Fried Spicy Tofu

This picture is fried tofu I made from blended tofu with sauce from spaghetti I had cooked before, added with 2 tbsp fish sauce and 1 tsp sugar. Served with chili sauce or thai chili, It tasted so yummy

Spaghetti ala Atjeh

I like spicy and strong character tasted food. A couple days ago, I bought mie Aceh (Aceh noodle) near my campus. It was quite delicious, but I disappointed with the missing taste. The noodle didn’t have authentic Aceh food’s strong character like I assumed before, according to the story of my Aceh and Batak friends. The disappointment number two was I almost couldn't find the shrimps because they were so small and so slightly.

Today I made spaghetti with the recipe of mie Aceh (I found in id.wikibooks.org) with some modification. I change noodle with spaghetti because I am so lazy to walk to mini market just to buy noodle. He.. he.. :D

Ingredients
· 100 grams spaghetti, boiled for 5-8 minutes
· 100 grams shrimp
· 25 grams sliced cabbage
· 2 tomato, chopped
· 1 stalk leek, chopped
· 1 stalk celery, sliced finely
· 1 tsp. salt
· 2 tbsp. fish sauce
· 2 tbsp. soy sauce
· 3 tbsp. olive oil
· 4 garlic, sliced finely
· 3 onion, sliced finely
· 50 ml water

Paste:
· 4 cardamom
· ½ cm turmeric
· 1 tsp. roasted cumin
· 1 tsp. pepper powder
· 4 red chili
· 5 shallot
· 3 garlic
· 1 lime leaf

Preparation:
· Fry sliced garlic and shallot with olive oil until come with the aroma, then put paste. Stir until it smells fragrant. Put shrimp, water, and tomato and let it be on the boil.
· Add salt and fish sauce
· Put spaghetti cabbage, leek, and celery and add soy sauce. Stir for 2-3 minutes

Egg and Tofu Cooked With Fish-Jelly

Don’t judge by its appearance. Petis, an Indonesian authentic seasoning made from residual of fish or shrimp may have dark color and look yucky, but people in Northern Coastal Area of East Java love its exotic taste very much. Egg cooked with fish jelly spice is one of the most favorite main course in East Java.

Ingredients:
· 250 grams tofu, cut into bite-size pieces and fry half done
· 4 boiled eggs
· 500 ml coconut oil
· 3 tbsp. olive oil
· 2 tbsp. fish jelly
· 1 tsp. salt
· 10 bird's eye chili peppers (Thai pepper)
· 2 red chili, sliced finely
· 5 shallot, sliced finely
· 3 garlic, sliced finely
· 2 cm turmeric, chopped
· 4 cm finger root (Chinese ginger), chopped
· 1 cm ginger, chopped

Preparation:
· Fry shallot and garlic until it comes with the aroma, then put red chili, turmeric, finger root, and ginger. stir until it smell fragrant
· Put the spice into pan, mix with coconut milk and fish jelly and let it be on the boil.
· Put tofu, eggs, salt, and Thai pepper. Cook in low heat until the coconut milk become thick and oily

Tempe, an Indonesian culinary heritage asset

Tempe is food product made from soybeans seed fermented with Rhizopus sp. that has white to grey compact and solid shape. It is not clearly known when the production of tempe was begin, but this traditional food has been known in Java cultural system society since a couple ages ago. Serat Centhini manuscript which setting in Java 16th century, mentions a culinary named jae santen tempe or tempe cooked with coconut milk. The word tempe is guessed from ancient Java language tumpi. There was a white colored food made from sago that named tumpi in ancient Java. Fresh tempe look alike tumpi in color and texture.

I’m still couldn’t understand why in Indonesia, the word tempe has been a connotation to represent something lame and weak. For examples phrase mental tempe means coward, otak tempe (tempe brain) means stupid or fool, and bangsa tempe (tempe nation) means weak nation. The fact is that this fermented soybean has good nutrition and potentials to protect our body from free radicals. According from researchers from Bandung Technology Institute, tempe is the only vegetational protein which has phenyl cluster in its amino acids. Tempe contains diarrhea antibacterial agent and prevents us from heart attack and hypertension because it can reduce blood cholesterol. Some research show that nutrition in tempe is easier to digested than nutrition in soybean. Consumptions of tempe by malnutrition and chronic diarrhea babies and kids are proven cure the patients in short time.

Tempe is commonly consumed in Indonesia, and now has been globally used by vegetarian in many countries as substitute for meat. Some research in Germany, Japan, United Stated, and also Indonesia try to develop superior strain of Rhizopus to produce tempe faster and which has better quality and nutrition. Here is my favorite old Java tempe recipe that I can only find in homemade cooking. The name is Momoh Tempe.

