Surprise Surprise!

Two weeks ago, my little sister and I decided to surprise our mom for her birthday. Being overseas, both of us more than often missed her birthday for years. She's a very simple person, doesn't demand branded materials - we thought hard and so we decided to give her what she loves best: us being home.

I flew AirAsiaX from Perth to Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia to pick up my sis. The airplane is actually quite good! I had a good fortune of not having anyone to sit on my row at all, so I have three seats all to myself! This happened again on the flight back to Perth. Praise God :-) 

I stopped by at Kuala Lumpur for one day. It felt so good to see my little sister :-) Despite our big age gap, we're actually really close to each other. She went to the hotel where I stayed, which is Park Royal Hotel in the Bukit Bintang area, and we spent the whole day shopping and eating. Thankfully we stayed in the CBD area where it's very close to The Pavilion and Suria KLCC. When she checked on her Pokewalker, I think we walked about 123,000 steps that day. Good exercise for all the eating I did.

We went back to Jakarta the next day, which was mom's birthday. I've already ordered an airport pick-up service with Golden Bird (very professional service, I must say) because I don't want to bother anyone to pick us up, besided, I'm scared that the surprise would be ruined by any slip-ups. The only one who knew about our plan was my dad. 

My sis actually lied to my mom - she said that she won't be coming back home for holiday because she will be going to Melaka with her friends. Mom was very sad when she heard it. Sorry Mom, we had to lie! My dad, who works in Bali, also postponed his trip back home so that he can be together with us when we're back.

Anyway, my sis and I both text messaged mom 'happy birthday' in the morning. We also sent her some Orchids (courtesy of my friend's florist business - Darling Buds of May). She really didn't suspect anything. When we arrived, my dad peeked through the blinds and called my mom to come outside because "her birthday present is here".

She was still in her pyjamas - my sis and I hid so that she couldn't see us. She came out and looked around "What is it? I didn't see anything". That's when my sis and I came out and shout "HAPPY BIRTHDAY!". She literally screamed! She ran to the gates and hugged me and sis. Ah, that was the best part of my holiday trip :-)

Sis and I managed to surprise a few more people during the trip - my aunties, uncles and my grandma. A pretty fruitful one! Hehe. We got to spend the whole holiday trip mostly with mom and dad, which was awesome. Until this moment, I still felt like I left my heart there. Almost cried when I was on the plane back to Perth... but, I'm going home again in October for one of my best friend's wedding :-) Can't wait!

Pictures worth a thousand words - so I let these pictures below do the telling on what we did on our surprise visit :-)

No wonder it's hard for me to lose weight... *sigh*

Surprise Surprise!

A Thousand Layers

s you might have noticed that I changed the header to my blog, and also the title of it to 'Mille Feuiles'. For the longest time I have been naming my blog the 'Pretty Little Corner' and it's not that I don't like the name, I guess I want my blog title to a reflection of the state of mind that I have right now (does this make sense? no? nevermind hehe).. So after considerations, I decided to go ahead and change the blog title.

Mille Feuilles is french, and it means many layers. It's actually a name of one of my favorite patisserie which I have yet learn to make (I will someday!). You can practically use anything in this Mille Feuilles. If you opt for sweet and pretty you can make it using strawberries and cream, or if you prefer a bittersweet symphony in your tastebuds, go with mocca. Some restaurants make savoury ones as well.

And of course, Mille Feuilles is the name of the Versace couture dress 'Dress of A Thousand Layers' that Carrie Bradshaw wears in Sex And The City Season 6, where she waited for Aleksandr Petrovsky in their posh Paris hotel suite for dinner - and he showed up really late. That dress is retailed for $79,000 *gasp*. It's so pretty, fluffy and I love the colour - I wonder how she managed to bring it to Paris?

I do think that life has a thousand layers yet to unfold. Every person has many layers to discover too, by ourselves and by others. As I looked back to my previous posts, I often write about the discoveries I made about myself, about life and about others. So, I think Mille Feuilles is the perfect fit for this blog's name (or am I just bored to death with the old title? hmmmmm... rocket science!)

Just a lil bit of wisdom from Shrek and Donkey before I log out...

Shrek: Ogres are like onions.
Donkey: They stink?
Shrek: Yes. No.
Donkey: Oh, they make you cry.
Shrek: No.
Donkey: Oh, you leave em out in the sun, they get all brown, start sproutin' little white hairs.
Shrek: NO. Layers. Onions have layers. Ogres have layers. Onions have layers. You get it? We both have layers.
[sighs]
Donkey: Oh, you both have layers. Oh. You know, not everybody like onions.

