Happy Easter :)

I can't believe I managed to ward off Facebook during lent!! Yippee---

Happy Easter :)

The weather was clear, and my friend was getting baptized.

Went to his church (I don't go there normally because I'm a Catholic). It reminded me so much of MGS that I almost cried during the praise and worship. I really miss those days.

I made braised quail eggs for my friends. I thought there wouldn't be that many people I know at that church, but it turned out that I saw so many that they were not enough for everyone.

Felt so bad about it but I couldn't do anything. It took me 4 hours to get the eggs done. And I don't even really know everyone whom I met just now.

All I knew was that I need to save 3 mini bags for my close friends. Even if I gave the three reserved bags out, they still won't be enough for everyone anyways.

( = 3=) ~♪

I'm sorry  ｍ(｡≧Д≦｡)ｍ

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Bread Cup

I tried this bread cutter and toasted white bread in oven toaster inside a cup.

Toasted bread cups

 Some of them were burnt because I left the toaster unwatched. It took only about 2 minutes to get it brown and crispy.

Bread cups filled with tuna, egg, white corn, yellow sweet corn, carrot and asparagus in Kewpie (Japanese mayo)

Would taste better if the salad were colder but my friends said it's yummy (and one complained that the bread was burnt)

:)

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Hayashi

I want to get rid of my Hayashi Rice sauce mix but I was too lazy to cook rice so I made kwetiaw (flat, broad rice noodle) with hayashi rice sauce. It says on the package that I can use noodles instead of rice and I guess they must be referring to udon. The closest noodle I can find in my cabinet is kwetiaw. 

Kwetiaw with beef, cauliflowers and broccoli hayashi sauce

And somehow it felt like eating jajangmyun. LOL.

So I have leftovers and I decided to cook rice this time.

Delicious.

I really want to try making hayashi sauce from scratch (the ingredients list listed onions, carrots, potato and some other vegetable powders, and starches like corn starch - maybe if I boil the veggies long enough...?)

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Steam!

I really miss long chili pepper stuffed with minced pork seasoned in soy sauce, white peppers and sesame oil, and then steamed. Childhood favorite ♪

I'm not a big fan of my steamer. The holed base would suddenly fall down and then I have to pull the base from the bottom of the pot using strings because it's stuck at the bottom :(

I tried to make manju again (to test my perseverance). This time I used chestnut and red bean fillings. I can't believe I failed 4 times making the dough because I strictly followed the recipe. That's what you're supposed to do when you want to bake but NO! I used my instinct to measure how much flour I should put and my sense was right! This time it turned out in a pretty good shape, BUT...

THE BAKING SODA MAKES THE BREADING BITTER!!

I don't know what's wrong with my baking soda. It's a cheap Chinese brand baking soda. I'm throwing it away *cries*

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Another Birthday Cake

The first cheesecake I've ever made from scratch. Hurray!

My friend and I kept checking the recipe because it was also her first time making cheesecake. Turned out to be pretty simple and easy. At first I thought we would screw up because I don't have pans big enough to make a water bath (bain marie? I forgot what the jargon term for water bath in baking is) for a 9" pan that we bought.

We tried using Edible Markers to draw but it didn't work - probably because the markers are water soluble and cheesecake is just full of fats. 

I drew an outline of Hello Kitty on a piece of clean paper and made a paper stencil using cutter. After the stencil was done, I placed it on top of the cake and then I sifted hot cocoa powder (because I don't have baking cocoa - I don't bake) on the stencil. Removing the paper stencil from the cake was quite a challenge - we don't want the unwanted cocoa powder on the paper to fall on the "blank" parts of the cake.

Quite a while ago I bought a pair of mini pin-set (I'd like to call it forceps better) to make bento. I used that forceps, so we avoided the risk of damaging the cake should we use our fingers instead.

I forgot to make the eyes but I think it went pretty well!

For the eyes, I just made a small oval hole on a piece of paper and then poured some cocoa powder on the hole using a spoon.

And then... my friend and I, being slightly 'mean', decided to color the ribbon using chili pepper or sauce because our birthday girl can't take spicy food. When I was making the spicy sugar paste, I felt a little bad for making her eat something so spicy, so I added more and more sugar to mask it. I used tons of granulated sugar, Sriracha sauce and cayenne pepper. And for a final touch, I added red food coloring diluted in water.

Ta-daaah!!

My friend took a shot of me doing the artwork. LOL. 

