“Hallo..Nama Saya Betti”

It’s been almost a month since my first step in Hamburg last May. Feel much more comfortable with my petite wohnung, have more confident to travel without bus and railway guide, already found many good places to get my groceries packed and I have even got a German friend who can speak both Indonesian and High level Javanese!. Ehm..and of course speaks German and English too.

Uhmm…yeah..the last one was great. I’m lucky.

The probability to find a friend like her in one month is less than 5 %. 

" Hallo…Nama saya Betti.." That was the way she introduced herself when we first met. She is fair, blonde, nice, very polite and helpful. She seems really enjoy herself when she gathered with many other Indonesian friends. She can speak high-level Javanese and even observes the “ Honocoroko” alphabet. (Honocoroko dhothosowolo….bla bla…..hwaaaa…)

My mom will be astonished if she listen her “kromo inggil” is much better than mine**

After finished her Master Thesis about “Dangdut”, currently she is doing her PhD research about Indonesian Linguistic or something…. (Hmm, well Betti, ..in case you are reading this I’d be happy if you correct me if I’m wrong.)

Above all, she is friendly. I’m glad to know such an interesting friend like her. Finally after almost a month, I’ve met a German friend and experiencing no language barrier started from our very first conversation.

language barrier? hehehe…

To be continued…

**mine??..ok.. Here comes a confession: honestly, I can’t really speak that high level Javanese though hehehe.. Instead of that “kromo inggil” type, my Javanese is the “ngoko” version, which only good enough to be an announcer at “Radio Jawa” when I was in The Netherlands and bargaining at weekly traditional markt.

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poultry shears

Wow what a traumpreis !..…WMF sale. I knew its a real sale cause I have checked the price in their website and other stores site. They have to rebuild their building at Mönckebergstaße. I saw many of those luxurious kitchen stuffs, china and cutlery in a reachable price…no wonders they wrote down on the sale’s banner ad as “traumpreis”. However. Still…some of their traumpreis were too expensive for me *as a long time Wal-Mart and many other cheap retailer customer in the world, I consider hundreds €´s for a set of blades or a stainless steel plate is still too costly. ….hehehehe*

Geflügelschere *poultry shears*

I touched some boxes of poultry scissors and whispered; "look at them lessy...some beautiful and sharp poultry shears with the best quality that will lasts more than 20 years working with you in the kitchen".. I’ve never owned poultry shears since poultry shears are not very essential for my humble kitchen. But…those WMF poultry shears with reasonable price were so strikingly blinked at me. I was so interested but I wasn’t sure yet. I left.

On Saturday afternoon, I decided to get back there and pushed my luck, hoping that the shears were not sold out yet.

Huhhuhuhu…then…I found out that I was not lucky enough to get them. They have gone already…. I was so sorry ....

*I even still feeling sorry when I type this posting, however….Well, I guess.. bye for now, Poultry shears…*

And plainly, for the next chicken dish preparation, I still have to do the chicken with ordinary knife and kitchen scissor.

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lyric for today: Home “michael buble”

"Home"

Another summer day
Has come and gone away
In Paris and Rome
But I wanna go home
Mmmmmmmm

Maybe surrounded by
A million people I
Still feel all alone
I just wanna go home
Oh I miss you, you know

And I’ve been keeping all the letters that I wrote to you
Each one a line or two
“I’m fine baby, how are you?”
Well I would send them but I know that it’s just not enough
My words were cold and flat
And you deserve more than that

Another aeroplane
Another sunny place
I’m lucky I know
But I wanna go home
Mmmm, I’ve got to go home

Let me go home
I’m just too far from where you are
I wanna come home

And I feel just like I’m living someone else’s life
It’s like I just stepped outside
When everything was going right
And I know just why you could not
Come along with me
But this was not your dream
But you always believe in me

Another winter day has come
And gone away
And even Paris and Rome
And I wanna go home
Let me go home

And I’m surrounded by
A million people I
Still feel alone
Oh, let me go home
Oh, I miss you, you know

Let me go home
I’ve had my run
Baby, I’m done
I gotta go home
Let me go home
It will all right
I’ll be home tonight
I’m coming back home

…Comfort and warmth smoothly wrap up my heart each time I listen to this song.. mmm..Thank you for dedicating this song for me and calling me as your home. Then I dedicate this song back to you ..’cause Honey,..you are my home.

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Sambal Bali

"Coconut Oil"

At the first time I walked in front of some oil and paste in “Toko Indonesia” I noticed some “coconut oil” in bottles and jars. I almost never use that oil before. So, then I passed them and got my groceries payed. Few days later, then, I remembered that my grandma in Bali usually stirs fry many things with coconut oil, for example: Egg, vegetables and making some paste.

The oil makes the foods smell and taste a little bit different. The Egg and.”Sambal Bali ala kampung” if we were lucky she also served it with “Gondoh” (the appearance of this veggie is much a like with “kangkung”)

I can recall some occasions when my Grandma cooked those simple set menu for breakfast, traditionally.

All of a sudden I missed my Grandma, grandpa and my family. Picturing the way we enjoy those humble foods together in one morning with the rice field as the background, making me hungry.

…

To make “sambal Bali ala kampung” is very simple,. Cut some fresh red chili pepper, sliced some Schallot or red-small onions**, and garlic. Stir-fried them in 2 tablespoons of coconut oil. Add some shrimp-paste powder in and add a little bit salt. Tha daaa….

Wanna try it?

However be careful with your neighbours, especially if you’re living in a non-Asian country. They might not tolerate the smell of the shrimp paste.

**Talking about this Schallot or red-small onion ("bawang merah") remind me to a good friend of mine who doesn’t like to eat this kind of onion at all..**

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Time machine

If …time machine were exist, where would you go? Would you go to the past or to the future? Hmm…do you think it will worth for you? Do you dare enough to make such an enormous leap?? … If you just want to change your life now and go to the past: Are you sure that the changes you’ll make “in the past” will make your life now much better? Let say, there are so many things you’ve regretted happened in your life and you want to change them. But then..there might be a consequence that changing some regretted substance in your past might ruin the rest nice substance you’re having in your life too.

What would you do after you see your future? What if you love it? How if you don’t like it? Or..maybe.. you just want to ease the thirst of your curiosity?

….*yawning*

Thanks God, I’m sleepy now.

Hmm…I guess, I’d better go to bed, and hopefully I have a nice comfy dream about the future.

Oh, God. Please forgive my entire mistake in the past, then guide and blessed my life in the future. Amen.

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Eat and Cook

I was not born to cook. Yet, since Eat and Cook are my current-daily-human passions as a housewife, it clearly seems my blog will be full filled with my expressions that come up in my mind which mostly get along with my heartbeat in the kitchen.I love eating, which later then made me decided to try to love cooking. I’m not fanatic to one kind of culinary or cuisine, instead of rather gutsy in trying new food. As an Asian, I don’t distinct food as “Asian food” and “The rest of the world food”.  I’m quite open.

“Rich of spices but not too spicy” is my default in cooking. No matter in cooking my hometown cuisines or other cuisines. (But I don’t know why, my hubby always told me to reduce the hot pimiento powder if I don’t mean to hurt him…o lala!)

I’m not a vegetarian nor does my husband, though we don’t eat all meat. We bound our selves to not eat pork and drink no Alcohol, and I exclude lamb or goat meat since I don’t like the aroma. Well…let me begin with my recent experience with….…Italian Cuisine..

Haven’t been in Italy doesn’t make me give up craving Italian Cuisine. It started few years ago in the Netherlands, in a warm summer day when I help a Brazilian friend clean up her back yard and plants some rose bushes. After a long energy consuming morning in the garden, she took me to her kitchen then taught me how to make tomatoes salad (d’oh? Brazilian made Italian salad? –Why not? –She married an Italian!) . Just add sliced tomatoes, fresh Basilicum leaves with sliced chilled mozzarella and some sprinkles of “Acceto Balsamico di Modena” on top of it ..hmmm ..so easy and yummy. Then..for lunch she just simply boiled some grams of Fussili then served it with “Pesto alla Genovese” oh! …Mama-mia!

Pasta Fresca!

Yesterday evening, I went out with my husband to an Italian restaurant. We invite my husband colleague and his girlfriend to have dinner together there. The owner of the Restaurante seems proud of their freshly made pasta. The pasta was so good! (Schmeckt so gut, oder?) at least my Tegliatelli was so delicious. They made the pasta just in front of us. I curiously observed the chef ‘take care of’ the pasta while I was seating comfortably at the terrace. mm.. maybe I’ll come back there to try another kind of pasta or just to order a cup of tea and Biscotti… spying the chef making the pasta from the terrace again. 

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“To start a beginning”

After being encouraged by some friends for months, finally I have an opportunity to start having a blog….  and the most significant thing is that finally I’m successfully dragging my fingers to type my first post.."To start a beginning"

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