Bahasa Indonesia homework assignment

We had to write a letter for homework. I am not providing a translation. I just wanted to share the letter. We worked on this with dictionaries and Google translate in hand. We are not good depending on our own brain power. For those of you who have nothing else to do, try translating it into English.

Pretty sky pictures

Lately we have had a few really pretty sunsets but also some amazing storm clouds to photograph. Here are a few good ones. The clouds sometimes get really interesting and appear to "boil" in the sky. The first image is one B shot from his office window in the direction of our apartment. The second, I shot from the apartment.

Sunsets are typically not that pretty or inspiring. The sun sets quickly and often there is so much cloud cover or haze you don't get something you wish to photograph. Recently we had a nice sunset that followed a bad late afternoon storm. The top photo is how it actually appeared, though the blue was brighter to the eye. I shot the second photo with a "sunset" setting. It really magnified the orange. I think I prefer the natural photo.

P hosts Needle Nomads

I finally felt ready to host my sewing/quilting/knitting group of ladies at our home. Founders of the group named us Needle Nomads.

B and I managed to accumulate some basics necessary for hosting more than a couple of people: a set of 12 coffee mugs (around $1.70 US each), a sugar bowl and creamer, a carafe to keep coffee warm, a pitcher for ice water and/or tea, a couple of extra serving dishes. About the only thing we already had was a hot pot that quickly brings water up to temperature for making tea. That was provided with the apartment. Oh, yes, I found a set of 12 inexpensive coffee/dessert spoons as well.

Last week I volunteered to host on Thursday.  I was glad that several ladies were traveling out of the country. We had 8 including myself which filled the only table I have. {When I host again, hopefully we will have purchased a small card table type table and 4 more chairs.}

Everything went very well despite my nerves hosting for the first time. I had some initial trouble with coffee because our water dispenser wasn't heating the water properly. I ended up having to dump the first batch and heat the water to brew coffee in the tea water device. We don't have an actual coffee maker, just a French coffee press.  The menu was the following: coffee, iced tea and water, Benedictine (recipe from Louisville, KY made with cream cheese, cucumber, onion, parsley), tea sandwiches, sweet potato mini-burritos, cut up veggies with a basil aioli dip, cut up fresh fruit, earl grey tea bread with orange zest,  and lemon meringue pie.

Ibu Tin made the pie on her own. In fact, it was her recipe. I made the tea bread. We worked together on the other recipes because they were new to both of us. Yes, I used previously untested recipes!

I asked Ibu Tin to finely mince some parsley to sprinkle in the Benedictine sandwiches. After a few minutes she presented me with something that practically parsley powder. She has amazing knife skills! My response was, yes, that was fine enough!

Everything was delicious. The biggest hit was probably the basil aioli dip. I include the recipe here because it was just so good! And it was easy.

Basil Aioli Dip

1 cup mayonnaise
1/2 cup tightly packed fresh basil leaves
1 garlic clove, minced
1/2 teaspoon zest
2 teaspoons fresh lemon juice
pinch of salt

Combine in a food processor and process until smooth. Will keep covered in refrigerator up to 2 days. Serve with a variety of cut up veggies. I used: red pepper, jicama (benkoang), carrot (wortel), cucumber (ketimun). Yum!

Sock progress

I am getting close to finishing this project. Sock number 2 is at about the same point. I'm now knitting the top ribbing.

A visit to the big house and an Indonesian company

While we were in Singapore I received an email invitation to attend a morning coffee event at the home of the US Ambassador to Indonesia. Don't get too excited. This wasn't a personalized invitation to me alone. This was an invitation to AWA members. It was limited to 75 ladies, however, so I quickly signed up. I did not know where the Ambassador lived so I asked for the information. I was told an email would go out shortly before the event. The day before the coffee I received an email telling me the address. You cannot find accurate information online for this sort of thing for obvious reasons. I learned that Mrs. Ambassador  (Sophia Blake) opens her home to AWA annually so next year I will know the address, and more importantly, our driver Pak Oky will know the address.

