Batagor

I’m a little bit worry that this post such a too-often-food-lodge after I posted sweets yesterday. But I think it isn’t a sin to share breakfast I had this morning. Batagor (!!!), yes! a simpler version yet still yummy though. It was an accidentally idea to put ingredients that I had inside my fridge and then I said OMG I had Batagor for breakfast. Indonesian food never goes wrong.
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An Afternoon Tea

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I always remember the vow I’ve made ; after work hard, there is a good food in a good time for myself as a reward. Today I paid my dues. Just had a tight Sunday to chill my mind from all physical and emotional obstacles after three days worked non stop (valentine season at office was mad). Went out to cinema at 10am (Robocop wasn’t bad :)), and passed at my fav bakery for take-home-sweets. I just thought that An Afternoon tea wasn’t a bad idea to give me small blithe on Sunday.

Last week Sunday I tried to capture the sweets ; dark choco cake, cherry cupcake, mango mousse, red velvet cheese cake and sandwich, plus strawberry, I was excited when I looked at them arranged yet I was pulled a long face when I realized all of them weren’t good enough for this blog (first pic after this sentences was the only iPhone pic that shows those sweets together). Today I decided to repeat the moment with another sweets ; Dark chocolate cheese cake and round eclairs filled with coffee cream, and wheat croissant. Oh, almost forget to mention a scone.

Scone with clotted cream and strawberry jam was good. Just because I couldn’t get a particular strawberry jam from market, I made it from four strawberries, fifteen blueberries, a little unsalted butter, sugar and lime (I had no lemon today). Beside the fact that I love how the color of strawberry and blueberry married, the taste of clotted cream and strawberry jam was tasteful.

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P.S. Please don’t judge me for this simpler version of afternoon tea. I wish I could make it as proper as British does, maybe someday, when I have a chance to enjoy an afternoon at Harrods I will share it with you :) or on some spots around London like here. The ambiance, cutlery, and those sweets! Cakes! Scones! Oh I’m a dreamer. 

That Morning

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There was a morning, woke up late on Sunday and had thought : “Master degree?”. My mind had an inner conversation from “when, where, what?”. Truly if I remember again that morning I was restless. I started thinking again when I should take my master degree, coming back to school to upgrade my brain, meeting new people in new place. I should think again for that. I really should.
Sometimes it isn’t easy thing to do when I start comparing other people’s life and mine. When I see a friend has taken a step, even more if the step is such a big step, I start shaking. I mean, there is an energy that wake me up, push me to do the same thing. I’m overwhelmed with gratitude for my career right now, I do. But taking another step in life is such another challenging thing to do.
I think I’ll take that particular step this year.

Picture above was taken on that morning, you can interprete the meaning of that iPhone picture.

What I Had This Sunday

This short post would be a little break from crazy week I had and crazier week ahead. Just a little treasure for today when I cooked early morning for mushroom fried rice yet I started fueling with fresh strawberry smoothie. One macaron was sweet enough to be friend for fresh and sour smoothie. Fried rice cooked with mushroom, sausage, carrot and chicken fillet served with side meal ; oops sunny-side-up and stir-fried butter chicken, oh veggie ; red cabbage, tomato, cucumber became my late lunch. Plan has changed to enjoy fried rice as main breakfast.

Avocado toast was a simply and quick brunch kind of. Capturing that toast on top black background was lovely enough, don’t you think so? :). And I ended another sweet snack as dessert. Tweaking a peach almond pie with fresh mango sauce wasn’t bad idea to complete this Sunday food lodge.

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The title for this post a bit cheesy, pardon for that, lol.

The Endless Bali II

As usual when I open Safari on my Macbook the apple site comes first. Tonight, 9.14 pm the site just wowed me with the video created to celebrate 30th of the Mac! Wow! The video is super-duper stunning! And a thing that made me wowed again is the fact that it was created from iPhones! OMG. Find it here and you will agree why I’m among of Mac lovers :) Happy birthday Mac! Okay, now I’m trying to concentrate back to this page, trying hard enough to remind how I enjoyed Bali last year.

