A couple of days ago I received an email from my cousin who just read a few posts on this blog. She asked me if it was possible for me to post something on table manners – what to use during a meal. The meal in this case is a pizza; so, what NOT to use when eating a pizza would be more appropriate. She said “I find people that eat pizza with a fork and a knife are pretentious”. I cannot agree more. Pizza my friends, is not a fine dining dish. Pizza is food for the commoner, and as a matter of fact, it was even banned from the royal court in Italy during the 18^th century. If the queen herself didn’t find it appropriate for a pizza to share the royal court with her, then you surely do not need cutleries to eat it with.

These days, people assume that if you order a pizza in a restaurant and they give you a knife and fork when your pizza is served, you are then by law obligated to utilize such utensils when consuming the pizza. Any place that makes and sells pizzas, by definition, is called a pizzeria. No matter how posh or fancy the place is, a pizzeria is still a pizzeria. Domino’s. Pizza Hut. Papa John’s. EasyPizza. Pizza Marzano. Any of those names ring a bell? Now, try to picture the Queen of England and the Duke of Edinburgh having date night in one of those places. You can’t can you? Pizza is a messy food that needs to be eaten with the cutleries you were born with, your hands (in the Queen’s case, even the silver spoon is still inappropriate).

Convenience is another reason why pizza should be eaten with your hands. Imagine walking into a pizzeria to grab a slice of pizza to go because you were in a hurry. How easy would it be to eat a pizza with a knife and a fork while walking, let alone while driving? You might as well take your own eye out with that fork on purpose. Even if you actually sat down in a restaurant to have your pizza, it’ll still be easier to eat it with your hands. Using the right technique (i.e. folding the pizza in half lengthwise), a regular-sized slice of pizza can be finished in three to four bites when using your hands. Try doing the same using a knife and fork, and you’d look like a toddler trying to use cutleries for the very first time.

Pizza is easy and fun, meant to be enjoyed with your buddies over beer. People were never meant to think about their table manners when eating pizza. Table manners were meant to be left at the front door of the pizzeria. The only table manner you should always remember when eating a pizza is to relax and have fun enjoying the pizza. It’s as simple as that. The pizza meal only becomes rigid and complicated only if you make it out to be. Our ancestors always had their meals using their bare hands, and as an Indonesian I am proud to say that I’m still doing my part to keep that tradition alive. Not just at home or at a rumah makan padang around the corner, but also in pizzerias all over the world. Don’t be ashamed to use your hands to eat a pizza even if the restaurant provides you with a knife and a fork. Nobody will give you stick for doing it. But, if the guy over at the next table turns his nose up at you picking up that slice of pizza with your hand, just turn around and politely ask: “Where, my good sir, are YOUR manners?”

I don’t watch a lot of television, but when I do it’ll most likely be because some cooking show is on, or a show that has something to do with food. That’s how obsessed I am with food. One of my favorite cooking shows for the past couple of years has been Bizarre Foods with Andrew Zimmern. “If it looks good, eat it” as Andrew always says, which is how I think everybody should approach food. On one episode, the show was in Bangkok, Thailand, where Andrew roamed the streets stopping at cart after cart of what looks to be tasty treats. The local guide then took Andrew into one of Bangkok’s back alleyways, where every house on that alley seemed to produce desserts or other sweet treats to sell to vendors. This is where something caught my eye. A pumpkin in a steamer filled with custard. Now, I’ve never been too keen on pumpkin but it’s not something I dislike either because there’s not a lot of food that I don’t like. As I watch Andrew take a slice of that pumpkin pudding to taste, I imagined how it would taste in my mouth. Before you know it, I was halfway to the grocery store to buy myself a pumpkin.

In the vegetable aisle of the grocery store I was confronted with the difficult task of choosing a pumpkin. Which pumpkin? After standing there for a good ten minutes, I decided to opt for your regular bright orange pumpkin – the Halloween type. As it turns out, it doesn’t really matter what type of pumpkin you use for this recipe as they all taste pretty similar (I have a pair of 9 month old twin girls who eat a lot of pumpkin, so every now and then I’d cook them different types of pumpkins and have a little taste). On the show I think they used some sort of acorn squash; dark green in color with sweet, yellow-orange flesh.