I should also mention how nice Pak Oky looked on this day. He'd gotten a fresh haircut and was in full uniform including shoes. As a general rule he wears sandals. He has a black uniform that he reserves for "special" driving days like this.

On arrival at the residence, armed guards checked for my name on the list of invited guests and allowed me to pass through the small door in the tall fence surrounding the compound. The entry door is just to the right of the pillar with the house number on it. A second guard took a peak in my purse and then pointed towards a covered walkway which led up to the house. At that point I just opened the door and walked right in.

It is a beautiful home but Mrs. Ambassador considers it just an extension of US soil. She invited all 75 of us to come over anytime we wish. If we all took her up on her offer, she might regret saying it, but she seemed very nice so...  The AWA President told me that Mrs. Ambassador invited her over to play tennis anytime she wants.

We had several speakers, one of which is a woman who started a company in Indonesia: Javara Indonesia. The company's mission is to "celebrate and keep alive Indonesia’s heritage of food biodiversity, indigenous wisdom & culinary tradition."  I later found out that a friend was aware of this company but most of my other friends knew nothing about it. We decided that day to visit this place the same week. 

We did just that on Friday last week. Side note: There was also a lunch involved at a sort of French cafe. Javara itself was not easy to find. The address listed is on a main road but the building itself is down an alley sized street off the main street, then you turn left and then left again in to the tiny parking lot. Driver Pak Oky was on the phone trying to find it and at one point I'm sure he thought the route was down an alleyway too small for a car because I heard him saying something about "mobil" (bahasa Indonesia for car).  I also saw his frustration as we passed the tiny alleyway and he was shaking his head. 

Javara sells a variety of products: coconut oil, coconut sugar, select coffees, teas, different rices, gluten-free flours based on rice and root veggies, root vegetable "pastas", the list goes on. The founder of the company said there used to be some 7000 types of rice grown in Indonesia and that some have been lost already. They work with 50,000 farmers of all types around Indonesia. They sell really interesting finishing salts. This one comes from Bali and is not yet available to purchase. The cubes are large (0.5 to 1 cm on a side) so you'd have to smash them to use them. 
 
They also sell pyramid shaped salt. This one also comes from Bali. Salt making is an art. I learned a lot during this visit. The woman who I believe is head of sales spent a lot of time having me taste things and explaining things. They sell two types of coconut oil, both of only the highest quality. One type is colorless and does have a coconut aroma. I myself would like this, but apparently the locals won't buy the colorless oil. In addition to the colorless oil, they sell a slightly yellowed oil. This is put into an evaporator with a little heat applied which removed the coconut aroma. 

I got a package of a specialty black rice. Lots of rice varieties to try. This black one is loaded with fiber.

They represent 7 different types of coffee so I bought 1 cup samples of 5 of them to try.  I did not buy their Kopi Luwak. { See previous posts about why I didn't buy that sample.} They sell a blue pea blossom tea which is best served iced. It is actually blue in color unless you squirt in some lime juice. With lime juice, it turns purple. I got two single serve packs of this to try.  I purchased some coconut sugar to try. It is supposed to be good in baked goods, coffee, etc. I will have to let you know. They have about a dozen different specialty honey varieties. My absolute favorite is Rambutan Blossom honey. It far surpasses my old favorite: Orange Blossom honey.  Javara exports 90% of their products, mostly to Europe. but you might look for it in the US. I also learned that a major hotel here has a weekly standing order for honey. I found the prices to be acceptable but for the average Indonesian, the prices would be considered high. That's the reason for the high export level. The founder says in part they are selling the story of preserving a heritage so it tends to sell better outside of the country.

Will we ever run out of green drinks? and other food tidbits

Here are couple of the latest green drinks we've tried. The first was a mocktail, lime and pineapple mojito. The second was a green apple tea  These were very nice.The third was an experiment. We'd seen these jelly bean flavors in the market several times. Because juicy pear is a favorite flavor, we bought one bottle. Our joint statement about Juicy Pear soda is, "Yuck!" We tossed all but a taste for each of us.

