Fried Champignon Mushroom

Due to canceled recipe from last week's cooking session, I have a lot of Champignon Mushroom leftover, sadly starting to rot inside the fridge. "Why not fry it with ready-made flour for frying Chicken?", Kiko gave a suggestion.

I have another devilish idea in mind when stumbling upon a pack of Flour that near its expiration date, and a pack of new Rice Flour. The soft fried Tempe Mendoan with thin soft flour coating sounds better than ready-made Chicken flour. Half from googling, the other half is from follow-your-instinct, I started mixing the following ingredients:

• 1:1 Flour and Rice Flour
• Salt, pepper
• Scallion, chopped
• Water

As you can see, the only measurement did was the 1:1 Flour vs. Rice Flour. Other are added based on follow-your-instinct thing (or maybe follow-your-taste would be more appropriate).

The Mushroom is then chopped, dipped into the mix, and fried in hot oil. Some might prefer crisp fried, but I prefer soft fried - when it start to turn brown, strain.

Thankfully my taste was properly tuned this evening. The overall result made me wished to have a piece of Tempe Mendoan to be fried with the leftover flour mix. Hmmm..... maybe next week?

Ya Udah Bistro - Quality is Understatement

Saya pikir tidak ada salahnya mencicipi semangkuk wurst kase salat yang berisi potongan german bratwurst, daun selada segar, ditaburi parutan keju cheddar yang memutih di suatu malam di penghujung minggu.

Saya kira saraf lidah dan tubuh saya sedang meradang untuk sebongkah daging dan lemak hewani yang saripatinya bisa meluncar dalam mulut dan lidah lalu serta merta melepaskan endorphin dan menggantikannya dengan kesenangan saat itu, dan memori yang akan dijadikan acuan nanti.

Sebab bagaimanapun juga ekspektasi sedang bermain main nakal dengan sejumput kenangan yang menyenangkan. Di masanya, pernah saya mendapati sepiring steak lengkap dengan siraman mushroom sauce yang sungguh menggelitik lidah. Belum terhitung sarapan pagi yang mengenyangkan dan menggembirakan. Hash brown dan scramble egg yang hangat ditemani foccacia bread yang menguarkan harum dedaunan segar, dilengkapi dengan secangkir kopi atau teh panas.

Lalu, apakah semua itu ingin membuat saya kembali?

Saya lebih rindu akan deru ceiling fan berdebu dan kursi rotan anyam yang ringan sebab rangkanya cukup dari besi tirus saja. Saya lebih nyaman duduk di tengah pengunjung yang juga bersantai dan sibuk dengan urusannya masing masing, lalu saya bisa mengamati mereka dari sudut dimana saya duduk. Dengan para pelayan yang terlatih dan bersahabat dengan tamu tamunya. Saya mengira waktu bisa berkompromi untuk berhenti sejenak lalu membekukannya dalam kesenangan.

Jika kini ia bermetamorfosa di sebuah tempat yang lebih luas dengan inner courtyard, kursi dan meja yang sama, seragam yang sama, lalu pantaskah saya berceloteh tentang terampasnya suasana dan kenangan yang pernah hadir dulu? Jika kini bongkahan daging yang hadir di depan mata ternyata terlalu kering dan asam, apa yang bisa digugat dari semua itu?

Saya pikir sejumput kenangan bisa tinggal tetap walau hanya secuil...

#Reason num 27 why you should visit Ya Udah#

The Search for Coffee Siphon is Over

Its all started from my first patronage to La Tazza Coffee Shop, just across my office few years back. Among the coffee shop, they are the only one using the antique coffee making tools, which looks like an hourglass. Later on I know that it is called Coffee Siphon. It extract the best part of coffee, resulting in the thin light nice bodied cup of coffee, with the original taste of the bean.

