love hurts

just wanna be alone
sit at the corner of an empty room
and cry.......

Food hunting

One of many things that I miss the most after leaving Malaysia is mamak food. Probably not many Indonesians know what mamak food is. 'mamak' itself is a term that describes muslim indian and/or mixed malay-indian community in Malaysia. Therefore, mamak food is one of many varieties of Malaysian cuisine of mamak community that originated from southern india, as most or probably all of mamak people came from this region, mostly from Tamil-Nadu and Kerala. Mamak food is highly popular among malaysians and eating at mamak stall or restaurant has become a common habit for malaysians. Some people label mamak food as junk food considering its high cholesterol food and yet so many people like eating the food, including me.

Almost everyday, sometimes twice a day, morning before class and afternoon after class, I dropped by at mamak stall to have some treats. Usually in the morning I ordered roti chanai with curry soup or roti boom with curry soup. For those who don't know roti chanai, just imagine martabak without its filling, only its wrap. Roti boom is a modified roti chanai, added with sugar and extra margarine which make it more tastier, greasier. And in the afternoon I ordered plain rice or sometimes briyani rice with honey chicken. Briyani rice is basmati rice (long grains, not sticky, unlike indonesian rice that has very short grains and stickier) cooked in lamb stock. I heard that it is also cooked with yoghurt.

Curry, greasy and oily are common knowledge of so many Indonesian people for indian cuisine. Although indian food is not as familiar in Indonesia as it is in Malaysia, but it highly affected local cuisine such as minang and acehnese food that use high proportion of coconut milk and curry. Unfortunately, there is no mamak food in Indonesia, especially in Jakarta. There are quit number of indian restaurants, but they are usually exclusive and quite expensive, unlike mamak food which can be found at every corner of KL town and very affordable to most people.

There is a very very nice lady who is my next door neighbor. She is an arab descent who loves to cook. Almost every weekend she delivers her extra food to our house. Sometimes regular local food, sometimes her ancestor food, yes, arab food. I also like arab food and it reminds me of times when having mamak food in KL, since they are very similar in cooking style. There were several times she sent kebuli rice (similar like briyani, only greasier) with lamb chop in a quite large portion. This just gave me the idea to hunt arab cuisine in Jakarta. Yup, pretending to be Bondan Winarno, a culinary expert, I already have a target restaurant to visit, so just wait for my next posting. :)

Picture: dailymuscle

Moving on!

Just participated on my graduation, second graduation to be exact, last Wednesday. The ceremony didn't go as 'fun' as my bachelor's graduation though. No beautiful angklung sound, no student choir singing 'Gaudeamus', no Indonesia Raya being sung (since it was in oversea), and the most important of all, no parents! But at least it made me realized that I now have a higher qualification of education and not many people earn it. However it also bear consequences that I have to show better performance than other people who have lower degree, and I must admit, this is the hardest part for me.

From this moment, my life is officially entering the new phase. This is the time to show my capability, everything that I am good at, and to contribute all of my competency for the good of society.

I'm moving on!

Thanks to Dani for sharp pictures. Wish I could have DSLR too!

modest mendicant (repost)

What comes from your willing hands I take. 
I beg for nothing more.
     Yes, yes, I know you, modest mendicant,
     you ask for all that one has.

If there be a stray flower for me I will 
wear it in my heart.
      But if there be thorns?
I will endure them.
      Yes, yes, I know you, modest mendicant, 
      you ask for all that one has.

If but once you should raise your loving eyes 
to my face it would make my life sweet beyond death.
      But if there be only cruel glances?
I will keep them piercing my heart.
      Yes, yes, I know you, modest mendicant, 
      you ask for all that one has.

Rabindranath Tagore
The Gardener, No. 26

English version of last 2 years posting.

A short story about american muslims

Just now I found this video on the net. An NBC News coverage about two american women who converted to Islam, Angela Collins and Julia Roach. They wear hijab yet they still maintain their american identity such as being outspoken and assertive.

Youtubeislam.com
The video was found on youtubeislam.com which at first I highly doubted it as a subsidiary of youtube.com and my doubt became true when I read their profile in their website.

We're American Muslims who came to Islam from other faiths. We are happy to serve Allah and share Islam - without cultural, traditional or nationalistic prejudices and corruption. We love the true and pure Islam the message it teaches:
Peace; Submission; Surrender and Obedience to Almighty God. (Allah)

It's really nice to know something like this from US, a superpower country (at this era) that (their government) always treats Islam and Muslims unfairly. May Allah bless them, fellow brothers and sisters!