One day during our weekly shopping trip to one of hypermarket closed to my house, my husband came to me with a full bag of small fishes. I have no idea what fish that is but I don't have to worry because my husband has screamed so loud to my ear "Belanak! Belanak! I bought some Belanak." while his hand showing me that bag full of small fishes. Oh Belanak fish. My husband's favorite.
He then asked me to deep fry the fishes for his dinner the next day. He said I didn't have to mix the fish with anything. Just fry them with the vegetable cooking oil. "Ok. I'll do that." I told my husband.
But then, the next day, when I was about the fry the Belanak after my maid cleaned them (I have a phobia of cleaning a fish so I can't clean the fish by myself), I came out with my own recipe of crispy fried fish. I'm sure my husband will like the fish to be crispier. So I started to mix the ingredients and then after leaving the mixture in the fridge until before dinner time, I deep fried the Belanak.
When my husband came back home, he quickly asked me to prepare his dinner because he knew that he was about to eat his favorite belanak fish.
When he ate the belanak, he asked me how I could make that belanak extra crispy. So, I told him about my crispy fried fish recipe. Then he asked me to fry every fish with my recipe.
Friday, April 28, 2006
Wednesday, April 26, 2006
Banana Cake on Coffeeliqueur Recipes blog
Yay! I finally finished creating my recipe blog and my first recipe is The Banana-Raisin cake. Check it out people!
Bon appétit!
Bon appétit!
Friday, April 21, 2006
Life in a snap - me and my camera
Since I was small, I have a very close relationship with a camera. Most of the time, I would be the object of the camera.
When I was 3 years old, one of my photos appeared in Ayahbunda. Ayahbunda is one of leading family magazines in my country.
This experience has made me developed a more intimate relationship with a camera. I gave my free time to learn to be a good object for the camera and this resulted to 2 biggest events in my life in my relationship with the camera; first, when I was a teenager, my photo again printed in almost all mass media in my country because I did an ad for a beeper company, then second, in my twenties, one of my portraits which is the same size as my house door, was displayed on a big photographic event at Jakarta Convention Center.
Since then I have stopped making commercial photo shoots. But this doesn’t mean I quit my relationship with my camera. Still I can’t live without one.
When I finally managed to buy a good Olympus camera for myself, slowly I learn not to be the object of the camera anymore. I found my new exciting experience being a photographer.
I snapped here and there. I take a snapshot of everything that looks good for my eyes and for others. I take photo of nature and things that happen around me. I take photo to support me in telling stories of places I have been. My favorite object is all my beloved people, especially my son.
When I met my friend, Cristien ‘Malfoy’ who loves camera as I do, we have become a good partner in photography. We just love to freeze the beauty of New Zealand from many angles.
At the moment, I don’t live with Cristien anymore but I still pursue my relationship with my camera which is now upgraded to a digital camera. With a digital camera, I found it quite easier to produce a high quality photo because I can always preview the photo I have taken and delete it if I don’t like the photo. Besides, I don’t have to always develop the photos and keep the photo in a bulky photo album. I save more money with my digital camera, especially when it is teamed up with my computer and my powerful adobe Photoshop software.
I go crazy over my camera and have tried to make money out of the photos I snapped by sending them to local newspaper to accompany some exciting news, or by using them on Ebay to make my items more appealing to my prospective buyers, or just uploading them on the internet photographic forum for other people to comment on.
After 3 attempts, finally my photo of 2 elephants riding on a lorry has won a prize as the best picture of the day and was published on The Star newspaper. I took that photo because the 2 elephants looked so cute and this was the first time for me witnessing elephants riding on a lorry and I just couldn’t miss the moment.
Thank you my camera! You have made my life so beautiful in your own way by preserving things that are so memorable to me and to others.
When I was 3 years old, one of my photos appeared in Ayahbunda. Ayahbunda is one of leading family magazines in my country.
This experience has made me developed a more intimate relationship with a camera. I gave my free time to learn to be a good object for the camera and this resulted to 2 biggest events in my life in my relationship with the camera; first, when I was a teenager, my photo again printed in almost all mass media in my country because I did an ad for a beeper company, then second, in my twenties, one of my portraits which is the same size as my house door, was displayed on a big photographic event at Jakarta Convention Center.
Since then I have stopped making commercial photo shoots. But this doesn’t mean I quit my relationship with my camera. Still I can’t live without one.
