the only one we know of so far. Occasionally I see frogs and mud crabs being sold as well. Guess it's a matter of time before I buy these and try cooking them at home. ;p

The meats I buy from Tomang can usually last us about 7-10 days and hence for less intensive shopping, I will go to Pasar Mayestik about 3 km away. There's no pork at this market, but one can still buy seafood, local beef, poultry and vegetables. Compared to Tomang, Mayestik is an aged market and ermm.. wet. Well, wet as in the floors are really wet. Currently it's pretty chaotic because there's a construction going on just behind the market for newer and more spaces (I hope!) and it's business as usual still for all the traders here. Pasar Mayestik is also THE place to get fabrics and sewing supplies, including tailoring services as well. One more thing which I noticed at Mayestik is that there are a lot of "willing" porters, offering to carry your groceries for a small fee. If you are perfectly OK to carry the groceries yourself (like me!) then you just gotta be firm and say "Ngak usah iya!" But be prepared that you will be asked at least 3-4 times in one visit. I have not encounter this at all in Tomang.

To give you an inkling of the prices I pay at these markets : whole chicken would cost between Rp 28000 (small) to Rp 33000 (medium), a kilo of prawns sells for Rp 60000 and these small kembung fishes I got it for Rp 12000 if I'm not mistaken.

At Tomang, I only buy fishes and prawns from this Bapak because his is the freshest in the market. If you go on Saturday and Sunday, his stall is the easiest to spot because it IS the busiest with most Ibu(s) and their maids. This garoupa cost me Rp 10000 which made it into that night's dinner as Teochew steam garoupa. Yummers!

Most stalls sell vegetables in prepacked bundles like these which one bundle cost Rp 2000. Three of any kind will cost Rp 5000. Quite a deal actually. Those that are not prepacked will be calculated based on market prices.

So if you are up for a little adventure in traditional Asian markets, do consider visiting any of these. :)

Recipes: Caesar Salad with Baked Rosemary Chicken Breast on the side

Our low-fat and low-calorie journey continues in the form of this 100% made-from-scratch dinner.

Baked Rosemary Chicken Breast

2 skinless chicken breasts
2 cloves garlic, minced
1 tbsp olive oil
Zest and juice of half a lemon
2 tsp dried rosemary
Salt and pepper to taste

Combine garlic, oil, lemon zest and juice, rosemary, salt and pepper to form marinade. Make 3 slits on each breast to allow marinade to penetrate through. Rub marinade liberally over chicken breasts and allow to marinate in the fridge for 5-6 hours. Preheat oven to 190 Celcius. Place chicken breasts in a baking dish and bake for 35 minutes.

Caesar Salad dressing

1 egg
2 tbsp Dijon mustard
2 tbsp lemon juice
1 tsp Worcestershire sauce
1 tsp garlic puree
150 ml olive oil
Salt and pepper to taste

Boil the egg for 1 minute and break into a bowl. Add in all the ingredients, except the olive oil and whisk together. Finally add in oil in slow and steady stream until all combined and smooth.

Croutons

1 pc white sandwich bread, cut into small cubes.
2 tbsp butter
1 tsp garlic puree

Melt butter into liquid (take care not to burn) and add in garlic puree. Spread cubes on a pan and lightly brush with liquid butter. Toast over fire till crispy

Soft yolk boiled egg

Bring water to boil in a pot and add in some vinegar. Gently lower eggs into boiling water and cook for 7 minutes. Remove and put in ice-cold water to stop cooking process. Peel shells before serving.

To assemble:
Toss romaine and cubed tomato in dressing till well-coated. I only used at most about 3 tbsp of dressing for the both of us and refrigerated the rest. Garnish with croutons and egg, and serve with baked chicken breast.

Get real! Jamie Oliver in Jakarta?!

Well... not the man himself, but his brand of bottled pasta sauces. Saw this while doing grocery shopping in Kem Chicks in Pacific Place over the weekend.  Looks like preparing a Jamie Oliver meal is now even a lot easier without poring over his cookbooks!

