Chicken Stir-Fry with Balinese Spices

Whenever I crave Indonesian food but I don’t want to spend time for cutting onions, garlic, shallots, ginger, blending spices etc., I use the ready to mix Indonesia instant spices.

I usually cook with either Bamboe or Indofood spices brand. I use the Indofood brand to make beef rendang and Bamboe for Indonesian chicken soup.

Anyways, I want to cook a super quick lunch, tasty and rich of spices. I looked at my kitchen cabinet see what instant spices available and I happened to have Bali spices ingredient. Super great! The only problem is I do not have tomatoes and coconut milk and I am not in the mood to drive to buy these two items.

So what I did was to fry breast chicken (cut into smaller size) and pour the instant spices. I like to cut the chicken into smaller size so that the ingredients absorbed well in the chicken’s meat. So, that’s it…super quick and tasty lunch for today.

Balinese spices tend to be smelly like Indian but not too strong. I advise for those who want to cook with Bali spices to open the window and door and make sure to take out the trash after cooking. Oo..and don’t forget to spray the kitchen with febreze….coz the smell can be overwhelming.

Bon appetite!

Love,
Gria

Some photos from my trip to Indonesia 2012

I went to Indonesia last year and I captured plenty of amazing pictures from Indonesia. Indonesia is a beautiful country with lots of fascinating hidden treasures worth to observe. Indonesia has changed a lot from my last visit back in 2010. I saw more western products available in Jakarta. I was amazed to see plenty of Starbucks and Burger King. Hmmmm!

In Indonesia I traveled to Yogyakarta, Bali, and Padang.

Bali was utterly crowded because I went there 2 days before New Year. My advice to a prospective tourist who is interested to visit Bali is that it’s better to visit in summer (June-September) rather than closer to New Year. Bali is nice in summer because it’s dry and seldom to rain. It’s just the heat. But I assume heat should not be an issue because tourists love heat and sun. A healthy way to get natural Vitamin D.

But close to end of year holidays, rain is likely to occur more often in Bali. The road can be very muddy and in addition with the trash accumulated from the flood. The area looks really gross.

Enough with the complaints, here I present some food photos from my trip to Indonesia 2011-2012.

Sweet Beef Rendang! Super swell!!!

Sate Padang/Padang Satay

Sayur Asam (Indonesian popular Tamarind vegetable soup) and Indonesian salad with peanut sauce

Grilled fish with Balinese spices. LOVE.

Smelly Durians!! Super LOVE!

Indonesian Fried Tofu

Thank you for visiting my blog.

Love,
Gria

Weekend's Brunch: Super Fried Spam

I made super delicious fried spam. For the first time, I had Spam and I found the glory in this food. I was reluctant at first to try it because I heard “the horror story” of how SPAM was made. But…whatever you know. I love the taste. Next time I go shopping, I will buy Spam. Love it!

Happy Eating Spam!!! LOVE

Panda Story Part I

Have I told you the story of how a black and white Asian panda met and fell in love to the sweetest polar bear on earth…

Once upon a time, I am an Asian panda with black and white fur color. I have big eyes, cute ears, small nose, and furry short white tail. I recently migrated to the US because the place where I used to live was invaded by mean people. I almost died because the bamboo trees, which are my source of food, were chopped endlessly. I thought it was time for me to move to the heaven because I was starving to death. One day, a very nice couple found me. My body was shivering and my eyes were welded up with tears when they discovered me. I wish I could speak human being language so I could thank them.

The couple took me to the US zoo. I was so skinny for the first 3 months and I felt so lonely because I missed my hometown. The other bears don’t want to be friends with me because I have different fur color. My fur color is black and white while the other bears have grey fur color. We also speak different language and I am clueless what those bears are talking about.
After three months feeling lonely, I met a bear from North Pole. He is a new bear in town and he stays next to my cage. We started to talk to each other. He poked me by throwing bamboo leaves. I responded him by throwing small rocks. Fast forward, we become friends, and close friends, and super best friend....

Until he was forced to move to another state. I became so lonely again, ugh :( I hate this feeling. I prayed every night so that he will return to my zoo. I miss my white polar bear. I miss his freckles. We finally started to write on each other wall on Pandabook. Pandabook is similar to facebook but only pandas can understand and use this networking site.

To be continued…

Countdown to Valentine: T minus 1 day

Picture of the day: Traditional Balinese Food

I decide to blog before I hit the gym.

So I happened to read someone’s wall on Facebook , and it caught my attention. To summarize, this person questioned the motive behind the lovey-dovey status or posts exchanged among couples on Facebook. He claimed that updating status or exchanging love message wall to wall on Facebook seems fake/ not real. It sounds like a couple wants to prove to the world that they are truly in love.

I personally think that when people are in love, it is difficult not to express and share the happiness to the whole world. Some people can be direct by telling how happy they are by updating their love status on Facebook, which apparently appeared on everybody’s timeline. Some people can even address it in a diplomatic way by not too direct, but still the message can be interpreted as a love status or flirting.

Some people like to keep their privacy closed to public by not updating their status on Facebook. Some people even do not have a Facebook account. It all depends on people personality and willingness to share their story to public.

Anyways, but my point is that people can do anything they want, including flocking on Facebook’s timeline with messages about love. People have the rights to freedom of speech as long as it doesn’t hurt public. If sharing the love via Facebook is the way for a couple to become more attached and more in love to each other, then let it be.

I am wishing all couples to have a wonderful time. Don’t forget to make a reservation for romantic dinner on Valentine’s Day.

P/S RIP Whitney Houston. You will always be remembered. I will always love you.

Love,

Gria

A reminiscence of Oklahoma

A picture of the day: Coca Cola in Taiwan

I remember when I was introduced to the Beatles by my former roommate from Oklahoma in 2004. I used to stay in the dorm. *Kristina and I shared the same room. We shared a bunk bed. I slept on the top while *Kristina slept on the bottom. Anyways, the most important was that she liked to listen to the Beatles.

She usually played the Beatles from her laptop with her mini speakers turned on. Some songs got stuck in my head like “She loves you yeah..yeah..yeah….” or “I want to hold your hand..” or “Hey Jude”. It did not bother me because I loved to listen to the Beatles.

I also remembered when *Kristina invited me to stay at her parent’s house in Arizona over Christmas break. She gave me the Beatles CD and a stocking stuffed with lots of small gifts for my Christmas gift. She is so nice, and she and her family have the sweetest heart on earth.

But..I lost the album CD. I remembered I stored it in a moving box, but I can’t find it. It makes me mad because how could I lost a precious gift from my awesome former rommie. I wonder how she is doing now. When I moved out from the dorm, we have not really hung out. We had dinner one time at her house but afterward we never communicated. I miss *Kristina. I wish I could meet her again. I promise to fix the broken string. She has a good heart.

* Kristina is not the real name of my former Roommate

Glass Bottles

I have been listening to hip hop radio station lately. My favorite music of the today:



Ooo...2 weeks more of studying and I am done with school (for this semester).

Counting 43 days to Indonesia...sun, heat,tan, durian, tropical, beach...LOVE.

p/s: thinking to buy a camcorder. Hmmm.

XOXO

I'm glad my research class is over. It is not my favorite course but I learned a lot from it. For the first time, I  felt that I wrote like a researcher. It took me more than a month to prepare and write a proposal research. With blood and tears thinking that the world was sinking, felt like I was being pushed to the edge, shaking every night, feeling of wanting to vomit before class, I finally made it!! I thanked my baby and my friends for helping me with grammars and the overall paper. I got excited counting the class to be over (it did!).

I hope everyone had a good Sunday.

Love,
Gria