The recipe on the show called for a pumpkin filled with some sort of custard, but instead of using regular milk and sugar for the custard, they used coconut cream and palm sugar for the custard. You eat the whole thing as it is, with no sauce. This is where my recipe differs from the one on the show. Instead of using the coconut cream and palm sugar in the custard, I use them to make a sauce to serve with the pumpkin custard pudding. By doing this, you can easily adjust how sweet or rich you want the pudding to be. The tricky part is the whole steaming process. Once in the steamer, make sure you keep coming back to check on your pumpkin. Too long in the steamer and the whole thing turns into pumpkin mash; too quick in the steamer and you’d be chewing on cardboard-like pumpkin skin for days – yes, you eat the whole thing with skin-on.

Another thing I think I should share with you is that once the pumpkin is cooked thoroughly; let it cool before removing it from the steamer. On my first try with this recipe, I was like a kid in a candy store, couldn’t wait to get my hands on the pumpkin. I lifted the still hot pumpkin to remove it out of the steamer, only for the bottom of the pumpkin to break, leaving the custard right in the steamer. What else was I going to do but grab a spoon? That’s right, I ate my first pumpkin custard pudding out of the steamer. But boy was it scrumptious! The earthiness of the pumpkin married really well with the richness of the custard. The coconut cream and palm sugar sauce added a whole other dimension, and gave the dish its uniquely South East Asian taste. Since Ramadan is coming up, I thought it would be a good time to post this recipe, as I know many of you that take part in the religious festivities will look forward to breaking your fast with sweet treats. So, have fun with the recipe, and let me know what you think.

Pumpkin Custard Pudding Recipe

1 Medium-sized Pumpkin

1 Banana leaf

Custard:

250ml Milk

50gr Sugar

2 Eggs

2 Egg yolk

½ Tsp Vanilla essence

Sauce:

200ml Coconut cream

100gr Palm Sugar

50ml Water

2 Pandan leaves

Method:

Place water in the steamer and put on low heat.

Cut a hole at the top of the pumpkin – large enough to fit your hand, clean seeds out with a spoon.

Scrape some of the flesh inside the pumpkin using a spoon through the top of the pumpkin.

Blend the scraped pumpkin flesh into a smooth paste and set aside.

In a bowl, combine the eggs, egg yolk, sugar and vanilla essence. Whisk until mixture turns pale yellow.

In a pot, heat the milk to just bellow boiling point.

Take the milk of heat and wait briefly before pouring into the egg mixture.

Pour the custard mixture into the pumpkin.

Rest the pumpkin on the banana leaf in the steamer. Steam for about 30-45mins depending on the size of the pumpkin.

In a pan, add water, palm sugar and pandan leaf. Dissolve palm sugar over low heat.

Once palm sugar is dissolved, pour in coconut cream and bring to boil.

Remove from heat, let cool.

Once pumpkin is cooked thoroughly, turn heat off.

Wait for pumpkin to cool completely before removing from steamer. Refrigerate.

Serve with coconut cream sauce.

If you were born anywhere outside of either Singapore or Malaysia, you’ve probably never heard of the name Sam Leong. Well, Sam Leong is a chef – an incredible chef. He’s won numerous awards at the World Gourmet Summit, including Chef of the Year in 2005. As well as being recognized for his modern Chinese cuisine he has also gained somewhat of a celebrity status in Singapore and Malaysia. Like you, I’ve never heard of him. While in Singapore a few years ago I stumbled upon Sam’s second cookbook “Sensations: A Tasting Menu of Chinese-inspired Flavours” in the food and drink section of the local Kinokuniya. Flipping through the book, I thought to myself: “Who the hell is this guy? The food looks pretentious, but they look real tasty”. If I have to fork out $59.90 for the book, then this Sam Leong had better know what he’s talking about. It turns out the money I spent for the book is still one of the best $59.90 I’ve ever spent.

