This pandemic quarantine gives me all the time in the world to re-make my fav snacks and unlimited access to the kitchen, so this wfh thing doesn't really work for me. I end up making snacks with whatever we have in the kitchen. If the pandemic doesn't get me, obesity sure will. Help!

Aaaaand I am back and I am ready for snack ideas during this pandemic because during this shutdown, lockdown, whatchamacallit, we are here together. Bored and hungry, so let's whip out easy to make - easier to eat snacks from whatever we have in the kitchen, shall we? Today's snack is Lumpia Mie or Noodle Spring Rolls. Let's start!

Bakwan sayur is an Indonesian national vegetable fritters. Well, okay, I might exagerated a bit there saying it is a national dish, but you can ask any Indonesian if they know bakwan sayur, and big chance that they do and they love it, no matter what region in Indonesia they come from. 

I have noticed that lately pulled-pork is on the trendy side in the culinary world. It looks so flavorful, tender, and juicy. They put it in sandwich, burger, nachos, buritos, or even a spoon over a bowl of warm cooked rice. You literally can eat it anyway you want and it turns your ordinary food into a food that nourish your hunger, appetite, and even your soul, and make you a better person after the 1st bite. 

A holy matrimony between my favorite slow-cooked beef curry and my all time favorite pub snack, rendang and nachos on one plate. Double awesomeness on one plate. It is healthy too, I mean it is covered with a mountain festive colored fruits, so it must be healthy.. maybe.. 

Anyway, I am not here to discuss about what is a healthy snack, I am here to share my latest craving recipe, so for the love of rendang and nachos, here is Rendang Nachos...

It is almost shameful to post this recipe because you can actually find the recipe to make Rice Krispies squares on the back of every Rice Krispies box. But you know I am shameless. I like easy recipe, add my own twist on it and blatantly post it on this blog. 

Today's recipe is no different, it's the simple Rice Krispies squares recipe that everyone seemed to know how to make it with eyes closed, with a bit of Indonesian touch; Pandan flavor. 

This Sunday is my me-time day, and what is a me-time without eating your fav food? This is the exact question that inspired today's recipe. One of my fav food is fried stuff. I know, I know, its not very healthy, but what can I say, I love it. Fried food is my definitely sinful delights!

Kembang Tahu (tofu pudding with thin ginger syrup) was a snack staple during a rainy day when I was a kid (yes, I snack a lot, stop judging.. K). I even had my favorite Kembang Tahu hawker who peddled around my neighborhood at 4 PM every day. The reason why I love that 4 PM Kembang Tahu hawker was because the sauce he made was gingery enough but not too spicy, it was just right for me. Kembang tahu is a very common and popular soy dessert in Jakarta sold by the street vendor, freshly made each day. Strangely, when I think about it, I have never found it in the menu of any restaurant I have been in Jakarta. But then again, even if I have found one, I’d still prefer to get it from the 4PM hawker, sometime street food is just unbeatable, tastewise and pricewise (it was 30 cents USD per bowl, (circa 2014)!! God knows how the hawker made his profit but I ain’t complainin’).

Its Valentine's Day and its so cold outside (-26 C), so lets just snuggle around and munching on Valentine's Day snack. I won't make any chocolate-y delicacy today (because I don't have the ingredients and too lazy to go out in this temperature, obviously), instead, I will make a traditional Javanese sweet snack called Ampyang Jahe or Peanut Ginger Brittle. I have been craving for this snack for awhile. I made a brittle before, but it was Blueberry Brittle. It was yummy, but today I am making the real Javanese peanut brittle. 

Off we go to the kitchen!

This is another recipe inspired by one of my best friends. I mean, you can not talk about a food and how good it is without making me drool and end up trying to cook it (or get it somehow). This lovely friend of mine has a special chicken nugget recipe (her chicken nuggets are so good, people who tasted it beg her to make more for sell). Unfortunately today recipe is not her chicken nugget recipe because her recipe requires a lot of skills of cooking which I don't possess. Laziness is what I possess. So today's recipe is an easy and fool-proof one. The kind of recipe everyone loves, and the only kind that I am able to cook. 