Ingredients:
· 300 grams tempe, cut into bite-size pieces
· 1 eggplant, cut into bite-size pieces
· 500 ml coconut milk
· 5 green chilies, sliced finely
· 2 bay-leaf

Paste
· 5 shallot
· 3 garlic
· 1 tsp. cumin
· 1 tsp. roasted coriander
· 2 tsp. salt
· 1 tsp. roasted shrimp paste
· 2 cm turmeric

Preparation:
· Mix paste with coconut milk, cook in medium heat and stir occasionally for about 10 minutes.
· Put tempe, eggplant, chilies, and bay-leaf and stir occasionally until the coconut milk remain slightly
· You may also put 1 tsp. sugar to make more savory

The story behind

Elaeocarpus is genus of tropical and subtropical evergreen trees and shrubs. The approximately 350 species are distributed from Madagascar in the west through India, Southeast Asia, Malaysia, southern China, and Japan, through Australia to New Zealand, Fiji, and Hawaii in the east. The islands of Borneo and New Guinea have the greatest concentration of species. These trees are well known for their attractive pearl-like fruits that are often colorful.

When I gave the name of this blog, I was inspired by the story about one of the species from elaeocarpus -Elaeocarpus Ganitrus. In India, Elaeocarpus Ganitrus or commonly named as Rudraksha has a mythological tales that the plant was originated

from the tear drops of Lord Shiva. Rudraksha" is formed by association of two Sanskrit words, 'Rudra' and 'Aksha'. Rudra is another name of Shiva -the Hindu God of all living creatures- and "Aksha means 'tear'. One Hindu legend says that once Shiva opened his eyes after a long time dyana or yoga ,because of extreme fullfillness he shed out tear. This single tear from Shiva’s eye grew into the Rudraksha.

Rudraksha Mala or the seed of elaeocarpus which has a stone-like feel to it enjoys a very important place in the folk lore of Hindus. It is credited with mystical and divine properties and has been used by Hindus (as well as Sikhs and Buddhists) as rosary for thousands of years for meditation purposes to sanctify the mind, body, and soul. In Vedic literature, they have widely explained the beneficial properties of attracting healthy vibrations. Yogis wear it as a necklace. One cell seed or Ekamukhi Rudraksha is in great demand due to its high energy potential.

Although I don’t believe with the tale, sometimes I feel so sad to when I see and think about what happened in this land of mankind. Then, I start crying because it seems that I can’t do anything to fix them. I hope that by writing my feeling and concerns about those all problems, It can bring heal to my mind and soul, just like rudraksha mala for the one who believe in the power of elaeocarpus.

Simply Life

Living in lost generation
Trapped by fake civilization
Did not realize that this world is just an illusion

God give us so many things
Day created for living
And night for relaxing
Sun and its majestic shine
Moon and its warmth light

So why don’t we start thinking
That these all were not made for nothing
Even though life ain’t everlasting

Lets come into freedom
Freedom to be ourselves
No matter what they think
No matter what they say
No matter what they do
Follow the eternal light
And let it guide into the bright
Until we find the beauty of life

Sunshine

As time goes by
Morning sun will brighten the sky
Raindrops the night before
Unleashed the strain attached in heart sore
Let it warmth heal my sorrow
Like the blossom bloom and grow
After the rain has gone
His sweetness scent would still around

Ode of Chivalry

Time around and around
Only one which never gone
eternal truth from The One

Even if we don’t have anything at all
Even if our soul has gone
we still have a brave heart
and never stop from this path

Go on my friend
Death is not the end
cause the truth will always win

So many tears, bloods, and death
but we will always fight
until love and peace be the winner
and this world has no sinner

God Almighty,
You are the one and only
Please guide us trough this journey

Everything came from you, and will be back to you

Poem from the past

To the Time

We’ve been walking together
Then, everything I have will belong to yours
Now, and forever

You are the only one who could heal me,
from all the pain and sorrow
But you also hurt me
by turning the life’s spring,
into the art of losing

Walk and run that fast
Can you stop for a moment?
So I could keep those happiness,
Stay there

Why you only give me the choice
To walk beside you
or to be destroyed by you…

Jakarta, a City behind City: Bandits and Informal Control

Imaging about Jakarta and its people, the first thing comes to my mind is that it is like light attracts fireflies to mob around it. The glamorous of capital city invites many people of this country to pursue their dream about job, career, popularity, wealth, welfare, and etc., or in a simple term, a better life. They believe that Jakarta provides almost all the things that money can buy. For the last five decades Jakarta has been changing dramatically compared with any other city in Indonesia. We could see that there are more numbers of skyscraper crowd such as business and trade centers, shopping malls, hotels, condominiums and apartments, or even public facilities like schools and hospitals were build in Jakarta. This rapid growth of development is happened because of the agglomeration of our money circulation in this metropolitan area, since Jakarta is being the center of business and economic activities in Indonesia. Unfortunately, the glamorous and attractive figure of Jakarta seems to decoy those people from its gloomy side about the cruelty and complexity of life in the jungle of civilization.