If you don’t have a lot of experience in the kitchen, then this cookbook will make you go round in circles trying to follow his recipes to the dot. But as you gain more experience in the kitchen and build up your confidence, it shouldn’t be too hard to follow the recipes. The recipe I’m featuring today is one of the simpler ones but still full of flavor. It’s called Tempura Lychee Stuffed with Curried Crabmeat. Well, the title of the recipe says it all. So, here’s the recipe:

Tempura Lychee Stuffed with Curried Crabmeat Recipe

Cooking oil for deep-frying

40g Crabmeat

4 Lychees (preferebaly fresh but canned lychees work just fine), peeled and seeded

20g Cornstarch

20g Onion, peeled and sliced finely (julienne)

20g Carrot, peeled and sliced finely (julienne)

20g Enokitake mushrooms, sliced finely (julienne)

12 spears Thai asparagus, sliced finely (julienne)

Black ebiko for garnish

Seasoning:

4 Tbsp Chicken consommé (or clear chicken stock)

¼ Tsp Seafood curry powder

½ Tsp Salt

¼ Tsp Cornstarch, mixed with 1 tsp water

Batter:

60g Plain (all-purpose) flour

15g Wheat flour (high gluten)

10g Baking Powder

3g Custard Powder

30ml Water

20ml Cooking oil

Method:

Heat 1 Tbsp oil in a wok.

Add the crabmeat and seasoning ingredients, except the cornstarch and mix well.

When the mixture is heated through, stir in the cornstarch mixture to thicken the sauce.

Remove from heat, and set aside to cool.

When mixture is cool, refrigerate for an hour or until cold.

When the crabmeat is sufficiently chilled, dust the inside of the lychees lightly with the cornstarch and stuff them with the chilled crabmeat.

In a bowl, combine the ingredients for the batter, mix well.

Add the onion, carrot, enokitake mushroom and asparagus, mix well with batter.

Divide the batter and vegetable and batter mixture into 4 portions.

Heat the oil for deep-frying.

Wrap each lychee with a portion of the batter covered vegetables, deep-fry immediately until crisp and golden brown.

Drain well and serve the lychees hot, garnished with black ebiko.

Not too difficult right? When I tried this recipe I couldn’t be bothered with the black ebiko since they only had the red ones (or tobiko) down at the grocery store. You can even leave it out of the recipe totally if you want to. But if you do use it in the recipe, when you take a bite of that lychee, the ebiko gives it another textural depth. Everything goes really well together. The sweetness of the lychee, the aroma of the curried crabmeat and the crispness of the batter. That my friends, is what you’d call culinary artistry. I’ll be featuring more recipes from this book in the future, but if you want to get your hands on a copy, you can order it off Amazon by clicking here, or by clicking the book on the books carousel on the home page.

A few years ago I used to work at JW Marriott Jakarta; loved working there and had tons of fun. Most of the time I’d work the morning shift, from 7 to 4 and I’d usually be stuck in rush hour traffic for an hour before I make it home. Some days I’d work the afternoon shift, from 3 to 12 midnight. No rush hour traffic and I’d be home in ten minutes. Small problem though, if you’re still up after 12 then you’ll most likely be hungry – stomach-growling hungry if you’ve just gotten off work. At this hour, I generally want something quick and easy. Since most restaurant kitchens are closed by 11 the only choices I had were either McDonald’s or some cart by the side of the road. I normally pick the latter, but even most of them have probably run out of most stuff they’re selling. I’d end up stopping at a convenience store picking up bags of chips. It was on one night as I was pulling up to the usual convenience store that I noticed a martabak cart right outside on the parking lot. It was a simple, raggedy old cart with a faded signage painted on worn cloth, which I guess was the reason why I never noticed it before. Sick of getting bloated from all the salt after a few bags of chips in the middle of the night, I decided to give the martabak a try. I approached the cart with hesitance; if the look of the cart says anything about the taste of the martabak, then this was going to be money flushed down the toilet. I placed my order for a martabak keju. No chocolate sprinkles, no nuts, nothing – just some cheese with a bit of condensed milk, just to be safe. I waited ten minutes for my order, paid for it and drove off.

As soon as I got home, I took the martabak’s paper box out of the black bag and took the top off. It looked pretty decent, just like any other martabak. I took a little sniff; it also smelled the way martabaks are supposed to smell like. Then, I took my first bite. Ever heard of the phrase “Never judge a book by its cover”? The look of that martabak cart cannot say anything close to what the actual martabak tastes like. That cart should’ve been made of marble – shiny, glittery Italian marble – with a diamond-studded signboard. To date, it’s still the second best martabak keju (not far behind the best though) that I’ve ever tasted. Pretty darn good.

