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One of my favourite food from my mother. She always cooks it whenever we have squid. I smsed her today to ask for the recipe. Surprisingly it was really easy to make.
– 500 gr squid
– 4 shallots sliced
– 2 garlic sliced
– 1 red chili sliced
– 1 bird’s eye chili sliced
– 1/2 tsp salt
– 1 tbs oyster sauce
– Fry shallots, garlic, chilies until fragrant.
– Add squid, stir well.
– Add salt and oyster sauce, stir well.
– Keep stirring until squid turns color.
– Do not overcook as this will make the squid rubbery.
Serve warm with rice.
 Menyambung ketidakpuasan atas mpek mpek yang aku beli di acara Agustusan di Kedutaan maka diputuskan untuk membuat empek2 sendiri…alah apaan seh bahasanya?? Browsing sana sini decided to use recipe from Ine Sena. There were two recipes of mpek mpek in her blog and she said the other one lebih nendang but because I didn’t have tepung tang mien so I just made the normal mpek mpek.
Here is the recipe in English with a little modofication from me
– 200 gr cold tenggiri fish straight from the fridge (I used king mackerel)
– 100 ml ice water
– 1 garlic mashed
– 100 gr tapioca flour
– 1 tbs flour
– 1 tsp salt
– 1 tsp sugar
for the mpek mpek filling; mix 1 egg with a little bit of salt
– Mix fish, half of the ice water, sugar, salt and garlic in a food processor until smooth.
– Add the rest of the water, mix well.
– Add flour, mix well but don’t mix it too long, just until everything is smooth and even.
– The result is a soft (a little bit watery) dough.
– Pour little bit of tapioca in a flat clean surface ie; cutting board and also some onto your hands to prevent them from sticking to the dough.
– Pour the dough on the clean surface and form the mpek mpek.
– Spoon 1 tsp egg inside the mpek mpek and form the kapal selam (pada tau kan itu gimana bentuknya.
– Boil the mpek mpek in boiling water with a little bit of oil to make it shiny.
– When it rises it means it’s done.
– Deep fried when you want to serve it.
Kuah Mpek Mpek (Cuko)
– 200 gr palm sugar
– 600 ml water
– 6 garlic mashed
– 4 tbs vinegar (usually tamarind is being used here but I didn’t have it)
– 5 bird’s eye chili
– 1/2 tsp salt
– Boil water with palm sugar until all palm sugar has dissolved.
– Drain the mixture in a fine colander (sometimes the sugar is not so clean)
– Boil again the mixture with the rest of the ingredients.
– Taste before using it as it depends on your taste buds.
Serve mpek mpek with cuko and shredded cucumber and powdered ebi
 I bought 2 mackerel this weekend. One is reserved for making mpek mpek and the other one don’t know for what. I filleted both of the fish so it’s easier for a bule to eat 😉 Decided to make balado because it’s easy peasy since I was also making mpek mpek which I never made before so had to make a fast dish for dinner.
– 1 fish marinade for some minutes with lemon/lime juice and salt. Then fried
– 4 shallots
– 3 garlic
– 3 red chili
– 1 big tomato
– 2 bird’s eye chili (more if you like, this is for a bule so not too hot 😉 )
– 1/2 tsp sugar
– 1/2 tsp salt
– Crush all the sambal ingredients with pestle and mortar or food proccessor for lazy people like me. 😛
– Fry in little bit oil until done.
– Spread over fish
 These are the cupcakes that I made especially for Hesti and Lusi’s b’day party. Thank you to Maki who allowed me to use her idea for the buttercream. I followed her instruction that she gave me through YM. She said she got a picture of how the buttercream should look inside the piping bag before you pipe it out. But her monitor was having a problem so she couldn’t send it to me. So based on her information I imagined in my head how I should do it. And it wasn’t that difficult at all. Mine was too dark I think. Yeah thanks to the dark lighting in the kitchen I couldn’t really see the real color when I colored the buttercream. But I was happy on how they turned out though of course not as perfect as Maki’s cupcakes.
 As for the cupcakes I wanted to make something different. Something cheese and fruity…After flicking through my recipe collections I stumbled upon this cupcake recipe in my Sedap Magazine. The oroginal recipe was called Yoghurt Cheese Cake.
Here is the recipe :
– 175gr margarin (I used butter for better taste)
– 125gr granulated sugar
– 100gr cream cheese
– 100gr yoghurt
– 4 eggs
– 180gr flour (I used self raising flour)
– 1 tsp baking powder (I omitted this because I used self raising flour)
– 1 tsp lemon zest
– Beat margarine and sugar until light and fluffy.
– Add cream cheese and mix well.
– Add yoghurt, lemon zest and mix well.
– Add egg one by one alternating with the flour (and eventually baking powder) and mix well.
Do not overmix!!!
– Pour in the cupcake paper.
– Bake in the oven 180C for 20 mins.
For variations before decorating the cake I added some pieces of mandarine oranges on top of the cupcake. It made the cupcake tasted fresher and tangier.