When I finally managed to buy a good Olympus camera for myself, slowly I learn not to be the object of the camera anymore. I found my new exciting experience being a photographer.
I snapped here and there. I take a snapshot of everything that looks good for my eyes and for others. I take photo of nature and things that happen around me. I take photo to support me in telling stories of places I have been. My favorite object is all my beloved people, especially my son.
When I met my friend, Cristien ‘Malfoy’ who loves camera as I do, we have become a good partner in photography. We just love to freeze the beauty of New Zealand from many angles.
At the moment, I don’t live with Cristien anymore but I still pursue my relationship with my camera which is now upgraded to a digital camera. With a digital camera, I found it quite easier to produce a high quality photo because I can always preview the photo I have taken and delete it if I don’t like the photo. Besides, I don’t have to always develop the photos and keep the photo in a bulky photo album. I save more money with my digital camera, especially when it is teamed up with my computer and my powerful adobe Photoshop software.
I go crazy over my camera and have tried to make money out of the photos I snapped by sending them to local newspaper to accompany some exciting news, or by using them on Ebay to make my items more appealing to my prospective buyers, or just uploading them on the internet photographic forum for other people to comment on.
After 3 attempts, finally my photo of 2 elephants riding on a lorry has won a prize as the best picture of the day and was published on The Star newspaper. I took that photo because the 2 elephants looked so cute and this was the first time for me witnessing elephants riding on a lorry and I just couldn’t miss the moment.
Thank you my camera! You have made my life so beautiful in your own way by preserving things that are so memorable to me and to others.
Escape death
My whole family has proved how God never leaves us alone and we are so grateful to be given a second chance to live after the incident on Tuesday (11 April) early morning at 1am along North-South Highway on the way back home from vacationing in Jogjakarta.
At that time we were all extremely tired after our flight was delayed an hour in Solo and we still had to wait nearly 2 hours to retrieve our cargo bags because the airline has sent the luggages to the wrong airport. Our taxi driver has waited for nearly 3 hours at the airport to drive us back to our hometown and he also was very tired after working the whole day. The taxi driver just couldn't wait to send us back home as we were his last passengers for that day.
Finally at around 11pm, we were on our way back to our hometown which is around 3hour-driving from the airport. Since we were all very tired, we closed our eyes and started snoring. But then, I just heard 'a sound' that was telling me to stay awake. Though it was bloody hard to open my eyes because I was very sleepy, I forced my self to stay awake. Then I realized the taxi started to swerve from its lane, left and right, then in the middle of the lane, also the car speed has gone up and down between 110km/h to 60km/h back to 110km/h. I was like "what the hell is wrong with the car". I was trying to ask the taxi driver when I found out that the taxi drive was sleeping and snoring while driving the taxi!! God gracious! I quickly tapped my husband's shoulder who sat next to the driver and was snoring as well, to wake him up when at the same time, I saw the car swerved so badly and it nearly plunged into the ravine. I screamed so loudly asking where we were and the taxi driver woke up and tried his best to control the car.
Oh my God! How can he sleep and drive at the same time risking the passengers' lives?? I then asked my hubby to keep on talking to the driver to prevent him from fallen asleep. The taxi driver acknowledged that he was very sleepy. Oh thank goodness I wasn't asleep! Otherwise we all would never wake up anymore as the car might go down into the ravine.
Once we arrived home, I quickly prayed to God to thank Him for always be there for us and for saving our lives.
God is great!
At that time we were all extremely tired after our flight was delayed an hour in Solo and we still had to wait nearly 2 hours to retrieve our cargo bags because the airline has sent the luggages to the wrong airport. Our taxi driver has waited for nearly 3 hours at the airport to drive us back to our hometown and he also was very tired after working the whole day. The taxi driver just couldn't wait to send us back home as we were his last passengers for that day.
Finally at around 11pm, we were on our way back to our hometown which is around 3hour-driving from the airport. Since we were all very tired, we closed our eyes and started snoring. But then, I just heard 'a sound' that was telling me to stay awake. Though it was bloody hard to open my eyes because I was very sleepy, I forced my self to stay awake. Then I realized the taxi started to swerve from its lane, left and right, then in the middle of the lane, also the car speed has gone up and down between 110km/h to 60km/h back to 110km/h. I was like "what the hell is wrong with the car". I was trying to ask the taxi driver when I found out that the taxi drive was sleeping and snoring while driving the taxi!! God gracious! I quickly tapped my husband's shoulder who sat next to the driver and was snoring as well, to wake him up when at the same time, I saw the car swerved so badly and it nearly plunged into the ravine. I screamed so loudly asking where we were and the taxi driver woke up and tried his best to control the car.
