Mie Celor

Well, another famous Palembang food is Mie Celor. Mie is noodle and celor means you put it into the boiling water for a short time and take it out. That process is called celor :-)

We used to eat this in the market. Sitting on a simple bench in-front-of the push cart of the seller. My childhood memory. Nowadays, it is sold in a small restaurant. The most well-known one in Palembang is Mie Celor 26 illir.

So start with ingredients. 

Ingredients for the soup

- 1,3 liter shrimp bouillon

- 250gr thin coconut milk

- 1 teaspoon of lime juice

- salt, pepper as taste

- half maggi cubes

- 2 beaten eggs

- 2 spoon flour mix with water for thickener

How to make the soup: use the 300gr shrimp (of below ingredients) and boil with the water and when the shrimp turns red, lift it up.  This become the shrimp bouillon. And then add the coconut milk, salt, pepper, maggi cubes and slowly put the beaten eggs while stirring. At the end put the flour water to thicken the soup.

Ingredients for the content

- 300 gr boiled shrimp

- 100gr bean sprout

- 3 boiled eggs

- fried shallots

- few spoon cut chives

- 250 gr hokian noodle

How to prepare: Put the hokian noodle into a basket and dip it in the boiling water for a minute or so. Lift it up and put it into a bowl. Do similar things to the bean sprout. Put the shrimp, the soup and then decorate with cut half boiled egg, fried shallot and sprinkle with chives. You can add lime juice and chili sambal if you like. 

Pindang Serani

Kalo ke Palembang jangan lupa nyobain yg ini - Pindang Serani ikan patin. Asam, manis, pedas. Nano nano dech rasanya. 

Bahan

- bawang merah 10 biji

- bawang putih 3 siung

- cabe merah pedas 2 atau 3 biji

- cabe merah tidak pedas 8 biji

- 2 batang sere dimemarkan

- jahe 1 ibu jari

- laos 2 ibu jari

- kunyit 3 ibu jari kalo kurus, 2 ibu jari kalo kunyitnya besar

- daun jeruk 2 lembar

- daun salam 2 lembar

- asam jawa 1 sdm + air

- gula merah 1 sendok makan

- air 1,5 liter

- ikan 700/ 800 gram atau bisa juga daging bila anda tidak suka ikan

Cara membuat

- bumbu2 kecuali daun jeruk, daun salam, sere dihaluskan. Sebagian diiris tipis2

- setengah bumbu ditumis, sebagian dimasukkan langsung ke dalam rebusan

- bila menggunakan daging, masak daging + garam hingga empuk sebelum bumbu dimasukkan

- bila pake ikan, ikan di marinade dulu dengan jeruk nipis + garam. Buang airnya. Ikan dimasukkan di saat terakhir. 

Celimpungan

Happy Mother's day !!!
Greatest respect to all mothers that raise their kids with compassionate love.

Today's recipe will be Celimpungan.
In my home town, we love to eat fish cake and we have various forms and way to serve it and each of them has its own name.

This one is Celimpungan. It's almost similar to fish balls (giant balls normally) and serve with sauce made with coconut milk.  Here is the recipe, it's for 2 to 3 serving; and as I live in Europe where I cannot find the original ingredients, the recipe has been adjusted to suit the situation :-)

How to make the fish balls
- Filet Brosme fish about 275 gr.
- water 1/2 bowl (small bowl size 250ml)
- white egg of 1 egg
- Tapioca flour - 1 bowl
- 1 tablespoon salt (flat)
- 1/2 cube maggi

Mix the all the ingredients above, except the Tapioca flour, in a blender till they are smooth. Then mix then slowly with tapioca flour. Till it can be form with spoon as balls. Approximately below consistency

Boil a lot of waters in a pan. Wait till it is really boiling and then make balls form with spoon and drop it into the waters. When they are floating, add about 10 minutes to ensure they are well cook. And lift up from the water. Put it on fabric and leave it dry.

How to make the sauce (we call it kuah)
- 4 pieces small shallots (asian shallots)
- 1 piece small garlic.
- 1/2 teaspoon turmeric powder
- 1/4 teaspoon coriander powder
- salt as per your taste
- 1/2 cube maggi
- 200 ml thin coconut milk (you can mix coconut milk with water to thinner them)

Grind shallots, garlic, turmeric and coriander together till it become a paste.
Heat small amount of oil in a pan, put the paste and stir fry till it smells nice and then pour the coconut milk, put maggi and salt to taste. Stir it slowly till it's boiling. And then put those fish balls inside. And leave it boil for few minutes.