The crust is thin and crispy, shimmering with a glaze of melted butter. The inside is moist and soft, almost pillow-like, filled with enough cheese to make the Swiss jealous. The guys at Martabak Bandung 28 means business when it comes to their martabaks. As it turns out, they have a few roadside stalls like the one I bought mine from spread around Jakarta, in the South mainly. Other items on their menu are also worth trying, although the martabak keju is still my favorit. Years had passed by since I first tried the martabak keju at Martabak Bandung 28, when one night while driving home I noticed they’ve replaced the raggedy wooden cart with a new one, although not with the marble and diamond-studded signboard that I mentioned. I guess they wanted to make sure that others like me will never judge them by their looks.

Martabak Bandung 28

JL Wijaya I (in front of Circle K)

Kebayoran Baru, Jakarta Selatan

Price range: Rp. 16.000,- – Rp. 35.000,-

Not everyone’s a fan of curry, but I am. A huge fan I might add. If you look up curry on Wikipedia, it’ll take you to a page where they list the different types of curries based on the country of origin. Since curry is Asian, that particular list on Wikipedia has almost all but one or two Asian countries. To simplify things, in my opinion, there are only two major types of curry based on taste. One type of curry is the type you’d find in dishes from the Indian sub-continent, while the other type of curry you’d find in South East Asian cuisines. I didn’t take the Japanese curry into account because personally I don’t think you can call that stuff curry. It looks like curry, but tastes like curry without all the spices that makes a curry, well, curry.

For those of you who really can’t tell the difference between the two types of curry, it’s in fact pretty simple. Curries from South East Asian countries tend to use some sort of fermented shrimp paste. The shrimp paste gives the curry its’ signature pungent South East Asian taste. This particular red curry paste that I’m sharing with you today uses shrimp paste, but I’m not too sure whether it’s Thai, Indonesian or Malay curry – which is why I’m simply calling it red curry paste. I’m trying to remember if my mom used to make any kind of curry dish for dinner when I was a kid, but I don’t think she did. I can remember having some sort of curry similar to this regularly when I was a kid, but that was in some Thai restaurant my parents used to take me to on quite a few Saturday nights. I never used to like those nights where the whole family would go out for dinner but I never really knew why. All I know is that now I’m eternally grateful that they did, because otherwise I’d be here talking to you about a Big Mac. Wouldn’t make a very interesting read, unless of course you’re Ronald McDonald.

Now remember, this recipe is actually for the curry paste only and not the finished dish. That’ll be another post, maybe the next one. What’s so great about this curry paste is that it’s so versatile. You can use it as a base for curry dishes (with or without coconut milk), as a marinade, or even as a seasoning to liven other recipes up. The curry paste also freezes well. It’ll last more than a month in the freezer, and even longer if you use a vacuum pack bag. Just make sure you give it sometime to thaw out properly before using, instead of popping it into the microwave straight from the freezer.

Red Curry Paste Recipe

Ingredients:

20g Garlic, crushed

10g Shallots, crushed

10g Lemon grass (lower part only), chopped

5g Ginger, chopped

5g Turmeric, chopped

5g Galangal, chopped

10 Large dried red chilies, soaked 15 minutes in water then finely chopped

5 Large fresh chilies, finely chopped

1 Tsp Coriander powder

1 Tbsp Shrimp paste

½ Tsp Salt

½ Tsp Pepper

1 Tsp Sugar

2 Tbsp Water (optional)

Method:

Put all the ingredients in a mortar and grind with a pestle until the paste is smooth. Add the water only if the paste is too dry. If you don’t have a mortar and pestle (or too lazy to use one), you can use a blender instead.

Spending most part of the first twenty five years of my life living in various places outside of Indonesia, I wasn’t exposed to a lot of Indonesian foods early on, aside from my mom’s cooking. It was during my mid-teens when my dad was stationed back in Jakarta that I started to acquaint myself to the plethora of dishes that is Indonesian cuisine. A visit home for the holidays usually meant eating out with the family two or three times a week, sometimes more. We’d go anywhere from roadside stalls to five-star hotels, as long as the food was good. On one such outing, we made a short 15 minute trip to a place called Coto Makassar Daeng Memang. As this was my first visit to the restaurant, I had no clue as to what I was going to order. Lucky for me, I was making this trip with the all-knowing master foodie himself, my dad. To be safe, I just told our server that I was having whatever my dad was having. Coto Makassar with buras and Es Pisang Ijo for dessert. I didn’t know it back then, but this was the beginning of my love affair with the two dishes that would last 15 years (and still counting).

