This is a traditional fried duck originated from East Java. Bebek Goreng H.Slamet = Fried Duck of Mr.Slamet. This is at its branch in Bali. A new branch outside Java. The duck is really crispy and tender. The sambal (chili paste) is just perfect. It’s served with two kinds of sambal (sweet & salty) and free vegetables. This is quite recommended for you who like crispy duck and spicy food. But you still can eat the duck without sambal if you don’t like spicy food.

Today’s snack hour at Lotus was very nice and refreshing. I had small scopes of passion fruit mix with chocolate chips ice cream and  My Pi had raspberry & blueberry yogurt ice cream. The price of each cup/cone is only Rp 15,000,- and you can choose 2 scopes of different flavor. We arrived at the right time this morning (right before lunch time) and there is no other patrons at that time. The place was very quiet with only the sound we were both joking , as what you see on above pic. I love the interior of this place which adopts western/European grocery shops. Beside ice cream, you can find most of western foods (salad, cake and steak) here and you also can drop by to do grocery shop afterward.

We knew this place from a friend of mine since last year. Thanks to Adit for introducing me to this nice place!

I and My Pi often decide to have dinner at this place if  I don’t have time to cook or don’t feel like eating at home. It’s a place which offers traditional foods from Solo. It’s a modest place to eat, with affordable price and cozy for having chit-chat. Like this evening, I ate Nasi Gudeg and My Pi ate Nasi Liwet.  They’re almost the same, the only difference is the vegetable side dish. Nasi Gudeg is white rice served with slow-cooked jack fruit, chicken and egg. Nasi Liwet is white rice served with chayote (Sechium edule) in coconut milk, chicken and egg. Nasi = Rice. I drank Ronde which is traditional hot ginger drink as you can see on above pic (the one in a white bowl). Hmm…yum! It’s located on Imam Bonjol Street, Denpasar. If you came from Raya Kuta, it is right before Carrefour on the left side of the street, there will be a food court area. After turning left, pass the food court area and you will find the Danukusuman approx. 50 meters from the main street. It is best for you who live in Bali and missed Jogja (Yogya) or Solo traditional foods. It also serves other Solo/Jogja traditional foods such as Bestik Jawa, Selat, Gado-Gado, Sosis Solo, Tahu/Tempe Bacem, etc. And all in affordable price, range from Rp 5,000 – Rp 8,000,-  .

It’s a boring Sunday afternoon when I cleaned the rack in the kitchen. Hehehe… remembering the childhood snacks I used to make myself. Then I started to crunch the plain cookies or graham cookies, get the sweetened thick milk (which is only available in Indonesia/or if you’re lucky, you may find it at Asian section at supermarket in your country),  and mix them well until able to be shaped. Form into some balls and roll in a chocolate flakes and keep them in the fridge for several hours. Ready to serve!

I bought this book about four years ago in NL when I was a bit crazy about chicken at that time. That is why this book is in Dutch, but I believe that there is the English version of this book as well. Even though my Dutch is not really good, at least I could understand the cooking vocabularies (an important thing for life at that time), hahaha.

I loved to create any dish with chicken as the main ingredient. The savory taste from chicken is such an easy combination for other ingredients either in sweet, sour, spicy or salty dishes. The first try from this cooking book was the one on the cover which was very attractive for me and caused me to buy this book . My first try on Chicken Kiev was as good as it looks on the cover of this book . I think the step-by-step section in this book is really helpful, even for beginner. The photographs are also very fine, attractive and caused of appetite. The dishes are really ‘international’ as mentioned on the title. They are varied from western to eastern traditional dishes.

I found this ‘kwaci’ snack in Yogyakarta when I was in my holiday last week. The packaging design is so classic, completed with the old Indonesian spelling . This is traditional snack or finger food which is made from sun flower seeds or watermelon seeds. But the above kwaci is made from watermelon seeds. You can obviously recognize by the picture.

Mie = Noodle ; Ayam = Chicken ; Pangsit = Won Ton ;  Baso = Meatball ; Komplit = complete

The secret key to get the savory taste of Mie Ayam is the chicken oil. It comes from the chicken skin. Put the raw chicken skin on the pan over medium heat until the oil is extracted from the skin itself. No need to add oil or any other ingredient to get the oil out of the chicken skin. You can add garlic during the extracting process to give flavor.

Ingredients:

*Chicken Oil: chicken skins, garlic, fish sauce

*Sweet Chicken: chicken fillet, mushroom, garlic, sweet soy sauce, salt, pepper, sugar

*Chicken Stock/Sauce: chicken bones/feet, fish ball/meatball, bokchoy/pakchoy, salt, spring onion

*Main ingredient: Thin noodle or you can replace by any kind of noodle.

*Additional/Optional: Wonton (pangsit)

Method:

*Chicken Oil: Read the secret key on previous paragraph

*Sweet Chicken: Cut the chicken fillet into small cubes, set aside. Thin slice the mushroom, set aside. Stir fry the garlic with a tablespoon of vegetable oil until fragrant. Add the chicken fillet and keep stirring until cooked and add the rest of the ingredients. Don’t forget to taste it. The taste should be sweet.

*Chicken Stock/Sauce: Bring the chicken bones/feet into boil. Remove the foam from the fat that usually arise when you bring meat into boil.
Add the meatballs and season the stock. Also boil the chopped pakchoy/bokchoy in half a minute in the stock and drain it. Do not overcook the pakchoy/bokchoy, otherwise it will be bitter. Add the chopped spring onion to the stock to give fresh flavor and fragrant.

*How to Serve: Mix well the cooked noodle with the chicken oil. This is to give flavor to the plain noodle. Put the flavored noodle in a bowl. Scoop 2-3 tablespoon of the sweet chicken & boiled bokchoy on top of the noodle. Pour in the hot chicken stock over it. Also add wonton, sliced chilli and fried shallots if you like.

This is a popular Ukrainian dish. The word Kiev is taken from the name of the capital city of Ukraine. The first time I tried to make Chicken Kiev was in 2007 and it came out as a good result for a first try. It was as what you can see on above photograph. The ingredients are easy to find anywhere around the world and the cooking method is also very simple even for a beginner.