Stay beautiful, friends :-)

A Thousand Layers

Nasi Lengko Ala Tasia & Fang

Desperate situation calls for desperate measures. I guess those saying is actually real for me and Fang today. We are desperately want to eat a good meal from back home which we couldn't find in Perth, so we decided to make one just like it. You see, my parents came from Tegal... I grew up speaking Javanese and ate their kind of food. Fang came from Purwokerto which is near Tegal, so basically we came from the same cultural background.

Today, we decided to make Nasi Lengko. It's one of the traditional cuisine from Tegal/Purwokerto which consists of fried tofu, tempe, beansprout and cucumber. Then we add peanut sauce, the 'kerupuk mie' (somekind of crackers) and sweet soya sauce on top. We served them with rice (some sort of gado gado mixed with rice, i guess...)

So our small 'adventure' began from Kongs Oriental Supermarket where we bought the ingredients. Somehow we couldn't find cucumbers in that store. So we walked to Coles which is right across the street... but the things is.. I forgot my wallet at home and Fang didn't have any cash in hers. Therefore, we decided to do it without cucumber (sigh)

The first thing that we have to do to make Lengko is to make the peanut sauce. We have to crushed together chilli and garlic until they blended. But... due to the shortage of our mortal and pestal ability (yeap, we're not that talented) Fang managed to find a very creative way to crushed them... with a wrench.

So this is what she did... she put the garlic and chilli in a plastic, and beat them up with the wrench! A bit brutal, but she managed to do it. Well done, Fang!


So after that, we prepared all the ingredients for Nasi Lengko. We create the peanut sauce, fried the tahu and tempe, fried the kerupuk and boil the beansprouts.


After everything is ready, then we start on the fun part. Putting it all together! :) So basically you just put the rice together with everything, and it came out like this...

VOILA!!!

And now the time we were waiting for... eating it! Fang and I were really pleased with the result we couldn't stop eating. We actually thinking of getting a second round if we're hungry again later on. Oops!

Happy Ya Ya Ya... Happy Ye Ye Ye... Aku senang jadi anak Tegal :P

Nasi Lengko Ala Tasia & Fang

Comfort food

As for those of you who knows me well, you will know for sure that I love noodles more than I love rice. One of my favorite comfort food is the legendary... indomie! You are not indonesian or any other asian if you don't like instant noodles :P

I know it's not healthy - but who could resist them? With so many variations of delicious taste, you simply couldn't say no to them.

To cut our expenses from eating out (believe me, eating out here is not like eating out in Jakarta in the Abang-Abang section which cost you only what... $1.50?) my friends and I are implementing (duile bahasanya) a new tradition of cooking on weekends. We would decide on what to cook, and then on weekends we would gather up at someone's house (usually Fang's or Chris's) to put the menu into practice!

Today I would like to share one of my comfort food recipes... My grandma used to cook indomie like this and we all loved it. I shared it with my friends the other day and now they're hooked! (I guess Gossip Girl is not the only thing that can get you hooked).

Anyway... here goes... presenting the "Talkative Noodle" aka "Bakmie Bawel" (yes, they named it that way because apparently I love to talk.. geez!) or the more 'kampung' version of the name is InTerNet (Indomie, Telor, Kornet) Best to be eaten at winter time!


Bakmie Bawel
Serves: one

Ingredients:
Blue Band Margarine (the best brand, seriously)
Garlic
Chilli
Egg
Indomie kuah (preferable Soto Mie)
Hamper Beef Corned (or Spam would do too)
Meatballs (any kind you like)
Vegetables (any kind you like)
Coriander
Lemon
Water
But again, these ingredients can be altered depending on your preferences.



Method

1. Chopped up garlic roughly and diced spam (if you decided to use spam, if you are using the hamper beef, just put it to the wok straight away later) and slice the chilli.
2. Heat up your wok (make sure your wok is deep enough for the soup) and put one tsp of Blue Band Margarin
3. Sautee the garlic and chilli until their aroma comes out, put your spam/hamper beef into the wook. Sautee until it changes color.
4. Put one (or two) chicken eggs and scramble it (if you want to have an egg sauce instead of normal soup, put the eggs last after the soup and stir)
5. Pour hot water inside the wok. If you don't like it too soup-y don't pour too much of the water (just as long as you can cook the noodles) but if you like the soup, be my guest :)
6. Put your uncooked indomie noodles inside, and put the spices from the packet straight into the bowl!
7. Stir well, put your vegetables inside.
8. After it's cooked, pour a little bit of soup into the bowl to stir the spices with. After it's stirred, pour the whole thing inside the bowl
9. Squeeze one slice of lemon on top, decorate it with fried shallots, chillies and corianders
10. Eat up and enjoy :)