Pureit - daily survival guide to the occasional bouts of stomach flu in Jakarta

This morning, while scanning the latest news on Google, I read with interest, this article on TODAYonline about some members of the Singaporean football team got hit by gastroenteritis, while in town for SEA Games. Why the interest? Because it's one heck of a common problem here in Jakarta. So common that last night during a social dinner with friends and friends of friends, we had to excused ourselves earlier because Hubs was recovering from one and another guy was still suffering from the ill-effects of a recent episode.

I remember in the early days when I was commuting to Jakarta to see Hubs, he was always mindful that I don't drink tap water, let alone cooled boiled tap water. Whenever we eat out, we made sure to order bottled mineral water or hot drinks. And at home, we only use tap water for normal washing/rinsing i.e. very short contact time with the food, but for soaking of vege and cooking, mineral water it is from the Aqua Galon water dispenser. Reason being - the few times Hubs or I, soaked or cooked with tap water, we noticed that we always suffer from some stomach discomfort in the form of stomach gases and bloatedness. And of course the mild diarrhea. Not a full gastroenteritis, but let's not take any chances, shall we?

I came across this portable water filtration system called Pureit by Unilever, first on a telly while vacationing in Bali and later in a hypermart in Jakarta. Having done some reading about the product online and tested the water sample with no untoward effect, I told Hubs "let's get one for the home" because I sorta feel sacrilegious to be using mineral water ALL the time to cook. I mean there are some parts of the world where having continuous water supply is a problem and here we are using mineral water to cook?! Bottomline, my point is if I can use quality tap water to boil/cook, let's do that and leave the mineral water for drinking.

We finally got ours at Lotte Mart in Gandaria @ Rp 499,000, a relatively inexpensive investment (I dare say!) to get quality filtered tap water compared to fixing expensive, complicated filtration devices to the main water inlet to our condo. The unit was easy to set up (pretty much like you would set up a traditional mineral water pot) and involves a few cycles of filling up with tap water and drain it off before the water is finally good for use. And so far, so good! :)

Social boo-boo: Getting confused between mas, mbak, kak, bu and pak

One of the first few things one notices when you step into any big departmental stores or restaurtants in Jakarta, is the number of staffs these establishments hire - everywhere you look/go, there's at least 2-3 staffs standing together waiting to serve. Secondly, the non-stop welcome greetings of "Selamat siang or selamat datang bu/pak/kak. Bisa membantu?" (translates as "Good day or welcome Ma'am/Sir. Can I be of assistance?"

Most of the time I get called 'bu' but occasionally I get called 'kak' as well. Initially, I thought they could recognised that I was a Malaysian because back in KL, it is norm to address someone older as 'kak' for females and 'bang' for males. But a recent shopping experience made me realised that actually it is a non-gender specific address for someone older. We were shopping for pants at the men department in Metro Pondok Indah Mall, and I noticed the sales assistant was addressing Hubs as 'pak' and 'kak' interchangeably. And everytime he used 'kak', I thought he was talking to me but from the eye contact he was still talking to Hubs. Later I confirmed with Hubs that yup, 'kak' can be used to call an older male or female.

So what about 'mas' and 'mbak'? So far, I noticed in a service setting, it is usually used to address the waiters/sales assistants. For males, you would use 'mas' and for female it is 'mbak'. I tot it was non-gender specific again, so you can imagine Hubs's reaction when he overheard me calling the male waiter as 'mbak'. Like ai-yai-yai-yai-yai mortification :P

According to wiki, they seems to classify the various addresses by age. 'Bu' or 'Ibu' is generally used for much older females and the male equivalent is 'Pak' or 'Bapak. For older male or female, one can use 'mas' or 'mbak' respectively or the universal 'kak'

Recently, I have started going to the local markets as well to get our daily groceries. And Hubs was mindful to teach me how to address the seller. The ideal respectful way is to call them as 'pak' or 'bu', and I noticed that at these markets, I tend to get called 'nyonya' or 'nya' which is used to address a married female.

