Summer Salad: Silk Tofu & Veggies (Cold Salad)

Yellow peeps, how are you? I wish you have had a marvellous week days and ready to dig up some stuff at home. Me? I have nothing much to do, just started my new job. Honestly, I am still nervous about it. There are lots of things I need to learn, it’s not totally new but definitely need to learn a lot. I know I will be learning from the expert, but it makes me even more nervous. Hahaha… Oops! I have been telling my fiancé about it and he laughs out loud saying that I am just like a fresh graduate. He’s been supporting me a lot, we’ve been through thick and thin together these few years and I highly appreciate his dedication and care for me. He will go extra miles for me if he thinks he needs to. About me quitting from my previous job and finding a new job, he has always been there for me. He is way wiser and maturer than I am. 🙂 Okay, enough about him. Let’s go back to the recipe that I am going to share.

Silk Tofu & Veggies Cold Salad

It’s been a hot summer days, almost no rain. I got back to Bali a few months ago and the island is especially hot and humid. I was thinking to have some comfort food that help me to chill a bit. I don’t like cold foods in particular, but this time, I feel the need of it. Or I will be melted like a Sundae ice cream by the beach. I browsed the internet to find some recipes, I came up with Wood Ear Mushrooms from The Wooks of Life. I have been following their blog for sometimes as they’re used to post Asian recipes (Chinese especially). Their step by step also very easy to follow, so for someone inexperienced like, it won’t be a problem! Yippie!!! So, as what I am used to do. I don’t copy paste the recipe just like that just because when I cook, I find other ingredients that suit the recipe and automatically I add it in. This time the recipe I am sharing is also inspired by Chinese Cold Tofu (Liangban Tofu) from Chinese Sichuan Food. These ingredients combo are the best combination in a hot summer day. Let’s go!

Ingredients:

  • 1 Block silken tofu
  • 2 cups fresh wood ear mushrooms (you may use the dried wood ear mushrooms, dip it in water), trim and wash
  • 1/2 Onion, dice and blanch in hot water
  • Coriander
  • Green onion, finely chopped
  • 1 tbsp roasted sesame seeds
  • 3 garlic cloves, finely chopped

Sauce:

  • 1 tbsp Light soy sauce
  • 1 tsp sesame oil
  • 1 tsp sugar
  • 1 tbsp water
  • 1 tbsp Chinese black vinegar

Directions:

  1. In a pot, blanch the onion in a boiling water for 1-2 minutes.
  2. In the same pot, cook the wood ear mushrooms in a boiling water for 3-4 minutes. Drain and rinse mushroom and onion in cold water (I prefer iced water to keep it crunchy). Drain well.
  3. In a large bowl, mix all the seasonings. Then add the wood ear mushrooms and onion, mix it well. Last, add the tofu, carefully tossed it together.
  4. Serve it cold. Make sure the mixture is well mixed before serving. You may keep it chilled in the fridge and serve it when you’re ready.

Pity, I forgot to take some pictures in the process. Only manage to shot a couple of it before serving it. I will make sure to take some photos next time I make it and post it here. I hope you would like to try and tell me how does it taste. Have a great day peeps!

When I was writing this post, the news of corona virus have been on top. I pray for the best especially for the medical team, I thank you for your dedication and hard-work. No words could express how grateful I am for your beautiful souls.

The Hungry Kittens

xxLovexx

One Pot Meal: Eggs and Veggies in Miso Soup

Most of the time I want an easy, quick and simple food for my meals, can be breakfast, lunch or dinner without sacrificing “my trying to be healthier lifestyle” by ordering fast food and eating those junk foods. I admit that once in awhile I am still craving for some fast foods, it’s like a treat for me. The thing is I can be very lazy to cook a full meal that’s why I switch into one pot meal when I feel it. Yep, nothing new I know, but my one pot meal is a meal that I cook based on the available ingredients. In my busy days, I skip grocery shopping, therefore I have to make use everything and anything I can find in my fridge. LOL! This is the art of an emergency one pot meal, at least my version.

Eggs and Veggies Miso Soup over steamed white rice

So, today I am going to share my Eggs and Veggies in Miso Soup. I was so hungry, nearly starving but nothing much left and I was too lazy to go out getting some stuff from the store. I was thinking of Gimbap at first, I saw my dried laver ready but nothing else to compliment it that goes to my liking. Then, I also want some soup. It’s been raining lately and the thought of having hot soups with steamed rice brought me smile. There I found the miso paste that I am used to use to cook a regular miso soup (with seaweed). Aha! I had asparagus, dried laver, white miso paste, bean sprouts and eggs. Miso soup will just do great. Let’s get into it.

