Eid: The Day of Victory

The Muslim New Year or Eid Mubarak is a day where we as Indonesian muslims commemorate the end of Ramadhan by indulging in a lot of ketupat, lontong sayur, rendang and opor ayam. For some, it's a long awaited day for they receive a lot of bonus cash from their elders -- or bosses (like the angpao in Chinese New Year). However, my mother always tells my brothers and I that the true meaning of Eid Mubarak does not lie in the food or the money; Eid Mubarak signifies the day of victory. 

I never really understood the meaning of it until this year's Ramadhan. To be fair, I think it's also partly because I never took my previous Ramadhans seriously. I've always treated Ramadhans as the time to finally reunite with my old friends and relatives in break-fasting gatherings (acara buka bersama) -- which basically is just dinner out -- thus occupying my schedule to spend time with lots of friends and relatives instead of devoting my time for ibadah. 

Of course, meeting old friends and relatives is never a bad thing! In fact, it's something my religion and culture recommend as part of silaturrahmi. However, only if I perceived my previous Ramadhans differently, I know I'd dedicate my time wisely to spend more time with my family. But most importantly, time would be well spent for ibadah -- the essence of Ramadhan. 

So what really is the 'better' perception of Ramadhan that I missed out all these years? I guess it's pretty fundamental, but most of us forgot that the holy month is the month of forgiveness, and is the only time of the year where the count of good deeds have a multiplier effect. I believe that when you go to the mosque to take your prayers, even your every footstep to the mosque is counted as a good deed. When you wake your brother up to eat sahoor, or when you wake your mom up to practice itikaf -- every single action you make to wake them up is considered as a good deed. Bearing in mind all the generosity God gives in the holy month, won't it be such a waste to spend most of our time for other agenda other than spending it to do our religious duties? 

This year, I made time to reflect.  I'm grateful that I have also committed and devoted my time to perform better religiously in Ramadhan as a result. This Ramadhan, I'm actually glad that I went to less acara buka bersama, spending more time with my family -- and God. I guess after a whole month of fasting, sleep deprivation, and even messed up sleeping hours... I can finally understand and appreciate the day of victory. 

...And above all, thanks mum. For all the religious lessons you shared. 

Selamat Hari Kemenangan, Iedul Fitri 1437 H.

Dan selamat naik berat badan!

-Syadz

Kembali Bernafas

Ada alasan mengapa ia selalu gagal tidur cepat: ia amat menikmati damainya sunyi. Baginya, hidup dimulai saat malam berganti pagi, saat ketiga jarum jam bersetubuh di angka 12. Ada unsur adiktif yang selalu membuatnya rindu akan sendu, walau ia tahu bahayanya bertahan dalam kebiasaan buruknya untuk bergadang tiap malam. "Tapi apa boleh buat?", ujarnya dalam benak. Hanya pada waktu itu di dalam hari yang mampu membuat batinnya tenang, dan yang paling penting -- kembali bernafas. 


25Mar2016;

03:26;

selamat jum'at agung.

Welcoming Back

Dalam rangka menghidupkan kembali bombealaska yang sudah usang dan tidak terurus, hari ini saya ingin memasak dan berbagi sesuatu yang mengingatkan saya ke rumah. Post ini saya dedikasikan untuk roommate saya, Marchelita Dewi, yang senantiasa rela dijadikan korban eksperimen masakan saya tiap malam. 

I have just recently moved to a newer (and better) apartment unit with my roommate. It's a one-bedroom apartment, with a living room and a bath room. Although it's just been three days of life here, I can already feel the sense of attachment to the apartment. May be you'd ask, how could -- it's only three days! The answer is simple: I now have a kitchen in my apartment! 

It's just really heartwarming to finally have a kitchen in my own apartment now, as this means I can keep doing the one activity I cherish the most -- cooking! Since cooking becomes convenient now, and that I have full control of the ingredients I wish to buy -- not like at home where mom has full authority -- I can be more adventurous with my ingredients and food! I can and I will share what I cook (dan supaya tidak lupa haha) to this blog. I am glad that I can finally relive this blog -- with food content :)

Today, I cooked something that reminds me of what I usually cook at home. I told my roommate that I wanted to cook mushroom and spinach pasta, and it just happened that she wanted something similar for dinner. We then headed to the groceries to buy the required ingredients, and continued with the cooking as soon as we arrived home. 

Herby pasta with mushroom, smoked beef, and spinach 

Ingredients:

3 cloves garlic, finely chopped

half an onion, finely chopped

2 large champagne mushrooms, chopped

2 strips of smoked beef, diced - 1cm cubes

handful of spinach

olive oil

milk - full cream, about a cup

dried oregano

dried basil

mozarella cheese

150g wholewheat spaghetti

Instructions:

1. Get your ingredients ready -- chop everything, measure everything.

2. Boil your spaghetti until al dente.

3. Heat olive oil in a pan. When the oil is hot, put in your garlic and onion. Sauteé until they are translucent and fragrant. Then, put in your smoked beef and cook for 4-5 minutes. At this point, you can add olive oil if the pan gets a bit dry. Add in your mushrooms and cook until they lost their colour.

4. Pour in your milk to the pan, and cook for 3 minutes until they change their colour a bit. Add your herbs, and be generous! It won't hurt! Season the sauce with salt and pepper. Grate your mozarella cheese to taste for flavour and to thicken the sauce. Cook for 3-4 more minutes. 