Most places selling traditional soups around the country will generally offer you two options for your soup, daging (meat only, beef usually) or campur (beef mixed with the cheap cuts; liver, intestines, tripe). I would almost always choose the latter. If you’ve never had this stuff before, don’t be surprised when they bring your order to the table. The soup comes in a bowl so small, you’d swear that Ronald McDonald had just come in to educate the guys in the kitchen the virtues of the Happy Meal: a high-margin menu item that’s just enough to satisfy your average toddler. Was I proven wrong! This little bowl of coto Makassar, along with a few buras should be more than enough to satisfy even the hungriest of beasts.

The soup is thick, with huge chunks of meat, liver, tripe, lungs, intestines and any other type of entrails you can think of. Perfumed with the thick aroma of herbs and spices, the scent coming out of the little bowl would make a grown man salivate uncontrollably. The broth is basically the liquid used to cook the meat and cheap cuts in. Add tons of herbs and spices, and voila, you got yourself a nice coto Makassar broth with a shimmery layer of fat on top. Time to unwrap a few buras; and make sure you order for more buras before you start eating because they tend  to only leave a few out on the table. If you don’t, you’ll end up either pausing half-way through your meal waiting for more buras, or wrestling on the floor with the guy next to you for the last buras on the table. I like neither, so I order early.

After filling up on a bowl of coto and three buras, time to move on to dessert – Es Pisang Ijo. Slices of plantain wrapped in neon green rice flour dough, bubur sum-sum and shaved ice drenched in bright red coconut milk syrup. The firm yet chewy slices of plantain, the soft and buttery texture of the bubur sum-sum against a backdrop of sweet, pandan-scented coconut milk syrup is a ménage-a-trois combination made in heaven. You’re probably wondering by now what makes Coto Makassar Daeng Memang better than other coto Makassar places. The answer’s pretty simple actually, they don’t skimp in the kitchen, and it shows on their plates (bowls in this case). Enough reason for me to believe that this love affair will last at least another 15 years.

Coto Makassar Daeng Memang (Coto Makassar Ampera)

JL Amprea Raya (across SMU Sumbangsih)

Jakarta Selatan

Phone: (021) 780-4438

Opening Hours: Mon-Sun 7:00 – 20:30

For a few years Takigawa has been on a list of favorite Japanese restaurants in Jakarta that my wife and I have. Since the Takigawa chain has several restaurants scattered around town, it’s worth mentioning that the only one we’ve regularly visited over the past few years is the one at Panglima Polim. There are two reasons for this. The first reason’s pretty simple, it’s the closest one to where we live. The second reason’s a little bit more complicated, so bear with me. Ever since they opened the very first restaurant, Takigawa restaurants have been popping up all over the city and I’ve probably had a meal at almost all of their locations bar one or two. For those of you not familiar with the Takigawa chain, all their locations have identical menus – Japanese Fusion, and in theory whatever you order in one restaurant should taste the same in another. Sadly for Takigawa however, this is still just theory in my opinion. The Panglima Polim restaurant to me, hands down still serves the best tasting food out of the others. As it turns out, talking to other people familiar with the chain, the same verdict can be reached. It’s hard to say why this is, but if I had to guess, it’s most likely because this was the very first restaurant of the chain, and most of the chefs they started the chain with still works in this particular location.

Usually a meal at Takigawa would comprise of a Takigawa Kamameshi (a traditional Japanese rice dish cooked in an iron pot with eel, crab, salmon, scallop, prawns, chicken and vegetables) and a Kushiyaki  Platter (Yakitori platter with chicken skin, wing, gizzard, gristle, beef tongue, mushrooms and asparagus) for myself, with a serving of Takigawa Roll and a California Temaki for my wife. On days where we were really hungry, we’d also have some appetizers as well as desserts to make it a rather very satisfying meal. On this particular afternoon visit, we only came in for a little snack, a snack that’s become a favorite of ours lately – takoyaki. I just can’t seem to get enough of takoyaki during the past month, and I’ve had a lot. On another post, I’ve created a list of my top three favorite Takoyaki places and Takigawa took the number one spot. In a nutshell, the silky smoothness of both batter and sauce makes Takigawa’s takoyaki the best in town, but you can click here if you want to read in detail why.