Oh my God! How can he sleep and drive at the same time risking the passengers' lives?? I then asked my hubby to keep on talking to the driver to prevent him from fallen asleep. The taxi driver acknowledged that he was very sleepy. Oh thank goodness I wasn't asleep! Otherwise we all would never wake up anymore as the car might go down into the ravine.
Once we arrived home, I quickly prayed to God to thank Him for always be there for us and for saving our lives.
God is great!
Kraton (the Palace of) Jogjakarta
The trishaw ride to 5 tourist destinations around Kraton.
I took my husband and my son for a visit to the Palace of Jogjakarta or Kraton Jogjakarta. When we visited the kraton, at that time, there is a local celebration called 'Sekaten' which is held in front of the Kraton area.
There are so many people visiting the Sekaten. It's a party for the people there. There are so many food stores and handicrafs on sale and they are bloody cheap.
There is a mini train that will take you for a ride around the sekaten area.
When we arrived in front of the Kraton, we were offered a ride by a trishaw to visit 5 tourist destinations around the Kraton area which cost us 5,000rupiah per trishaw. The trishaw driver will be your tour guide on the way to your 5 destinations. Since we didn't have alot of time, we only managed to visit 3 destinations, they are The house of Prince Joyokusumo (the next in throne since the current King doesn't have a son), the Batik house, and the Kraton itself.
At the house of Prince Joyokusumo, we were guided by man who explains us everything about the family of Prince Joyokusumo. We were also served a very special tea drank by the Prince family which has 9 different ingredients and it's called "teh 9 rasa" which tastes quite sweet.
The entrance fee is 5,000rupiah per person and the permit to take photograph costs 3,500rupiah, and you have to give a tip to the tour guide and the amount if up to you.
At the Batik House, we were shown about how to produce batik cloths whether it is a hand-drawn batik or a printed batik. This batik house has a batik store which sells beautiful collections of batik cloths, blankon (traditional javanese hat), and shirts.
There is no entrance fee for this place but you just need to give a tip to the tour guide.
The Kraton Jogjakarta opens only from 8.30am - 1pm everyday, except on Friday, it will close at 11am. The entrance fee is 2,000rupiah, the permit to take photographs is 1,000rupiah while to take video is 2,000rupiah.
Visit to Borobudur Temple
After 2 delays, I finally managed to take my family and my brother family to visit 1 of the 7 wonders in the world, Borobudur Temple in Magelang, Central of Java, Indonesia.
Borobudur is the biggest buddhist temple in Indonesia and is about 1 hour-drive from Yogyakarta or about 3 hour-drive from Solo (Surakarta). During the day when the sky is clear, it's better to visit Borobudur in the morning and leave before noon or you can come around 3 in the afternoon, otherwise, it will be too hot and you will get severe headache if you don't wear a hat/cap or an umbrella.Borobudur is open from 6am - 5pm (mon-fri) and the ticket price is 9,000rupiah for the Indonesians and 100,000rupiah for the foreigners.
Before you arrive at Borobudur, you will see another temple which is smaller called Mendut. Don't forget to stop by after you visit Borobudur on the way back to Jogjakarta.
Wednesday, April 19, 2006
Visit to Prambanan Temple
The ruined part of Prambanan temple
On next day after we arrived at Jogyakarta, I managed to take my whole family to visit Prambanan temple.Prambanan temple is a magnificent hindu temple, located in Prambanan city which is about 1.5 - 2 hours drive from Solo (Surakarta) city in Central of Java or is about 20-30minutes drive from Jogyakarta, Indonesia. Prambanan is a border city between Central of Java province and Daerah Istimewa Yogyakarta (Jogyakarta, for short, is a special region (province) lead by a King (Sultan) not by a governor).
Prambanan temple is very famous for its love story between a very powerful man named, Bandung Bondowoso and a very beautiful princess named, Roro Jonggrang who is cursed to be one of the stupa by Bandung because she has tricked him. This love story has become a legend over the years. This famous love story which is called Ramayana, is brought to live on the open air-stage on the west side of the Prambanan temple every full moon from May - October. The Ramayana is an act using traditional javanese costumes and language. The actors and actresses will dance gracefully and sing the traditional javanese rhymes. It's a show worth to see when you visit Prambanan temple.