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Glooom

I get really gloomy when I read news across the world.

What can I do to help? At least for now, what can I do to help without sacrificing my current life goals?

I can't even help people around me. How can I help the world?

Are prayers enough?

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Lazy

Dump everything together and voila.

Someone please bang my head for being so lazy -.-;

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Happy Birthday - The first cake that I made

Somehow I didn't get the chance to make a cake in FSHN 131. At all. Either I was doing an experiment (like making a cake using microwave) or it's got to be something else. I remembered making meringue but not cakes.

I used a cake mix to make the Rilakkuma cake so it's actually considered cheating cuz when I say cook or bake it has to be from scratch. Anyways I didn't do it alone but I would consider this quite a feat considering I have not touched cream cheese frostings before ;)

The birthday gurl!

Chocolate cake with colored cream cheese frosting. Yes, this is America, the mecca for excessive usage of icing, frosting, and artificial coloring.

My apartment. It's super crowded =.=

Time for a more private and intimate chit chats between the bday gurl and the three Rilakkuma cake makers after the partaeh!

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Silver Spoon

A good manga about a boy who gets into an agricultural college (hmm... sounds a lot like me!) but doesn't like farming and stuffs that he wondered why he's there.

What language is that?!!

Yep, people like us are not good mathematicians or physicists - we suck at them even though the engineers would say "whaat, that's basic, that's easy!" and we even complain about having to take Physics 101 BUT we are pretty geeky about the technical issues around our world. We food scientists often get too geeky about food that they start blabbering about the foods on the table even though no one but them knows what they're talking about haha!

Random stuff: chicken egg and the hen's feces pass through the same tract. But I love eggs cuz they're yummy!

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Food Science!? Food Science in Manga!?

Original link here or just click the picture to enlarge.

Finally. The first manga that mentioned something about food science and nitrates and phospates in meat and myoglobin and... WOW!

Sorry this was very random. It's 4:28 AM, time to go zzZZZ.

By the way, TOKYOPOP America went bankrupt so I don't know what's gonna happen to the Hetalia bento contest that entered but at least from the number of likes I got from Facebook last time (over 100 likes for the Nordics bento and about 59-ish likes for my Axis-Allies bento, as compared to below 59 for other people's entries) I am uber satisfied :)

Buona notte! (O buona mattina?)

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Culture and Language - all the fun mashing them up

Maybe this is not really funny but on a perspective it's funny that many languages share the same pronunciation but they mean very differently. I've been reading the comments of Finnish people (thanks to Google Translate I understand Finnish!). 

The video is on how Finnish surnames mean funny things in Japanese. Like Aho (means "idiot") and Ikarainen ("squid" and "next year"). Reversely, according to one of the comments, some Japanese surnames also mean funny things in Finnish like Takakura (it means something dirty like shit or something - the translation wasn't perfect so I can't figure it out) and Nakata (means "throw").

I'm sure it applies to other languages as well. Like Japanese surname "Ibu" means "mother" in Indonesian. It's probably a little hard to find a language to mock Indonesian surnames because our surnames are a little weird - some of them are derived from Chinese surname, like mine - but I'd really looking forward to knowing any language that has similar words to Indonesian surname, just for fun :)

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First DISLIKE!! XD

Since I was a grade schooler I've been told by my parents that I have a sharp tongue and I should be a lawyer (or a judge and even a prosecutor). In any case, I don't think it's gonna be my future career, but I would have to agree with my parents that I love satires.

My drawings, songs and even jokes can be pretty provocative to people who are not very receptive about criticism (and I am actually one of those people who can get a little offended by stupid jokes). I do realize that, and I still do that because picking a theme that everyone's been picking (like romance and friendship) is boring. I think most of the songs I hear on the radio or my friends' playlists are generally love songs, most of them from Japanese/Korean drama soundtracks. Really, love songs are soooo common that now I think all the lyrics are pretty much non sense and BS (I'm sorry, I really think love song lyrics nowadays are very delusional although I do admit that I like the melody and the rhythm in general).

There was an instance where I saw - online - people who act a lot like Japanese and think they are Japanese and think Japan is the coolest place in the world and use Japanese cliche terms everytime they speak/write. I just knew after I composed this song that these people are called Wapanese, and I had been a Wapanese when I was... 14-ish? But now I have graduated from being a silly Wapanese (I'm not saying that all Wapanese are silly- I was a silly one, that's what I meant).