Since then, I've been been wandering not only in the country, but also across the ocean, to find a place that sell the Siphon. I've been to the local kitchenware close to home, Ikea in Singapore and Hongkong, patronizing Kitchen Magic in Hongkong and Jakarta with no luck. Then on one evening in Bandung, Indonesia, after a nice coffee evening, we stroll along Jalan Braga when we came across the shop: House of Culinary.

Then I stroll to the coffee making isle, and amazed with the completeness of their coffee making tools. Espresso Machine (Saeco), Vietnam Drip, Plunger, Moka Pot, and..... YES.... the Coffee Siphon. My search is finally over......


One week since the Bandung trip, we were at home, 3pm int he evening. The Coffee Siphon is brewing a cup of Excelso coffee, freshly grind. The fire is out, and the black liquid has started sipping back to the lower chamber. I took a piece of Strawberry Cheese Cake as a company, and took a sip of Coffee. Thin, light cup of coffee, with unmistakable acidity of Kalosi Toraja....

Caterpillar Roll

If I worked at Japanese restaurant, I would be fired immediately for making this dishes. This thing was never been a favorite dish, even in form of Sushi. Well, my intention is to make another attempt for Dragon Roll, but I can't argue when my friend came up with the name: Ulet Roll, or in English: Caterpillar Roll


Learning from previous experience, I bought a relatively large Udang Pancet (Black Tiger Butterfly Prawn) for the tempura fillings. Cutting the tail of the first one, I arrange 2 of them in one roll, so that the head of the first prawn, and the tail of the second prawn will extrude from sushi roll.

It would be easier to use Tobiko, but inspired from Sushi Cooking Book I read few days ago, I decided to experiement with Ainori, crushed form of Nori sheet. We bought a ready-to-use one, which is not crushed, but shreded. Rolling the sticky sushi roll on top of the Shredded Nori.... there we got the Caterpillar Roll.

Well, at least we are successfull in making the head and tail of the Dragon, and it was a good experiment as well.....

(Suppose to be) Dragon Roll

We're not really in the mood for sushi actually. I strolled through old photos, among them are the Sushi Photo Session several years back. Then it came, a very inviting dragon roll. Tempted, I propose to make one to Kiko, which she agreed.

Rice were prepared as usual, but the Prawn was not. The recipe books make it easy to straighten a prawn for Tempura: using a toothpick. We only find out latter that toothpick was too short. Nevertheless, out of 10 prawn, we manage to fry 3-4 prawn, straight enough to be rolled in sushi. The rest of it goes with a traditional chili sauce :D.

Kiko laugh when I told my idea of using half tobiko, half sesame to cover the reversed sushi. "Martabak?", she said, referring to traditional food, where we can order different fillings for each half. I wasn't moved, and goes through with the plan....


OK, it wasn't look like a proper Dragon Roll. The prawn wasn't long enough for its tail and head to pops beyond the sushi. But as we chew it in, the taste made us happy enough. The white sesame is not a perfect match, black sesame might do better. The prawn, fried with a ready-made tempura flour, was great.

We still have another plate of Gyoza after that, plus some tempura prawn....

Scarcity of Nori

It might not makes the headline on the news, but the scarcity of Nori sheet last January has made us a little bit panic on one evening. We have Salmon and Chu Toro Sashimi freshly cut from our favorite sushi shop, and fresh Tobiko in hand, all might be wasted without Nori.

But this Japanese food are proven to be the most versatile food. Using a small leftover sushi, we made a small hand-rolled, topped with mix of Tobiko and Mayonnaise. When all Nori has been used, we made Nigiri Sushi - not the best Nigiri, but well, practice make perfect.


Kiko even make a hearted-shape Nigiri sushi, from the rice leftover :D. At the end of the day, we happily finish the plate.

Happy Jive Birthday!

Still remember when was your first time cooking took place?
(S) Kiko made me a Lasagna, which is great. Here is the pic :D. I wish she will make another one when her mood is right :D
(K) Err, early June 08 i think. We made garlic bread and he wrote the posting instead, but i guess we did another cooking at my home. (and still can't remember what it was)


By who's idea?
(S) Well.... I took the credit for it.......
(K) Scal, of course. I'm a moody amateur cook, only cooking when i really want or craving for something or get tempted by mouth watering pictures and recipe. Which can happen only once or twice a year if you're lucky.

