Last weekend for cooking

Last weekend we had some guests from Kompas TV Networks. This is going to be the type of Indonesian national of geographic channels which will be launched in September this year.

There were 7 crews including the producer of the program that is called Exotic Living. There were mas Yoga, the producer, mba Nadin who will be the host of the exotic living program, mba Yesy, the scrip writer, mas Wahyu alias Mamang, along with mas Baskoro (Besy) were the cameramen, the  mas Jono, the audioman and mba Riri, the person who does all. 

I told them that their concept of exotic living will have to be reconsidered because we share our life with so many people at our homes.

Pondok Tali Rasa and Pondok Jati Rasa appeared as the twin houses that were taken by these team to make a film for the exotic leaving.

We went to the market where we could buy supplies to Pondok Jatirasa at Parangtritis. After I finished and served the meals on the table, one of the women crew said that she could not believe that things we bought now became healthy, delicious meals. She had no idea of how to make it happened.

Unfortunalely only for the brunch in Saturday morning that I could remember to take its pictures. I forgot the foods I made that was spaghetti bolognese and salad (for Friday's lunch).

For  the night I prepared chickens which were marinated with spices of tumaric, ginger, onion, garlic then to cook half-done before they were roasted on the fireplace at Pondok Jati Rasa. It ate with boiling vegetables like brocollies, carrots, greenbeans which were spreaded with grated cheedars right after taking the vegetables out from the pan to make looking like a deep vegetable dish. It was yummy!

Here is the picture of the brunch menu which were fried rice to cook from leftover roasted chickens, tomatoes basil omelettes, a loaf of home-made whole wheat bread, and "mix jambu fruits".

Mba Yesy, mas Jono, mas Mamang and mba Nadin were around the table

Cooking as my joy

I have thought to write a practical simple book of menu from my own modification during the past years. Cooking have become my interests since I was a little girl. It is not because I want to do a domestic work.

Moreover, I have seen kitchen and cooking as the place where I can do many experiments like it will be at the laboratory.

My adventure of cooking came when I was in Amsterdam during my PhD studies at Amsterdam School for Social Science Research. I had to save my scholarship to pay for family's expenses in Indonesia, therefore I had to cook to live simplely. However, I actually turned to be living with lots of variety on my everyday cuisine.

I cooked creatively that could not be seen as a simple menu.

Then I moved to live with Debra and Peter Bell in Syracuse, New York for working with my English, there I learned how to cook the American gourmet cuisine. For our engagement in Syracuse, I cooked for the whole guests.  Later when we got married I cooked also for more than 200 people who came to our wedding in Berkeley, California.

Cooking makes me happy because I can think about the beauty, the color, the taste, the composition, the price and the people at the same time.

I remember after our wedding we moved back to Indonesia, for six months I enjoyed being as a housewife and created many things for my cooking experiences before I returned to Holland to continue my study.

At the VOC's building, the East Indies building where our school was, I always reheated my lunch or dinner at the kitchen of our institute, then people would directly notice that it was my food. There is something specially on the smelt according to people.

However only now I decide writing down everything that will be coming out from my hands as my own cooking experiences. I wish in this blog where I can share my cooking as a sign of hospitality and love to other.

Cooking has been a way for me to celebrate my life. When I visited old,  new friends and families  I always use the time to cook something to the hosts.

Cooking from what available for them is so interesting, challenging, and innovating.