Serve with fried shallots and if you like spicy food, you can add sambal terasi or with sambal ulek.

Pempek DOS/ Pempek Sagu

This is a delicious, cheap and easy to make food. My mom used to make it for me as snack in the afternoon. Well, do not hope a high nutrition value from this ... but the happiness that it gives you when eating it, you won't care on nutrition anymore.

Anyway, it is not an everyday food - it's time to time. And we have the right to enjoy food isn't it :-)

Warning !!!, we are used to cook without measurement. We call it 'kiro kiro bae' ... this is where your cooking skill is being challenged :-D

Portion for 4 people

Ingredients for dough (pempek)

- 200 gr multi purpose flour

- 200 gr tapioka flour

- salt

- a bit of sugar

- one maggi cubes

- 4 eggs

- water

- oil

Ingredients for the sauce (cuka)

- 100 gr palm sugar

- 12.5   gr garlic, grind and make as paste

- 25 gr chilli paddy + big red chilli (2 pieces) - grind and make as paste

- 5   gr salt

- 25 gr sugar

- 1    table spoon vinegar (25%), if you use apple vinegar then you need more

- 250 cc water

How to make pempek

- mix multi purpose flour with sugar, maggi cubes, salt and pour boiling water into it slowly. Pour the water until all the flour are wet and form like a dough

- then put one egg, mix it

- and then mix them with the tapioka flour

- beat the other 3 eggs in a bowl

- boil at least 2 litter of water

- form the dough like a pocket, and then pour the beaten egg inside and close it

- put it directly in the boiling water

- boil till they float, and then you can take out from the water

- leave it till cold

- cut and fry

How to make cuka

- boil the water 

- put the garlic and chilli paste

- put the palm sugar

- put salt and vinegar

- taste, you can add salt, sugar or vinegar to your taste

How to serve

- put the pempek in a bowl, and then pour the cuka on top of it. 

- and you can put shredded dried shrimp on top of it and/ or cuts of cucumber

Other option is not using egg but make the roll shape (like bolster) and then cut in the middle, put shredded dried shrimp, chilli paste and sweet soya sauce

To Our Mothers with LOVE

I'll be posting series of recipes blogs of my childhood food - Palembang food. These blogs are dedicated to my beloved mother and also the mother's of all my friends.

I am so lucky that I've been grown up with mother that stays at home ... cooking and taking care of us with love.

So do many other mothers of my friends, at that time. They are all mothers who is working 100% as mother. Mothers who really know how to cook exquisite food, mothers who spend hours and hours in the kitchen to produce the best healthy food from raw ingredients.

Time has changed. Time has forced women to go to work and therefore less time spent for family and especially less time for cooking.

I'll dedicated some of my time to re-write their recipes, keeping it as treasure for the next generation.

End of Journey

This journey has been ended. But the real journey is still a long way to go ... but I am sure I will reach the end as long as I keep stepping on the path.

I am very glad and grateful having a chance to do this journey. It is an enriching journey. Many thanks to my boss, my friends; especially the one in the office that has to work hard covering my work, my family and everybody that make this journey possible.

Dhamma Sumeru

J'ai encore Feb 2011 pour mon vacance :-) ...  J'ai passé tout le mois dans Dhamma Sumeru, situe au Mt. Soleil. C'est une place tranquil et tres beau. Le lever de soleil et le coucher du soleil sont étonnants.

Je sense que je suis a la maison la. Mes amis, les participants, l'enseignants sont trés gentil. C'est une experience inoubliable. Je suis trés content pour avoir la chance d'être là

On the way back

After one month of travelling, it is time now to go back home. So from Bagan to Yangon and then Yangon to Ho Chi Minh. Atmosphere in Ho Chi Minh is a bit changed as it is approaching the Chinese New Year. The park turned into flower selling market. Beautiful ... a lot of Chrysan flower. You can enjoy some photos below.

 

And from Ho Chi Minh, I am supposed to fly back to Frankfurt and then Frankfurt - Zurich and supposed to arrive at home at noon on the 29 Jan 2011. But due to technical reason, after more than 6 hours waiting in the check-in queue, the flight got cancelled and I am re-routed via Seoul ... hehehehe.

So here below are the pictures of Seoul - Incheon International airport. A very nice airport. They have Korean cultural exhibition and also museum in the airport. So 6 hours transit time turned into a fun time.

