Adriane Goes To Semarang

Adriane came to visit last wkend. She came bearing a little duffel bag because I told her to pack light and that there's no need for her super hairdryer, changes of pretty clothes, heels and accessories. When you come to visit me in Smg, you just need to pack a couple of loose T-shirts and comfy drawstring pants and you'll be all set. According to Adriane, you also need to bring an empty suitcase because she went home lugging easily 10 kilos more than what she came w/. It was all food. Everything from the usual suspects - lumpia (spring roll), wingko babat (coconut cake), milkfish - the 3 big Semarang specialties - to honey, homemade kaya and lots of gudeg. I can't give gudeg an English name. I don't know how to describe it. It's rice w/ lots of stuff at the side, including cooked young jackfruit that tastes meaty.

I don't think 3 hrs went by without us eating something. Here is an abbreviated photographic recap:

Nasi Ayam.

All the soto that Adriane demolished. Soto is different in every part of Indonesia; in Semarang, it's clear chicken soup w/ bihun and fried garlic and served with fried tempe and bergedel (potato fritter). The second bowl fr the left is where Adriane hoarded her fried tempe. The people sitting at our table had to fight to get their share of tempe because Adriane was hogging the tempe tray all to herself.


Dawet, a dessert w/ sticky dark brown syrup made fr the flowers of aren palm, avocado, jackfruit, coconut, palm seeds, agar-agar and Adriane's deluxe version had durian too.


Dawet fr another place. Adriane showing her knack for multi-tasking. Lekker in one hand, dawet in another. Lekker is good stuff. It's banana and choc crepe, super crunchy.


Death By Kue Bandung.

Kue Bandung just defies description. There's no good reason to consume so much BlueBand margarine and chocolate and peanuts in one bite except when you are having Kue Bandung. A friend of mine ate 2 slices of Kue Bandung every night (it's an evening snack) and at the end of his 1-month holiday, he had gained 8kg. Not an urban legend.


The army of workers who had to keep up w/ Adriane's monstrous, incessant appetite for chilli. ok, actually, this photo was taken at the gudeg stall after hours. It was sick how the sight of all that chilli made Adriane salivate.

Hanging out w/ my cousins.

When we went to his hse, Richard was doing his abacus assignment, so that reminded me that he's my little freak show. I made him compete w/ Adriane on mental calculations. How did the former valedictorian compare w/ a 7-year old? Not bad. It was a tie. Richard was bewildered by this big adult who was shouting, super competitive and who refused to continue playing after she outscored him by 1 point. He was very gracious and tried to teach her the abacus too, but his student was too thick. They both gave up and we all decided playtime was more fun. Look at the expression on his face. He's like, 'omigod, why do I have to do this?'

Then we hit Brux, the bar up the street fr my cousins' place. It's a casual establishment in a beautiful old house w/ a big garden. We went in our shorts & slippers and since it was raining, my Hello Kitty umbrella. We were cool. Adriane had a Corona and because I am weird, I ordered Bir Bintang w/ Ribena. It was lurid purple.


I wish I could say that Adriane and I did other things aside from eating, drinking and hanging out w/ my cousins. But we didn't, really. My mum asked Adriane if she wanted to see the old part of town. She said ok, but old buildings don't interest Adriane as much as food so she took like 2 pictures from the car window and asked what's for lunch. Karen visited the market when she was in Smg and Patrick explored the old town on foot and gamely tried jamu (herbal concoctions), another Semarang specialty. Howie just sits in my house, playing X Box, eating food we buy back for him and ordering room service pisang goreng (banana fritters). My maid makes the best pisang goreng.

Everyone shld come and visit me in Semarang! Just bring drawstring pants and a good appetite!

About A Boy

I'd like to introduce to everyone my favourite boy in town: Enrico!

Enrico is my favourite cousin. He's 5 and oh so cute! He likes to be taken to Bandungan, a hill station 45min away fr Semarang, for horse rides. Enrico is a total poser. When he sees a camera, he'll be snap-ready with a pose.


Unfortunately, Enrico likes joget ketek, monkey performance that's a traditional form of entertainment in these parts. I find it horrid horrid horrid. Look at that poor monkey in that little cage!


That's him and his brother, Richard, playing piggy back with my big bear.


Enrico has the cutest dimples. And he knows it.

That's us playing Hijackers of the Carribbean.

That sums up my social life in Semarang.

Eating Cool in Bali

There are many many nice cafes and restaurants in Bali. Perhaps more than any city in Indonesia, including Jakarta. And in Bali, you can always count on a fabulous view.

Three Monkeys in Monkey Forest Road, Ubud, serves kickass sticky banana pudding with a paddy field view if you sit in the loft. For 5000rp, they'll also serve you free-flow 'oxygenated water', whatever that is.


For good Thai food in Bali, I highly recommend the restaurant at Kayumanis Villas in Sayan. There's a staff member peeling bark off the kayumanis tree. I think kayumanis is either cassia or cinnamon. Either way, it smells great. Kayumanis Villas is a great place to stay if you wanna do nothing but enjoy the villa with the new love of your life. But for families and people who wanna do more than sunbathe and think of how fortunate they are to be able to afford a private pool villa, Kayumanis is a bit too darn far.


