Tous les Jours

Japan was lovely, but I have to face the reality to come back to my Birthland, Indonesia!
I used to hate this country a lot. But studying abroad and plenty of travelling had opened my eyes to accept most of the things.

What I love about Jakarta, the capital city is the hustle bustle that won't let you get bored of the city. Stores are open throughout the day till night too!

I tried a French-themed bakery, Tous les Jours, which means All the Time. It was pretty good and I love the presentation and concept, really appealing!

I love the authentic design of classic French with a twist of modernism around the vicinity of the bakery. If you are sitting down in the cafe area, you will be able to smell the freshly baked bread and pastries, absolutely lovely!

They also have Bonne Mamman, my favourite brand of jams! It is really a must-try brand! I couldn't use other brands since I put these jams on my toast!

I tried this chocolate pastry and an iced cappucinno. Overall it was good, they even provided sugar syrup if you love your coffee sweet (even though it was already terribly sweet). Loved the crunch of the pastry and on the chocolate!

This bakery is going to be one year old soon (as it is celebrating it), and I think it is doing pretty well. Hopefully it will maintain the quality (or even improve it) when I return to Indonesia after my study.

Xmas Feast at Work

A workplace celebration indeed. As soon as I walked into the tea room I saw this bright green table full of treats.

There will be heaps of food and drinks until Christmas Eve, which tells me that I won't be starving when I work.

Good thing that I will be working in the office over the weekend, my workload won't be disastrous. Moreover, whenever I'm hungry I can just hop into the tea room. Great! I can even grab a plate and put plenty of food then bring it back to the office.

I do need plenty of rest tomorrow. Gonna be flying to Japan this Sunday with plenty of transits.
This year's Christmas and New Year looks promising, it's gonna be a great holiday!

Indonesians and Two Phones

Indonesians tend to have two phones: 1 Blackberry and 1 Android/iPhone.

A Blackberry is almost a 'must' for Indonesians. It is said that Indonesia is the country that gives the highest revenue for RIM since almost every single Indonesian own one.

Blackberry gives the convenience of communication with BBM. You just need to subscribe for the Blackberry Internet Service and you'll get unlimited data service.

But that's all for Blackberry. That's why we want other phones, yet we can't give up or choose one. So ee ended up with two phones.

The Mistletoe Bridge

Earlier this week, I was wondering what the mistletoe bridge is and where it is.

This morning I decided to walk from Flinders Street Station to DFO South Wharf. I saw this mistletoe bridge, a giant mistletoe to be precise!

Christmas is just around the corner and the whole city is bustling with Christmas feeling. Southbank is as lively as ever in this cool weather.

It's good to spent my free time walking around like this!

Galleon Cafe

Brunch at Galleon Cafe! Been awhile since the last time I came here.

I used to order my favourite tofu and mushroom but today I decided to try something different.

My friend tried the tofu and mushroom instead. And I choose bubble and squeeky with lamb sausage. It was pretty good but I still prefer my favourite!

As for the drinks, one ice chocolate and one ice coffee for this blazing day! Bon apetit!

Kikki.K Xmas Box

Early xmas prezzie for myself!

I was eyeing on these stuff for quite some time and they now have it in a beautiful xmas box! Just can't be happier.

Now I can put my recipes in order and enjoy the benefit next year!

It was just too bad that the Chadstone VIP night didn't occur a week later as I was actually receiving an early birthday voucher from Kikki.K the day after! Oh well I can spend it for organisers at least!

And I just can't wait to spend Christmas in Japan! 2 weeks to go!

Brunch at Common Galaxia

I had brunch with uni friends at Common Galaxia. Nice coffees, I'll give you that.
To get to Common Galaxia (if you are catching the train), get of at West Footscray at the Watergarden line, it's just one stop from Footscray if you are catching the train from the CBD. From there, it is a very short walking distance. ;)

As for the food, I tried their oven-baked zuchinni fritters with smoked salmon. It was pretty good and unique. You can change the salmon into bacon, I tried my friend's and it was awesome. But hey, I never use fish in my cooking, so why not eat something different?

