Rice Cooker

While in Jakarta we tried to buy a rice cooker.  You must think “can you buy it in Perth?”, but what we’re looking for was a Japanese microcomputer rice cooker with a screen, and with some functions.  

Most of rice cookers I see in shops in Perth are very simple ones, which have just 1 button.  Moving the button upward = “cook rice”, and downward = “keep warm”. We wanted more functions on our rice cooker!  Like the one I was using in my house in Japan.  I know there’re microcomputer rice cookers available in some shops around Perth, but the model is very limited.  So we thought we could buy one from Jakarta.  If we could buy from Japan it’d be easy, but the problem is the voltage: Japan is 110W, and Australia is 240W.  We chose to shop in Jakarta because the voltage is same there (240W).

As I mentioned before there are many Japanese products available in Jakarta, so it was not difficult to find Japanese rice cookers at electronic shops.  Zojirushi, Hitachi, Panasonic …  The prices were ok, and we were so excited to buy one of those…. until we talked to a sales person!

After going to several electronic shops around Jakarta and considering all the functions and prices, we decided to buy either Panasonic or Philips from Best Denki (an electronic shop) in a mall.  Philips is not a Japanese brand, but the rice cooker is microcomputer built and the price was cheap.  We walked between these rice cookers many times thinking which one we should buy.  Panasonic is Japanese and well-known brand, but little too big (18L) for us.  Philips is not Japanese brand and I don’t know if it’s as good as Panasonic, but the size was perfect.  

We asked a sales person all the questions we had, (meanwhile she kept pushing us to buy more expensive rice cooker) and in the end we decided to buy Philips.  Then, suddenly the staff told us that they only have the display one – no more stock!  We didn’t want to buy a display because it looked dirty.  The logo of “Philips” was almost faded. :p  She kept talking and told us there’s no Panasonic either!  Whatttttt!!  She knew we were considering between those two for few hours, she could mention it to us earlier.

Then, she said Zojirushi and Hitachi is 15 % off at the time.  We didn’t even consider those two brand before because they’re expensive.  We knew she was just trying to get us buy an expensive one.  But, well, Panasonic and Philips are not available, so might as well why don’t we have a look at those expensive ones.  

She told us she can give us another 5% off (total 20% off) on Hitachi if we pay by cash.  We calculated it, and the price was not too bad after all!  We started to excite again.  We can’t buy Zojirushi and Hitachi brand in Perth, and they got nice features and functions.  And, the size was perfect.  

When she saw our face, she brought up a new large size Hitachi rice cooker from the back.  She opened up the box and showed us inside.  We told her we want to buy it, but in smaller size. (the cheapest one in the brand)  Then, she told us ” sorry we do not have the small one in stock.  Only the display one.  Why don’t you buy this big one, we have this in stock.”

We were so disappointed, and so angry!  Obviously she was just trying to get a bigger sales. We didn’t want to buy anything anymore, and left the shop…

Excuse me for writing so long story, it’s just a story of me getting a doggy service

Japanese Style Pasta in Jakarta

Again, back to my Jakarta trip..  it was my third visit to Jakarta, and I’ve discovered another side of this city.  On my last couple of visits, I’ve seen poor people on the street, dirty toilets, huge traffic jam etc, and I never thought I’d be able to live here.  However, during this trip a friend of my husband took us to a complex of shopping buildings in Jakarta CBD and I had a totally new experience there!  My husband said this place is too fancy (because of many brand shops and expensive stores) but it reminded me of Japan!  

There are three or four of shopping building next to each other, and each building got many shops and restaurants inside, including some Japanese shops such as MUJI.  

The thing which excited me the most was Japanese food there.  When the friend asked us what we wanted to eat, I told him “no Japanese please” because I thought the Japanese food there wouldn’t be so nice.  But, as I explore each floor I found so many nice Japanese restaurants.  In the end, we decided to go to this wafu (Japanese style) pasta restaurant for dinner.

We eat many unique flavor pasta in Japan, and this restaurant had those.  I was happy to have dinner here because pasta is one of my favorite food and I knew I wouldn’t be able to eat this type of food back in Perth.  

Chicken Teriyaki, Squid Ink, Chicken Katsu with Egg Sauce etc…  if I was very hungry I’d wanted to try either sukiyaki pasta or seafood curry soup pasta, but I decided to have scallop & mushroom soup pasta.  Eel & Unagi (Una-Tama) sounded interesting too.  There are also pizzas, teishoku menu as well as entrees such as edamame (branched and salted green bean in pods) and hiya-yakko (chilled tofu).  Friend had squid, prawn and cod roe pasta, and my husband had creamy crab carbonara.  It was delicious.

After dinner we walked around few buildings (apparently this area is safe enough to walk around few metres) for window shopping.  Then, we stopped at a Japanese cafe to have some sweets.  Actually it wasn’t a cafe, it was an Izakaya.  This Izakaya serves Okinawa food, such as mimigaa (dried pig ear), andangii (deep-fried Okinawa sweet), etc.  … shame, we just had dinner! (><)  I didn’t notice there’re a few Japanese business men near our table, and I was talking loudly “hey it’s Okinawa food!”.  I think they heard me, thinking “… a Japanese tourist??”  

We had this honey toast as dessert.  It was really nice, crusty outside, sweet vanilla ice cream and blueberry sauce …  I will try making it at home sometime soon

Sigh, I wish I could go there everyday to eat these Japanese food like those Japanese business men I saw at the Izakaya..