I also wanted to mention that in addition to the Schweppes tonic water (full sugar, as "diet" is not available here), I have also found a tonic water produced in Bali ( again full sugar- pictured here) but I also found Fever-Tree Naturally Light Indian tonic water which has less sugar. I forgot to take a picture. This one is pretty expensive compared to the Schweppes but I really like the flavor. Probably won't buy it very often. I've actually had this one in the past. They use as little sweetener as possible but still produce a really, really tasty tonic water.  I could purchase it at World Market or Trader Joe's or similar. I took this from the Fever-Tree website: The highest quality quinine was sourced from the Rwanda Congo border and blended with spring water and eight botanical flavors, including rare ingredients such as marigold extracts and a bitter orange from Tanzania.

I want to say something like, "Don't shoot the messenger, " or "I just report the news," or similar before I share this photo. I knew there was a cheese fascination here, but really? Cheese flavoring? I probably won't be buying any of this. The photos is approximately actual size and was seen in the same section as almond flavoring, vanilla, etc., and keju-keju translates to "cheeses."

B has often voiced the question, "Where's the frosting?" We would see cake mixes but never any cans of frosting. Perhaps it's a storage issue due to the heat, but we really began to wonder if we'd ever see any commercially pre-made frosting. We wondered if everyone just makes their own as the ingredients are readily available here. Then we found this:

I maintain that we still haven't seen any pre-made frosting. To this all-in-one kit you still add butter and water. We'll do fine sticking with homemade.

B thought this onion soup I had one day was worthy of a photo because of the copper crock. Actually, it was quite good.

French cooking class

We had the opportunity to take a french cooking class recently. There is a gourmet kitchen store here  and they opened a cooking studio where they teach classes. This one was a couples cooking class. I believe there were eight cooking stations so 8 couples in attendance.

The menu was steak with bordelaise sauce, whipped potatoes, salad and chocolate mousse with strawberries marinated in balsamic vinegar and palm sugar.  Due to the time-consuming nature of prepping the potatoes, the salad and the marinated strawberries, all we had to do was the steak and the mousse. 

We first prepared the mousse and while it was chilling we worked on the steaks. It was supposed to be filet mignon but the chef couldn't get them so he substituted ribeye. The sauce was made with shallots, butter, red wine and reduced to a slightly thickened sauce.

It was interesting to learn that several of the people taking the class really couldn't cook at all. They had no experience melting chocolate in a double boiler, beating heavy cream or egg whites or reducing a sauce. Because I grew up cooking these are not foreign concepts to me.

The chef teaching the class recently opened his own Chinese restaurant in town so we will go there at some point. It was his first time teaching a class and he seemed very nervous at first but calmed down a lot by the end. We seemed to progress at a faster pace than many of our classmates. At one point the chef asked if he could borrow my egg whites to show how it should look when they were beaten enough. He turned the bowl over above his head to demonstrate they were stiff enough. Luckily they stayed in the bowl. I later saw a classmate turning the bowl over his wife's head to test his whites. Guess he didn't want to risk the test over his own head.

Our steaks are resting...

  

Our steaks plated up but without the potatoes.

After preparing our meals, we sat down to eat along with our classmates. We did an excellent job! The steak was some of the best we'd had here and the strawberry concoction placed on top of the mousse was scrumptious. We felt the mousse was slightly grainy-- perhaps due to the particular chocolate used??-- but still tasted pretty good. The staff prepared potatoes and salad was also very nice.  It turned out that I knew a couple of the ladies in attendance. I used to play Mahjong with one of the them and another I met at an AWA coffee. It makes sense since the event was AWA sponsored. At our table was a couple who seemed very nice but sadly are packing out in a couple of months. That's the buzz phrase for the final step for folks leaving here so their final phase has begun. We learned they spent part of their lives living near our family in NY. Small world.