Best served during winter, with friends and laughter on the side :)

Comfort food

I'm a Self-confessed Foodie

So it's been... what, two months after I last blogged? I know, I know. I should've write more constantly in my blog if I want to keep it alive, and I will try hard this year to make that happen. Anyway, I hope you all are well and so do your loved ones. I had a two week holiday in January so I went back to Indo to be with my mum, which was really awesome.

My whole trip was really packed. I only had a short holiday, however I managed to squeeze in a 3 days 2 nights trip to Malaysia to visit my baby sister. But everything was great, eventhough I was so so so tired from it. The highlight of my trip was (besides seeing my family and friends) the food!

I managed to compile a list of food that I want to eat, but I ate only like one third of it :( but at least I ate the most most important ones! Now you can see how much I love my food - and yes, with Lisyen as my foodie partner by my side we managed to tear Mangga Dua apart to shop AND eat. Maybe I should write a Jakarta food guide :P Below are just a couple of my 'evidences' that you can look (and drool) at.

Evidence 1

Beautika - Manado food! if you can handle an extreme level of HOTNESS, then you should try Beautika. I ate there and literally sweating, puffing, and teary-eyed because of the chilli, but it was hella good. I think they have two outlets which are in Hang Lekir or Tanah Abang. In the picture is Sayur Bunga Pepaya, Ikan Tude and Ayam Woku, topped with the yummy Sambal Roa (which I managed to bring to Perth! YAYYYY) - you should try their awesome Es Duren Kacang here too!

Evidence 2

Sushi Tei - Sushi Galore! If you ever in Indo (Jakarta, that is... or Bandung) you HAVE to try the sushi in Sushi Tei. They are fabulous! Especially the Dragon Roll which were arranged in the shape of the dragon. I ate here with Josh and Arthur the other day, while watching the mbak-mbak and mas-mas star-strucked by Ari Wibowo's presence! But man, I couldn't care less since I was enjoying my food so much!

I only took pictures in those two restaurants... However I do recommend these for you to try out:

1. Yakoya Shabu-Shabu Restaurant @ Plaza Bumi Daya - great shabu-shabu which cost only Rp.100.000,- per head. But be warned, do not try to have an ice ocha drinking competition with your friend, you will end up throwing up in the bathroom like me! (kembung, gokil!!)
2. Bakmie Alok - Tanjung Duren - My parents eat here since they were only dating, until now. It's definitely one of my favorite noodles! The noodles are a bit er... what's the english for it yah? rubbery. haha. but mannnn... it's really good! especially if you eat it with onion chives and lots lots of chilli :)
3. Wong Tegal - Tanjung Duren - My parents came from Tegal originally. Even though I was born and raised in Jakarta, I spoke Tegal fluently and love the food to death. Wong Tegal was owned by my parents' friends (since it's a very small town, everyone knows each other) which served traditional Tegal cuisine like Nasi Lengko, Nasi Rames, Nasi Bogana, Nasi Langgi, etc etc.
4. Sandwich Bakar - Puri Indah - Some sort of roti panggang but wayyyy more expensive. The sandwich bakar itself was quite alright, but hey you have to try the Wedang Ronde with Soya Bean Milk. I was introduced to it by the Soejantos, was a bit reluctant of trying it out at first because Wedang Ronde is always served with Ginger. Surprisingly, it was really good and I don't want to turn back :P
5. Bakmie Poppay - Mangga Dua - Lisyen and I rushed into Bakmie Poppay the minute we arrived in Mangga Dua. Our main focus was to shop, however we HAVE to stop here and eat. When we arrived, the place was not open yet but lots of people have waited outside patiently (or impatiently?) to eat the noodles. We ordered one each, with one pempek on the side to share, topped with es buah from across the resto. Then we ate the Rujak Medan. MAN! we are so in need of a diet, syen!
6. Pepper Lunch - Mal Taman Anggrek - Anny & I went shopping in TA. After hours and hours of walking, we got pretty hungry and decided to try Pepper Lunch. They served your meal uncooked in a hot plate, so you can cook it yourself. The chicken I had was pretty good, and so does Anny's Salmon.
7. Green Tea Latte @ Starbucks - It's not food, more to a drink. One sentence: WHY DON'T WE HAVE STARBUCKS HERE??!!!
8. Saung Greenville - Greenville - I've been bragging about the seafood here especially the Black Pepper Crab. They started out the business from their garage at home, and expanded into a mega-seafood restaurant which always fully booked every night! Compared to the seafood prices in Oz, converted to dollars it's hella cheap :P

Ah, I can't remember anymore of the food I ate, and I couldn't help but keep drooling and picturing the food in my mind. Why do I love food so much? Tanyakan saja pada rumput2 yang bergoyang.

