Happy New Year 2011

As I sit here at the kitchen table facing the big window, the sound of fireworks can be heard in increasing regularity. Once in a while, the sight of fireworks illuminating the night sky will distract me from my computer screen, startling me in my deep concentration. And it is only 6 o'clock!!! It's not even midnight yet. In fact, for the past three days that's how it has been. It only increases as we approach the new year.

Fireworks are a popular way to celebrate New Year in the Netherlands. At the stroke of midnight on new year's eve, fireworks are set off continually for about one or two hours. The nice thing is we do not have to go far. The whole of neighbourhood will be firing their very own fireworks!!! In the Netherlands, towns or cityhalls do not organise central fireworks display, except for Rotterdam where the national fireworks display can be seen.

Rotterdam - Picture courtesy of Pyroworld via Mr Google

When we were in Amsterdam, we would be waiting on the 3rd floor window as 12 midnight approached. We would be running to and fro between the front and the back rooms to witness the beautiful display. All were set off by the neighbours. I expect here in The Hague would not be much different.

In the Netherlands, long time ago there used to be a tradition of holding feasts and lighting special fires in the darkest part of winter. These are reflected in luxury meals served during this time of the year and the fireworks and bonfires lit on the evening of December 31 until the early hours of January 1. There is also the tradition of eating food which contain a lot of fat or oil, such as oliebollen and appelflappen. The story goes back to the time of the pre-Christian Germanic goddess Perchta (Bertha). People believed that Perchta would fly across the sky with evil spirits in the darkest part of winter and try to cut open the stomachs of anybody she met. However, her knife would slide off the people who had been eating fatty food :D

To my dear family and friends (personal and bloggers alike) I wish you HAPPY NEW YEAR. May you and us here, be always blessed, become a better Muslim, have good fortune and excellent health in the coming year, insyaAllah.

 

Way To Go Harimau Malaya !!!

Picture courtesy of Jakarta Post

Congratulations Harimau Malaya !!! We are very proud of you for winning the AFF Suzuki Cup 2010 !!! Hooray !!!

Watching the game live through the web (RCTI-tv Indonesia) in the second half of the game was certainly nerve breaking !!! It was lunchtime here and I was hungry, but I somehow couldn't eat because of this flip-flop in my tummy !!! I felt that my tummy was actually rejecting the food !!! Fuyo... I was that tense !!! But I know I wasn't the only one he..he..he..

The second half of the game was certainly full of attacks by the Garuda. I salute our goal keeper Khairul Fahmi for giving a sterling performance and managing to make a lot of heart-stopping saves. You should have been Man Of The Match !!! To me, you certainly ARE...

Let's hope this will be a starting point for a more victorious time ahead.

WAY TO GO HARIMAU MALAYA !!!!

Good Luck Harimau Malaya...

Kemenangan Harimau Malaya ke atas Garuda baru-baru ni memang menyuntik semangat pemain2 dan penyokong2 bolasepak kebangsaan. Orang yang tak minat bola pun tiba-tiba berminak pulak... aik... biar betul !!! Hmmm siapa lagi kalau bukan DH. Sebelum DH pergi kerja pagi tadi siap berpesan, jangan lupa tengok Harimau Malaya hari ni.... Wahhh terkejut betul isteri dia.....(he..he..tuan punya diri la), sempat cakap pulak nanti dia akan sms web tu. Hah... kalau tuan punya diri ni memang suka tengok bola, tapi yang professional sajala...hmmm... yang Malaysia punya kureng....(sorry ye Rajagopal) tapi semangat juang dan patriotik Malaya tetap ada :D


Tapi tuan punya diri ni tak tengok pun perlawanan hari tu... kami yang pompuan ni berjalan2 kat Paris. Ehh... rugi la pergi Paris tengok bola kan? Screen computer tu pulak kecikkk, buat sakit mata je....Masa balik untuk solat zohor tu, masih 0-0, tapi lepas tu dapat masuk gol, wahh bukan main seronok lagi... bersemangat betul... :D



Kepada pemain-pemain Malaysia, semuga berjaya dalam misi anda. Jangan mudah gusar dengan provokasi dari penyokong2 dan media Indonesia, yang pentingnya fokus, fokus & fokus dan bermainlah dengan terBAIK. Remember, DO YOUR BEST!!!!