Sunset was another thing I had to see at my third day in Bali (apart of beaches for sure). If on our second day I and my sister went to Ubud, Jimbaran was the main goal we had to achieve. And RockBar was the only place we wanted to spend for golden hour. It was started with a plan to visit Warung Itali for breakfast. Warung Itali is a good place to have a meal on a budget yet do not underestimate with the food. Some people say there is nothing special with their food (well, especially if they’re serious foodies!) but with a budget, Warung Itali isn’t a bad place to explore Italian food. Many expatriates from Italy love to spend their lunch time there though. Unfortunately when we went there at 9am it hadn’t opened yet (my flatmate here told me they open by 9am on business day and I believe cause he spent almost six years in Bali!).

When I realised that we couldn’t get any breakfast at Warung Itali our plan had changed. We went straight to Tanah Lot one of well-known tourist icon located at Tabanan. On our way to Tanah Lot, I was trying to capture any single thing along the road. The morning vibe, the sunshine, the people, the air. After 20km far we arrived there and suddenly realized that my sister looked so blithesome after she woke up from her sleep (gah!). Tanah Lot offered us to feel the warm breeze and the rush of the blue ocean which was true made our day. There’s always something peaceful by seeing blue ocean and accidentally, a little memory came out on my head when I stepped at Tanah Lot again.

Such a throwback thirteen years ago when I had a vacation on my last year in junior hi school. I pretty remembered I saw many friends of mine were taking picture busily while I just stand and tried to enjoy the view and waves without a camera in my hand. I found myself too abashed to beg my friends to snap me with their camera. I couldn’t believe that year I didn’t have any chance to frame my memory through one picture. I was a poor. Then when I stepped at Tanah Lot last year I tried to drop my camera as much as I could. I chose to enjoy the breeze and the blue rather than snapped more photographs. Hope these iPhone pictures could share a little different memory from thirteen years ago.

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On the picture above I was listening one of my fav song ever, Good Life, while I was sitting on the cliff and staring to the ocean.

After we spent two hours at Tanah Lot, we went back to the hotel around 1.30 pm to prepare ourselves for RockBar. By 3pm we started going to Jimbaran assuming that one hour was enough to reach there from Kuta. RockBar is located along coastline of Ayana Resort&Spa Bali. I have read on some blogs that there is always long queue starts from 4 pm due to sunset is a busiest time in RockBar. When we arrived at 4pm we were snappy to get the line. Fortunately what we were thinking before was wrong, the queue wasn’t long and we stand at front line. It is another experience to reach RockBar with the lift but unfortunately the lift was under construction made us couldn’t use it and that was meant we couldn’t enjoy the view of Rock Bar from top. If you open this site you’ll know how’s magical.

I was pulled a long face for that yet I didn’t make it such a big deal. I didn’t my mood changed just because of the lift. I was trying to concentrate myself to feel the breeze, the tranquil ocean, and the horizon when I was on the queue. It was simply amazing that my mind peacefully relaxed. Picture number two was the only iPhone snap from Ayana Resort I took before we went straight to Rock Bar.

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Entering RockBar we got our seat and started to chill ourselves. Two glass of fresh juices we chose (we don’t drink!) quite made us chiller for a while. 4pm-ish the skies was so clear and the sun was still too bright even the black umbrella that we got from the usher couldn’t chill us. An hour flew, by 5pm we felt the loungish-kind-of and the golden hour we waited for finally had come. We enjoyed the ocean, the orangish shine, the breeze, the jazz, and a little snack. My friend Putri commented when I posted a picture of our snack on my Instagram. She commented why I just had fried plantain in RockBar with our beer? Ha! She was kidding me :)

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Here how the sunset looked like.

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It was one of the most beautiful golden hour I’ve seen in entire 2013. Sounds exaggerated yet it was true. Peaceful. Serene. When sunset went down the ambiance at Rock Bar slightly changed into cozy and lounge evening. About four hours in RockBar we ended the day with blessed.

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P.S. I’ll try to end this post as soon as possible, will manage my me-time for the last one, Bali Part III.

Rainbows

Omg it is February already and found that I just had four posts in January and it is bad though. I think I lost the track to keep this blog moving. Pardon for that. Here I’m trying to share some snaps while I’m gathering my spirit and memory to remind how was Bali (for part II!, I promise I’ll post it soon!).