 Here is my plate at the party. The food was Indonesian of course and delicious. The choices were; rice, tempe mendoan, empal (enak bgt!), ayam rica-rica, mie goreng (ini juga enak bgt), cap cay, sambal, krupuk udang hmm what else?? Oh there were also bbq of fish and chicken but I didn’t try it because I was full already…but Whitty gobbled a whole piece of fish so it must be good 😉
 Here are some of the partygoers….acting crazy at the roof of the building. And no you are not mistaken that is really Whitty there 🙂 We took him along because Lusi and Hesti were asking as a joke but we thought why not, he is still a young cat so it’s a good time to show him how to cope in different situation. And yes he was very good. Didn’t cry in the car although he was a bit nervous at the party because all of the noises and far too many people. But when we put him inside Lusi’s room he was allright meaning playing with anyone who came inside the room, eating his food (a whole big piece of fish) and of course made a little mess in Lusi’s room. Eh sorry Lus :s
Happy B’day again to both of you! hope all your wishes come true!!
The quiet side of Florence. The city is quite big but not all of places are full with people. Only tourists area were crowded.
 That’s Florence Duomo as seen from Piazza Della SS Annunziata. The statue in the back is Grand Duke Ferdinand I…now whoever he was..
 And this is the famous David by Michelangelo. This one is the original one and you could find him in Galleria dell’Accademia. My guide book said I should book the ticket in advance to avoid long queue, but I didn’t do that and yes there were queue but was not as bad as the guide said. It was not allowed to take picture inside of the museum but you don’t call someone a paparazzi for nothing. As for me amateur paparazzi. 😛
Not everyday passed by in Italy without Italian Ice Cream. As it was so hot, humid and we had to walk long distance everyday to reach all the touristic area. But beware where you buy yours as prices vary especially in crowded area. Better have a good look around and see the price on the wall if you don’t want to get nasty surprise.
This is Piazza della Segnoria, the centre of Florence. You can find cafes and street musician here. In the back is an open museum, where you could go inside and look for free. Here you can find the fake David statue in front of Palazzo Vecchio.
 Our camping under the olive tree. That was the first time I ever seen Olive tree. It was a quiet nice camping in olive garden. The facilities were just the same like others but no free electricity except you have those huge extension plug because that’s what they have outside. But instead they have locker for charging your digicam, mobile etc. So for 1 euro you can charge an item for 12 hours.
 Our dinner that night. Instant mashed potato modified with saus sambal biar rasanya lebih nendang hihi, canned peas and carrot, and canned knack worst. Easy peasy camping food 😛
 This is Florence city as seen from the Piazza Michelangelo . The big dome is Florence Duomo, the biggest cathedral in Florence. Stunning isn’t it.
 More to the left of the duomo is this view. The first bridge that you can see there is Ponte Vecchio. Is one of it’s kind because there are not many left since German bombed other bridges in WW II. Why it’s special because they use it for shopping arcade. Now it’s full with gold shop, also one of Florence’s speciality. But in the olden days it was full with butcher selling meat and by the end of the day they just throw away the leftover meat down the river…Euh…
 This is Piazza Michelangelo, it’s really close by our camping site. It’s situated up the hill so you can see the whole Florence from this place. It’s actually not far from the city, only 20mins walk. Going to the city is ok as it’s going down the hill BUT going back is a challenge because then you have to go up the hill…. :S
And this is Venice, beautiful isn’t it. This is situated at Venice’s Grand Canal, the biggest canal in Venice. Mind you Venice is built from 117 islands so the city looks like as if it’s floating on the sea which is really pretty 🙂Really nothing like it in any other places in the world.
Yes this is the famous Gondola but didn’t have the chance to experience it because it is so damn expensive; 80-100euro/40 mins. Well you can fill the gondola up to 6 persons but there were only the two of us so no romantic gondola rides along the canals 😛
 Can u see there where those buildings stand. It’s right besides the water no space left!! It’s crazy yet astonishing at the same time.
We had dinner at this restaurant by the canal, what was the name of the restaurant, had to look up the name later. But it was close by to Rialto bridge. It wasn’t not that expensive as we thought it would be, of course you have to watch where you eat in Italy as this is not a cheap country. It was less than 50euro for 2 persons including drinks and it was 3 course meals.
Venice by night nearby Rialto bridge. This is the right time to get gondola rides as it is more romantic but also more expensive lol. Will never forget the charm of Venice with it’s beach, beautiful city, lots of pretty old buildings. When will I see you again?? Maybe when we win the lottery then we can go back for gondola rides 😛
 Why I call my sayur asam ga asam? Because I didn’t use the tamarind itself :p Naah it’s ok, it was enough to satisfy my craving for this kind of vegetable.
– 100 gr beef cube for the stock
– 100 gr green bean cut
– 1 can corn
– 1 carrot cut into stick
– 3 shallots sliced
– 2 garlic sliced
– 1 red chili sliced
– 2 tomatoes (because I didn’t use tamarind so this to make up the tangy flavour)
– 2 salam leaves
– 1 tbs ground candlenuts
– 1/2 tsp salt
– 1/2 tsp sugar
– 1 cm galangal
– 1/2 tsp terasi
– Boil the beef with water in a pan.
– Add all the spices until the stock is boiling again.
– Add vegetables, start with the hard vegetables first so it won’t be mushy at the end.
ps: for real sayur asam add little bit of tamarind juice made from tamarind dissolved in water.
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Awards
My First Award, Thank You!
Whittycute Foodie Event
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