5. Put in your pasta and spinach to the pan. Mix well. Cook for 1-2 minutes until everything incorporates.

6. Serve your pasta. Then enjoy! 

I have come to understand that my definition of being happy is to simply cook for my own and for my loved ones every single day. I am delighted to say that, for (already) three days in a row, I have done just that. 

A Book Review: What I Wish I Knew When I Was 20

Over the years, my go-to book would never be far off from fiction... However, this book really transformed my perspective!

This book offers a fresh, interesting perspective on pathways towards success. You can tell when you're reading this book that the author, besides her outstanding educational background, is a very smart, driven and creative person. Although 75% of the content discusses the experiences of the people she knows, the book serves way beyond that. This book in a way shares experiences on basic entrepreneurial skills in an exciting manner with details people do not really pay attention to before, such as "the essence of failure in success", or "getting out of traditional routines and rules to be fabulous" and many more! To me, this book offers valuable life lessons in a very approachable, relatable manner.

Definitely worth the read!

Recently

Recently my school schedule has loosen a bit due to the A Levels, which led to myself being nocturnal and productive at the same time. By being productive in here means to prepare myself for my upcoming tests. One of my habit during studying is to have music to company me, which helps me to concentrate better. Yesterday I've found some tracks I'm in love with (and companied me to study), and I just can't help not to share it. 

Five-minute cheesecake

Ingredients

Digestive biscuits or ginger biscuits (2 biscuits per person)

A packet of berries of your choice 

A packet of mascarpone 

A spoonful of white sugar

A bar of chocolate

 

Method

1.    Crush 4 biscuits. An easy way to do this is to place the biscuits in a clean piece of cloth and wrap them into a bundle. Whack it on the bench until the biscuits have been well crumbled.

2.    Put the mascarpone cheese in a bowl and mix it well with sugar. You may add more sugar if you like.

3.    Divide the biscuit crumbles evenly into glasses. This will be the base of the cheesecake.

4.    Do the same with the mascarpone and pour it over the biscuit.

5.    Add three or so berries and pour more mascarpone over it.

6.    Make sure your chocolate is still cold and hard. Turn the chocolate so that it is showing the smooth side. With the back of a knife scrape the chocolate towards you to make chocolate rolls. Carefully sprinkle those chocolate rolls on top of the glass.

7.    If you like you can put your cheesecake in the fridge for several hours or you may just enjoy your cheesecake right away!

 

 

 

 

My First Attempt

Yes I admit I haven't taken good care of my blog. Ever since high school I could not manage to write very often and the fact that I don't really capture much images of my food makes this blog even more deserted. I haven't really make much use of my dslr camera recently simply because I find it more convenient to capture moments with my iPad instead. Not to mention the handy photography applications that follow. Although I cannot really depend on the quality of the pictures from my iPad, I love it more than my Nonac (a nick name I gave to my Canon dslr when I first purchased it :p)

Last Sunday I managed to visit the Jakarta Culinary Festival with my favourite man in my life -- my papa. I invited my brothers to come along but they could not make it due to the upcoming test week. I  was hoping to meet George Calombaris and Andrian Ishak but no they weren't there :( What made the visit exciting was trying the turkish icecream which costs 25k but really delish!!! And I watched a chocolatier's masterclass who tried to invent a pumpkin chocolate (forgot his name) I did not try the chocolate as my dad needed to return home tad earlier than what we planned.

Before I went home though I visited the merchandise corner. As I walked along the corner, my eyes were immediately struck to the Jamie Oliver book which sat idle on the "sale" rack of the Times Books stand just right opposite to the merch. I ran to the book and my eyes were shimmering as hell as I saw the price (was just fuckin 99k!!!) where else can you find a JO book with a $10 price? I was really happy and bought the book immediately.

I flipped through the pages of the book and found a recipe that I'd love to try first. It's actually a pasta salad but I made extra Bruschetta to compliment it aand I also substituted some of the ingredients of the recipe. This is my first attempt making a pasta salad and turned out to be surprisingly good.

A Tshirt I bought from the JCF merch section

pasta salad and bruschetta

moi  99k JO book *proud*

Simple Pasta Salad with Tomato, Prawns and Edam Bruschetta

Ingredients for the pasta salad

1 cup of small shelled pasta

ripe red cherry tomatoes - as much as you like

a good handful of basil - finely chopped

half of a cucumber or one small one

1 tbsp balsamic vinegar

2 tbsp any vegetable oil of your choice

seasonings to taste

a clove of garlic - grated

Ingredients for the bruschetta

a loaf of baguette

2 prawns for each bruschetta

large leaves of basil

edam cheese

2 tbsp of lemon juice

one clove of garlic

about 4 tbsp of olive oil

i.

Boil the pasta in salted water according to the packet instructions. While the pasta is boiling, mix well the balsamic vinegar, oil and garlic in a large bowl. Cut the tomatoes in halves and chop the cucumbers until they have the same shape as the tomatoes. Drain the pasta when it is ready. Leave some of the pasta water to keep the moisture of the pasta. Mix the pasta with the chopped veggies, basil and the dressing. Your pasta is ready to serve.

ii.

Pour the lemon juice in a bowl and season the juice with salt and pepper. Marinate the prawns in the lemon juice mixture and leave. Cut the loaf of baguette slantways. In a saucepan pour 2 tbsp olive oil and wait until the oil is hot. Fry the baguette until golden brown and crispy. Leave the baguette on kitchen paper. In the same saucepan pour 2 tbsp of the oil and then fry the prawns until they changed color. Then put the prawns on the golden brown baguette along with large leaves of basil and shaved edam cheese.