Escalators of Indonesia

Do escalators you encounter generally always run? In my experience in the US this is usually the case. Here, most elevators save energy by sitting still, or moving very, very slowly, waiting for a passenger. Once the passenger steps onto the escalator, it turns on, ramps up, and off you go.Most of the time the movement is slow but at one mall here they seem to move more quickly. This whole process was a little disconcerting at first but we've gotten used to it. You step on and wait for a potential quick start up.One word of caution, sometimes when the escalator is stopped it is because it isn't working.One gets on, waits and realizes oops and then starts walking.The whole time though, waiting for it to start, just in case.Of course, if the mall is very busy and packed with people the escalators do run continuously because there are non-stop passengers.We tried to capture this interesting escalator ride in a short video.We were only marginally successful with the video, but are sharing it anyway.

Kemchicks and a flower shop

I think I've mentioned KemChicks in the past. It is the top of the line grocery store that caters to ex-pats. Very pricey, but they have good products and they have things you can't find elsewhere. They were recently celebrating their 45th anniversary on a day when we happened to stop to shop at the main location in Kemang (B's note: we were looking for ideas for P's hosting the needle Nomads)..

 

They make up these huge floral signs for every event you can imagine here. And we have seen them being transported strapped to the back of a scooter. Inside the store they had all sorts of food for the party. It was hard to extricate ourselves from the hostesses so we could do our shopping. We'd just had lunch but we sampled a few things.

Also in Kemang I pass by this flower shop (kedai bunga) frequently. One day I actually thought to take a photo. It's not a great photo, but notice the structure of the "roof." Yes, those are umbrellas.

How our view has changed

I was thinking the other day about our view of the city from our apartment. It occurred to me that the view has changed in our time here. I got out some photos we took in August 2014 while apartment hunting.  I took similar shots this week and you can see how the view has changed. There is one very obvious addition but there are quite a few less obvious ones. In the paper today there is an article stating that companies are being forced out of this highly prized central location because of lack of office space. I guess the developers are trying to change that in a big way.

Jatuh Sakit and Masuk angin

In our Bahasa Indonesia class, we studied illness (jahut sakit (becoming ill)) and how to describe pain or issues with various parts of our bodies. We also covered how to call a doctor and make an appointment to be treated. This led to a very interesting discussion with Ibu Fitri, our teacher, on some cultural differences between the US and Indonesia. For example, they are very, very open (we would say have no boundaries) when it comes to discussing intimate details of what is going on with them medically.

Our book had a cultural note on MASUK ANGIN. Literally translated it is masuk (enter) angin (wind). The following is the cultural note.

"Indonesians who do not feel good commonly use the expression masuk angin to describe the ailments associated with the common cold. The primary symptoms of masuk angin include a fever, sinus congestion, sore throat, lack of energy, or upset stomach. Literally masuk angin means that the wind has entered the body. It is believed that the wind enters the body when one has been in a draft from a motorcycle, in a car or bus with an open window, or in an air-conditioned room. Some of the recommended remedies for this condition include eating regularly, eating warming foods and drinks (such as ginger tea), drinking plenty of water and getting a massage. "

BRK comment: A massage? I think I feel masuk angin coming on right now.

"Perhaps the most popular remedy is to have someone kerok you. The person giving the kerok (massage) first oils the skin..."  BRK comment : I think I definitely have masuk angin.

"... and then rubs the skin with a coin until the skin is red; this process is thought to draw out the wind that has entered the body: BRK comment: Say what,  I think I am cured!!!

——The above was taken from Ayo berbahasa Indoensia or Let's Speak Indonesian by Rafferty et al, 2014 NUS Press, page 165.

Haircut Number 2

So we've been living here for a full 7 months and I recently got my second haircut. I had the first one back in October I believe. I did have a haircut in  late December back in the US. Prior to the move, I routinely got my haircut every 4 weeks. You can see how this schedule varies from the every 4 week schedule pretty severely.

Anyway, the hair was getting pretty long again and so I picked a different place to try. While the hair place in October had recommendations I wasn't too happy with the cut. This new place also came with recommendations so I gave it a try. I ended up getting the most expensive guy in the place to cut my hair but he did a really nice job. During the shampooing, she gave me a very nice head massage but the chair is not built for people with short torsos. You actually lie down for shampooing here. We fit the appointment in on our Saturday errand run so Brad was with me and snapped a couple of photos. Here I am with the shampoo lady.