To be honest, I may think that it is overpriced though. Perhaps because I haven't been going out for brunch lately? Who knows. However, it's worth the money if you love this kind of food.

Mango Pudding

And that's how I made mango puddings!

They are unexpectedly easy. You just need small tapioca pearls, or sago i you prefer to call it that way.
So you need to put water, mango juice, caster sugar, and drained tapioca on high heat until it boiled, then turn the fire to medium.

After the tapioca becomes transculent, put in coconut cream and mango puree, put in fridge.
Dress with cut mangoes before serving. Easy!

Recipe can be found in Woolies magazine this month. ;)

Lindt Celebration du Chocolate at VIP Night

Was having these Lindt delight in the middle of shopping.

Yes, it was Chadstone VIP night on Wednesday. I wanted to grab some Kikki.K stuff so I decided to come. My friend wanted to go shopping so I tagged along.

I got (much more) than what I wanted and after a short walk, we decided to stop by at Lindt cafe. I had this Celebration du Chocolate with Mocha. Was quite a bit too chocolatey for me but I kinda liked it if it wasn't that expensive.

I shopped quite crazily as usual, but it was a good thing that I got good stuff.

Breakfast at Mamaduke

Breakfast at Mamaduke! Today was the second time, it was exactly last week when I had my first breakfast here.

It was actually really good. I only had this bacon and egg toast and I'm kind of addicted to it.

Plus a cup of earl grey with milk and honey. It was such a good start before taking the exam.

An Afternoon in Chez Dre

Once more, Chez Dre!
After finishing a stressful activities at work, it is only right to reward yourself and chill out.

I met up with a friend who just started studying in Melbourne. She stayed close to my work. Even if she has been to the market, I bet she wasn't aware of Chez Dre. And I was right.

She loved the atmosphere, and of course, the coffee. We had a chat and enjoy our afternoon tea.

I should come to Chez Dre more often I think, just love the food, the coffee, the hospitality, and the atmosphere.

Monstrous Dinner

Monster size meal. That was the first thought I had when taking this picture.

It was Thursday evening. I took Friday off from work for the sake of finishing my programming assignment.

Furthermore, I decided to spend the whole night coding since I was afraid I won't finish if I hadn't done so. It was an awful feeling and so I went for my last resort, pulling an all-nighter.

That's why I knew I would need plenty of energy, and I was also hungry too that time. Then I decided that I need to eat a lot!

We stopped by the chinese restaurant close-by to take advantage of "fill your own plate" offer, and here is the result.....

I didn't finish them, but the lady gave me a take away container with a smile, such a good hospitality!

So it ended up becoming my dinner and lunch for the next day.

Stress Less Day

Wednesday was Stress Less Day in Monash University Caulfield campus! I was glad I came to uni that day.

There were music and bean bags, it was such a nice weather too! They provided free barbie, froyo, ice cream, and booze! Not like I drank them or anything....

I also met some friends and got to enjoy the weather on the lawn. A good intermezzo before continuing the my assignment.

Thay really know how to please a crowd. Thank you MONSU. :)

Coffee on the Desk

What is better than a cup of coffee when you're working on something on your desk? A LARGE cup of coffee of course!

Thursday was such a gloomy day. In fact, the whole week sucks! On top of that, I've encountered several issues in my life that it stressed me out!

Luckily I am able to sort them one by one, and they are getting better. But it has been taking quite a toll on my time and energy that I neglected my assignments!

So here I was, with large serving of baccio by good guy barista and waiter, speed-typing my assignment before class.

Lucky enough, when evryone did very badly on test last week, I managed to score a pretty good mark. More motivation for me.

Whatever the siuation is, never give up!