Along with my takoyaki, I also had a serving of Chawan Mushi (steamed egg custard) – like I always do when I’m at Takigawa, because you can have one with foie gras. In terms of texture, the foie gras doesn’t really add much to the chawan mushi. Taste-wise, it does wonders. It even transforms the simple, humble, peasant-food-like chawan mushi into a somewhat sophisticated and elegant dish. Something that could come out of Nobuyuki Matsuhisa’s kitchen. But, as I found out some years earlier, the chawan mushi and foie gras combo only works if you like foie gras – why wouldn’t you? It’s tasty, fancy, and rather addictive. Did I mention tasty? But if you happen to dislike foie gras, like my wife does, no amount of persuasion will convince you that chawan mushi and foie gras is a combination fit for the gods. To her, it’s more like food fit for the dogs.

A portion of takoyaki and chawan mushi with foie gras at Takigawa should be more than enough to satisfy the munchies. But a snack just wouldn’t be complete without something sweet to wrap it up. In this instance, we opted for the Japanese version of churros with chocolate sauce. Given that there aren’t too many places in Jakarta offering churros on their menu, the churros at Takigawa is right up there amongst the best. Crispy on the outside, while still smooth and moist on the inside. And you get almost half a cup of chocolate sauce with your six mini churros. Half a cup! Can you imagine that? Some places only give you a spoonful for a whole basket of churros (those penny-pinching bastards!). The whole thing tastes pretty good too. I guess they don’t go stingy on the ingredients, which is good because you can even taste the cinnamon – just like real churros should taste like. Anyway, if you want to know what all this fuss is about, find out for yourself, I’ve listed the address below.

Takigawa Panglima Polim

JL Panglima Polim X No. 10P Melawai

Kebayoran Baru, Jakarta Selatan 12160

Phone : 7265010
Fax : 7236010

Operational Hours :
Weekdays : 11:00 am – 10:00 pm
Weekends : 11:30 am – 11:30 pm

Anyone who’s ever tried peanut butter can tell you that if there’s one thing you have to like it’ll probably be peanut butter. Unless you were born on another planet or allergic to peanuts, you must be crazy not to like this stuff. Spread between slices of your favorite loaf, you can have it for any meal of the day or even just for a snack. A peanut butter sandwich is usually the one thing that people always end up eating when they run out of ideas on what to eat. More than anything, I think the peanut butter sandwich is a comfort food for a lot of people, although they don’t realize it. Personally, I can’t get enough of anything with peanut butter.

Another thing I really love and can’t do without is my daily dose of caffeine, in the form of a café latte or a double espresso macchiato. Anybody who’s ever known me can tell you that my head will not function right without my coffee. Five or six years ago, I’d need about 6-7 cups of coffee just to get me through a normal work day. I realized this was a little over the top when I noticed I had developed a little twitch, which is why for the past year or so I’ve cut down on my daily caffeine intake to a single serving. Albeit, a rather large serving. This way, my head would still function right with myself a little less twitchy.

One day, as I was making my day’s cup of coffee, there was an open jar of peanut butter right in front of me. Just couldn’t resist the temptation. Stuck a spoon into the jar to help myself to a dollop of such sticky yet velvety smooth goodness.  By the time my coffee was ready, I was still halfway through my spoonful of peanut butter when I decided to take a sip of my latte. The instant the latte was in my mouth, I was flabbergasted. If heaven had an actual taste, this would be it. My light bulb moment of the year swiftly followed. Why not mix the two together? Why didn’t I think of this before? Has anyone ever done this? Should I get this patented? Then BOOM!  I suddenly crashed back down to earth. As much as I didn’t want to admit it, somebody out there has in all probability tried mixing the two together – then chained themselves to a coffee machine in a room full of peanut butter. He’s probably still there today. That’s how good the two go together. I kid you not.

Shortly after, the peanut butter latte made it onto the coffee shop’s drink list. I made sure almost everyone that walked in for coffee tried this new concoction. They all loved it. Some would even come in almost every day – they were just as hooked as I was. A lot of people asked me what I put in it, and I’d tell them: a regular serving of café latte with two generous spoonfuls of peanut butter. They didn’t believe me. Most of them thought there was some sort of secret ingredient in my recipe that I wouldn’t share. Well, there isn’t any. I just don’t believe that I should keep something this good all to myself. So, here’s the recipe, but be sure to use good, strong espresso. Have fun twitching!

