SPARTAN COOKING with Wolfgang le chef

Hejsan everybody!

First of all let me thank Amreta for inviting me to this little blog! For the rest of you: thanks for being around ;)

Then maybe there should be some introduction. However, I guess you all know me (still) and Fina - please ask Amreta for the details =)

Well then, lets begin. You are probably quite surprised that I already write since I have received the invitation just three (!!) weeks ago ;)

You mitght know I have spent the last year in beautiful Sweden on student exchange. You might be curious about that (since we met in Sweden) but I decided not to write about that and instead stick with the topic of this blog (and, by the way, it would take too much time =P )

So, you might wonder about the title I chose; the Spartan warriors were feared throughout ancient Greece and beyond for being the most dreadful opponents. In battle, Spartans would fight to the last man. The reason for this contempt of death was - and I have trusted sources for this - the absolutely abominable rations they were served. "Inspiring", I thought... and now we are approaching the topic of this blog. I build my own cooking on these principles.

However, since there are no battles anymore where you could find merciful death, I found it necessary to - then and again - actually try and cook something (very basic though). So here I proudly present - the first onion cake (lökpaj) ever made by me *frantic applause*

Anyway, I used a ready-to-go pizza dough, six medium size onions, grated cheese, sour cream and some curry and nutmeg plus two eggs. As you can see, it is very easy to make. As the taste of it is not too refined, it is recommended to add some sort of dipsauce to it. Since I forgot to buy pepper dipsauce I almost panicked but at that moment I found a homemade (yes, from my mum ;)) apple chutney that I had stolen on my last visit home. How lucky! It went very well with the paj. Some red wine - Montepulciano - complemented the meal. Deeeelicious

Unfortunately (or fortunately for him) a friend I intended to invite had no time so I had to eat alone. The only good thing about that is I have three quarters of the paj left, so I can probably make it through the week without further efforts =)
So much for cooking!

No home is complete without music. Therefore, allow me to introduce a band I have become very fond of - Royksopp from Norway (the original, first 'o' is crossed - I dont have it on my keyboard - its pronounced like the Swedish 'ö').
Listen to some of their work on the website: www.royksopp.com and click on the band's name. Then, go to videos and watch: 'Remind me'. Tell me if this is not the most original music video clip you have ever seen. Well, it reminds me of our complicated modern life.

Speaking of... I was at the city library today and got eight books about how to write a good job application. It seems I have not yet found the perfect way to divert attention from my embarrassingly empty CV =( it seems I am harvesting the 'fruits' of prior lazyness.
I hope that eventually I can get something. Ten hours per week along studies would be just fine. Well, I will keep you informed ;)

That's it for now... hope you are all doing well. I have read all of your previous posts, so be assured your comments are most welcome!

P.S. If you find spelling errors you may keep them.

Independence Day!

17 August 2006 – Indonesia celebrates its 61st 'birthday' and indeed, you can see 'birthday parties' all over the country! In almost every neighborhood many fun games and competitions were held by the locals, not only for kids but for adults as well. In Jakarta, every part of the city is decorated with everything red and white, the colors of Indonesia's flag.

In the morning, as I am a 'less active' Indonesian citizen, I only followed the flag ceremony at the Presidential Palace on TV, but then at around 11 a.m. the neighborhood became so noisy as children were already back from attending flag ceremonies at schools, and gathering now in front of our house, getting ready for the fun games (and the prizes waiting for the winners!)

The first competition was catching eels. A group of kids raced to catch several eels, run as fast as possible and put the eels in a pail around 10 meters away. Second game was eating crackers which were strung just above the head. The participating kids had to jump a little while eating the crackers, their hands were tied on the back. The one who finished the crackers fastest won the game. Many adults took their roles as cheerleaders that day. But many of them also participated in games such as soccer, tug-of-war, or climbing a slippery tree (with prizes suspended on top of the tree!), taking places in (usually) soccer fields (and not every neighborhood has one).

Let's see...the celebrations normally continue until end of August. I guess I should anticipate traffic jams as there will be entertainments on the streets. Anyhow it's good to see people enjoying themselves during these celebrations. It feels like a big family cheering their kids and friends.