When I saw these rainbows a week ago in my office I took my iPhone and snapped them immediately. At my first sight I couldn’t believe their colors and how they are growing. Fortunately I brought my baby apart of my iPhone and took some angles. Those rainbows were so enticing, didn’t they? Yet I agree with what was my Boss said when she saw them, pretty yet looked like a toy.

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Breakfasts

I’m terrible lately for this blog due to my January seems like December still. You can see how I jumped to this day to publish another post. Gah.

Well, this is a simply post I tried to share some pictures from my breakfast days ago. I won’t say that pictures here are perfect to be included as my food-photography portfolio (I should start, though), it seems more like I learned more how to capture simply foods and played with different background. I hope I do not make you h(a)ngry :). Oh last picture was my breakfast this morning, club sandwiches.

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So many food photographers outside there amazed me with their work, creativity and technique but if you ask me what kind of style for food photography I love the most, I’ll answer clean and moody. I do not think that too-colorful background and props are mine :)

King Halim (bagian 3)

“…Sembari menikmati jus jambu segar yang lagi-lagi bekal saya pagi itu, Edwin ‘nyeletuk’, ini jus masih ada bijinya. Saya dengan PD-nya menanggapi celetukannya dengan “Eh, bijinya itu juga bagus”. Yuriko menampani, “Iya, pahit-pahit gimana gitu rasa bijinya”. Saya semakin menjadi, “Eh bener, setahu saya ‘gapapa’ kok diminum sama bijinya, disamping vitamin C-nya yang sangat tinggi dari dagingnya, bijinya juga bagus. Tahu tidak, vitamin C-nya jauh lebih tinggi dari jeruk”. Kemudian saya serasa ditampar Edwin “ngawur, itu biji ga bisa dicerna dan bisa bikin usus buntu”. Haha, saya mau ketawa saat itu tapi saya tahan, murid baru Edwin Lau yang sok tahu :P…” – King Halim bagian 2 –

Dua hari sebelum pergantian tahun akhirnya saya memiliki waktu untuk sekedar menghubungi teman baik saya selama di King Halim. Mbak Ika, begitu saya menyebutnya, akhirnya menjadi sahabat yang terakhir memutuskan untuk move on dari King Halim setelah tiga belas tahun. Tiga belas tahun? (!), saya harap ia keliru menghitung masa kerjanya. Dari obrolan kami siang itu, saya beranjak menulis kembali kenangan di sana. Baiklah, semoga anda berkenan jika saya menuntaskan salah satu bagian yang paling membekas, masih tentang bekal-bekal saya.

Delapan jam kami bekerja, jam makan siang adalah saat yang paling ditunggu. Pukul setengah dua belas adalah saat dimana semangat kerja mulai menurun. Saya menyebutnya jam bodoh. Konsentrasi pekerjaan lambat laun mulai mengempis karena urusan perut. Dulu sebelum kepala HRD kami menerapkan jadwal makan siang, para staf berlomba-lomba untuk bisa makan siang di seperempat jam pertama. Alasannya apalagi jika bukan makanan yang masih panas, lauk yang masih lengkap, atau sisa waktu istirahat yang bisa lebih panjang untuk mengutak-atik jejaring sosial. Sesekali saya berada di gerombolan staf-staf kelaparan tadi, selebihnya tidak cukup sering. Saya lebih memilih menelusuri halaman demi halaman web pilihan di komputer, atau merebahkan kepala di atas meja kerja selama seperempat jam. Jika memiliki buku yang masih belum selesai dibaca, saya memilih untuk membaca beberapa halaman. Setelahnya sholat Dhuhur barulah makan siang.

Pantry berbentuk persegi panjang dengan meja kaca hitam memanjang di tengah ruangan menjadi tempat relaksasi sejenak. Di ruangan yang tidak begitu luas itulah kami bisa bertemu dengan rekan-rekan dari departemen lain. Obrolan-obrolan ringan kerap kali diperbincangkan selain obrolan seputar pekerjaan yang kadang masih saja dibahas oleh manajer kami. Biasanya ada sekitar empat hingga lima menu berbeda disajikan di atas meja makan. Ada soto ayam lengkap dengan kering kentang dan telur rebusnya, sate ayam, urap-urap, sup merah, gorengan termasuk tempe dan tahu yang setiap hari ada, plus kerupuk putih. Kira-kira seperti itulah makan siang kami. Lain hari lain pula menunya. Saya akui makan siang di sana istimewa. Di meja makan itu bisa dilihat siapa yang makan dengan benar, siapa yang kelaparan setiap hari, yang peduli gizi hingga yang tak kenal malu untuk menyantap menu yang sama beberapa kali.

