Moussaka for Buka..

There's always more food in our home during Ramadan. That's somewhat an irony since we only eat two times, during sahur and buka. But mom always makes excuses, saying that this is such a special month and this is her way of showing her love for the family. Well, not a big trouble since we all eat a lot.. ^_^

Today, mom had to go to teach (she's a part time lecturer) and left the cooking task to me. I obeyed since I had nothing to do.
*Yeah, my report and my paper can wait until tomorrow..*

Mom asked me to make use the stuffs in the fridge. I found some eggplants, tempe, minced meat, and funny-smelling cheese (blame dad for putting the jackfruit in the fridge again!), and decided to make Moussaka. It's middle-eastern food (Greek), consisting layers of eggplant, meat, and white sauce.

I've been wanting to make this since I discovered my liking for eggplant a few years back. Before that, I did not consider eggplant as food, mainly because it's so Barney-looking (read: purple) and spongy. I actually asked my cousin when I saw him ate eggplant with sambal, "Do you really eat those thing?"
"Yeah, it's good.." he answered while giving me a funny look. Then I found that eggplant is used in one of the recipe in Harvest Moon games; and fried eggplant is one of Archie Andrew's favorites in Archie Comics. So I thought, "It can't be that bad.." and gave it a try. I like eggplant since then..

Here's the picture of my first Moussaka:


I couldn't find my cookbook so the recipe's been altered so much. I used tempe as an addition to the meat since my parents are cutting down their meat consumption.

First, slice the eggplants (I use 3 medium eggplants) about 3/4 cm thick. Heat some butter in the skillet and fry the eggplant until tender (try to do this altogether since eggplant absorb the grease very quickly and you wouldn't want some piece so oily while the others so dry). Set aside.
Heat some butter in the skillet, cook chopped onion until fragrant and tender. Add minced meat and cook until brown. Add chopped tempe and chopped tomatoes, tomato ketchup, oregano, a dash of salt and pepper. Set aside.
Heat some butter in a pan. Add flour and stir until smooth. Add milk while stirring continuously until it become a smooth paste. Remove from heat and let it cool. Add grated cheese and an egg and stir until smooth.
Arrange the eggplant on the pan, layer with meat and white sauce. The last layer should be the eggplant and white sauce. Sprinkle with grated cheese and bake for 30 minutes with 180'C temperature.

It was good, my mom and dad love it, but my sister said that the eggplant tastes weird. She said I should have used mushroom instead. But if I used mushroom, it wouldn't be a moussaka. Just like if I used pasta, then it would become lasagna.. Well, can't please everyone..

So for today's buka, we had moussaka, leftovers from sahur (clear mushroom&chicken soup and roasted chicken), green cincau jelly (made from cincau leaves), and brownies (a present from a friend). Nice... ^_^

What does Love mean?

*from a friend.. so sweet..*

A group of professional people posed this question to a group of 4 to 8 year-olds,
"What does love mean?"
The answers they got were broader and deeper than anyone could have imagined. See what you think:


"When my grandmother got arthritis, she couldn't bend over and paint her toenails anymore. So my grandfather does it for her all the time, even when his hands got arthritis too. That's love."
Rebecca - age 8

"When someone loves you, the way they say your name is different. You just know that your name is safe in their mouth."
Billy - age 4

"Love is when a girl puts on perfume and a boy puts on shaving cologne and they go out and smell each other."
Karl - age 5

"Love is when you go out to eat and give somebody most of your French fries without making them give you any of theirs."
Chrissy - age 6

"Love is what makes you smile when you're tired."
Terri - age 4

"Love is when my mommy makes coffee for my daddy and she takes a sip before giving it to him, to make sure the taste is OK."
Danny - age 7

"Love is when you kiss all the time. Then when you get tired of kissing, you still want to be together and you talk more. My Mommy and Daddy are like that. They look gross when they kiss"
Emily - age 8

"Love is what's in the room with you at Christmas if you stop opening presents and listen."
Bobby - age 7 (Wow!)

"If you want to learn to love better, you should start with a friend who you hate,"
Nikka - age 6 (we need a few million more Nikkas on this planet)

"Love is when you tell a guy you like his shirt, then he wears it everyday."
Noelle - age 7

"Love is like a little old woman and a little old man who are still friends even after they know each other so well."
Tommy - age 6

"During my piano recital, I was on a stage and I was scared. I looked at all the people watching me and saw my daddy waving and smiling. He was the only one doing that. I wasn't scared anymore."
Cindy - age 8

"My mommy loves me more than anybody. You don't see anyone else kissing me to sleep at night."
Clare - age 6

"Love is when Mommy gives Daddy the best piece of chicken."
Elaine-age 5

"Love is when Mommy sees Daddy smelly and sweaty and still says he is handsomer than Robert Redford."
Chris - age 7

"Love is when your puppy licks your face even after you left him alone all day."
Mary Ann - age 4

"I know my older sister loves me because she gives me all her old clothes and has to go out and buy new ones."
Lauren - age 4

"When you love somebody, your eyelashes go up and down and little stars come out of you." (what an image)
Karen - age 7

"Love is when Mommy sees Daddy on the toilet and she doesn't think it's gross."
Mark - age 6

"You really shouldn't say 'I love you' unless you mean it. But if you mean it, you should say it a lot. People forget."
Jessica - age 8


Now when I asked a friend..