How was it? The process and the result?
(S) Satisfactory... could be beginner's luck
(K) The garlic bread suprisingly turns good with tips acquired from online recipe. And another dishes were the same. There were recipes we tried up to 3 times because we did not get in the line, but there also one time test and we've made it. Most of our dishes tastes acceptable, but we still have to learn for better presentation.

Why blogging? What's the meaning behind the name?
(S) Why not?
(K) At the beginning we wanted to make a documentation about coffee review, one of his interest but turns out we agreed more on cooking since it's more easier. The name just pop out that way. Jive means dancing cheerfully, we guess that we wanted to make cooking as a fun activities together, as well as we loved foods themselves.

Who's taking the pictures?
(S) Mostly me, but there are some pictures which I can't take myself, particularly when I'm rolling a sushi or tossing pizza dough :D
(K) Scal. I'm not very patient to do that while cooking :D


What's your most remembering cooking?
(S) Two in one Tomato Soup, and the Tiramisu
(K) Scal's tomato soup. A lot of laugh and a remarkable taste.

What was your favourite cooking?
(S) Spaghetti, Fettuccine, Farfalle, Lasagna, Penne, Fusili.... did I miss anything? Oh, and pizza!
(K) I used to love wok dishes and few casseroles but now i discover my fond of Italian cooking, the tiramisu and those kind of pasta, ugh and pizza. And Japanese also. (too many my dear)

What was things you wish to cook but not yet?
(S) At the moment it is the traditional Dutch snacks, for tea time, and some fancy coffee, maybe when I have my own espresso machine. One that came into mind is Stroopwaffel. And I put Black Forest on Kiko's list :p.
(K) I want to cook steak and apple crumble pie. Our cooking time reduce since 09 i guess...

What's the funny thing crossed your mind when you do the cooking?
(S) What would it turns out? Edible? Side effect?
(K) Ummm, can i answer that later? :P

What’s Your Cooking Personality? (take this quiz http://well.blogs.nytimes.com/2009/03/16/whats-your-cooking-personality/)

(S) 2 (a) and 2 (c), so its a tie. But at least I'm not competitive :D
(K) I have 3 (d) and 2 (b), so can i describe myself as "methodical competitive" (oh well, that sounds preppy)

b) Methodical: Talented cooks who rely heavily on recipes. The methodical cook has refined tastes and manners. Their creations always look exactly like the picture in the cookbook.

**my comment: i'd always curious about chemical reaction includes food, that's why i like to explore and experimenting recipes. i used to compare few recipe available and search for any special ingredients which i think might bring extra value to the dish. my enjoyment involves adjusting ingredients composition like: "you think 250gr flour vs 100gr sugar will be too sweet or not?" after that, modified and practice! so yes, i rely on MY own modified recipes based on experienced, but no, my creation did not look exactly in the picture. i still have to learn more and more :)

d) Competitive: The Iron Chef of the neighborhood, competitive cooks have dominant personalities and are intense perfectionists who love to impress their guests.

**my comment: i'm not the iron chef (yet) but looking at my other habits when doing something else perhaps yes, i (tend) to intense perfectionist especially when dealing about best material you can have. And quite hard to negotiate about that :p

What's your plan next for JiveKitchen?
(S) More cooking posting. We haven't been cooking so often lately, so most of our posting is about the food we ate somewhere.
(K) I'd love to re-design the layout and content if possible. We were dreaming of compact and user friendly menus which accessible by everyone. And, i wish i could have more time to post any food activities we had. By the way, you think we should suggest JiveKitch to tweet? :p

** this quiz was made to celebrate one year of Jive Kitchen **
** Lots of fat, spice, and fun **