If there's a 3D printer that can print an actual edible food, I'd definitely would get one but that will be the end of this recipe blog and the beginning of a new blog about my journey into becoming morbidly obese :P

This is a revised version of my previous Nastar recipe. A lovely friend of mine told me that she tried the recipe and she had difficulties making it and it didn't turn out as lovely. After few modifying attempts, am pretty much happy with this one I am about to write. I hope this version works well too for you guys who are brave enough to give my recipe a try. I really appreciate it and at the same time admire your bravery :D

Nastar is one of typical cookies that served on special occasions like Holy days. My mom serves it two times a year; on Ied Fitr and Christmas. I think its a very good way to make something small becomes memorable and sweet. I mean Nastar is simply a cookie filled with pineapple jam, there's nothing more to it. If my mom had served it everyday, Nastar surely won't end up as one of my favorite cookies. Am keeping it my mom's way; only bake the cookies on Ied Fitr and Christmas (and when I am going to potlucks and need to bring something to impress people, and on that rainy season to accompany my cup of tea, oh and last one when I feel nostalgic and miss home so much).. Pardon? this means I bake it every time?.. Well no, those occasions I mentioned are special, and Nastar is the cookie for those kind of occasions. This way I can't blame my weight gain on holiday seasons (it was that special occasions that made me this larger belly circumference). 

Anyway, back to the recipe. I make my own pineapple jam and I am using my old version of the jam recipe because it works. The only twists I added were only on the dough recipe. 

As you have read from my previous posts, I have this craze over tofu. Its funny how people around me think that I am a vegetarian or a healthy eater because I love tofu (if only they know what I do to my tofus.. pffff.. I even make sugar pie tofu from times to times, and that's far from healthy). Most of them also comment how bland and tasteless tofu is. At first I thought they are just tongue dead.  After tasting every white tofu brands out there at our local groceries, I must admit that my friends aren't fully tongue dead. These white tofus do lacking in flavor. I guess mostly all the tofu sold at our groceries are meant to be a part of a dish instead of become a dish by itself.

If you are looking for a simple way to make appetizer or snack with tofu, then today is your lucky day! I am sharing you my (not so secret anymore) trick on making simple white tofu tasty. 

Baked Mac and Cheese, although it is not a traditional Indonesian cuisine, it is very well-known dish in Jakarta. We serve it mostly as snack. My mom used to make it in a big casserole, my brother and I would dip it in spicy sauce then gobble it up in no time. The ingredients used for this recipe like cheese and milk were expensive so my mom didn't cook it as often as we wished. She made it mostly on special occasions or when we had guests that she wanted to impress. It was kind of a luxury snack for us.

Last week, a lovely friend of mine invited us to her place for dinner. She served Mac and Cheese on bite size for appetizer, brilliant!! I love heavy dishes that come in bite size. It leaves me a reason to eat more because hey, its only a bite size anyway :P 

Toffu is definitely my top favorite protein source. It has subtle flavor and very versatile. You can use it for savory or sweet dishes. Back home at my parents' place, we have toffu and or tempeh on our table for each meal time (yes, it means minimum two times a day, and sometimes for snacks too). There are so many ways to cook toffu, you can use as meat replacement too.

Today I am making Perkedel Tahu or Toffu patty, using firm white toffu. My mom used to make it too, and she would add chunks of shrimp in it. I didn't have shrimp so I substitute it with crab stick. I was making this patties for supper but it ended up as my afternoon snack. My love for tofu and fried food knows no boundary nor discipline... 

Today's recipe is totally not a traditional Indonesian recipe at all, however I cook it often since I tend to have a lot of moose meat. You can use any strong-flavored meat such as lamb or even turkey. I used a lot of spices to soften the meat flavor yet careful enough it doesn't taste too much like a big triangle chunk of deep fried spice mix. 