Miso soup in the pot

I won’t be sharing step by step pictures here considering it is a very quick and easy, no special skills and ingredients needed either.

Ingredients:

  • 2 Eggs
  • 5 Stalks asparagus (cut it thinly)
  • Bean sprouts ( I used 1 cup)
  • 1 tbsp white miso paste
  • 1/2 tbsp light soy sauce
  • 1/2 tsp sugar
  • 1 tsp mirin (optional)
  • 1 sheet dried laver (folded and cut it into 2 cm length, or as you like)
  • 1 tsp Gochujjang (Korean paper paste, I like the mild ones) or chilly flakes if you like it extra spicy
  • 250 ml water
Steamed white rice

Directions:

  1. Mix the miso paste with 1 table spoon of water. Heat water in a sauce pan, pour the miso mixture into the sauce pan. Let it shimmer.
  2. Sugar, light soy sauce, mirin and gochujjang into the pan. Stir it well.
  3. Once it is bubbling, pour the asparagus and eggs in. Let it shimmer for 1 minute, then the bean sprouts go in. Let it shimmer for another minute. Before turning off the stove, add the dried laver in.
  4. Serve it hot. I love it over steamed white rice with a little Gochujjang on top.

It’s ready in less than 10 minutes. Super quick and easy for a nice and healthy meal. Well, I consider it quite healthy just because, first: I know the ingredients I put in and second, no additional MSG needed, third I have fibber and protein from the veggies and eggs in one pot.

Lunch is ready. Let’s dig in!

Well, would you like to try? It doesn’t taste that strong but it’s a good meal I tell you. Oh one more thing, pardon me for the poor posted images, I am just too lazy to do a little touch up.

xxLovexx

(Masih) Ada?

Putus cinta itu biasa. Sakit hati juga sudah biasa. Apa pun yang ada awalnya pasti ada akhirnya, kata temen-temen, akhirnya itu kalau ngga di pelaminan ya jadi undangannya. Bercandaan seperti ini kadang kala menghibur hati, tapi ada kalanya juga bikin empet dan sakit hati. Khususnya saat patah hati, bukannya memberi semangat malah semangat meledek. Yaaah, begitulah. Kali ini aku yang menjadi korban, aku menerima undangan dari mantanku. Dia akan menikah dengan wanita pilihannya. Terkejut? Pastinya! Setelah hampir tujuh tahun kami bersama, melewati LDR atau PJJ (Pacaran Jarak Jauh), putus nyambung yang aku sendiri sampai lupa berapa kali, pada akhirnya hubungan itu tidak bisa dipertahankan. Terlalu banyak cerita, terlalu banyak yang terlibat, terlalu dalam juga untuk terus digali. Pada akhirnya, perpisahan menjadi jalan keluar instant.

Aku masih ingat bagaimana aku merasa lega dibalik air mata yang sama sekali ngga aku undang untuk datang. Ya, aku menangis. Hampir sebulan aku merasa tidak nyaman dengan segala apa yang aku lakukan, sedangkan aku saat itu mendengar dia sudah jalan sama orang lain. Dalam hati, “Serius ini orang. Selama ini apa dia benar-benar punya rasa sama aku? Atau dia selama ini hanya bersandiwara?!”. Kurang lebih itu yang aku pikirkan. Rasanya nyesek di hati, mau balikan, aku ngga punya nyali untuk mengulang perjalanan yang melelahkan itu. Iya lelah, aku lelah bersandiwara bahwa hubungan kami baik-baik saja dan menolak menerima kenyataan bahwa dia yang dulu sudah menjadi orang yang berbeda. Mungkin benar, jarak dan waktu dapat mengubah seseorang. Belum lagi cerita perselingkuhan yang membumbui kisah kami. Itu menjadi agenda utama yang semakin menjauhkan hati kami dan memperbesar perbedaan tanpa kami sadari.