At last, after long journey ... I managed to reach home by 02:00 AM in the morning on 30th Jan 2011 hehehehe. Home Sweet Home.

Enfants du Myanmar

Ils sont trés mignons ... ci dessous, quelque images des enfants

Village in Myanmar

Life is simple and calm in the villages. And each of the village has its mean of living. Most of the village do agriculture in rainy season and then in dry season, they do something else like tourism , the cotton spinning, basket weaving, weaving, joss stick making, etc.

Village house are mostly made of bamboo wall and palm roof. The house normally has only one big room for the family and a small kitchen. One bamboo house cost about 3500 USD to built.

Each of the village has primary school but to go to high school/ university; they have to travel to the big town. School are not free. For high school, they have to pay about 300 USD per year. One of a boy that I met in a temple, he cannot continue school as his parent cannot pay for it. He learned English from foreigners ...

Here are the pictures of the villages.

 Village road in Aneth Village

 My driver is a nice guy. He stopped in a small shop and bought 2 bags of candy. I thought it's for his kids at home but apparantly it's for the kids in Ma U Alai village.

Since then, I also joined him buying biscuits and candy for village kids :-)

Village house in old Bagan. No bricks, they are all made of bamboo. The roof sometime is made of palm leaves, sometime made of metal.

I became a guest in a village house - the grandmother's house of my horsecart man.

It's middle class house in the village, it is big. The grandmother was rich.

The man with me is the uncle of my horsecart man. He worked for tourism office before. He proudly showed me his photos.

Those people, they are not rich in term of economy but they are rich in their heart.

Bagan (Pagan)

Avec 1.5 heure de bateau, j'ai traversé le fleuve d'Ayerwaddy de Pakhoku à Bagan.

Bagan est l'ancienne capital du royaume du Pagan. Il y a plus que 2000 temples à Bagan. A cette epoque- la, Bagan était trés riche et fertile. Chaque famille a construit un temple.

Maintenant Bagan n'est pas aussi riche et fertile qu'avant. Pendant la saison des pluies, ils font l'agriculture. Dans la saison sèche, ils comptent sur le tourisme.

Ci dessous, les photos du Bagan

 Vue du Bagan le matin - a pris du ? Je ne sais pas le nom du temple. Il y a trop temples ici.

La colline en arrierre est Mt. Popa.

 Vue du coucher du soleil - a pris du Thin Gan Yon temple.

Vue du coucher du soleil - a pris du temple no. 2047












Ci dessous, les photos des statues du Buddha

Pho Win Taung Cave

Pho Win Taung cave is about 1.5 hours drive from Monywa, mostly off road. Along the way to go there, hardly you see house/ village. But indeed worth to visit. There are more than 700 caves - some natural, some is man made. In each of the cave there is at least one Buddha's statue. The wall painting in the caves are beautiful.

A little girl was my guide and she showed me around visiting the best caves.

Lives there yellow monkeys and these monkey are already there since 13th century; as you can see the monkey's picture on the cave wall. The girl explained to me that there is always only a male monkey that is also their king. As this male monkey kills all the male babies - no competition.

Here are pictures of Pho Win Taung cave.

This one has the most beautifl wall painting. Well preserved too. 

Rows of buddha's statue with beautiful wall decoration.

On bottom right hand corner you can see the monkey picture there.

It is me with a monkey climb on my leg asking for more food :-)

The monkeys are cute, they are not so agressive. They took food politely from your hand. But sure you are still has to be careful ... hehehehe.

Cuisine en Birmanie

Cuisine Italienne est trés connue au Vietnam et Birmanie :-) Il y a Pizza et les pâtes (spaghetti, fettucini, etc.). En Birmanie; si on parle du cuisine Europeanne, c'est egal cuisine italienne.

Ci dessous, les photos des panneaux du restaurant italienne à Bagan (Birmanie) 

On mange aussi charbon de bois (Charcoal) ici. Vous pouvez regarder la preuve ci dessous ... hehehehe

Cuisine Birmanie est une mélange du cuisine Indienne, Chinoise et Thai. Vous pouvez gouter un bol de potage chinois avec le goût de curry de dans :-)

Entre le repas, les gens habitualement prendre les 'snacks' - voir ci dessous.

Et pour le repas - on sers beaucoup des chooses. Vous pouvez manger tout si vous voulez ou peut-etre vous voulez mangez tout si vous pouvez. Ci dessous, le repas du midi pour une personne - et vous pouzez demander encore du riz gratuitement.