Little Birdies on Doorstep

What a gloomy Monday morning! I could guess what in people's mind, most of them will be about the same.

I woke up later as it was chilly this morning. If only I can have a day off today. I even missed my bus since I got up late.

But good things are coming, or so I thought, even in this moody Monday. Look, little birdies, just a few steps away from my house. They woke up early for breakfast and sang the joy of being able to eat despite the bad weather.

I think I need to change my perspective and try to be grateful all the time. Thanks little ones. :)

Milo Mousse from Breakfast Club

More from breakfast club by MONSU Caulfield. It is a really good scheme to make sure that people are eating well (at least once a week).

This week I managed to grab myself a milo mousse! A great achievement, at last. They used to ran out of milo mousse the first few minutes they started.

There will be two more breakfast clubs this semester. Hopefully I can enjoy breakfast club again next semester.

Hash Browns and Baked Egg

Brekkie! I woke up at 6am and thought that I will have enough time to enjoy breakfast at last.

I bought hash browns as they were on offer. Actually, I've been craving for one.....

And I had this leftover bread, so there you go, bread with cheese inside, egg on the top, and bake them in the oven!

It was such a lovely breakfast. I need to remember to reduce baking time as the yolk is actually overcooked.

Ｔｒｉｖｉａ Ｎｉｇｈｔ

Last night was the Ｔｒｉｖｉａ Ｎｉｇｈｔ by MPA. It was very fun as it was my first time participating in a trivia quiz.

Our table was definitely the loudest of all. We were just enjoying the game thoroughly without the worry of being a winner or not. It was just pure fun.

and guess what? We actually won!!!
The Last Place! Just by one point! And we got a consolation price of a mug and lollies, lovely!

Definitely joining this event again next year! ;)

R U OK?

13 September is the national "R U OK?" dqy in Australia. It is directed toward mental health to reduce the number of suicide.

Basically it encourages people to ask how is everyone in their life doing. And people being asked are hopefully being open and try to speak up and seek help if they are troubled.

The colour for this campaign is yellow. So I had yellow lunch of yellow treats, bbq corn & pineapple, pineapple juice, banana, and solo. I also received some cookies.

The cutest of all is my coffee cup. We realised that the coffee is bigger, which is good!

At first I thought that I was not really OK from study pressure. I thought that I will fail last week's test. But it turned out that I scored much better than my expectation. Lovely!

"R U OK?"

Reason to Smile

People need to be happy. Not just because they want to. It is the ultimate reason of living, in my opinion.

Days can be bad, but you'll keep on getting reasons to smile from your surroundings.

I had this free breakfast with bunch of food, drink, and fruits. I was having my favorite yoghurt and remembered that they always have things on the other side of the top.

I decided not to lick it. Of course because of public awareness. And then I stumbled to this saying that made me smile. :)

It told me to look for the positives behind everything and be happy. And I'm sure I will.

Caulfield Bakery

First time buying a quick breakfast this morning. I woke up late and skipped breakfast as I tried to come to uni asap.

I went to see the doctor for my long lasting cough that frustrated me for 3 weeks. My doctor gave me a medicine so I went to the chemist and they asked me to wait 10 mins.

I decided to grab a brekkie and decided to buy something from Caulfield bakery. The ladies who served me were very kind, they even recommendend me some stuff and upsized my hot chocolate.

I had my sausage roll and observe them. Their chocolate croissant sure is popular and they are quite busy as well.

Will consider them the next time I need a grab! ;)

Blackpepper Spaghetti

I was checking on my Facebook and then I saw my friend posted blackpepper spaghetti that she made. It looked really good, trust me.

She is a foodie, and just by watching her photos made me salivate. So I decided to make it.

I never make blackpepper sauce before, so I knew I might screw it. Luckily, I found ready-make thai blackpepper sauce, which I really like.

Thanks to that, it was a success, loved it. Despite having sore throat, my tongue and stomach were delighted.

