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