Amarapura and Mingun Temple

Amarapura is a former capital of Myanmar, located at the west of Ayeyarwady river. There is a very beautiful monastary made of carved teak wood. It was part of a palace of king Mindon - the king passed away in that house and then the son dismantled it and donate it to the monks.

And also there is U Bein bridge. The 1.2 km (the longest) teak wood bridge in the world. Built by the mayor U Bein salvaging the unwanted teak columns from the old palace during the move to Mandalay. See below, picture of sunset at U Bein bridge.



With a boat, I crossed Ayerwady river to go to Mingun temple. Mingun temple is a never finished temple.  due to an astrologer claiming that, once the temple was finished, the king would die. Only 50m high - compare to actual plan which was 150m.

And then damaged by an earthquate in the year 1800s. But still you can see that the temple is beautiful. You can climb to the top of the temple and from there you can see a breathtaking view of Ayerwaddy river.

Below is me in the buffalo cart - accompanied by 2 local guides. They are very nice, show me around and also helped me climbing to top of the temple and walk around to see view from all direction.

You need guide to do so as they know which part you can walk on and which part are dangerous due to the earthquake :-)



Mandalay

Située sur les bords de l'Irrawaddy, Mandalay est la deuxième plus grande ville de la Birmanie et l'ancienne capitale royale.

Ci desous, c'est le photo du couche du soleil a Mandalay Hill et élévation de lune sur l'autre coté

A gauche, Les moines ont fait la prière du soir au monastère Shwe Twin.

Vous pouvez regarder la posture accroupie (squat position). C'est trés speciale; peut-etre seulement en Birmanie, le moins faire ça.

A droite est Mahamuni Buddha - statue de Buddha trés connue. Situe a Mandalay.

Selon la légende, le Bouddha a visité la ville de Dhanyawadi d'Arakan dans 554 BC. Le Roi Sanda Thuriya a demandé qu'une image était creé de lui. Et apres fini, le Bouddha a respiré sur elle.

A gauche, c'est Kuthodaw Pagoda -  Elle abrite le plus grand livre du monde (par la taille), le canon bouddhique en pâli, ou Tipitaka.

Dhamma Joti

Below is the pictures of Dhamma Joti - a vipassana meditation center in Yangon.

More than 90% of the participants (men and women) wear longgyi (saroong) and more than 70% women wear black velvelt sandals. So a bit funny actually on end of the meditation session seeing them  trying out sandals to find which one is theirs hehehehe.

Delicious Burmese vegetarian food are served. Chili seems one of the vital diet here as everyday, breakfast and lunch; at least one of the dish is spicy and a plate of chili paddy always available on the dining table.

And apart from Dhamma Joti, I and my friends Hikaru and Sophie; we had a chance to visit International Meditation Center (meditation center of Sayagi U Ba Khin) that is also located in Yangon. 

On the left is a small pagoda where Sayagi U Ba Khin used to meditate.

While I have to go to the airport to catch my flight to Mandalay; Hikaru and Sophie were continued their journey to cross the river and visit Saya Thet Gyi's monastery.

As I went to Mandalay and Monywa; I had a chance to visit the monastery where Ledi Sayadaw gave dhamma teaching in Monywa. Below is the picture taken at Ledi Monastery.

  Ledi Sayadaw's statue

But did not have chance to visit the cave where Ledi Sayadaw used to meditate in the evening after teaching - which is accross the river but do not know where it is exactly.

In brief: Ledi Sayadaw is the teacher of Saya Thet Gyi, and Saya Thet Gyi is the teacher of Sayagi U Ba Khin and Sayagi U Ba Khin is the teacher of S.N. Goenka.


By the way, if you are interested in knowing more about vipassana meditation ... try to visit this web site: http://www.dhamma.org/

Bago

Bago est situé 18km du Yangon. C'est un ville des Mons. Les Mons sont un groupe ethnique vivant en Birmanie. Bago etais un grand commerce et aussi le centre du bouddhisme theravâda.

Ci desous, des temples trés connu en Bago.

Kyaikpun Pagoda -

image énorme de Bouddha de XVème siècle, près de bago

l'historie du Shwetalyaung Buddha: construite par le Roi Mgadekpa sur 994 AD - 55 mètres de long ; 15 mètres de haut

Shwetalyaung Buddha. Je ne crois pas que cette statue est du 10eme siécle.

Les Birmannes toujours prend de soin des temples très très bien. Ils sont comme nouveaux ...