Nice colorful salad, healthy and easy. When you need vegetable as side dish yet you are lazy like me, this recipe can be the savior of the day. 

Today was the first day of full sun and the temperature was over 20 Celcius here in my city. We had a long agonizing winter this year, so when you can actually go out without layers of coat and its sunny outside, you definitely do not want to waste such a beautiful day in the kitchen. However, I still had to feed my growling stomach which at the moment starts to show its ability to impersonate a whale mating sound. 

I was thinking to make a simple sandwich to bring and eat it at a park. I went to a nearby grocery to get some cooked meat for the sandwich and then I saw this nice cooked lobster on specials. I like lobsters, and I like it even more when its on special. Woo hoo!! 

Fortunately, I had few ripe mangos and avocados at home, and I was thinking what could I do with these fruits and lobster meat. I mean a sandwich could do, but when its hot outside, I don't really like eating heavy stuff like bread, and I was like, hey, why didn't I make some summer spring rolls instead! 

To be honest, before, I didn't really like summer spring rolls much since usually they put cilantro in it and I am cilantro taste intolerant, yeah I am picky like that. But now since I can make my own rolls,  I use fresh basil instead to give some taste to my spring rolls. 

Et voila, cook-free supper!!

There are two things I like to do the most in life and those are eating and make friends, and what happen when I combine both at the same time? Its guaranteed there will be unforgetable moments with lots of laughs and good food. and I consider myself very lucky being surrounded by awesome people from different cultural background. Once in awhile, we have dinner together and bring our best dish to share.

One day, a friend of mine brought this lovely chickpeas salad. Honestly, I have never eaten chickpeas before and its actually tastes pretty good. I like it!... Like any other salad, this salad is healthy and easy to prepare. The only down side from this salad is that the chickpeas make me gassy.. hahhahaha.. Poor people around me!

This recipe is the follow up of the previous recipe. Lemper is flavored rice with fillings and wrapped in banana leaves. Usually the filling is chicken meat but this time I am trying to be creative and mix two recipes in one: recipe for the real lemper rice and Balinese spice for the meat filling (yeah because I have it in my fridge and I cant wait to use it.. ihihihihii..).

Okay, I must admit Takoyaki is not typical Indonesian snack but I did grow up munching on tons of balls of this. It was one of the "it" snack back when I was younger. Actually, it still is the "it" snack, I saw stands selling this food with all kind of twists, from adding cheese to spicy sauce but my favorite is the basic Takoyaki, simple and awesome. 

One day, a friend of mine came to my place to show me how to make this chewy snack. The technique to make this snack is not that complicated, but you do need to have quite a collection of Japanese ingredients to get the real flavour of Takoyaki like bonito flake and ofcourse the special Takoyaki pan to cook on. Since I didn't have enough Japanese ingredients nor the Takoyaki pan, I never thought to make Takoyaki on my own. I was simply happy to have that lovely friend cook me those squidy balls of happiness. 

On my last trip to my fav asian grocery store I found this bag of bonito flake. I can be quite a compulsive shopper if I see exotic (rare to find) cooking ingredients. Especially if its come in a good packaging and I know it will last long enough until I finally decided what to do with it (and it can take quite a loong time.. LOL..).  I grab that bag full of bonito flake and went home feeling accomplished (why? I don't know, it just a feeling I tend to have when I find rare stuff at a store.. weird? I am... but I am sure you felt this way before, come one, admit it... I know you do..)

The day was rainy and gloomy. Its one of those days of the year that I call the Snacky day. You know, the day that makes you stay at home and bored and you end up just want to eat something comforting (comforting your weird craves that is). I like to spend the days like this to cook something different and today I decided to cook Takoyaki!.. I know I dont have the special pan but it didn't stop me. I saw my mini donut maker laying around begging to be used so I said to myself; why don't I give it a try! Don't you just love how you become so creative when you are hungry :)   So I went on and try the recipe from this lovely site.