Malaysian Brekkie

This is how I turned as I missed Malaysia so much! Despite only enjoyed the breakfast once, I wanted to recreate it to cure this sickness.

Yes, typical Malaysian-Singaporean breakfast: kaya toast, half boiled egg, and milk tea! It was so yum that I have been having them in the last 3 days.

Fortunate enough, it was easy to make them. I found kaya spread when I walked into an Indonesian grocery. The only problem was the milk tea, I endes up using earl grey and shaked the milk tea in a flusk to make tea tarik! I still couldn't believe it myself.

At least I enjoyed my Sunday morning. :)

Self Study Space

And there I was, trying out the special study space in Caulfield library.

I found two things here:
1. The study space exclusive for postgrads was AWESOME! I got to get my own room, along with the key for the whole 4 hours for myself and it did help me to focus even if I used it for only 2 hours.

2. There are huge collections of journals on HARDCOPY in the library and again, for postgrads, available for loan!

I loved it so much, so I decided to check on the library in Clayton. It turned out it is more like an open space there and I struggled to find a PC for the first 10 minutes.

But somehow it was nicer to kill stress in Clayton, more cafes and the quite, relaxing environment. Now, decisions decisions....

Toast Three Ways

Toast three ways! :)
I bought this rustic bread for only $2, and ended up with four portions of these! It was a wonderful homemade brunch on a beautiful Sunday.

And they were actually simple to make as well! Unexpected, really. I made them again on Monday and did all the cooking, made coffees and washing dishes in half an hour!

If I ever miss a proper brunch, now I can create my own at home, without the atmosphere and being overpriced of course. ;p

From Home With Love

What came up the first tine you see this photo? You might think of this as a generous hearty dinner served at home, which is not a wrong answer.

But of what cuisine? Well this is the tricky bit, there is an element that is different from the rest. The red bit is portugese chicken, and the rest are italian cuisine!

First, there is risotto, I experimented and it has such a nice flavour! Loved it.

The meat is Salombuca or whatever, it literally means 'jump in the mouth'. It is a pork lean wrapped in prociutto. This, again, is lovely and simple to make.

The green bit is silverbeet, nothing too special about it though.

Exploring new recipes was so much fun, hopefully I can do this every week. :)

Korean Dinner in Chilly Winter Night

After some time, at last I cooked Korean again! It's been quite awhile, really. I think the last time I made Korean food was around February or March.

There is a slight difference here though. Usually when I said "cooking Korean" that means Bulgogi, that's it, it is the only Korean food I can make.

But whem I went shopping I decided to buy Korean red pepper paste just because the store only had small sized bulgogi sauce, so I decided to buy this humongous jar just for variety rather than buying 2 of the same kind.

And here I was, stir frying wombok and tried to put some of the red pepper paste then it turned into a "kimchi-like" dish. Then my housemate asked me if it was cap jae (or whatever is the spelling, a korean soup anyway) and I just realised I just made one! And of course as it was supposed to be a stir fry, there wasn't much liquid there.

But anyway, it was a nice dinner for a cold winter night! :)

And Tiramisu It Is!

And more tiramisu! I decided to make this easy tiramisu because one of my housemates missed out when I made it months ago.

This is one really easy tiramisu, no bake, just mix. But I ended up with a pile of dishes! I'm just glad that I have a habit of washing dishes bit by bit, so in the end I didn't need to be intimisated by mountains of dirty dishes.

I also ended up with a few mascarpone ice cream sandwiches, or so I called it, I don't know if it met the criteria to be one but whatever.

Here are two photos of my tiramisus, I made enough for everyone in the house. Sorry but no photos on the ice cream sandwiches and trust me, they are just the cream for tiramisu squeezed in between two marie biscuits! LOL

Back to Winter, Back to Cooking

It's been officially winter season in Melbourne since June.
For me, it's officially freezing in July!
We're back to July and tell you what? I'm super excited about everything that will happen in July! Except the chill of course.

