The weather has been incredibly fine these few days. I have been spending lots of time in my balcony; working, reading my book, grilling and drinking my apéro. When the weather is just this good, why would we spend too much time in our steamy kitchen over the hot kitchen stove? This is the time [...]

After one complete week of pigging and drinking (the effect of one whole week of ridiculously good weather), eventually my body starts to complain. The high amount of carbs and protein from all those barbecues and other sinful dishes; and the high alcohol level in my blood makes me really sluggish and bloated. I swear [...]

That late evening in Venice in La Cantina, while we were busy nibbling our super delicious Italian cheese and cured meat platter, and sipping the wonderful Veneto Cabernet Franc wine; Francisco, the owner of the bar was busy preparing himself a pot of pasta sauce for his late night supper for him and his staff. [...]

I don’t know how much I have written about the significance of culture on eating pattern. I have repeated it again and again throughout this blog’s life. And yet I still feel that I have not sufficiently discussed the issue as it seems that there are more about it that I haven’t thought/talked about before. [...]

I am taking a little (really little) step towards self sustained food production. I am growing my own sprouts; a mix of alfalfa, lentil, fenugreek and daikon seeds. Not only they are great in salads and sandwiches; but they are also super healthy as they are full of amino acid and anti oxidant. It is [...]

One of the most popular dressings in Indonesian style salads is peanut sauce. We don’t use dairy-based dressings, such as mayonnaise or yogurt. Though it doesn’t contain dairy element, peanut dressing is already creamy and rich on its own. We usually add something tart like lemon juice, tamarind paste or vinegar to make tangier, and [...]

Pumpkin, oh how I love pumpkin. Though it is really troublesome to peel and cut it open, all the efforts are really worth it. The foodie blogosphere has been posting every dish imaginable related pumpkin this month. Well, who could blame them; this orange vegetable with moreish sweet flesh is probably the best thing about [...]

Though it is as old as the history of mankind, Quinoa has only claimed its fame relatively recent. Coming from the Andes high mountain, quinoa was the main staple of the Andean in the Pre Hispanic time, until the colonist arrived and altered the local culinary tradition. This highly nutritious grain has become the A-line [...]

I don’t remember when exactly I started to develop an addiction to udon; the Japanese wheat noodle. Before I even realized it, udon has become a regular visitor in my cupboard. It is always there waiting to comfort me every time I crave for a warm bowl of noodle soup. It is so heart warming [...]

Occasionally when I feel guilty for eating too much and irregularly, I like to prepare something healthy with a lot of greens. These two weeks particularly, we had dinner outside almost every night. Yesterday, we were invited for a nice Indonesian dinner (cooked by a true-bred Dutch!), a day before I ate nice Taiwanese pork-belly [...]