So yes, I created this song out of frustration about the Wapanese. Why do you have to call people with -san/-chan/-kun (Japanese honorifics; just as one calls another Mister or Madam) when you're not a Japanese and your friend isn't a Japanese either, why do you have to keep saying yoroshiku, hajimemashite, sayonara, arigatou, and why do you keep adding desu or daze when you say a sentence? Then I suddenly remembered about my old friend who said "I can also say Japanese! Toyota! Sushi! Sashimi! Miso!" and then she started mentioning a lot of random Japanese brands and foods. LOL. A lot of things came across my mind... and then this song was born.

Sorry this is in Indonesian. I'm too lazy to translate, but the main story of this song is a person who started questioning why he/she has to try to be cool by speaking Japanese randomly even to people who don't understand Japanese at all :P

And yes, this is the first song I uploaded on YouTube that has ONE person who dislike it. Big achievement! I just feel like people who commented on this song wouldn't say something like "eat that, wapanese!" and such. Well, thanks to this, I know what Wapanese means. 

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Hanami

Two days ago, after the Ikebana written exam, a friend from my Ikebana classmate told me that she was going to have a picnic (and with the sakura trees blooming around this time of the years, it's kinda appropriate to call it a hanami, right?)

So I was like, yeahhh, I want to do a hanami too! I was thinking of going during the weekend, but my friend reminded me of the nasty thunderstorm this weekend.

DISLIKE!!! :(

Then I was desperate to gather people for a sudden picnic on Wednesday evening.. but most couldn't make it for the picnic. Even on Thursday, it's hard to settle on a lunch or a dinner picnic. So when we were settled at 2 pm, I was so ready for it.

I was all gung-ho about the picnic that I woke up at 8 to make steamed buns. Err.... I followed the wrong recipe (I used the recipe for a sweet manju instead of for steamed bbq pork bun) and my steamer is sort of weird, so the fillings turned out pretty good but the bread part is..........

I

I

I

V

... incredibly out of this world. And what's making it worse was that I forgot to refill the water in the steamer that the buns became... brown. The ones that I took above were still kinda white-ish and good looking. After I tried to reheat them in the steamer (with no water, duh), they became weird. And not yummy :(

OTL

OH WELL PRACTICES MAKES PERFECT. RIGHT!?

Because I was really scared the buns taste really bad, I made crab mayo onigiri too. Luckily, crab mayo onigiri can't really go wrong so I'm pretty confident they're good for other people to eat. Right? RIGHT?

Back to the picnic. Yes, when we first came at 2, it was rather gloomy and windy. We sat by the lake near Japan House and were surrounded by young sakura trees. The weather and the mood got better after a while!

My friend brought pizza slices from Sbarro. You might think pizza and hanami might not be the best combo ever I've never had Sbarro's pizza before so I was happy to have it!

Will be super uber cool to walk on this road with a bf, no?

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SAI

Last time I had a light debate with my friend who also likes to draw anime/manga style stuffs. I prefer Photoshop while she prefers SAI.

I decided to try SAI and guess what: I like it other than the fact that you can't insert texts (or maybe I haven't found the tool? I tried searching using the Help menu but I couldn't find any).

Hetalia Nanny Wars: England (and chibi America) vs France (and chibi Canada - specifically Quebec)

SAI makes really smooth lines as compared to Photoshop. I don't really use the canvas rotation feature that often but I guess one day it will be useful.

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Mushroom Risotto

So this is actually my get-rid-of-ingredients plan. I have so many food stuffs in my place and I only have 1 month left to finish them all!

No Parmesan cheese? Use cream cheese.
No fresh herbs? Use dried Italian herbs.
No fresh mushroom? Use dried ones.
No chicken stock? Use the water from rehydrating the dried mushroom.