Recipes: Steamed Minced Pork with Cuttlefish

Today has been a good day, experimenting with home cooking. Last weekend I tried out grilled chilli-stuffed selar, and although the sambal was pretty good for the stuffing, I unfortunately overbaked the fish. For lunch today, I tried it again but this time using ikan kuning and the result was pretty good. Just need to try it one more time before it deserves a blog post :)

Anyway for tonight's dinner, I kept 2 pieces of ikan kuning from lunch experiment for Hubs to try it out, and at the same time, I made steamed minced pork with cuttlefish. This is a favourite traditional dish of every Chinese household, and there's a lot of variation to it. Basically it's a marriage of the plain minced pork with a heavier-taste (read: saltier) ingredient such as tong chai (i.e. preserved chinese cabbage), mei xiang salted fish (usually of kurau fish which has been cured to produce a soft fermented texture and a unique fragrance and taste) or sometimes it can be seasoned well enough with soy sauce and salt to be steamed on its own. A light-bulb moment last night just before bedtime made me decide to try this with cuttle fish. Why cuttlefish? Well simply because this is all I have and in the words of Masterchef, this is an invention test. Hahaha!

Steamed Minced Pork with Cuttlefish (serves 2)

200gm of minced pork,
3cm x 6cm portion of dried cuttlefish
1 tsp salt
1 tsp soya sauce
1 tsp fish sauce
1 tsp corn starch powder
1-2 drops of sesame oil
Pepper to taste

- Clean and soak cuttlefish in a small bowl of water till soft. Cut cuttlefish into fine strips. Do not discard water used to soak cuttlefish.
- In a saucepan, heat 2 tbsp of oil and fry cuttlefish strips till crispy. Set aside to cool down. Grind half portion into powder with a mortar and pestle. Retain the other half as garnish.
- To season minced pork, add in salt, soya sauce, fish sauce, corn starch powder, sesame  oil, pepper and cuttlefish grind and mix well. Place in a steaming bowl.
- To prepare sauce, combine 3-4 tbsp of cuttlefish liquid with 1 tbsp of soya sauce. Add this to the steaming bowl.
- Garnish with fine strips of ginger, chopped chilli padi and remainder of cuttlefish strips.
- Place in a steamer and steam for about 10-15 minutes.

Sunset in Jakarta

 Caught a glimpse of the setting sun through the french blinds and couldn't resist the picture moment. Don't you just love the burnt orangy sky...

Funnies on Long Beach Menu @ Senayan

Hubs was entertaining a colleague, and so we went to Long Beach (of the famed crab institution in Singapore) at Senayan City for dinner. Check out their hilarious offerings.. 

This must be a new transgender species. Wonder how it taste like?

A hint of the price you would be paying for the wine. 

Can be "peppered and vinegared" (ka yim ka cho, as how one would say in Cantonese) 

And this is really a first for me. As I was slowly enjoying my black pepper crab claw, one of the waiters, obviously thought that I was struggling with the claw, politely asked me if I need help to break it down.  Or perhaps it is the norm for Indonesian high society to have someone break the crab claws for them. Talk about personalised services! Hmm... makes you wonder what they think when they see how Malaysians do it - claw wrapped in a tissue, hammer in hand and start pounding away.

Travel stories: Flight delayed.

My recent flight was rather eventful by KLM standards, IMO. Don't get me wrong, I don't have a love-hate relationship with them, like everyone does with Air Asia or MAS. In fact, I think it's the best option for KL-Jakarta route on proviso that you are not bound by time of arrival/departure. 

Although this route is only serviced by one flight per day, but it has so many things that I *heart* KLM for. Numero uno - big planes i.e. Boeing 777-300 because KL is a stopover point for long-haul Amsterdam-Jakarta. Secondly, no weird cabin smell that can induce a headache or nauseous feeling, especially on MAS and Air Asia planes servicing domestic and regional routes. For Air Asia, it's the dreaded rush of fume smell just before take-off that makes me sick. Last but not least, little stuffs to pleasant-ise the journey - lavender-scented hot towels, in-flight entertainment and decent meals.