Racing to catch eels


Cheering the cracker eaters

Fresh lunch

Our new favorite dessert? Fruit salad! It's so easy to prepare, and quick! Elis bought apples, strawberries, melon, starfruit, pineapple, and diced them all (except the starfruit, sliced). In one big bowl she mixed the fruit and poured vanilla yoghurt, then the salad was chilled for a few hours before serving. Oh yes, we added some mint leaves, too. Was it good? Yes, certainly, and Elis called it 'the original version'. Next time, we'll test more variations. Elis has been eyeing several recipes from our collection of cookbooks – and I did my research on the internet (on www.allrecipes.com and www.marmiton.org [in french] one can found alot of ideas!).



And here I needed a 'refreshing' lunch. I went Mediterranean. Cherry tomatoes with sliced black olives, feta cheese and basil. I ate it with rye bread. Yumm!

After Götheborg...

Life's not the same after the Götheborg's stopover in Jakarta last June. At least, for me. The girls and I participated in the activities at the port and in town during the ship's stay, and it was for us a truly wonderful experience. I can talk and talk and talk and talk about the Götheborg but I'd better suggest you to go see www.soic.se instead :-)

Anyway, when it was time for the Götheborg to continue her voyage to China, saying goodbye was heartbreaking *sob*. But now since I see things differently (one of the lessons I learned from the Götheborg project is that even the craziest dreams – with certain degree of madness – can actually come true), I couldn't help myself from smiling or even laughing every time I'm home and get inspired by the Götheborg: I see our lower terrace as the 'weather deck', the balcony is the 'sun deck', we have our 'cabins', and the dining / living room now seems to me like the 'gun deck'. Minus the seasick, that is. Somehow imagination can keep our spirit high ;-)

(and maybe, that was the reason we weren't annoyed when the street outside the house was flooded – though we didn't like it. Whenever it happened, we used to go up to the balcony and looking at the flooded street, we'd say "oh, are you sure we're not in Venice?")

Quiet weekend

The girls were away and I was practically 'home alone' during the weekend. It's been crazy at work these last few months, the reason why I was so happy to be able to have a very quiet, restful weekend, and to catch some sleeps, too. I deserved it! ;-)

I had prepared a 'picnic basket' on Friday evening, went to the supermarket and stuffed my shopping bags with vegetables, apples, cheese, yoghurt, whole-wheat bread and ginger tea.


Weekend comforts :-)


Breakfast


Lunch


Snacks


Dinner

Only one thing I regret – I didn't manage to attend my friends' concert on Saturday! :-(

Dream home

Speaking of dreams (keeping our dreams going is the theme of this blog, remember? :>), my hostbrother Didier's son, Antoine, gave me this drawing of his as souvenir before I left France for Jakarta in 2002. "C'est ta maison" he said to me. "It's your home". Wow, my 'nephew' had a vision ;-)

This is the drawing:



Then, keeping my promise to Antoine, I had the drawing framed and hang it now on the wall in my room. Four years have passed and it's still my favorite drawing, and sometimes I wonder if I am somewhere near that dream now ;-) Red house seems like a Swedish summer house (where on earth did Antoine get the idea of painting the house red?), a big tree means it's not in the city center, aqua-blue sky and golden shining sun, a cheerful day ;-) where (I'll repeat - if can't say copy ;> - Joanna's dream) I could read books in the morning... with a cup of hot coffee in my hands...



Antoine


Lola


Leo


The three little angels with their mom Agnès

Oh, how I miss summer lunches in the garden!

Oh, I can edit other people's posts... :> I'm almighty! :)
As for coffee, I fully agree. As for work - no mood for working today :)
Partying last night (drums etc.), couldn't sleep at night thanks to some stupid motorcycles racing on the street... Aaaargh, living in a city is tough. It's comfortable, in terms of transportation, contact with "civilization", meeting people, spending free time... etc. But on the other hand a human is not naturally meant to live in the city. Fast living, fast dying.
My another dream - a small house with a cute garden, somewhere in suburbs... Full of flowers, green grass and trees, with a wooden arbour, in which I could read books in the morning... with a cup of hot coffee in my hands...