Penyokong2 bola ni sememangnya pelik, ingatkan di Eropah saja ada yang berperangai ekstrim rupa-rupanya perangai ni ada di seluruh dunia. Selalu juga kita dengar pergaduhan di sana sini gara-gara bola sepak. Kalau di Belanda ni pun, penyokong antara kelab pun ada yang buat hal. Sepatutnya sukan ni dijadikan alat penghubung untuk mengeratkan lagi silaturahim sesama manusia, sebaliknya lain pula yang jadi. Hmmm... kalau di tengokkan, yang selalu buat perangai ni tentunya penyokong lelaki kan? Rasanya tak pernah dengar lagi penyokong pompuan yang kena tangkap sebab bergaduh pasal bola. Kami orang pompuan pun patriotik juga, tapi taklah sampai nak tarik rambut. Hmmm... tu la, men are sometimes....

Harapkan Pagar, Pagar Makan Padi...

Last night I was just about to upload photos from the USB external drive to the blog when suddenly the drive malfunctioned.... huaaa...huaaa... ALL my photos huaaa... huaaa... everything :( :( I'm very very upset. I used the external drive because the laptop is very very slow when I kept photos in it :( and DH always said that if your laptop went kapot, you will lose everything huaaa... huaaa... But I still lost my precious photos huaaa... huaaa... Harapkan pagar, pagar makan padi huaaa... But who's to blame? No one but me !! :( I'm such a computer expert!!! Should have another back up!!! How? Another external drive ? I mean 2 external drives at the same time?? Back up on CDs ?? I hope it is possible to retrieve the photos when DH send it to the shop, I hope it's not too expensive :(

Fancy A FEBO Snack?

 

Walking down the streets of Amsterdam or any major cities in the Netherlands, it is very difficult to miss FEBO. FEBO is actually a Dutch chain of walk-up fast food vending machines. It offers cheap snacks from a wall lined with coin operated machines. The snacks sit inside little metal boxes with transparent doors and under some kind of heating devices. Simply insert coins, open a little window and retrieve the snack of your choice. Snacks sold are typical Dutch food like croquettes(veal or beef), satay croquettes(whatever that is), frikandellen(sausage), bitterballen(dutch meatball), kaassouffle(deep fried cheese pastry) and typical burgers. The food are prepared behind the wall and are regularly stocked.

While waiting for the train to Paris last week, I managed to take pictures of a FEBO at the Rotterdam station. I had been meaning to take photos of it for quite sometime. This is what it looks like...

Very cheap, as low as 1 Euro

Croquette or maybe frikandel

Burger

Reading some of the comments on the internet, it's said that the snacks are quite tasty, though may not be the healthiest :D

I Wish....

 

Hmmm..... I wish

This is my home......

or this....

or this....

Wouldn't it wonderful to go boating on that....

or this....

Look at the reflections in the canal....

perhaps this?

or could be this too....

Aaarghhh.... so beautiful.....

We came across this area when searching for a house in Den Haag many many months ago. This area is called Leidschenveen, on the outskirt of Den Haag, about 10 minutes drive from the City Centre.

Love at first sight. Couldn't resist taking pictures...

Alhamdulillah, dapat menyewa di tempat yang sungguh cantik dan tenang ini, Wish one of them houses is my home forever though :D

Cold = Food

Bila dah sejuk-sejuk ni perut mulalah kelaparan. Tapi entah apa silapnya hari Jumaat tu, segala yang dimakan di Sligro(mega supermarket ala2 Macro) pagi tu semuanya keluar balik, termasuklah the "wormy thingy" Anna jokingly said about our shrimp sandwich. :D What did I eat that morning??? The shrimp sandwich(shared), cheese tosti(also shared), mushroom soup, cappucino, and cheese & cracker. Anyway, all of it came out by the time we got home around 2.30 that afternoon leaving me tired and listless and didn't feel like eating dinner... Since DH had a late lunch and didn't feel like eating anything heavy as well, I took out the mussel that I bought that morning.


A simple dish, much suited for a starter :)

Hmmm.... grilled mussel with cheese.

Just place any grated cheese on the mussel and grill for about 10 minutes. May be sprinkled with herbs (didn't put any)

The grated "young" cheese I used....

Place cheese on top of the mussel. Do cover all of the mussel flesh, ours was not so cheesy....

The end result...