Cinta?
"Cairan isi pulpen.."
Dedi - age 24
*took me about 5mins to get this joke.. ;D*


So, what does LOVE mean to you?

Indonesia: For Sale!

Want to buy Java, Borneo, or Sumatra?
They are for sale, along with other main islands in The World. The mini version, that is. And they are a little bit out of shape compared to the actual things. What's important is that you could become neighbors with Michael Schumacher, Pamela Anderson (who's got Greece Island from ex-husband Tommy Lee), probably also with Rod Steward and David Beckham.
*Yeah, great! Imagine yourself kayaking to the Beckhams' to borrow some sugar from Victoria ;D*

Just prepare US$15-45 millions (depends on the size), and they could be yours. Of course you have to be great and cool enough so the developer will let you own it.
*Hmm.. I wonder if any Indonesian will buy one of those islands..*

Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum is like bringing SimCity to real life. Look at his projects: Dubai Waterfront, The Palm Trilogy (consists of, from left to right: Jebel Ali, Jumeirah, and Deira), and The World.


That really reminds me of the game I used to play when I was younger.
*Okay, I admit I still occasionally play SimGolf and HarvestMoon till now.. So what?!*.
When playing SimCity or Sim-whatever, I loved to perform cheat so I'd get unlimited amount of money. Then I'd build islands to any shape I wanted, usually square (for easy management), smiley-face, or heart shaped. It's really great, being able to control such thing. I believe Sheikh Mohammed feel the same way, except that it's real money to create real islands.
*hopefully with no cheat involved ;p*

Island-making has becoming more popular, not only in Dubai. (but not in Indonesia though, since we still have 6000 inhabited islands ;p) If you check out the list of artificial islands, you'll find Kansai International Airport -Japan, The Pearl -Qatar, and many more.

Well, if you have the money, the power, and the technology, what stops you? If I have these three, maybe I would do something crazy too. Like building dams around Antarctica and Arctic to prevent the other islands from 'sinking' when the ice melts =)), or inter-connecting the whole islands in Indonesia with bridges =))
*Just wondering.. With 17,508 islands, how many bridges would we have?*

Ramadan Mubarak..

O ye who believe! Fasting is prescribed to you as it was prescribed to those before you, that ye may (learn) piety and righteousness. (Al-Baqarah : 183)

For all of my Muslim brothers and sisters, Happy Ramadan.. May Ramadan this year be better than the previous one and Allah bless us always..

Tchaikovsky, V for Vendetta, and our national songs

Last Monday, I watched NSO's concert at Hyatt with Itha, Netta, and Netta's friend Titin. It was our last girls'-night-out together before Itha departed to Jakarta on Wednesday morning. Too bad Bunga and Truni didn't like classical/instrumental music.

The concert was divided into three segment:
Chris Watson - Jangeran (a classic-romantic piece combined with Balinese gamelan and Balinese dance) [ I Gusti Kompiang Raka - Percussionist Bali Ethnic; Anak Agung Ariawan - Bali Dancer ]
Johannes Brahms - Op.102 in A minor, concerto for violin and cello [ Atsuko Watanabe - Violinist; Yasuro Chomei - Cellist ]
Piotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky - Symphony No 6, Op.74 in B minor "Pathetique"

It was really nice and romantic, just like the theme "Great Romantic Music". But I almost fell asleep during the last piece. Not because I was bored, but I was so tired after spending the day queuing at the bank to pay the police fine. And the music itself was soothing.. ;)

Listening to Tchaikovsky that night kind of reminded me I haven't found this music piece from the movie 'V for Vendetta' that I like very much, the one played when V blew the building. After googling and wiki-ing, finally I found it at multiply. It turned out to be the 17 minutes long '1812 Overture'. The part played in 'V for Vendetta' was from the minute 15:48 onwards.

There's something familiar in this composition. After listening repeatedly, I found that in minute 6:30 (repeated in minute 6:45, 7:20 and 11:30) the music was very similar to our national song. You only need to add the lyric "dari Sabang sampai Merauke, berjajar pulau-pulau..". It also rings a bell to the song "Garuda Pancasila". Were our national songs really taken from that classical composition?

Btw, just like mentioned in Netta's blog and as written in the program guide:

...So much has been written about Tchaikovsky's emotional power in his music, and his rather tragic end. Either he died of cholera by accident or committed suicide by drinking unboiled water. The debates are still going on.

I found this in wikipedia:

Tchaikovsky died nine days after the premiere of his Sixth Symphony, the Pathétique, on November 6, 1893.
Most biographers of Tchaikovsky's life have considered his death to have been caused by cholera, most probably contracted through drinking contaminated water several days earlier. In recent decades, however, theories have been advanced that his death was a suicide. According to one variation of the theory, a sentence of suicide was imposed in a "court of honor" by Tchaikovsky's fellow alumni of the St. Petersburg School of Jurisprudence, as a censure of the composer's homosexuality.

What an interesting life back then, huh? No need to drink Baygon to commit suicide, just drink water from the sewage.. :p