There is another famous story about Prambanan that is if you go to visit this temple with your boyfriend/girlfriend, you will break-up with your bf/gf after your visit to this temple because of the curse that is made by Bandung Bondowoso for he does not like to see unmarried couple. But if you are a married couple, then you will be fine.
When we visited Prambanan, we tried to arrive there at around 3pm so that it wouldn't be too hot when we walked around the Prambanan temple area which is quite large. It is advisable to wear a cap/hat/ an umbrella, otherwise you can get headache. The ticket price is 8,000rupiah and it is open from 6am - 6pm (7 days).
Not far from Prambanan temple area, there is another temple area called Candi Sewu (Sewu temple). Candi Sewu is a buddhist temple. About 3 km south of Prambanan temple, there is a magnificent archeology site called, Ratu Boko. These 2 areas closed to Prambanan temple are worth to see.
Please don't forget that you also have to visit the Borobudur temple in Magelang (about 1hour-drive from Jogyakarta). Borobudur is one of the 7 wonders in the world and this would be my next post.
So, when you visit Jogyakarta, please make sure you allocate your time schedule properly to avoid missing the opportunity of witnessing the grandeur of these temples.
Oh, by the way, before you go to Prambanan, it is better to check on the internet first and get as much as information about it. You can always google it and you'll get the websites right in front of your eyes in no time.
Jogjakarta...here we come
I am so excited that I finally could drag my husband and my son to visit Jogjakarta. Though I wasn't born in this city but before I moved overseas, I have spent almost most of my vacation time in this city because this is where all my uncles, my unties, and my cousins live. My grandparents were buried there too. So, yeah...I will always have reason to visit Jogjakarta.
Jogjakarta is in the southern part of central of Java province. It is a province by itself. Jogjakarta is a very special province in Indonesia. Not only because it is a kingdom and lead by a loved-by-people King instead of a governor, it is also because the city is famous for the nickname of the "student city". Being a student city, this city has quite a number of good schools and universities. The famous university is University of Gajah Mada which is the best university in Indonesia. It is very difficult to get admitted into this university. Many of its students are also from other countries. The lectures are conducted both in English and in Bahasa Indonesia.
The standard living cost in Jogjakarta is very cheap especially for food. The famous local dish is gudeg. Many people, including my husband, say that this dish is extra sweet but then that how gudeg taste is. If it's not sweet, then it's not gudeg... :D
It was a 4-day trip. We flew on Friday from Kuala Lumpur to Solo City (Surakarta) then from Surakarta, my cousin picked us up and we drove about 2 hours to Jogjakarta because there is no highway and it is a 2-way road full of big intercity buses and trucks. It was a very good offer from the famous budget airline, Air Asia, to fly from Kuala Lumpur to Solo city (Surakarta) for only RM49.99 (about USD14) one way per person.
I was very excited because I would love to introduce my husband and my son to all my family in Jogjakarta who have been longing to meet them since I got married about 6 years ago.
My husband was also very excited about this trip because he has planned to visit all the famous temples and tourist attractions.
At first I was in doubt as to how I can schedule the time properly so that we can visit every one and also visit every tourist attraction in 4 days.
Before our trip to Jogjakarta, my husband and I were busy checking out the websites about this city and the one stands out is http://www.gudeg.net. Actually, I know this website from one of my cousins who used to live in Jogjakarta. Thanks cousin!
So, if you plan to visit Jogjakarta, you may want to check out that website.
I'm glad that God has helped me to arrange our schedule and we managed to visit Prambanan and Borobudur temples. We also visited Kraton Jogjakarta where the King lives and also, we did visit all the people we need to visit. In the morning, we would have breakfast in Mirota Bakery at Jalan FM.Noto, No. 7, Kotabaru. In Mirota, you can find any kinds of breads, cookies, desserts, local finger food or kuih-muih in Bahasa Malaysia which are sooooooooooo delicious. I mean it! They are delicious!! If possible, I would love to sit there and taste all the food one by one from morning till nite...:P For those who have to eat rice for breakfast, Mirota also sells steam rice with many kinds of local dishes. My favourite is the grilled chicken. And for lunch, oh man, I don't know what to say. There are so many choices and they are all cheap and delicious. I took my whole family to a gudeg restaurant which is soooooooo delicious and cheap. I only paid less than USD10 for 10 people eating there. This place is very famous and it is always full of people. If you are lucky, you can get a table and enjoy your gudeg soon and that happened with me. I was lucky enough to get a big table for my whole family when we went there. This gudeg join doesn't accept any reservations. First come first serve basis. Unfortunately, I can't remember the name of this famous gudeg joint. If you plan to go there, you can email me and I'll find out for you.