The next morning, having eaten so little the night before, I decided to cook glutinous rice for breakfast. I made sambal bilis, fried some ikan gelama and fried anchovy(the big ones) with lots of onions and dried chilli to go with it. At times like this, how I miss young grated coconut!! Instead, I used dessicated coconut. Hmmm it was yummy.... (teringat masa kecik2 makan kala hujan he...he...) It's a pity I forgot to take pictures of it :)

For lunch, DH wanted to cook nasi beriani (his version), so I happily let him. What better dish to eat on a cold snowy day :D

Using this spice mixture

Very simple, in a big pot, fry the spices in errr minyak sapi, add in chicken breasts and drumsticks. Add potatoes and later when the chicken and potatoes are half-cooked, add the other vegetables you have like carrots, tomatoes,green chilli or aubergines. In the meantime, in a smaller pot(or rice cooker), boil basmathi rice until half-cooked, and sieve in a collander. When the chicken and vegetables are almost cooked, spread the half-cooked rice on top of the chicken/vegetables mixture. Sprinkle raisins, mint leaves and gajus on the rice. Cover the pot and cook using a small fire.

DH used 4 pots of rice, so we had to eat it for 2 days he.he..

I ate mine with fresh mint leaves, I simply love the fresh ones....

And for drinks, we had this.....

Tea with fresh mint leaves

And last, the wormy thingy shrimp sandwich that I ate on Friday :D It was actually part of Christmas menu at Sligro, I forgot to check the name...

It was nice, and the salad was good too, I had never eaten it.... I have a feeling it was the combination of cappucino and mushroom soup that threw me off

:)

Sabar Je Lah Kaduk......

Ever since I tasted this recipe of otak-otak from The Meor Factor, I was hooked. I had never tasted it in Malaysia.... yeah yeah ignorant of me I know, I know.... The only otak-otak I had eaten back home was the ones they put fish paste inside the daun kelapa, but this was different. The reason it caught my attention in the first place was the use of "daun kaduk". I could almost smell it and the thought of eating it certainly made me salivating hmmm... yummy. When finally I cooked it, I was not dissappointed, the Meor Otak2, which I now fondly call it, was sooooo delicioussss...

So a few weeks ago, thinking that we had not eaten it for quite sometime, I told my dear husband(DH) to buy me fresh mackerel and daun kaduk. Besides we had visitors coming, I looked forward to impressing them with my newfound recipe :)

Me : Dapat beli ikan mackerel bang ?

That was my first question when DH got back.

DH : Tak sempat pergi kedai tu... tapi ada ikan tenggiri ketul kat kedai Oriental, abang beli la.

Ikan tenggiri?? They had ikan tenggiri?? Hmmm....my mind started thinking that maybe I should try the other recipe I found on the internet, they use ikan tenggiri or was it ikan tongkol?

Me : Daun kaduk ada ??

DH : Ada, abang beli.

Me : Bukan daun sireh???

DH : (getting exasperated) Bukan.... daun kaduk....

Yippee...... I was worried that he would buy daun sireh by mistake, after all they look similar. I told him to check with the assistant if he wasn't sure. Frankly speaking, I myself wasn't sure what it was called in Thai/Dutch, so how to ask them???

I started taking things out from the bag. Among them were some frozen fish. Where's the tenggiri?? I looked carefully at the packet, no this was no tenggiri.

Me : Mana tenggirinya?

DH : Tu la... yang frozen tu...

Sabar je la.....the ikan tenggiri turned out to be rainbow fish. I didn't think I had eaten a rainbow fish before (trying to imagine ikan pelangi in my mind, ada ke?). The fish was quite thin, and appeared long (since it's been cut to pieces), no colourful stripe found on the pieces. Maybe it's ikan parang, I thought. Well, I just had to try then... see how it turned out to be....

I searched again to the bottom of the bag. I didn't see any signs of daun kaduk. Don't tell me he left it!!!, I thought to myself.

Me : Bang.... mana daun kaduknya, tak ada pun dalam beg?

DH : Tak ada???? Ohh.... dalam beg satu lagi. Ni dia....

I quickly took the bag from him and reached inside and took the plastic wrapped daun kaduk....

What the.......???? It's not daun kaduk..... nor was it daun sireh.......

Of all the things he would buy, it was this.....

Daun keladiiiiiiii...............