Zooey Deschanel + Mad Men Wedding Inspiration

Ku lihat lagi kartu undangan yang aku taruh sekenanya di atas meja. Saat terakhir kami bertemu, aku memutuskan untuk menghilangkan kontak dengan dia, jika tidak, cerita kami akan terulang lagi dan lagi. Jadi, saat itu aku membulatkan tekad untuk menyudahi semuanya, sesakit apa pun, saya harus bisa. Dan memang saya bisa melaluinya dengan air mata diawal.

“Nat, ada undangan. Aku bawain ke kantor kamu ya.” Begitu telp yang aku terima pagi ini. Sandra, sahabat kami dari jaman SD tidak biasanya bersemangat untuk datang ke tempat kerjaku, secara tempat kerja kami berlawanan arah. Biasanya perlu rayuan maut untuk mendatangkan dia, paling sering aku yang menghampiri ke tempat kerjanya karena searah dengan pusat keramaian tempat kami “membaca orang”. Oh ya, Sandra itu psikolog anak. Dari jaman kami kecil kami suka duduk memperhatikan orang, ada keasyikan sendiri dari aktifitas itu yang membuat kami sadar bahwa manusia itu memang tercipta dengan beragam karakter.

“Kamu baik-baik aja kan, Nad?” Aku memandang Sandra dengan wajah bingung.

“Maksud?” Aku bertanya dengan kerutan tebal dikeningku.

“Iya masalah Andre. Andre nikah lhooooooo…” Aku tersenyum, ada perasaan yang tidak bisa aku jelaskan. Bukan cemburu, aku yakin itu. Bukan juga kecewa. Ntahlah, aku sama sekali tidak bisa menggambarkan perasaanku. “Bagus lah buat dia.” Aku jawab sekenanya.

“Ngga sayang dengan waktu yang udah lewat? Dan pada akhirnya dia memutuskan untuk memilih orang lain?”

“…”

“Maksudku, kalian bersama hampir tujuh tahun walalupun ada putus sambung segala. Cuma dia gampang banget untuk memutuskan menikah dengan yang sekarang, padahal baru juga pacaran. Ngga sampe mereka dua tahun bersama kok.”

“Ooooh, jadi kamu ngikutin kisah mereka?” Aku tertawa. Rasa apa ini? Apa iya aku kecewa? Ngga deh, ngga mungkin. Sudah lebih dari tiga tahun hubungan kami berakhir, ngga mungkin rasa itu masih ada. Sekali pun ada, bukan cemburu juga kan? Aduh,… apa ini?

“Ngga sengaja. Gara-gara aku sempat ketemu mereka di acara reuni sekolah dua tahun lalu. Kamu kan ngga ikut gara-gara ngga mau ketemu Andre.” Sandra menunjukkan foto-foto reuni dua tahun lalu. Waktu itu aku memutuskan untuk tidak datang dengan berbagai pertimbangan, Andre salah satunya yang menjadi pertimbanganku. Aku masih single saat itu, ngga ada pacar. Aku dulu berjanji pada diriku sendiri untuk tidak akan bertemu dengan Andre sebelum kami memiliki pasangan masing-masing. Jadi, tidak ada alasan untuk kami kembali behubungan. Naif. Tapi keputusan itu lah yang akhirnya membuatku kuat.

“Kamu mau pergi?” Aku tanya Sandra.

“Belum tau. Kamu?”

“Kayanya ngga deh, Kevin masih di Melbourne dan aku ngga mau dong datang sendiri. Bener-bener ya, pasti bertemu lagi. Cuma aku ngga pernah nyangka bakalan ketemu sebagai undangan.”

“Hahaha…” Aku dan Sandra hanya bisa tertawa, membayangkan kemungkinan yang akan terjadi kalau sampai aku hadir. Mungkin aku akan bilang terima kasih telah menjadi mantan pacar yang baik; atau mungkin aku akan bilang bahwa aku masih ada rasa; atau aku akan minta Andre meninggalkan pelaminan?! Ntah bagaimana tanggapan kedua mempelai jika hal itu terjadi. Aku pasti jadi orang yang paling jahat! “Udah ah, balik dulu. Kamu anterin aku pulang kan San?”

“Alamak, kau naik taxi lah! Udah aku jemput masa aku anter balik juga.”

“Ya elah, rumah kau itu berdekatan dengan rumah aku. Cuma lima menit juga dari rumahku ke tempatmu. Ayo lah!”

Perjalanan pulang hari ini terasa jauh lebih panjang, padahal ngga ada macet. Apakah aku masih punya beban di hati? Tentang aku dan Andre? No way! It’s over and I got over it years ago.

