Tuesday, September 20, 2011

LPR

Isn't life funny? When you want it really bad, begging for it; yet, life didn't give it to you.
But when you finally give it up and forget it, life then surprise you with those things you really wanted long ago.
I was begging for it 2 years ago.
Now I don't even know what to do with it.
Should I keep it or should I just waive it?

Friday, September 16, 2011

Before: Eggs

Here were 4 types of eggs that I cured for salted eggs. To get the idea of their size, see the picture below.
For the brine, I didn't check the salinity, all I did was to make a super-saturated salt solution (basically I just dissolve as much salt as possible in boiling water). Cured them for about 2-3weeks :)
from top CC: goose, duck, quail, and chicken egg :)

Wednesday, September 14, 2011

Salted Eggs Fiesta

I believe that you will have a big grin when you see this post :) Remember the days when you picked those salted egg yolk for my congee? See, I told you that I'm low maintenance. I'll be happy just with a bowl of congee and multiple egg yolks :) I'm so cheap!!!
Salted Goose, Duck and Quail Eggs
Yes, for my love of salted egg, I made some myself. This time, I use: goose egg, duck egg, chicken egg, and quail egg. 
After 3 weeks, the results are as in the picture.
     1. Goose egg. 
Notice the big air sac? I think, that's my mistake, cos I didn't manage to drown the whole egg in brine. There's a part of it still floating, thus resulting in the air sac. The taste was not as salty, as predicted, due to its big size. The yolks is not as fatty as duck's, but still, it's not too bad.
     2. Duck egg. 
The standard one. And to my surprise, it was the saltiest among all kind (given same curing conditions). So this must be the reason why ppl use duck egg rather than others, it absorbs the brine in most efficient time.
     3. Chicken egg. 
Not as salty as duck's. The yolk is not too fatty, not too salty. It's just perfect. I wonder why chicken egg is not popular as salted egg.
     4. Quail egg. 
I was expecting quail egg to be the saltiest among all. But nope, it pars with chicken egg, though its yolk has a greyish hue. It's quite fatty too. Perfect saltiness. 
Salted Chicken Egg vs Quail Egg
Note: 
Apart from goose eggs, others, at raw states has form the ball yolk. Perfectly salted usually have a ball-y yolk. Look at this tiny quail egg yolk. so tiny compare to chicken's. I didn't have a chance to check raw goose egg, since I only have 1 of it :)
Raw salted Quail egg vs. Chicken egg
Next project will be: free-range chicken egg :) let's see how it'll turn out to be!!!

Thursday, September 8, 2011

Moreton Island - Tangalooma Resort

This act is called sand-toboganning: climbing up to a steep sandy mountain, get a piece of board, kneel down, and slide to the base of the steep mountain. I did a good job that day. I am proud to say that I was sliding the furthest from the rest of my batch. Too bad that no-one video-ed me, but I swear that I was performing very well :)

At night, we fed the wild dolphins. I fed Storm. I had to queue in a cold and windy night. Can't wear any jacket with the wet-pants on, plus you need to dip your whole arm inside the water to feed them (see pic). But it was all worth it. Dolphins are wonderful creatures, they are so friendly. I wish I could play with them, of course they don't allow us to do so. They are wild ones, don't want them to be dependent on humans. 

Wednesday, September 7, 2011

Stinky feet in economy flight IS a disaster

Before I write any article about my last holiday in Australia, I wanna write about what happened on the flight from Sydney to Jakarta. It was an awful 7 hours flight. And it's all because I was suffocating throughout the flight; thanks to my fellow passenger who has the most awful-smelling-feet.
I found this picture on the net. And this pretty much resembles what happened during the flight. 

I am not someone who likes to pop sleeping pills on a flight, so as usual, I watch the inflight movies. Then suddenly I smell something funny, I kept looking to the lady sitting next to me. She didn't do anything. She's fine. So, I rest my body to the seat again, and had the smell again! I looked at my arm-rest, and to my horror, there was a huge-bare-stinky-feet-with-stubby-toes from the passenger sitting behind me. HUAAAA!!!

So, that was the source of that awful-rancid-smell. I tried to be polite, cos he is an Indonesian, and Indonesian usually happy to torture someone else; I didn't want to confront him, so I need him to remove his feet voluntarily: so I kept fanning the air and his feet ~ happened for at least 2-3 minutes. I know he got the idea, but he insisted not to remove his feet. But as I said before, Indonesian are happy when someone else is having trouble. Your problem is not my problem, they said.

I was reluctant to criticize his feet, but I couldn't stand it; so pressed the "help" button. I need flight attendant to rescue me. And before the flight attendant arrived, the OZ aunties (sitting opposite me) who has been staring, winking and smiling at me took an action. She asked the guy to remove his feet from my handrest. Of course, the guy was pretending not to hear nor understand what the lady said. But she insisted, making gestures that his feet was about to make others puke.
He did remove his feet. Finally!!!

Maybe I was becoming paranoid, or maybe his feet was super smelly. Cos for the rest of the flight, the smell was still lingering. I end up putting mask and small towel on my face, just to filter the air. And never felt happier when we finally landed in Jakarta.

Tuesday, September 6, 2011

Black Lily

I found this tiny beautiful flower early this morning in my garden.
It looks like Voodoo Lily (Amorphophallus) minus the awful smell, so it can't be it. Voodoo Lily should be gigantic.
Near the flower was a small leaf looks like yam's leaves; and the patch was used to grow yams.
With the help of Mr. Google, I found this link, seems like yam have lily-type of flower too.