Postcard moment

Work...coffee...work...coffee...and between those trotting routines, guess what, a postcard came a long way from beautiful Stockholm to my desk and it just brightened my day! In this jet-age where I most usually communicate with my friends around the globe using the internet, receiving a handwritten postcard is such a treat!

(Joanna, it's from our classmate Wolfgang! I suppose I gave him a headache by sending him an unusually long email the last time ;> the same email I wrote to you, too. He ended up sending a postcard, we ended up making a blog! ;>)



My favorite "postcard moment" is actually a scene from the movie "Under the Tuscan Sun" where Frances was helping another tourist, Rodney, to write a postcard for his mother. Though finally Rodney was angry at Frances because his mother wouldn't believe he wrote the postcard, I really love the way Frances put in writing what she saw, heard, smelled, and felt in that lively Tuscan market. "It even smells purple..." I find it unusually inspiring. Oh, doesn't it look like I got an idea around here?

My favorite travel journal with breath-taking pictures:
Notes from the Road

And a personal site with interest in culinary trips (and yoga, it's a plus!), wonderful pictures:
Skinny Chef

My favorite travel community with lots of travel notes, reports, and tons of pictures:

Particularly because the main destinations are Italy and France...
Slow Traveler

Because the travels are also seen from the artistic angle...
Artist at Large

And many destinations...
The Long Trip Home

Magazines on my (travel) shelves:
National Geographic Traveler
Vogue Entertaining & Travel

Lazy dinner

Last night I didn't feel like cooking but I was hungry and wasn't interested in street food either. It was time for a 'lazy dinner', and my favorite one is my own version of tabbouleh, meaning as long as I can find parsley, mint leaves, and tomatoes, I can add anything I want (or whatever available) into the salad.



The basic

A handful of fresh parsley and mint leaves, chopped.
2 medium tomatoes, finely diced.

This time, I added:

1 clove garlic, finely chopped
½ cup diced mozarella

And believe it or not, instead of olive oil and lemon juice, I used vinaigrette as dressing!

I have the difficulty to find bulghur here, so I prefer whole-wheat bread to accompany the salad. The other time I added to the same salad around half-cup of cooked white beans. It was also yummy!

Basic vinaigrette (for this salad):

1 part red wine vinegar
3 parts extra virgin olive oil
salt and pepper to taste

Shake the ingredients in a jar or small bottle.

daydreaming...

Regarding our dreams... once in India a fortune-teller told me something like this: "the further you live from your home, the greater success you'll achieve in your life" :)

Does it mean Australia? :D
Too many poisonous spiders there...

About a trip

Ah, good to have Joanna here...

Fina is leaving for the UK today. Ready to go. Even the bags were already neatly packed yesterday. And we talked last night until late, somehow seeing her packing made me feel (again) nostalgic. My last trip to Europe was 2 years ago and I still don't foresee any upcoming long trip this year. But who knows, life's full or surprises, isn't it?

I'm glad I didn't forget handing to Fina the book "Gutsy Women: more travel tips and wisdom for the road" by world-class traveler Marybeth Bond. So far that book is still my number one favorite reading before hitting the road. It's full of necessary, common-sense, practical and useful advices. Anyhow I also learned some little lessons from my previous solo travels, but it seems like Fina is more practical than me, so I'm sure she'll manage to sort things out easily and will catch whatever comes her way. Oh, I love adventures!

Today Jakarta, the sky is blue. But it's five o'clock and the streets are crowded and busy. Fortunately I walk home, and always take the opportunity to enjoy and to laugh at the 'scenery' (traffic jam is the usual one...). If I don't feel like cooking tonight I will stop by a street food stall. It's my kind of daily little adventure in the city. Happiness comes from life's little things... :-)

before we leave this world...

Good to be here... :)
So far by the kilometers... but on the other hand the speed of the thought is faster than a lightning...

The friends are our family we choose by ourselves :)

It's raining the whole day today in Warsaw... Dark clouds are hanging down from the sky... No sun... Water is pouring down on hot streets and pavements... For the last few weeks not a drop of rain fell on the ground. So this rain is a great relief, but I miss the sun already!!!!
:)

a photo from last week: