Annual New Year Party at Home

It can be tiring as hell, but it can be fun as hell as well.

I have never really helped my mum in the kitchen for any big family gathering at home years before. Well, this year, I did. And I just realized that preparing 9 or more types of dishes for 50 people at home can be really draining.

We called in an excellent Sate Padang cart that we used to buy from. My family's always a big fan of that Sate Padang.

I was so excited with eating it that I forgot to take a picture of the sate padang itself :P Talk about gluttony...

Well, next up is Padang food, my mum's special cooking.

 From top to bottom: telor kari (egg curry), kentang balado (chilli potato), terong balado (chilli eggplant)

Pempek Palembang (fish cakes)

Indonesian birthday fried noodle (decorated with colored quail eggs, bengkuang, and carrots - I love decorating dishes!)

Jengkol kari (jengkol is a legume-like fruit that smells like horse crap and will make your urine smells like sewage water, but tastes good if you like it! Well, I'M A BIG FAN.)

 Mini French crepe with beef rogut.

Acar bawang (home made shallot pickles)

A must-have dessert: es buah (longan, lychee, nata de coco, tropical cocktail fruits). We always have it every year!

I love arranging the plastic spoons! Wish I could do better :/

Bits and pieces of traditional Indionesian snacks. We didn't make them, of course. That would be an additional 2 days of pain in the ass. LOL. They're really good :)

Hmmm.. I kinda regretted posting so much food pictures today. Now I'm craving for those foods. Aahhh.

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Happy (belated) New Year

First of all, happy belated new year! I've enjoyed myself too much during winter break (oh, the stress relief after final exam... that's really wonderful!).

I went back to Indonesia for a couple of weeks. Good foods.. yum.

There is something weird that I've noticed about my taste in foods. Indeed, a $30 3-way foie gras dish might drive me nuts, but for some reason, it can't beat the $0.30 cheap chocolate paste bread that I buy from a cheap family-run shop that I used to eat when I was little. Or the $1 bowl of meatball soup dish they sell on the road side, knowing that hygiene is definitely one big problem down there.

Foods that remind you of your childhood, or your hometown. Foods that give you warmth. I think that's the best food in the world.

I'm back in US, and it's really hard to reproduce the exact copy of those dishes. Ingredient-wise, and skill-wise. Time is not much of a problem for me - there is always time to indulge food, even if I have to sleep one hour less for that.

Well, here's one of my favorites: Nasi Langi.

It looks cheap indeed. I mean, it's only rice, cut-up fried egg, tempe, small cuts of beef, peanuts, fried potato pieces, fried onions, slices of cucumbers and kemangi leaves neatly placed on a banana leaf. Cheap ingredients - nothing like prime rib steak or duck confit. But hey... Nothing's better than home!

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