Ku de Ta will make even jaded jetsetters sit up and smell the tobacco better. It is uber cool and has a fabulous seaview. But I didn't like paying so much money for my Earl Grey tea! There are many leather deck chairs for beautiful people who want to be beautifully stretched out - wearing as little as possible - while sipping their drink.


It rained and an army of attendants came out from somewhere to cover up the chairs. The beautiful people pouted, shoved their sunglasses up their hair and went inside to the bar.


Don't get too caught up with eating at the cool places in Bali. Do dine at Mozaic - I am sure you'll have a wonderful meal, but don't miss out the great and ghetto babi guling stalls too.

Balinese Banten

The Balinese make beautiful offerings in little baskets woven from coconut fronds every day. These offerings, called banten or sesaji, usually consist of colourful petals and small food items such as biscuits, pinches of glutinous rice cakes, a scattering of rice grains, but I've seen individually wrapped mint candy and an entire spring roll laid out for the gods.

Not everyone makes her own banten. If you are clumsy, not artistically inclined, terribly busy, or a combination of all the above, you can buy banten. You pay a person, usually a lady, and she'll come by to your shopfront/house every day to place a new banten and clear your old one. But I think you'll have to strike an agreement with the gods to make sure that the merit and good fortune still go to you and not the banten caterer. Because you paid her. And it's the money that counts.

Banten is put everywhere. They are in temples, houses and shops, on the pavements, in dangerous blind corners of roads, by the river, at the beach, and at all stone shrines, big and small. They are always really pretty. Visitors to Bali usually see their first banten in a cab. Banten is put in cars as an offering for a day's safe journey and in cabs, for better business.




A row of bikes for rent.

Balinese women on their way to ceremonies and a group of Balinese men at the wantilan.

Babi Guling Bali

We went to Bali on the way back to Semarang from Adelaide. One of the best things in Bali - and there are very many - is babi guling. Babi guling is an ode to pork. Many parts of the pig are used to create a rice dish that is a symphony of flavours and textures. There's the crisp shiny skin, dark blood sausage, crunchy curly intestines, pig ear & spicy veg accompaniment for those who need to see greens on their plate, sate, smooth white slices of meat and lots of other pork goodness served on a plate of fluffy white rice. Sometimes, there's a steaming bowl of pig bone soup too.

My favourite babi guling places are Tjandra/Chandra at Jl Teuku Umar and Ibu Oka in Ubud. Tjandra has awesome soup but Ibu Oka doesn't make any. However, Ibu Oka has kickass fried battered pork bits. Ibu Oka also has an excellent cooked nangka (jackfruit) dish that you can order on the side. The trouble with Ibu Oka is that if you go when it just opens (at 11ish), a lot of things won't be ready. If you go during the peak lunch period, there won't be any seats and you'll have to put up with the worldwide restaurant phenomena of the Waitress With Unseeing Eyes. But if you go a little past the peak lunch crowd, a lot of good stuff will be sold out and the babi guling you get will be a shadow of what it should be. I haven't been able to determine the magic hour for optimum porcine pleasures at her place.

Hahndorf

We visited Hahndorf because it's something you do when you're in the Adelaide area. Hahndorf is the oldest German settlement in Australia so somehow that makes it a worthy attraction.

This was one of the first signs I saw when we were going into Harndorf and it made me laugh because the first thing I thought of was big German couples swapping spouses. I am sick like that.


The real welcome is more proper.



The whole town - and there's not much of it - is very charming, albeit in a kitschy kind of way. All the cafes seem to offer strudel that died in the microwave oven and authentic German sausages. I bought a pot of very colourful and edible chillies for Howie to bring back to his father, who is an avid gardener.

We visited Beerenberg farm and its pick-your-own strawberry field. I didn't buy any jam there because Beerenberg is too commercialised. I prefer my jams from the farmer's markets and without pectin although the best strawberry jam I've ever tasted is by a brand called Sawaya, available in supermarkets in Tokyo. A very close runner-up is the pink coloured Golden Raspberry jam from Berkshire Berries.

A cute little boy and his harvest.

Barossa Valley

My parents and I were in Adelaide for abt 2 wks in Dec for my brother's graduation. Adelaide is a pretty little place. In fact, the New Yorker once said that Adelaide as "possibly the last well-planned and contented metropolis on earth". I am not sure if I wld use 'metropolis' to describe Adelaide... As there's only that much you can do in the city, we rented a van and went to Barossa Valley, a famous wine region. We visited 5 vineyards. Penfold's was the most famous, Wolf Blass the classiest, Bethany's rustic, Jacob's Creek had the best facilities and small little Rockford was my favourite because it was small and pretty and best of all, it had jam tastings!

Rockford.

It is an old-fashioned practice to plant rose bushes at the end of every row of vines. Rose bushes are susceptible to the same diseases as grapevines but they show syptoms earlier. When you see that the roses are ill, yo'll know your grapes aren't in the pink of health too. It's kinda like how miners brought canaries down to the mines.