WARNING! Some of the points will sound stupid, if you are lucky enough you will fin it funny though, or even weird? Anyway, let me start with this very morning then going forward and backward in order to confuse myself and everyone else reading this.

1. Tell you what? I love winter morning, especially a foggy one. It is still foggy even though it's already 9AM. I love my morning, I love my breakfast and I love taking my time in the morning. Since I worked I haven't had many of this kind of morning. I made coffee with Italian conduction coffee maker, which is very interesting. While waiting for my coffee to boil, I put up a blanket to cover my upper body (call me weird but I enjoy wearing my blanket that way) and started sweeping the floor. I even had a nice time standing in front of the house enjoying the fresh air! Talk about a nice morning, eh?

2. My master course will start next week! I'm just so excited! Tell you what? Next week is only the enrolment though. But guess what? I told my workplace that I won't be available for the whole week. Not my fault because I thought I might be spending a lot of days in uni. The same thing applies for the week after, orientation week! I haven't been very keen about orientation for my college nor bachelor course, but somehow I'm pretty excited on this one! I just can't wait to start my master!

3. And of course, in winter you need a huge amount of energy to stay warm, hence you require plenty of food. Conclusion? Cook a lot, eat plenty! I'm so happy I tried cooking so many things these past few days. And oh, I bought some new cutleries, kitchenwares and baking tools too! I tried some of my new equipments but of course I will be experimenting more when I start my uni as I will have more free time  (hopefully).

Here are some of the pictures of my cooking. :)

Sourdough Toast, Fried Egg and Crispy Bacon

Kahlua Banana Toffee

Baked Macaroni with Bacon and Cheese

Beef Soup and Macaroni

Coffee Syrup Cake

Creamy Bolognese with Chorizo and Mushrooms

Sourdough Toast, Sliced Turkey, Poached Egg with Hot Tomato Chutney

My Appled-Sausage Curry

My second attempt in cooking sausage curry with apples last night. I put a bit of a twist by putting indonesian veggies called 'labu siam', which I don't know the english word, and spring onion. I also put red wine vinegar that enhanced its smell and flavour.

Tasted good, I have to say that it was a success, except that it was a bit too spicy for us. I imagined my sister complaining to me for cooking something too spicy, typical me. I can't imagine if I cook on Masterchef Australia, I bet I will blow George Calombaris' head with my food, hahaha.....

Anyway, had a glass of lemon sparkling water along with the food while watching Masterchef. It was good having dinner with my brother again, I was excited with all the snacks he brought from Indonesia, hopefully they will last long!

Last Month of Interlude

Ok, been so long since my last post. I admit I have been procrastinating enough to not post anything in the last month.

Let's see the checklist of what I have done around....

1. an IELTS test, which I didn't pass the 8 all band obviously, otherwise I would have posted it sooner.
2. Indonesia and Malaysia, I put up 4 kg and of all those 2-3 kg is from one week in Malaysia.
3. Catch up with my friends in Indonesia.
4. Back to Melbourne and wanting to catch up with all friends.

Is that all? Perhaps, I can't recall anything else at the moment.

So it has been 6 months since my graduation and I have yet to find a suitable job for me and no PR application. It sounded so bad now that I put it this way. But I have applied for Master degree since about 3 months ago, since then I didn't really look for a job and just go with the flow, which felt really good.

Yup, it has been a short (or maybe a long one?) interlude, let's call it a gap (half) year before study. I learnt a lot from it. And I made new resolutions as well! Maybe it's too late to make resolutions in mid year like this, but surely it's better than nothing. The trigger for these resolutions are, surprise surprise, from Indonesia and Malaysia. I realised how stagnant the growth in Australia is and how significant changes took places in other countries. Of course I'm partly aware of the changes as we read newspapers, but it was merely like reading a fairy tale at that time.