And here I am with Hisato. I think he is my new hair stylist.

What was interesting about this place was that to blow dry my hair I had Hisato and another gentlemen, one on each side, blow drying my hair simultaneously. Then Hisato finished. Hisato also handed tools to the other gentleman who then put them away. Hisato doesn't put his own tools away.

It's a Japanese hair salon. Hisato speaks English, Bahasa Indonesia and Japanese (and maybe more) and is the International Director (Hair-Designer and Instructor) for Shunji Matsuo Indonesia.

I've already made my next appointment because he seems to know what he's doing.

The Turkish restaurant story

I recently had lunch with friends at a really nice Turkish restaurant. I had never noticed this really pretty ceiling lamp before. This time I snapped a photo.

And, yes the food is excellent. I've been there several times. This visit did not go exactly as planned, however.  I was supposed to pick up some pistachio baklava on my way out for B, but a little something went wrong. He never got his baklava.

It turns out that  (A) there is no cell reception in the room I was in at this restaurant and (B) I forgot completely that we had Bahasa Indonesia class on this particular afternoon.  In my defense, I almost always have a couple of hours of buffer time between whatever I do Thursday early and class. This day was a luncheon and a presentation about antique carpets. I had my lunch, checked my watch, sat down for the talk, checked my watch, all the while convincing myself I still had time to get home and send our driver Oky to get Brad at the usual time. Duh! No, I didn't. He was leaving early because we had Bahasa Indonesia class. Without cell reception, neither B nor Oky could reach me on my cell. Finally, B asked Oky to go in and get me. Oops!  I guess part (C) would be that the guy giving the talk about the antique carpets was really interesting but he was finishing up when I had to scoot. We were technically a couple of minutes later for class but our tutor gotten held up as well, so we got to the apartment before she did. It all worked out OK.

Sweet treats and .....

These items were gifts from someone at work. They came from his wife's village.

The left item contains ground up peanuts and almost spun sugar. It reminded me of halvah a little. Pretty tasty and sweet. Ibu Tin says it's called Klenteng. That word is on the package but it doesn't mean anything in Indonesian. It's like a brand name. It's ingredients include: peanuts, sand sugar, glucose and something called Prambozen.??? The item on the right is a little less sweet  and it a semi-solid thing the color or molasses. I put it in the fridge (kulkas) to firm it up a little. Ibu Tin said it was meant to be enjoyed at room temperature, but I just couldn't figure out how one would cut it up at room temperature. It's sort of squishy. I guess it's called jenang kudus which translates to "holy porridge". It's ingredients include: coconut sugar, java sugar, sand sugar, coconut milk, glutinous rice flour and vanilla. After refrigeration, you can cut it, sort of, with a knife but it's still extremely soft and even a little gummy. It does have a slight coconutty taste.

B attended a dinner. Here are a couple of photos. This was Imlek or Chinese new Year dinner and began with a platter of food in the middle of a lazy susan. The platter contained shredded carrots, radish, peanuts, sesame seeds. Then a plate of sliced and smoked salmon is brought out with two little limes. The lime jusic is squeezed over the salmon. Next one dumps the salmon on the other platter. Four packets of sugar and spice are opened and ceremoniously added. The penultimate part is to add plum sauce and another sauce. next, everyone at the table stands while a blessing is being said. each person takes very long and large chopsticks (think drumsticks (not the chicken kind but the musical kind)) and uses the chopsticks to elevate the food on the platter and mix it. The mess in the bottom photo is the remains after mixing and our diving in to eat our efforts.

Tanah Abang- Fabric Heaven

Tanah Abang is said to be the largest textile market in all of Asia. A few of my sewing friends all went together last week. We met at one house and carpooled to Tanah Abang which is located in northern Jakarta.

Did I tell you yet that this place is huge?  It's at least 7 floors ( I don't know what's on the floors above 7- it might be parking garage? We got picked up on the 7th floor...)). The first 2 floors are fabric tokos (small and medium stall shops). The upper floors are garment shops. The majority of the fabrics are very ornate with beading, sequins, etc., but there are some shops that sell cotton fabrics. That's what we were after.

