Road Trip to Central Java – day 2: When mortar, pestle and truck collide

After 10 or more hours driving, we decided to stop in Semarang -capital province of Central Java- not because we want to but merely we kind of exhausted and driving another 3 hours to get to Surakarta -well known as Solo- wasn't an option.

We do have many families lived in Semarang –even our grandma- but the ideas of knocking their door on 1am and asking for bed to sleep with 2 kids in tow seems pretty impolite. Looking for hotel wasn't an easy job too –since it's a school holiday season- ; good think was my husband remembers one particular hotel stuck on his mind since our last visit to Semarang. And lucky, there is a room available, double spacious bed on Gumaya Hotel helps us through the rest of the night.

Awake and full of adventure spirit, we started again, this time driving another 3 hours to get to Solo. Not many snapshots we could get since we more engaged in another 'show and tell' activity, a past time history about places we lived along our way to solo.

I get too excited to see display of cooking utensils mixed with interstate trucks toy I forgot to take a shot on it. So here my best shot

Young Coconut is not a rare commodity, for sure. It was easy to spotted so many roadside coconut vendor , some of them labeled their coconut likes 'kelapa muda bakar' aka 'grilled young coconut' which I am not quite sure it taste different –as my friend inform its rather gimmick and purely to make their coconut stand from the crowd.

-To be continued-

Thin noodle gingersoup with roast beef & tofu

(Captures on our lenses) ROAD TRIP to Central Java – Day 1

We kept thinking of big big plan to get the kids on the road on their school holiday. We made it last month, we hit the road, travelled to Central Java where my parents residence. It's not a smooth journey, many things we not counted at first –roadwork, traffic jam caused by accident, fatigue- ; but now I could look back and proudly said: we made it.

Though we had to make a detour, slightly change plan, spent extra on our tight budget, it's a journey we enjoyed, with all silly games along the way, 'Mika' & 'Jamie Cullum' have to sing over and over again, we felt it make us closer as a family.

So, 1st day we drove along from Jakarta to Semarang, through a well-known path called as it lies along north coastal of Java.

I managed to capture some photos along our trip. Happy to share it with you….

Cheat-Miso-Soup

It's been raining every afternoon in the past few days, I felt like eating slurpy warm soup every afternoon. Feel like winter in Sydney :)............ Yuuum....

My latest rummage to my pantry lead me to this: Miso paste, pre-packed udon and one lonely potato on my kitchen bench.

I tend to add anything I stocked inside my fridge whenever I do soup.

This time, I greeted my miso soup with unusual filling: Potatoes; plus udon on the side.

Here, serving for 4, you will need:

1 litre chicken stock -opt for water if you don't want anything 'heavy'

2 tablespoon miso paste -I use store bought miso paste; and keep some on airtight container-

1 medium size potato, peeled & diced

1 pack of medium-firm tofu (approx 200gr)

2 pack of pre-packed udon (aprox 200gr)

2 spring onion, sliced

How to:
Boiled chicken stock on heavy-based pan, added miso paste once it boiling. Add potato, simmer on low-heat about 5-10 minutes. When potato quite soft, add tofu and spring onion. Simmer for 5 minutes,ready to serve.

Preparing Udon: cook as directed on its packaging.

Enjoy....

My messy desk

Can you spot the difference?

(After abandoning my desk for weeks, I return and occupy it with more stuff, more fabrics and more mess...welcome back, Ayu)