Rendang: world's most delicious food

It's totally true! Beef rendang took the top spot in CNN GO's list of best food in the world. OK, so Facebook polling isn't exactly scientific. But whatevs, a dish that takes hours to labour over definitely deserves to be named the best food in the world.


This the second installment to my (seemingly ridiculous) journey to cooking the Top 40 Indonesian food. This version of rendang slightly omits some spices which I couldn't find in Swiss supermarkets. It's probably not the most traditional way to cook it, but for me it worked. And I figured it still tastes pretty good, since I made this at a dinner party last weekend and not a scrape of rendang sauce was left on the plate :) 

40 of Indonesia's best dishes

The best Indonesian foods are hands down the old school, simple, traditional ones that you get from kaki limas. Kaki lima (meaning five legs) is a terminology for an Indonesian food cart (3 wooden 'legs' and 1 front wheel) which is rolled down the city streets by a seller (the 2 legs). OK, so of course if you're not used to 'street food' you risk catching some variation of Bali belly. But I'm sure that 7.5 out of 10 times you will probably be fine... Here is the complete list of the best 40 Indonesian dishes compiled by CNN. My goal is to attempt to cook every single one of them at some point while living in Europe, and where possible substituting the tropical ingredients with local produce I can find here. A bit of a Euro-Indo fusion ;) 

Meatless Mondays: Caprese Polenta Pizza

These days I am constantly running between my master thesis work and my (paid) work. I should really get a bike... So when I get home starving, express cooking is the way to go. That, and when even takeaway Chinese costs 20 bucks, there is just no option but to home cook all the time.

So, I am super happy to have found out about polenta. It cooks so quickly and is ready in minutes. This vegetarian version of the polenta pizza I made last week makes a super speedy and colourful dinner!

(Vegan) Chocolatey Strawberry Tart: erdbeer pfluecken in Urdorf

It’s the first sunny weekend in a while and I am dying to go do outdoorsy stuff. I have a slightly embarrassing confession. Instead of opting for erm… more respectable/strenuous Swiss activities along the lines of hiking and biking, I decided to have a ‘domesticated Saturday morning’ and (very nicely) dragged Mark to this strawberry farm in Urdorf, just 20 minutes outside of Zurich.

Terong Balado (Spicy eggplant): Being Indonesian means – part 2

... continued from here

Being Indonesian means…

You can never make up your mind when ordering in restaurants, so you just order everything and end up with too much food.

See, what people don’t understand is when one grows up having a rijsttafel (rice table) at every meal, it’s hard to pick ONE main dish per meal. A rice table is when you eat rice with multiple options of side dishes (‘lauk pauk’), anywhere between 3 (typical lunch) to 40 (a feast).

Cah Kangkung (stir fried spinach): Being Indonesian means - part 1

Cah Kangkung (Stir fried spinach)

I was just thinking about this today and decided to write it down... Of course it's nothing serious, just a small reflection :) 

Being Indonesian means…

You need a hint of chilli in every single dish you eat, no matter where you are. This may lead to (erm, interesting) habits such as:

• Having packets of chilli sauce (the stock standard sambal ABC) in your handbag ready to whip out and pour on any meals from street food to Michelin star food. 
• Knowing the word for chilli sauce options in many cuisines. I can count the words sambal, togarashi, aji, tabasco, chipotle, la jiao you, piri piri, and harissa in my vocabulary. I thank my mum for teaching me most of these (she is completely obsessed with chili).

Smoked Trout and Carpione Polenta Pizza: I Heart Como

After living in Zurich for the past 18 months, we finally decided to see what the fuss is about with Lake Como. You see, everyone raves about Lake Como. It’s the perfect weekend break from Zurich (only 3 hours by train), amazingly picturesque train ride through the Alps, the impossibly regal named villages (Bellagio, Menaggio, Cernobbio), and the offensively humongous lakeside villas (including the one that belongs to George Clooney, of course).

(Vegan) banana and speculoos muffin: un weekend en Belgique

Road tripping in Belgium: Brugge (left), way-too-picturesque countryside (top right), hanging out by the beach in Knock - Belgium's take on Cannes (bottom right)

I've come to the conclusion that Belgium is probably the most underrated travel destination in Western Europe. Before our little visit to Belgium, I have always associated Belgium (yes I just assumed the entire country), with Canberra - a sleepy capital country town with government officials in suits everywhere, talking politics and spy-stuff like in Bourne Identity. I know that's pretty weird.

So I was pleasantly surprised to see a very different place than I expected: high end designer stores doting the streets of Antwerp, trendy-but-non-pretentious restaurants, fresh + cheap seafood, good wines and of course the standard European cobbled-stoned Old Town thing.

Lapin à l'orange (rabbit with orange and ginger sauce): skiing in Chamonix

As I just realized, the past winter (despite my injuries) I managed to have squeezed in double digits of skiing days. This is a massive achievement for an ultra non-sporty person with minimal skiing experience! A lot of it was due to some impromptu skiing weekends in places close to Zurich (the benefits of being in Central Europe!)