Dr Fish

While in Jakarta I had a chance to experience fish spa therapy.  Fish spa is a therapy by dipping your feet into a pool of “Dr Fish” and let these little healing creatures clean your feet and nibble away your dead skin, leaving your skin glow in health.  This fish spa treatments are growing in parts of Asia such as Japan, Korea, China, Singapore, Malaysia and Indonesia.  Most of there spas employ Dr Fish species which originate from Turkey, called Garra Rufa.

Garra Rufa is a special fish with natural healing properties.  It started in Kangal, Turkey: where people discovered the fish’s ability to cure skin diseases.  Garra Rufa is a fresh water fish, and their usual habitat is in hot springs, where these fishes can withstand temperatures ranging from 0 degree Celcius up to 43 degree Celcius.  They are also known as Dr Fish, feeds only on dead and problematic areas of the skin.

 The benefits of this are natural exfoliation of dead skin, smoother and healthy blowing skin, promote blood circulation, lightning of minor scars, etc etc.

I did this just for the curiosity, but as I proceeded to the fish pool I was having a second thought.  I really didn’t want to dip my feet into those vigorously moving little fish…  Looked gross. :p  But, we have already paid for 30 mins, so no choice!  I sat down on the bench and dipped my feet slowly into the water.  !!!

Those little creatures were really really tickling for the first few minutes, and I was screaming..  but as I tried to calm down myself and ignore the fact that there are thousands of fish nibbling on my skin, I felt ok.  I dipped my feet in a pool of small fish first, and then moved to the pool of larger size fish.  Lager fish has bigger suction but less aggressive compared with the little ones.

After the therapy, my feet were very smooth, soft and moist!  I couldn’t help but touch my feet in the car on the way home  It was an interesting experience..

Food in Jakarta

<Bakmi Ayam>

We had bakmi (noodle soup) many times during this stay.  Bakmi is not really a special food, and people eat it quite often over there.  (it’s like “ramen” in Japan)  The photo is Bakmi Ayam (chicken noodle soup) at Grand Kelinci.

<Gado Gado>

We had this gad-gado at the food court in Kelapa Gading Mall.  It was supposed to be my snack, but the portion was pretty big and it came with rice. (you could chose either nasi (steamed rice) or lontong (sticky rice cubes)  I told the shop staff not to add too much chili, but it was quite spicy…

<Hainan and Roasted Chicken Rice>

My brother-in-low took us to Plaza Senayan (a mall in CBD area) and we had lunch at a Singapore restaurant there.  I had Hainan Chicken Rice, and brother-in-low had roasted chicken rice.

<Kwe Tiau>

At the Singapore restaurant my husband had stir-fried kwe tiau.

<Satay Ikan Bali>

I had this satay ikan Bali (Bali style fish satay dish) at a food court “Food Connection” in Kelapa Gading Mall.  The fish was spicy, and nicely crusted.  Very nice!

<Satay Ayam>

Satay is one of my favorite Indonesian side dish!  Satay actually can be a main meal when you order it with nasi (steamed rice) or lontong (sticky rice cubes).  My husband likes satay kambing (lamb satay) but I prefer satay ayam (chicken satay).

Wedding Party in Jakarta

  We had our final wedding event here in  Jakarta, and I must tell you it was all  fun!!   Not the party itself, but I experienced many funny things on this day… :p

  Around 12 pm a hair&make-up stylist came to  the house.  I was the first one to get hair and  make-up done…  I don’t speak Indonesian, so  mother and sister-in-low and my husband are  all in my room to help me out in case I want     to say something to him (stylist).  

  Right after I sat down on a chair, suddenly he  started to rub ice cubes on  my face! … it was a shock, but I knew he was going to do some weird thing  to me!  Then I saw him cutting skin-colored tape into small pieces… I knew  it was for my eye lids.  I asked everyone in the room to tell him “don’t tape my eye lids so that my eyes look like Chinese!”   I had to watch every move he does.. otherwise I had no idea how my face  is going to turn out! (>0<)  I told everyone that I don’t really want to wear fake eyelashes, but he did it anyway…  Now, my face became something that I’d never be able to walk in Japan with.  Thick, shinny, big eyes and lips.  Oh my gosh, it sure is a once-in-a-life-time experience.

After my hair and make-up was done I had to wear a wedding dress, and video and camera clues started to interview us asking “how we met” “any words for parents” etc.  We didn’t know about this interview thing and didn’t prepare anything, so I wonder how the video is going to turn out..

By the way wedding dress was really really tight!!!  Yes I have put on weight!  I couldn’t breeze, but I had to wear it until 7pm – the party starts.  It was hot and humid, and the dress was heavy, tight, I was sweating…  it was really uncomfortable.  My husband and I got in a wedding car around 4:30pm to go to a Chinese restaurant -where the party will be held.  We had quick dinner with just family first there.  The food was wonderful, but I couldn’t eat much because of this stupid dress!!  

Soon a wedding planner arrived and told us what we had to do.  Walk slowly to the alter, cut fake wedding cake, feed cake to parents, pour champagne into a tower of glass etc etc…  I was like ‘ok ok’  I just wanted the things done quickly so that I could get out from this super tight dress.  Then, when we were practicing to cut a fake wedding cake, I noticed the cake knife was samurai sword..!!  Isn’t is supposed to be an elegant looking silver cake knife or something??  The knife we were holding was long and rusty samurai sword!  It was ridiculous..  Then I found a tarantula in a champagne glass.  Oh my gosh…  everyone started to panic , and it was all fun !

The party finished around 10pm, and then I was finally free.