Pepaya Kalimantan

I'm sorry, it was gone before I knew it. Couldn't help myself.

In Balikpapan, East Kalimantan, I came across this pepaya, or papaya as you may know, brought by my dear friend Rina Ahdalina. They call it Pepaya Hawaii. But I don't think it was the same as Pepaya Hawaii I once found being sold at Total Buah. This pepaya was smaller, way smaller, and way sweeter.

In between baking cookies for the next day seminar, we enjoyed spooning these babies and gulping its succulent burning orange meat like monkeys :D

I brought back some of them --so did Nadrah --, and yeah, you can see they're gone very fast.

Indonesian fruits are amazing. I always prefer our local grown fruits from the fake-fresh imported ones. Unfortunately not many of them make it to Jakarta. In many cases they are directly sent overseas to importer countries, usually the best variants in the bunch. And the locals were left with limited stock, only enough for them to eat, not enough crops to be sold to other parts of Indonesia --and Indonesia is indeed a big country.

Sagon Sembur

Oh, how food can be so nostalgic. It takes you to the time and place where your heart is. Is it that romantic or is it just me?
I was born the youngest of seven children and we had a dearest nanny we considered as our second mother. I mean, seriously. I remember everytime she had to go mudik, my sister and me, as the last youngsters under her caretaking- yes, she took care all seven of us since we were newborn babies- my sister and me would cry unstoppably, scream, kick, temper tantrum all the way, didn't wanna let her go, couldn't handle her going away. I still remember the feeling. It was like half of your soul was forcefully taken away from you, hurt and dying. She was wonderful to us. She loved us dearly and genuinely just like her own children, no fakeness, no politics. Unconditionally, just like my Mom did. And she remained our closest "family" until the day she died at a very old age, possibly more than a hundred.

What's Left..

You'd think a plain cookie with a few chocolate chips folded into the mixture would be a simple matter. It's not. It's never difficult to make, just difficult to get right. 

~ Nigella Lawson

These were what I was left with. Three cookies. No more, no less. And even those were already booked by a friend. So basically, I got nothing left. Really. Well, I guess that just sums up how good they really were.

My Up and Coming Hero!

This is the wholewheat chocolate chips cookies I ranted about in the last post. Made it several times by now,  I keep craving for more. I tweaked the recipe to my liking and got me my best fool-proof version of comfort cookies. It is that good I am proud enough to include in my next Idul Fitri selection cookies to sell. It will be my up and coming hero!

About Wholewheat Cookies and A Beautiful Orange Pie

Being a die hard fan of homemade cookies and wholewheat flour, I think I was destined to find this recipe by Betty Crocker. A chocolate chips recipe using full wholewheat flour. I was drooling right away I couldn't wait to try baking it. It was a lazy afternoon today, typical afternoon when we had to stay home due to the unpredictable stormy weather recently. I got butter and wholewheat flour waiting to use up. Got whitesugar-palmsugar-cinnamon mixture leftover from making churros the other day (which by the by, never had the chance to blog about, 'coz it's all gone before even finished cooling, oh my..). Got dark 70% couverture chocolate button, then I baked away.

I halved and tweaked the recipe to my convenience, so mine did not look like the ones in the picture on Betty Crocker's web site. They were mounded more and rather smooth on top than crinkled. But, hell baby, were they so goooood....!

Pepper Lunch. When Fast Food is No Longer Junk Food.

Kamera membidik. Juru masak bergerak cepat *sangat cepat!* menangkupkan nasi ke atas piring lebar. Sebelum sempat saya berpikir, ia sudah meletakkan butter dan mulai menyusun salmon segar di sekeliling nasi. Saya mengatur ulang fokus dan komposisi. Detik berikutnya hidangan sudah jadi dan siap diangkat ke meja tamu.

"Hey.."

Saya hanya bisa melongo memandang satu piring Rice Pepper Salmon sudah terbang menuju ruang makan.

"Berapa detik dibutuhkan untuk menyiapkan satu hidangan ini, pak?" tanya saya separuh putus asa karena masih saja kalah cepat.

"Hmm..," sang juru masak tidak langsung menjawab. Sepertinya ia kesal konsentrasinya saya ganggu dengan pertanyaan.

"Berapa lama?" desak saya tanpa ampun.

"Kira-kira.. 40 detik-an lah."

Bahkan tidak sampai satu menit!