Peanut Butter Latte Recipe

Ingredients:

60 Ml Espresso

200 Ml Milk

2 Tbs Peanut Butter

Method:

Steam or heat the milk to just below boiling point.

Add the peanut butter into the milk and mix until the peanut butter dissolves (I use a blender).

Pour the freshly brewed, hot espresso into the cup.

Pour the peanut butter and milk mixture over the espresso.

*If you want to create a layer in your latte glass, pour the milk mixture into the glass first, and then slowly layer the espresso over the milk.

A couple of months ago I went for my annual medical check-up. Nothing serious, thank God! Just one reasonably large little problem, really high cholesterol. Just how bad is the problem you might ask? Well, let me tell you. The guidelines for triglyceride levels set by the American Heart Association states that anything below 150 mg/dL is in the normal range with a low risk of heart disease, while anything over 500 mg/dL  is considered very high with a very high risk of heart disease. Mine was in the 490’s – very bad. So the doctor’s put me on Lipitor and made me cut out all fatty and high cholesterol foods out of my diet instantly. All the good stuff basically. But, it wasn’t all doom and gloom; I was allowed something fatty once or twice a month. So, my fortnightly fatty treat became mini celebrations, days I really looked forward to, days I’d mark on the calendar.

On one particular fatty-treat day, I got up pretty early and made myself a breakfast of champions – oatmeal porridge with a mix of berries. Doesn’t sound so boring, but after almost two months straight of oatmeal porridge for breakfast it gets really boring. During breakfast I started contemplating what my fatty-treat for that day would be. The process would last the whole morning, and by 11 I was still undecided on the issue. It came down to two choices, sop sum-sum for lunch or tongseng for dinner. Just as I was about to list down the pros and cons of each option, my dad walks through the back door and asks me if I wanted to join him for lunch. The conversation went something like this:

Dad: Got plans for lunch?

Me: Don’t know yet.. You?

Dad: Soto Medan..

Me: Where? Kemayoran?

Dad: Yup.. You coming?

Me: Hmmm… (thinking really hard – an hour’s drive, really high cholesterol, heart attack – SCREW IT!) Let me put my shoes on and grab my Lipitor real quick!

Dad: Don’t bother with the Lipitor, got a bucketful in the car all ready to go.

Rumah Makan Pak Syamsuddin S also known as Asli Soto Medan 1930 has been in business since 1930. That’s right, this establishment has been making the same thing since before the second world war even broke. To this day they’re still in business – just goes to show how good their soto Medan is. Even though the actual Pak Syamsuddin had passed on a while back, the tradition, quality, and taste hasn’t been lost. To give you an idea just how good the soto Medan is, I was prepared to risk a heart attack for a measly-sized bowl of their to-die-for fatty goodness. A risk worth taking any day.

Walking through the front door, you’re instantly presented with three options of what you’d want in your soup; beef, beef mixed with entrails or chicken. As an avid fan of cheap cuts, I ordered the second. Small cuts of beef, lungs, intestines, tripe and liver floating in a shiny, golden, creamy coconut broth. It does not get better than this. Since the cuts of meat are not cooked in the actual soup itself, they remain firm, crispy even. A spoonful of this stuff in your mouth and your mind will start playing tricks on you. The contrast in textures gets me every time – crispy soup. Hmmm…  As they bring your order to the table, they’ll also serve you a plate of sides. More greasy fried stuff like perkedel and fried entrails, just in case your cholesterol levels aren’t high enough. Even if it was, you still got to have them with your soto Medan, otherwise it will never be a complete meal.

To help wash the soto Medan down, I ordered myself a glass of Es Timun. Basically, it’s a glass of shredded cucumber with some iced water and simple syrup. Simple yet refreshing. Goes really well with the soto Medan too, as it helps rinse the fatty residue out of your mouth. I think ages ago, when someone came up with the idea to make es timun, it was solely out of necessity to be paired with fatty foods. This way, you can have all the greasy, fatty foods you want without having to endure the dizzying after taste for hours after consumption.

With my belly full and Lipitor safely consumed my mind was at ease, knowing that I survived the meal unscathed – no heart attacks, when my dad almost gave me one with his question: “Want to take some of this back for dinner?”

Rumah Makan Pak Syamsuddin S

Asli Soto Medan 1930

JL Angaksa (next to Pelni building), Kemayoran