Now that I realise that the world is broader than I think, I opened my mind and decided to let myself go with the flow, the good one obviously. I decided to study hard while looking for a more suitable part time job and will go to China to study Chinese. I will also do a backpacking or study language in Europe. And the good thing is, my father is willing to support me, both financially and mentally, for my grand Europe trip!

Oh, and I also decided to go home a lot on my semester breaks. Not that I want to avoid work and not that I don't want the money, I do love money! But I realised that while I'm young, I want to travel a lot, there are places that I have yet to visit, even in Indonesia.

SO! I'll be going back to Indonesia for 2 months from either December or January, and I will travel a lot! My family is planning for a trip to Japan! Can't be more excited than this! I wish I can see Hokkaido this time. Tours will usually take 2 weeks and I want to extend for another 2 weeks to do a backpack around Japan! Or maybe visit my cousin in South Korea for a week as well? Well, possibilities are unlimited at the moment. For now, I want my next holiday to be spent in Japan and in Indonesia (around Maluku or Sulawesi perhaps).

That's all for now.

Indo So Far with Approaching Melbourne

As you all know (or not), I went back to Indonesia for 3 weeks!
I am still in Indonesia, spending my last few days before flying back to Melbourne.
I just realised that I have not finished my culinary tour yet, there are still more to eat in my list, just for Jogjakarta!

One answer to that problem here, and this answer is not solving but just on checking why 3 weeks is not enough, is that I spent 1 week out of my 3 weeks in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. I shopped a lot, ate a lot and saw a lot. I spent about RM2000 there, equal to almost AUD700. If only I stayed in city centre, I would have spent MUCH more! But to cut costs, I stayed in my sister's apartment, yay me for not paying any accommodation.

My luggage now is filled with FOOD! And of course I got some souvenirs but they are not to be compared with the number of FOOD in my suitcase, hah! There are still places I want to visit and food I want to eat, but I know that my time will be up and all I want to do is spending my remaining time for my family.

My holiday was a short one and I might not be coming back to Indonesia for the next few years as I need to build up my leave for months in Europe. <3 Oh and I am planning to go backpacking to Japan too! Ah, so much in my travel list.

I will post more about my culinary trip, and pictures of course, when I get back to Melbourne.

And for now, ciao!

Metropol Weekend with Parisian and Vietnamese Tereat

Last Saturday was great for me.
I finished work a bit late hence had a really late lunch.

I went to East Richmond Station with my brother for my favorite macaron store, La Belle Miette. Didn't know they had a branch there, which is actually their kitchen!

We arrived at around 4.30pm, just 30 minutes from their closing time. Unfortunately we missed their limited edition macarons and madeleines. But that didn't sadden us at all. We indulged 4 macarons and 4 financiers, two of the financiers were complementory, and two cups of black coffee from their pop up cafe.

I had heaps of chats and laugh with the store owner and barrista there. Yup, we decided to chill out there until their closing time, it was only half an hour anyway!

Then we continued our culinary journey by walking to Victoria Street, which turned out to be about 5 blocks away! Luckily we was not in rush at all.

Victoria Street was like a grocery shop and restaurant heaven, literally. We took our time entering each shops. My brother suddenly had a sudden craving for dr. Pepper, a cherry flavored carbonated drink, so we tried to look for it.

We went a look at their new Woolworths and it was really cozy. We also went into Daiso, cheap Japanese goods store.

Then after all that walking, we decided to have early dinner at 6.30pm. We had this Vietnamese sizzling pancake and broken rice with pork chop at Tho Tho Bar and Restaurant. And believe me, it wasn't expensive at all!

After such delightful dinner, we went to our friends house in the city. They decided to drink and here comes the game. No details needed here, I guess.

We reached home at 3am, slept anf woke up ar 11am. I cooked some western breakfast of chips, bacon and eggs. Then we decided to make some croquettes. It turned out good!

We closed the weekend eith grocery shopping and chilling out at home the rest of the Sunday.