A couple of the ladies had been there before but there are so many individual shops and several different sections of the building it was difficult to find what we wanted. We did manage to find what we were looking for: cottons!  Most of the ladies are working on quilts and I had been thinking about trying to work on one. A friend had just gotten a new quilting magazine and she brought it in the car. Voila! I found directions for a quilt I loved. I just had to find the fabric for it. All of the ladies were pulling out bolt after bolt of fabric and between the 5 of us and the shops we visited I am now the proud owner of all but one of the fabrics I need for my quilt. It really was a group effort. It was really wonderful I had so much assistance from those skilled in the art. Most of the ladies got help from the other ladies at each shop. We left with quite a few huge bags of fabrics. Tanah Abang is like a multi-story gigantic closet, warehouse sized, with bolts of fabrics in piles and stacks from the floor to 9 or 10 foot ceilings.  There was also a "notions" area. I could see it off in the distance but we didn't have time to check that out. We were there for several hours and were tired and hungry so we didn't check out that area. Here are some photos of fabric and shop signs in Tanah Abang.

 

Part of the reason I took signs of the photos is so we can find the stores on our next visit. One shop owner saw several of us taking sign photos and he went and got business cards to hand out. This last photo is just one part of one floor of one area. The sign was by the elevator as we went to leave. It was the first sign of any kind indicating where shops are actually located.

What did I come home with? Ta da!

All this, more than 20 m of fabric for 340,000 IDR (~25 USD)

Another miscellaneous category discussion

This post will cover a variety of topics from food to pest control to Chinese New Year money envelopes to...?

Last mentioned goes first. The other day there was a ceremony of the upper management of B's company and the partner company ( both halves of the joint venture). Everyone got a little bit of cash in one of these envelopes. Aren't they pretty? [ Note: He got a 3rd envelope with money in it a couple of days later.]

CNY is celebrated within the Barito Pacific Group, the parent of our partner, by all the senior management forming a U and then all the employees of the building come through and shaking each of the Senior managers' hand. The purpose is to thank them and wish they make good and sound decisions for the coming year. All in all we shook hands for 45 minutes. Ibu Pagnestu, wife of the head of the  Barito Pacific Group, gives each person an envelope with money. .

 

Because practically every set of posts has something to say about food, here we go again.  I had noticed these odd soda cans on several occasions at our closest grocery, Grand Lucky. Last week I finally succumbed and purchased two of them.  Please note that only the top of the can is metal. The bottom is plastic. I wondered, "Could this arrangement really keep the fizz in the can?  The answer is, it can't. They are really interesting soda cans and they come in unique flavors. Pictured here is a can of blueberry soda and a can of kiwi soda.

I took this photo just because the produce from last week's shopping looked so pretty when it had been washed and spread out to dry.

I think we have completed our tour of lychee related fruit: we've now had lenkeng, duku and now rambutan. There are actually 2 types of rambutan. FYI rambut means "hair" in bahasa Indonesia. This is the more hairy one. This one is the hardest to eat because the large seed has a husk on it that really wants to stay attached to the fruit. It apparently is OK to just eat the thin husk.

The last food item is mentioned just because the donuts here are so pretty and there are so many different flavors like red velvet, choco banana and cheese toblerone. Yes, the last one is toblerone chocolate filled donut with cheddar cheese on top. ??? We don't get it either. But its very popular here. Taking photos is less filling.

Lastly, back to the first topic mentioned. We saw these in a shop in Singapore. Naturally, they were right next to the cockroach gel and the ant bait. I haven't seen a single lizard in our apartment, but I've seen plenty on the walls of friends' houses. It's a pretty normal thing here. I suppose you might want to keep them out of a specific area so this stuff might work, but you need them around to help keep down the mosquito population.

We have these plants all along the front of our building. I've only seen the blossoms a couple of times. Either they don't last long or the second they start to fade out the "gardeners" trim them off.