Kami sendiri memiliki menu favorit. Yuriko dan saya lebih memilih sayuran dalam porsi yang banyak. Urap-urap, tumis kangkung, tumis sawi, adalah beberapa sayuran yang paling sering disajikan. Yuriko seringkali menyantap sayuran tadi hanya dengan dada ayam rebus yang ia bawa sendiri sedang saya masih bergantung pada nasi. Jika saya tidak sedang malas, nasi dari beras merah kadang ada di kotak makan untuk kemudian disantap dengan menu-menu tadi. Saat itu saya masih mengikuti fatwa makanan yang digoreng itu amat jahat. Dulu saya sangat anti sekali dengan makanan yang digoreng dengan teknik deep fried ataupun frying. Hanya kerupuk putih dan tempe yang digoreng kering yang lolos fatwa tadi. Selebihnya saya harus berpikir dua kali. Oh, jika saya semeja dengan Yuriko, fatwa tadi menjadi lebih rumit. Setengah menjaga image sehat ala Edwin Lau, semeja dengan Yuriko membuat saya gugup jika tempe-tempe kering nan gurih menggoda iman. Eh tapi pernah suatu hari saat saya menahan godaan menikmati tempe kering tadi, malah Yuriko dengan santainya menambahkan sepotong tempe di atas piringnya sendiri. Setengah kaget setengah tak percaya. Kemudian? Saya mengambil dua biji (hiks!). Lain Yuriko, lain pula Edwin. Meski saat itu ia sama dengan Yuriko yang sedang rajin membentuk tubuh, namun ia tipe penikmat makanan. Apalagi jika bertemu dengan ayam betutu dan ceker ayam.

Nafsu makan Edwin bisa memuncak jika ia mendapati ayam betutu di menu hari itu, sama memuncaknya dengan nafsu makan HRD kami (eh :P). Ia bisa sedikit lebih kalap dengan ceker ayam yang direbus dengan santan, sama halnya dengan Jalal. Tomo lain lagi, ia yang paling down-to-earth alias apa adanya, ada sayur bening monggo, ada soto ayam monggo, it was so typical of him. Oh ada seorang yang menarik perhatian jika kami semeja saat makan siang, namanya Dimas. Dimas termasuk yang paling betah duduk di pantry. Entah karena ia terhibur dengan kepala HRD karena seringnya mereka bertemu, atau karena ia memiliki nafsu makan yang tinggi (saya yakin alasan pertama lebih tepat :P). Ia staf R&D yang sering saya sebut sebagai tamu tak diundang yang rajin sekali bertamu ke ruang konseptor, yang ujung-ujungnya kebagian bekal saya. Salah satu yang saya ingat, jika saya semeja dengan Dimas dan Yuriko, kemudian ada kepala HRD kami, saya harus berusaha menahan tawa. Dimas iseng sekali dengan kepala HRD kami yang terkenal galak yang sering memergokinya sebagai seorang yang betah makan siang. Begitu pula jika saya semeja dengan Edwin dan Dimas, sedang kepala HRD berada di ujung, kami memberi kode-kode yang mengarah kepada gaya makannya. Tak ada yang salah bagaimana kepala HRD kami menikmati makan siangnya, hanya saja, karena perawakannya yang agak sedikit gemuk, ditambah dengan sikapnya yang terkenal galak membuat Dimas memiliki kepuasan sendiri saat mencelanya. Saya pikir Dimas diam-diam mengaguminya :P.

Samping kiri itu tamu tak diundang saya :P
Samping kiri itu tamu tak diundang saya :P

Ada bekal yang masih saya ingat betul betapa seru menikmatinya. Jangan kaget jika saya sempat-sempatnya menggelar acara ‘rujakan’ di dalam ruangan kami. Saya sadar itu tidak benar, tapi saya jauh lebih sadar bahwa menikmati momen rujakan saat itu bersama mereka, dengan sedikit gelar tawa, jauh lebih berarti daripada menaati peraturan perusahaan. Mungkin dari kalimat sebelum ini anda berpikir saya bandel sekali, tipikal karyawan malas yang hanya semangat perihal makan. Tidak, itu tidak benar. Seperti yang pernah saya sebut, dari dulu saya berpikir bahwa kenangan-kenangan kecil bisa tercipta dari serunya acara makan-makan atau dari sebuah makanan.