Anyway, I digressed. It was 10 minutes passed official departure time and we were still parked at the gate. Next came the pilot's voice on air, announcing that flight was delayed due to overfuel. This should not cause a problem upon taking off but it's definitely dangerous when we land in Jakarta. To complicate matters, it was easy to put in fuel but definitely tricky to unload off the extra fuel, which the pilot foresee would delay the journey by 1 hour. In the meantime, the ground crew had to look into unloading unnecessary weight off the plane to cut down the delay. Half an hour into waiting, the pilot voice came on again, announcing that we were good for take-off, just as the plane was departing from the gate. Hurray!

But... Yes there's a but. As we were taxiing to the runway, the notorious KL thunderstorm came upon us and minutes later, pilot announced again due to the unfavourable weather condition which was creating havoc on wind directions and such, we would have to sit out until the weather clears up. Thank god it wasn't long though.

Delicious meal - Selected for you by KLM. Simple but smart psycho-marketing tactic.

The great anniversary debate

Over the weekend, my Twin who's currently residing in the US celebrated her 2nd wedding anniversary and as a gift, Bro-in-law presented her a H&M voucher symbolic of the 2nd wedding anniversary gift of cotton. 

When Hubs saw her status post on FB, Hubs asked me "Got such thing meh, what to give for each passing wedding anniversary?" I replied, "Yeah, according to the Caucasian tradition." Without thinking straight as my brain was still a bit groggy having just woken up, I continued to add "In fact, according to them, the 1st wedding anniversary gift is a piece of paper."As soon as that came out from my mouth, I went 'oopsie-daisy' in my head because Hubs's next response was, "Hmm.. looks like I got conned into getting you that LV bag"

But thankee my lucky stars, I found out from wiki that leather is THE gift for 3rd anniversary gift according to traditional US gift conventions. *Phew* ;p

 

Recipes: Pan-Grilled Southwest Chicken Breasts with Tomato Salsa and Potato and Egg Salad

As part of our stay-fit-eat-healthy plan, I decided to try out this recipe. I have since modified the original recipe (it was actually grilled chicken sandwiches) in order to make use with what I have in the fridge. The resulting dish was awesome, with a lots of flavours and I took care not to over-grill the chicken breasts.

Pan-Grilled Southwest Chicken 

4 chicken breasts without skin

1 sprig of cilantro, finely chopped

1 clove garlic, minced

1 red chilli padi, deseeded and minced

Finely grated lemon zest (I used half a lemon)

1 1/2 tsp salt

1/4 tsp ground pepper

1/4 tsp dried chilli flakes

1 tbsp olive oil

- Combine all marinade ingredients in a small bowl until well mixed. Rub marinade onto chicken breasts, placed in a medium bowl and covered with cling wrap. Allow to refrigerate for 1 hour. In the meantime work on the salsa and the potato and egg salad

- Heat up 1 tsp vegetable oil on a non-stick pan

- Grill the marinated chicken on heated pan until no longer pink in center and juices run clear, roughly about 4-5 minutes on each side. 

Tomato salsa

2 sprigs cilantro, roughly chopped

1 clove garlic, minced

1 shallot, finely sliced

2 medium-sized ripe tomatoes, deseeded and cubed

2 tbsp lemon juice

Salt and pepper to taste

- Mix well all ingredients in a serving bowl, cover with cling wrap and refrigerate till time to serve

Potato and egg salad

2 medium-sized potatoes, peeled and boiled whole in salted water till soft

2 hard-boiled eggs, cubed

2 tsps butter

Salt and pepper to taste

- Mash potatoes with a fork. While mash is still warm, quickly work in the butter. Add in cubed eggs and mix well. Season well with salt and pepper