So, if you plan to visit Jogjakarta, you may want to check out that website.
I'm glad that God has helped me to arrange our schedule and we managed to visit Prambanan and Borobudur temples. We also visited Kraton Jogjakarta where the King lives and also, we did visit all the people we need to visit. In the morning, we would have breakfast in Mirota Bakery at Jalan FM.Noto, No. 7, Kotabaru. In Mirota, you can find any kinds of breads, cookies, desserts, local finger food or kuih-muih in Bahasa Malaysia which are sooooooooooo delicious. I mean it! They are delicious!! If possible, I would love to sit there and taste all the food one by one from morning till nite...:P For those who have to eat rice for breakfast, Mirota also sells steam rice with many kinds of local dishes. My favourite is the grilled chicken. And for lunch, oh man, I don't know what to say. There are so many choices and they are all cheap and delicious. I took my whole family to a gudeg restaurant which is soooooooo delicious and cheap. I only paid less than USD10 for 10 people eating there. This place is very famous and it is always full of people. If you are lucky, you can get a table and enjoy your gudeg soon and that happened with me. I was lucky enough to get a big table for my whole family when we went there. This gudeg join doesn't accept any reservations. First come first serve basis. Unfortunately, I can't remember the name of this famous gudeg joint. If you plan to go there, you can email me and I'll find out for you.
If you choose to go to a fancy restaurant where the menu is written in English, you can go to Gadjah Wong Garden restaurant. This restaurant sells local and western dishes. But mind you, this place is not cheap. There is another restaurant that we would really love to go but unfortunately, we weren't lucky this time because this place is fully booked. The restaurant name is Boyong Kalegan. This restaurant sells seafood and local dishes. The ambiance is very suitable for the whole family because in this restaurant, you can do fishing or take a small bamboo raft to enjoy the view. This is an open air restaurant where you have to sit with no chair or in local language called 'lesehan' and you eat with your fingers...hmmm...yummi..
Though we didn't have a chance to go to Malioboro, the famous street in Jogjakarta, we still think that our trip is a successful trip and we would love to go back there again. If God didn't help me to arrange my schedule, we wouldn't be able to accomodate my hubby's wish and my wish during our short trip to Jogjakarta. Thank you, God!
Tuesday, April 18, 2006
Welcome to the coffeeliqueur blog
Welcome to my blog!
This is not the first time I have a blog. My other blog is hosted by friendster (www.friendster.com) and I am still thinking to move the content over to this blog. I'm going to wait and at the same time learning about how to modify this blog to be better than my friendster blog.
I know about the Blogger website from The Star newspaper I read today. The article is about how easy it is for a person without any knowledge of programming to build a website by just using www.blogger.com or using iweb. The latter is for the Mac users.
So, here I am, posting my first blog to try on all the features this blogger can offer.
I have done some surveys and checked out on other blogs and looks like I am going to like this website to host my blog.
As a person that love to go for vacation or to visit some interesting places in the world, I find that this blog will help me to share my experience with you all. Just in case you want to visit the same place I have been, you can check out my blog to see if I have posted any stories about it. If not, I welcome you to share your story with me.
Read on people! I hope you like my way...the Coffeeliqueur way!
This is not the first time I have a blog. My other blog is hosted by friendster (www.friendster.com) and I am still thinking to move the content over to this blog. I'm going to wait and at the same time learning about how to modify this blog to be better than my friendster blog.
I know about the Blogger website from The Star newspaper I read today. The article is about how easy it is for a person without any knowledge of programming to build a website by just using www.blogger.com or using iweb. The latter is for the Mac users.
So, here I am, posting my first blog to try on all the features this blogger can offer.
I have done some surveys and checked out on other blogs and looks like I am going to like this website to host my blog.
As a person that love to go for vacation or to visit some interesting places in the world, I find that this blog will help me to share my experience with you all. Just in case you want to visit the same place I have been, you can check out my blog to see if I have posted any stories about it. If not, I welcome you to share your story with me.
Read on people! I hope you like my way...the Coffeeliqueur way!
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