Gerbang Keputren dan Anak yang Hilang

Situs Tersembunyi di Lereng Gunung Muria
Langit berawan. Matahari yang tiba-tiba agak ramah ternyata terselimuti awan hujan yang mengumpulkan kekuatan. Gumpal-gumpalan awan terbentuk cepat, sementara roda mobil melaju mengantar kami menyisir jalan itu untuk ketiga kalinya. Di lereng Gunung Muria itu, udara memang lebih bersahabat. Angin lembah yang membawa uap air waduk Seloromo dan Gunung Rowo melunakkan udara yang panas oleh teriknya matahari. Kami hanya beranjak beberapa kilometer jauhnya dari kabupaten Pati. Jalan aspal yang cukup baik ini dapat mengantar wisatawan yang tak seberapa menuju beberapa lokasi waduk dan pemandian di sekitar lereng gunung. Kanan-kiri jalan ramai oleh joglo-joglo penduduk, sebagian besar berdiri kokoh dengan konstruksi tradisional yang menawan.
Setelah beberapa sambungan telepon yang menyesatkan, pertanyaan yang membingungkan, petunjuk jalan yang nyaris-terbaca, dan beberapa putaran mobil, sebuah papan nama sekolah membawa kami ke tempat yang benar. Tulisan di papan petunjuk itu berbunyi: SDN Majapahit; di bawahnya terbaca samar "Rondole, Desa Muktiharjo - Kecamatan Margorejo". Di sisi lain jalan itu, sebuah papan petunjuk berbunyi "Rondole", tertulis tangan dengan huruf kapital seukuran panjang telunjuk. Di atasnya tertulis lebih kecil "Pintu Majapahit". Sebuah anak panah tergambar menunjuk ke jalan kecil yang cukup untuk mobil. Itu saja, titik.

Coconut Ginger Pudding

Coco-ginger pudding
[Click to enlarge]

Thursday afternoon, with a cup of Aroma coffee.
It's been a while since I saw packs of agar-agar in our drawer, and yesterday I was thinking of making something with fresh milk and ginger; maybe with other spice like cinnamon and clove. I was starring upon my fridge when I saw fresh young coconut, finely light-grated. Well, instead of making something deeply spicy like I thought earlier, I then decided to make something lighter.

Pudding:
3 cups fresh milk
1 cup ginger juice (and keep 1/4 squeezed grated ginger for sprinkle)
3 egg yolks
2.5 tbsp corn starch/ maizena
2/3 cup sugar (I used 1/3 cup of white cane sugar and 1/3 cup of brown palm sugar)
1/2 tsp salt
1/3 cup fresh young coconut, lightly grated
1 tbsp lemon zest
1 pack transparent agar-agar (Indonesian pack contains 7grams)

Tabac con Clavo - se llama "Kretek" :El Mejor Como Nunca!

Colder breeze comes - suggests a remark of weather change in one September afternoon. I can feel the fall coming, bringing couple degrees down on the thermometer. Afternoon walk is like a must, as living in real Eixample brought many new things to discover.
                                  
A cup of "cafe con leche- largo" on the table, while watching people as they climbs up the Metro stairs in El Clot - Barcelona:


"Perdona..."
"Perdona, senorita.."
I turned my head to a guy on my back. There were two guys - both with strange face staring curiously at me, with their cigarettes lit and estrellas on the table.
"El duele..., mmm, el tabac... duele...??"
Even with my -enough to live two year in Spain- spanish, I understood what he meant. I don't know what "duele" is, but "el tabac" and the gesture was enough for me. [later on after, my friend told me that I must have heard it wrong. It's suppose to be "huele" (smell) - not "duele" (hurt)]

Bali for Indonesia

Video presented on bidding for destination country

 FIABCI 61th World Congress 2010 

[thanks to Terrance Barkan for uploaded this to YouTube]

Video presented on bidding for destination country

 FIABCI 61th World Congress 2010 

FIABCI Business Meeting - Dubai 2009

Coco-pandan Muffins: Indonesia defined.

Home made Coco-pandan Muffins

An oven in the kitchen ~ suddenly makes me want to experiment baked stuff. So one afternoon... somehow I 'run' to a friend's room and told her, "Let's bake!". Long story made short, we have several baking experience - from my totally failure first attempt without sufficient tools 'found' in my room; until successful chocolate muffins [off course it's good - it's CHOCOLATE!]. But this time, a rather experimental-yet-sounds familiar taste for trial came to mind.
As usual, my weekend here in Barcelona starts with  weekly vegetable shopping - and as most of any other Asian people in the world, my Asian tongue demands me to do regular stop at an Asian store. With imported goods from all over Asian countries, this store sometimes surprise me with Indonesian local spices or other stuff like "tempe" or galangal. But this time... I found pandan! So, driven only by far-scent and taste of home in mind, I grabbed a pack of pandan leaves and went home.
Some dishes came to mind, from chicken in pandan leaves - to green beans with pandan sugar. Then, as I saw the flour and sugar in my kitchen shelf, I think - why not muffins? Coconut seems to work with pandan - so be it.