Had he bought daun sireh, I would have understood, but this is daun keladi!!! Don't tell me he didn't know daun keladi??? What would I do with it??? Stirfried?? (that's what he suggested when I told him) The stalk didn't look edible either, otherwise I could try to make sayur keladi.

Hmmmm sabar je lah hai kaduk....

Oliebollen

Oliebollen is a traditional dutch food. "Olie" in Dutch means oil and "bol" means ball, whereas "bollen" is the plural of "bol". A dough mixture of flour, yeast, egg, baking powder, salt and milk is deepfried in hot oil giving rise to the name, I think. Usually raisins, currants, sultanas, apple and banana pieces are added, creating different varieties. They are normally served with powdered sugar.

Here in Holland, it is commonly sold everywhere in town in the months of October to early January. You will definitely not find it in the spring or summer. A search in the wiki says that it is traditionally eaten on new year's eve and at funfair, and sometimes it is referred to in English as Dutch donuts.

Picture courtesy of mr wiki.....

Oliebollen stall

Oliebollen upclose, after a big bite :)

Look at how big the oliebol is...

Nowadays you can buy readymade flour mixture from the supermarkets. All you have to do is add 500ml water to the flour, mix it and leave it for half an hour to rise. Then you can start frying like any other fritter. But still, they only produce the mixture for a limited period of time, once it's sold out, say in January, then you will not be able to buy it anymore, not until the next season. I normally stock 3/4 packets, there is no point in buying a lot of them because the expiry date is normally in April.

Oliebollen mixture

Personally, I think oliebollen is just like our "chokodok" or cucur tepung or cucur "bom" some might say. My late grandmother and my mother used to make it for "kuih petang" or sometimes breakfast...

:)

First Impression

This is not my first visit to the Netherlands. I had been here before, years ago.... during my student time. Brief as it was the visit then, the Netherlands, or commonly referred to as Holland, striked me as a friendly country. I remember when the four of us were in The Hague at the central station, trying to get to Madurodam, the miniature city. We approached an old man asking him how to go there. Unfortunately, the old man couldn't speak English, and we had problems communicating to him. Our pronounciation of Madurodam must have been wrong because it took him a long while to understand it. When he finally did understand where we wanted to go, he launched into an explanation, his hands waving here and there. When he finished, he looked expectantly at us, his gaze landed on each of our faces, only to be met with blank stare from us. He started explaining again... and again... What must he thought of us... In the end we gave up and decided that we had to ask someone else. But then, the old man waved to us, indicating that we should follow him. So, we got on a tram with him all the way to Madurodam. When we reached there, he also got of the tram and after saying goodbye to us, he went to the other side of the road to wait for the next tram back to the central station. What a sweet old man, he went out of his way to help these 4 stupid students who should have known better to at least learn a few phrases before they went travelling to foreign country.


I will never forget him. Because of him, I had a good impression of Holland.

Maal Hijrah 1432

Salam Maal Hijrah.


"Ya Allah, aku mohon agar sentiasa dikurniakan keberkatan dalam kehidupanku sekeluarga, ahli keluargaku, kawan-kawanku dan kenalanku, dan dipermudahkan bagi kami untuk mengikuti jalan Mu yang diredhai. Ya Allah, janganlah Engkau pesongkan hati kami sesudah Engkau beri kami petunjuk. Selawat dan salam buat Rasulullah SAW, amiin."


Thank you Cheqna.

Our House - Amstelveen, Amsterdam

 

When we came to Amsterdam back in 2008, I was prepared to dislike the place, it must be the same as London and I hated London. London is nice to visit, but it's not a place to stay. I should know, afterall I spent almost 7 years in the United Kingdom, most of it in London. It was congested, dirty and cold. I hated cold then and I hate it now.

It was winter, so everything was so dull, cold and gloomy. Everywhere I looked, it was dark, grey and colourless, even the sky was grey. How I miss my hot and green country. Then, spring came and I started to see flowers and bright green young leaves along the way to school. I realised then, that there were actually lots of trees along the way and everywhere. I never really realised their presence before because they didn't have any leaves !!! How wonderful !!! Funny how a little bit of green and colours make you change your outlook of a place. I started to see how nice the place was. Everywhere there were canals and there were wild ducks and swans happily paddling in the water. Only then I realised that there were actually lots of little parks in my neighbourhood !!! And just a stone's throw away, there was a large grazing field, you could see cows, sheep and horses happily eating grass. On your lucky day, the cows would be grazing on our side of the field, only a little canal separated us. It was beautiful and peaceful, we hardly heard any traffic.... I loved the area, I love it still :)

 

Cows grazing happily in the fields

Ducks everywhere

The grazing field and the canal are only 3 minute walk from the house. Whenever we had visitors, we would take them around the house, to the field and canal, to feed the ducks. They all agreed that it was a nice and quiet place.