Kalo kata anak-anak sih, "Apa sih yang gak enak, Tas?"

I'm a Self-confessed Foodie

In between weddings, facebook and Heaven's Lamb

Hi folks! How've you been? I hope everything's been well with you guys :)

At last, I finally have the time and willingness to do another post... I know, i know.. it's been a while! As you guys might know, I've been busy with wedding preparations and no, not mine! I've been helping some friends out in their weddings. Two weddings in four weeks... that was kinda exhausting but I had fun :)

The Bridal Party: Rey, Fang-Fang, Indra, Rafael, Me and Defy

The first ones to tied the know was two of my best friends, Indra & Fang-Fang. I've known them for about 6 years now and we've been close friends since God knows when. I've been helping her preparing for the big day since the first day she planned it, it was frustrating but FUN! The day was special also because Defy, our best friend, came all the way from Sydney to join the fun!

After weeks of preparing the timeline, to our relief, the events went smoothly... even though it's a lil bit wet at first. The weather forecast for the day was raining. We could actually see grey skies as we walked out from Fang's house to go to the ceremony. Fang was very worried that it would rain all day, but then we decided to just get on with it. The motto for the day was "Ya... sudahlahhhhh!!!" (which means: Oh, well..) but to our surprise, it was bright blue skies! Thank God! Sure to keep the bride & groom happy :)

The reception went smoothly as well... Old Swan Brewery looked really nicely decorated with handmade napkin rings and table cloth by Fang's mom (good job, tanteeee) and the flowers were nice too. The only disappointment that I had was when the slideshow's music didn't play at all because of a faulty cable! And I stayed up all night to make it :( but, oh well... no sweat!

Overall, we enjoyed ourselves that day and I am certainly very happy for my two best friends! They are perfect for each other and I believe that God has a lot of good things in store for them... So next step, our own business?? Fang, Ndra? hehehehe :)

The next wedding took place two weeks after their's. It was Ivan & Adeline's. Despite the flies and horse-manure-smell during the ceremony (note to self: outdoor parties could be really challenging!) it was a fun night, with most of the guys DRUNK. I don't have many pictures yet so I'll keep you posted when I have one :) Anyway, congratulations guys!

And these past four weeks I found out that Facebook is addictive! It's soooo much fun than Friendster! It has all these applications you can add to your profile page and you can play around with it, poke people, and stuff. It's sooooo cool!

My latest favorite is the Polyvore application, where you can make some sort of 'scrapbook' with real items taken from websites (even net-a-porter!) to describe your sense of style. Highly addictive! I've posted some of my collages here for you to look at... You can create your own background with items and pictures and positioned them the way you wanted them to be... so cool! Hey friendster users, switch to facebook! Hoho...

My Stylesheet #1 - "Night & Day"

My Stylesheet #2 - Pink Is The New Black

My Stylesheet #3 - Passport To Paris

Pheeewww... at least I don't have anymore weddings to go to this year! But then, I am currently busy with the production of The ROCKS Christmas Musical: "Heaven's Lamb". It's scheduled to be performed on 1st December 2007 at 6:00 pm at Perth Christian Life Centre. I will post the poster here after I get the soft-copy from my friend.

With only three weeks left in our window, we are rushing and stressing to prepare everything. It's so hard to produce musicals because we're not only have to practice dialogues, we also have to remember dance moves and song lyrics. Believe me, if you've seen our practice schedules you would say the same thing. I almost cried when I see it! Full on, even on Sunday!

I'm so eager to get this production up and running. Over and done with! I know we'll all be very relieved after the day and have our well-deserved break over December... I think I'm going home, but still not sure... I am currently looking for another job opportunities because I decided that the place I'm currently working with (more to the boss though) doesn't suit my principals and I'm going to move on... so, we'll see :) wish me luck so I can find my dream job, guys!

Over and out, people! Have a good one!

In between weddings, facebook and Heaven's Lamb