Makes 3 servings

Ingredients:
- 6 pcs dried mushroom (shitake or some forest mushrooms)
- 1/2 cup water (to rehydreate the mushroom)
- 1 Tbsp butter
- 1 cup bell peppers (I used 3 colored peppers), diced
- 2 pcs garlic, sliced thinly (not minced!)
- 1 shallot, sliced thinly
- 1 cup Nishiki (Japanese short grain rice brand) rice
- 1 Tbsp dark olive oil
- 1/2 cup water
- 1 cup milk (I used 2% fat milk - probably will be creamier if whole milk is used)
- 1/4 tsp black pepper
- 1/4 tsp Italian seasoning/herbs
- salt (to taste)
- 2 Tbsp cream cheese

Steps:
1) Rehydrate mushroom in warm water for 20 minutes.
2) Melt the butter in the pan using medium-low heat.
3) Add bell peppers. Sautee for ~2 minutes.
4) Add garlic and shallot and mix together with the bell peppers. Sautee for another 2 minutes.
5) Add uncooked rice and olive oil into the pan. Stir well. Sautee for 5 minutes.
6) Add water and milk, then add black pepper, Italian seasoning and salt. Stir everything together.
7) Cover the pan with lid and cook for ~10 minutes or until the rice is cooked.
8) Add rehydrated mushrooms to the pan and mix well.
9) Serve warm. 

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Change the Season

It was like this:

And before I knew it, it has turned into something like this:

Beautiful! :D

I'm going to miss Japan House and the squirrels. 1 month left before I leave this town >.<

Last week during my Ikebana class I picked the wrong containter. I don't like sharp edges, but somehow that's the container that I got. I made my most bizzare arrangement throughout the semester:

The theme was supposed to be "Hope." I feel "electrified" by my own arrangement haha..

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Warm

Can't believe another winter has passed and it's almost summer again. Time to turn on my AC real soon. It's 28C out there! x___x

I'm not a big fan of hot weather so I'm a little sad that I can't survive without at least the fan on.

I haven't been cooking a lot these days. Seems like there are so many things to do nowadays.

Country style pork ribs in garlic, apple and pear sauce, soy sauce, fried chili and dried shrimp, and Chinese red wine, topped with green beans, corn and carrots and sriracha chili sauce.

Spaghetti with catfish cooked in tri-colored bell peppers roasted with olive oil, seasoned with Italian seasoning

Well, this afternoon I went to a wagashi (traditional Japanese sweet) workshop. Japan House invited a person from Boston to teach us. 

While I admit it's fun and the products that we made are yummy, with 30 years of experience, I can't believe he kept referring to the recipe every single step as if he's never made those before :( To me he seemed like a person who simply follow the recipe and not understand the mechanism behind what he's doing. Or maybe it's normal if you're not a food scientist? He doesn't even understand what "caramelized" means. 

Anyways, we made manju, sakuramochi and uchimono.

Uchimono (pressed sweets) - kinda works like making fondants

Uchimono pressed with a corn-shaped mold

Manjuu, "stamped" with a heated iron brand. Has tsuji-an (coarse red bean) fillings.

sakura flower "stamp"

Some stories about the manjuu that we made... In the end the manjuu turned to be too soft - he peeled the manjuu skin as he lifted them from the sarashi (a thin cotton cloth to layer the steamer so the manjuu doesn't stick to the metal pan - a trick used in steaming dim sum as well). I don't know if he's careless or the manjuu is really really soft but I couldn't help but to make a frowned face :(

And then he suggested that people did not put enough flour coating when they roll the manjuu. Yes, he made the dough and we put the red bean fillings into the dough and shaped them round. But I don't think that's the problem because scientifically speaking he did not knead the dough enough to form gluten network, and that's what's missing. I was standing next to him when he made the dough and I thought that you're not supposed to knead it at all since he was really careful not to overknead the dough. I guess that was not really the case :(

I wish I could explain this to him but he insisted that there was not enough flour. But I think I made a wise decision not to tell him what actually went wrong. Otherwise it would be a huge slap on his face, being an expert in Japanese sweet making and all that. I mean, if I were him, I would really feel offended. Like, "what's this snobbish young girl trying to lecture me who has got 30 years of experience making Japanese sweets, huh?" kind of feeling. Meh.

Another thing that I kinda felt "duh, that's like so obvious" was when he mentioned that freshly made sweets are so different from the frozen ones so he doesn't like to make the sweets and freeze them. Like, duh. Really, I think that is pretty much common sense. I think Americans rely so much on ready-to-eat frozen stuffs that they don't really make dishes from scratch anymore. It's so sad. And in that sense I think the developing countries win against America for their freshly made dishes. And I'm not talking about McD or KFC here.

Don't mess with food scientists... cuz they know what's going on in almost every single step you're doing in the kitchen.

AAAANYWAYS.....

Sakuramochi: colored, steamed daimyouji flour with koshi-an (smooth red bean) fillings wrapped in salted sakura leaf.

The people who participated in wagashi workshop

It was a refreshing day :)

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