Tak ada yang seberani saya, membawa aneka buah-buahan segar yang nikmatnya luar biasa dipadu bumbu dari gula aren dan asam. Menambahkan irisan tempe pun tahu goreng yang sering saya gondol dari ruang pantry adalah ide brilian. Apalagi jika bumbu rujaknya disantap dengan kerupuk putih. Selain menikmatinya dengan teman satu tim, Dimas si tamu tak diundang, mbak Ika, plus teman-teman desainer, ‘hantaran-rujakan’ kadangkala tiba di meja manajer kami. Trik agar tidak ditegur membawa banyak makanan ke kantor? Tidak, bukan itu. Saya pikir tak ada yang salah menghantarkan rujak tadi padanya, toh itupun saat jam istirahat. Lagipula manajer kami dulu seorang yang juga punya hobi masak. Di luar urusan kantor, beberapa kali saya dan beliau membahas beberapa teknik masak pun bahan-bahan yang menyertai sebuah resep.

Beliau sempat pula memergoki saya yang sibuk sendiri di ruang konseptor. Pagi itu saya datang setengah jam lebih awal dari biasanya. Tujuannya untuk menyelundupkan tiga kotak keik coklat dan vanila ke kantor. Saya masih ingat betul betapa tergopoh-gopohnya saya kala itu. Hari itu sebelas Mei, ide membagi keik-keik kecil buatan sendiri bagi saya cukup menarik. Keik-keik tadi masih tanpa hiasan. Maklum, saya berangkat dengan sepeda motor. Jadi tak mungkin bagi saya menghias keik-keik tadi dengan berbagai krim dan hiasannya dari rumah. Sesampainya di ruang konseptor saya mulai beraksi. Keik-keik tadi mulai berhias diri. Krim putih, ceri, irisan stoberi segar dan kiwi, keju dan coklat parut, pun tak lupa bendera-bendera kecil yang saya cetak sendiri lengkap dengan nama penerimanya mampu merubah keik-keik lezat tadi jauh lebih menarik. Kesibukan saya menghias keik menarik perhatian staf-staf lain yang bisa melihat saya dari luar ruangan. Beberapa staf marketing masuk ke ruang konseptor, staf purchasing pun tak kalah curious. Begitupun akhirnya beliau ikut nimbrung. Ditengah acara hias menghias yang tadinya saya kerjakan sendiri, kemudian staf-staf lain ikut membantu, beliau hanya tersenyum dan meninggalkan komentar ; katanya saya kreatif (oh yang ini tak perlu diragukan Ko :P). Sayang saya tak punya foto keik-keik itu.

Begitulah makanan yang dulu saya masak, saya bawa ke kantor, saya nikmati dengan teman-teman di sana mampu meninggalkan kenangan. Makanan plus kebersamaan sama dengan kenangan. Sederhana sekali :)

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Lagos,  9 ; 57 pm.

 

RED

When I saw a big buded red rose that had beautiful swirl my eyes captured some beauties on it. I admire how petals of a rose groovy arranged. Here, some snaps from a fresh rose. Red, bold, mesmerizing. Taken by NEX.

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Sometimes I feel there is a beauty shines brighter from shriveled ones.

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The last one I attached one of beautiful quote from Kahlil Gibran.

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Happy Birthday Ma!

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First post for this year is a simply yet beautiful moment happened today.
We just celebrated our guru’s birthday, Madam Uche Majekodunmi, a super woman that never lose energy to do something big in her life. Madam Uche is a guru for us in our company, she is the one and only. Hopefully, our surprising celebration for her expressed how we love her as a mommy, as a guru, as a boss from the bottom of our hearts.
Dear Madam Uche, happy birthday, wish your life will be fulfilled with endless love and blessing a year ahead and ever after. A beautiful life, health, wisdom, prosperity and long life.

I wish I could capture our moment today in a better angle, hope you don’t mind for these pictures.

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With Love,

Azis.