Sunrise - walking distance from home

Within a few minutes drive from the house, there was Amstel River.

Amstel River

In winter, the area was so beautiful... but that deserves another entry on its own.

Ketupat... ohh... Ketupat...

Sebenarnya entry ni dah lama buat, tapi duk terperuk dalam "draft" tu, bukannya apa.... IA tersilap. Mulanya nak letak dalam Kau Ilhamku sebab blog ni belum ada N3 pertama lagi, tapi dalam keghairahan nak menulis tu, tak perasan pulak yang IA berada dalam blog yang salah !!! Memandangkan IA pun tak tahu macam mana nak export N3 ni ke Kau Ilhamku, jadi di biarkan la dia terperuk kat "draft" tu. Alang-alang dah tulis kan.... kita "publish" je la, cerita basi pun tak pa la :) Raya Korban kali ni sunyi dan sepi, tetamu tak ada yang datang tidoq di rumah. Tapi IA masak juga rendang dan buat ketupat palas dan ketupat nasi. Kali pertama anyam ketupat nasi nih... dulu pernah belajaq guna riben... tapi dah lupa. Belajaq kali ni pun saat2 akhir, cikgu tu dah nak balik Malaysia (punya la sibuk orang tu, walaupun 2 minggu dia kat sini....), dah nak bertolak ke airport baru duk tunjuk cam mana nak anyam. Tu pun tak sempat habis berguru :( ye la.. nak makan breakfast lagi... :) Bila depa dah bertolak ke airport, IA duk berejam kat situ, duk cari jalan macam mana nak matikan ketupat ni. Akhirnya dapat ketupat bawang... tapi pelik pulak... kenapa ekornya kat tepi??? Sepatutnya ekor tu kat atas dan bawah!!! Hahahaaa... Ish...ish... tak puas hati betul!!! IA cuba lagi, pusing sana pusing sini hahhh... dapat pulak ketupat nasi !!! Tak apa lah, apa-apa ketupat pun ok, asalkan dapat bubuh beras !!! Nak bubuh beras pun satu hal, punyalah susah, guna tangan pun susah, guna camca kecik pun susah !!!! Sabaq je lah.... Tapi IA rasalah kan... buat ketupat palas lagi senang. IA pun semakin terra nak adun beras pulut ngan santan tu.... Ketupat kali ni lemak, dan masinnya pun "just nice" :))))

Gantung, jangan tak gantung.....

DH kata gantung ketupat tu supaya ayaq dia turun (macam arwah mak dia duk buat dulu-dulu ). Memandangkan tak ada tempat nak gantung, dia pun gantung la kat kabinet dapur tuh.... tapi lepas tu dia risau pulak...takut ada kesan kat kabinet tu.... Akhirnya masuk kau dalam penapis tu....

Ketupat palas ku...... terima kasih mak..... tak sia-sia mak ajaq Cheq balut ketupat ni....

My First Entry

I can't believe that I am finally writing my first entry in this new blog !!!! It actually took me almost a year to finally write something !! Hahahaa... yeah...that long !!! Right after I created Kau Ilhamku, my other blog, I thought of having another one, so that I could write something, anything, my musings, experiences, travels, maybe a recipe or two, anything that cross my mind. Having said that to myself, I thought hmmm... maybe I should start on new year's day, you know something like new year's resolution (not that it was a resolution), but it was certainly a nice date 1-1-2010 . But somehow, things got in the way, this and that, tired, not in the mood etc...etc...etc...


Two months back, I was feeling really down, I really, really wanted to write about it... but I didn't want it to be in Kau Ilhamku. Kau Ilhamku was supposed to be about Ilham only, though I admit that I tend to digress, a lot.... A few weeks ago I managed to browse and choose the template, the title etc, still... no entry !!! Aduhai.... so slowww....


I'm so happy now that I finally do write something. Something is better than nothing !!!!