Like many big cities in developing countries, Jakarta suffers from major urbanization problems. The population in this 720km2 province area has risen sharply from 1.2 million in 1960 to 8.5 million in 2008, counting only its legal residents. Jakarta currently is the twelfth of most populous city in the world. Together into Jabodetabek, the number of population in the 5100km2 area is estimated at 23 million. It makes this urban area become sixth largest metropolitan in the world.

The major problem that government of DKI Jakarta has been failing to solve until now is about how to feed and give proper life to these 23 million of people who earn for their living in such a small area. According to the data of DKI Statistic Central Board, the number of open unemployment in August 2008 is recorded at 580.510 people, or for about 12% of 4.77 million estimated total work forces in DKI Jakarta. This very high number of unemployment, lack of work field, and mass retirement in industrial sector; poverty; and sharp gap between the rich and poor in this modern urban area are the most factors that generate such a high number of criminality and many problems that creates unsecured feeling in Jakarta.

To handle criminality and problems that creates unsecured feeling in society, Governments of DKI Jakarta have important duty in monitoring and controlling their territories. In Jakarta, we can’t deny that security institutions (governor and province government, police, and army) have responsibility in managing daily matter and development of the province area, as well as residents who take part nearly in formal way. But, in all fact of delinquency and right violation in the city, there are some persons who are honored, feared, and also have big influence on people in their domain. They are nongovernmental persons or groups who illegally take control of various activities, places, and humans in public space. In Indonesia, we called them preman. There is no specific term in English to represent word preman. The closest term maybe bandit or gangster.

The term preman comes from Netherlands word vrijman which means free man or people who don’t want to tie up with rules, but now this term has pejorative connotation. There is a tendency to explain the meaning of word preman as criminal, but sometime if we consider their function in city environment; it’s more complex to give the exact meaning for these bandits. They may address to bad persons whose job are asking money from others by providing services that don’t actually needed, but sometimes they are also needed by some private sectors and government institutions. In fact, our regulator has ambivalent relationship with them. In Jakarta, these bandits have taken part in the vague of city control power. Their knowledge about underground world, criminality in its sector (activity and space) has placed them in the middle of cases solving, like policeman. Basically, they are one of the most important actors in the hidden environment of the city. In the middle of grey area, they are sneaking and set in the space that abandoned by government.

Every jungle has its own tiger; this popular proverb represents the situation of big city like Jakarta which is in every public space there are persons who illegally take control and create unsecured feeling for others. There are various kinds of bandits in Jakarta. The first type is common bandits which consist from persons who take control of crossroad and ask money from drivers who walk trough, until persons who have close relationship with state official like market bandits, debt collectors, hired killers, and every kind of criminals, include recidivists. The second type is certain bandit networks which are organized and controls specific territories like mafia. They are, for example the controller of bars, night clubs, illegal casinos, and prostitution areas whose structure and power also organized for political control, to serve the government.

The existence of third parties who scrambled for control of informal area in almost of all public domain in Jakarta is the proof of DKI Jakarta governments’ fiasco in arranging and controlling their territories into secure area that give comfort and safety for their people. This problem has become more and more complex and harder to solve since the local security institutions tend to cooperate with these bandits in mechanism of sharing earning

Although at the end of 2008, police department tried hard to fight against power abuse by the bandits, it seems that they were not serious in solving this problem. Road criminals like thieves, pick-pockets, extorters, snatchers, and robbers were caught by policeman; hawkers, street musicians, and beggar were driven away from public space such as bus and train stations like Senen, Blok M, and Kota. For several time, we felt a little bit secure when we walked in that area. But that was not guaranteed that those annoying persons will not come back again to disturb and make Jakartans feel restless. Furthermore, there are still organized bandit networks that collaborate with government in handling the control of illegal business. I think these all matter are back to the willingness and commitment of governments to put aside their own personal ambition and fight against all kind of criminality, to serve and give better life for their people. We all hope about this.


source: Jerome Tadie, 2009, Wilayah Kekerasan di Jakarta