Bersambung…

xxLovexx

Yoga and Balinese BHAKTI

Yellow peeps, how are you? NAMASTE!

I pray for your souls to be happy and strong. Yes, I would like to share a bit of Yoga and Balinese. I was born and grew up in Bali – also known as island of the Gods (how many of you have been to the island?). Before we begin, I am not an expert in Yoga, technically I am a mere beginner; however, Balinese for generations have been practising Yoga that many may not recognise nor realise that. 

Let’s begin.

Yogis and those who are practising Yoga, I believe, traditionally must know and understand the 4 paths of Yoga, namely:

BHAKTI is the yoga of devotion (through prayer, worship and ritual). 

Canang Sari is one of daily offerings Balinese offers to Gods and also other entities to ensure the balance amongst 3 worlds.

JNANA is the yoga of wisdom or knowledge. 

KARMA is the yoga of action, said to be the best way to prepare oneself for silent meditation. 

RAJA is the science of controlling body and mind (by popular demand, this is the YOGA that widely known and practised). 

Practising Yoga Asana. As a beginner, I have been trying and practising doing certain asana, it seems… way to go baby!

These make it more complex and complicated when we are talking about Yoga because it is more than just Asanas and Meditation. Based on popularity, RAJA YOGA is the most popular yoga. Many have been practising yoga to find the balance in life (mentally and physically) and for so many different reasons. Even more, this yoga that corporate Asanas and Meditation has been adopted into different style with different purposes, for instance: yoga based gym. Personally, I don’t find it a must to stick on the traditional yoga although for some personal reasons I am practising the traditional ones. 

Then, what about yoga and Balinese? First, I am not going to say anything about religious belief or religions (Hinduism), since Bhakti is related to Balinese in general not a certain religious belief and activities. Second, About 85% people living in Bali are Balinese with Balinese Hindu meanwhile the rest consists of the mixture of other ethnicities. So, I am going to share a glimpse of Balinese lifestyle. We do BHAKTI YOGA in our daily life through prayer and worship and yes, rituals. We offer daily offerings to Gods and other entities – that we believe living side by side with us. We worship God, gods and goddess also on certain days we also send our prayers to our ancestors. There are rituals that have been passed down for generations, Ngaben (Balinese cremation) is one of them. This is why I say Balinese has been practising yoga – Bhakti Yoga, daily. I would like to share more on these particular rituals on other posts. I need to do my research to provide more accurate and details to avoid misinformation. Hahaha… Believe me, I don’t want to misled you peeps! That’s the last thing I want to happen. I would love to write more about Balinese dresses too (that we wear to go to a temple), a standard and traditional ones. You see, many options available in this modern world, it’s kind of absurd to see these various options. But, don’t worry there is one standardised custom for us Balinese.

Balinese ladies in “kebaya” posed in a temple. This is how normally Balinese dressed for a prayer, preferably with white or yellow “kebaya” although we also may choose different colours.

xxLovexx

A Brand New Day

Be yourself; Everyone else is already taken.

— Oscar Wilde.

Yellow,… it’s 2020

It’s been so long, I was on hiatus due to many things happened and I didn’t manage to get it down one by one. It’s just lucky for me or I should that I am blessed for having such beautiful people in my life. They have endlessly supported me in so many different ways possible, both physically and mentally which allow me to keep growing. 

A brand new logo for The Hungry Kittens

I have decided create a new blog with some reasons behind it. First, I lost my access to my blog, at least from desktop access since I lost the number I used, make it impossible for me to receive the authentication code; second it’s about time to end that blog anyway as I want to have a fresh start like totally new, I know I need to build my audience again and start from 0 but I think (after so many thoughts) this is the right thing to do. I am not saying what happened in the past were totally bad, there were some part that I am still grateful for. Anyway, it is okay to start new. Third, I was thinking to take more time into practising my cooking skills, it would be good in many ways. I have been dreaming of being a good cook at least to my family; home cook almost everything just to ensure my family eat a good and healthy foods. The least I know what I put into my mouth. Hahaha… I am dead serious!

So, here I am announcing my new blog that I wholeheartedly dedicate it to my new start. A fresh start, a new beginning. 

Oh, I recently quit my job in tourism organisation and I took a new challenges in wedding industry. Wish me luck, peeps!

Do follow my blog should you be interested to hear more from me.

xxLovexx

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