Mie Ayam Sorowako

Different to mie ayam in Java that has clear chicken soup as the base, Sorowako's one has ginger and sweet soy sauce based soup. I love it, I went to Warung Pak Untung in Sorowako for lunch a lot with friends and had quality chat time there.

Last Tuesday suddenly I wanted to eat it badly. I tried to imagine the taste. Instead of making separate chilly sauce, I put the chilly inside the soup directly.

Hehehe it didn't look like Mie Ayam Pak Untung, but it did taste similar.

I missed the frestea bottle, but luckily I have teh kotak. Was a simple and super yummy lunch.

But I missed the hot sun and the great companies!!!

Wednesday Bento: Baikinman

And this was Iki's lunchbox today. It took me 2 hours to make that Baikinman's head only!!!

Inside:

Baikinman: Onigiri with kombu filling, nori, ham, and cheese.

Fried Wantan

Broccoli

Strawberry

Afterschool he said:

MOM, I Love your baikinman obento. It was soooo cute and tasted good. I showed it to sensei and my friends. I Love you mom!!!!

Then he hugged me tightly and said:

Shouta-kun's obento today was Thomas Train. Pls make it for me too!!

(@_@) Oh My God!

Pastel Tutup Kilat

I read a friend's status in facebook that she was eating pastel tutup. My mouth was watering in a second but making pastel tutup needs a lot of works and mess. But I really wanted it, so I tried to imagine my grandma's pastel tutup, and made modification here and there based on what were available in my refrigerator.

Then thanks to technology, microwave made everything much much faster and easier. The pastel tutup was done in 30 minutes!!! I remember that my grandma spends hours preparing it :p

It was sooo good. And Iki loved it (^___^)

Marshmallow caramel chip chocolate muffins

BY IKI!

Yes, he did bake the muffins himself. From measuring the ingredients until mixing up everything. I just helped him reading the recipe, broke the egg, and folded the batter at the end of the process.

At first he mixed all the dry ingredients

And then mixed the wet ingredients

And spent 25 minutes standing in front of the oven, watching his first handmade muffins

It is YUMMY. Seriously, and he was very proud of himself!

Back to school

Spring holiday has finished. Iki has been back to school since last Monday. Bukan Hana-gumi (kelas Hana), udah naik kelas jadi Hoshi-gumi. And mama-chan, a forever last minute person just started sewing the bags he needs two days before the school started! Phew!

Bag for shoes, bag for changing clothes, for picnic mat, for cup, for lunchbox, and for cutlery. Still haven't finished the big bag yet though :D. Iki had to bring paperbag on his first day of school. Dasar mama-chan pemalas (>.<).

So many to prepare then. Including naming these crayons ONE BY ONE, in Japanese! (@_@)

But starting this month, he will go to school Mon-Fri from 9-14.30, except Tuesday. 9-17.00!!!

Mama-chan now has a lot of time to finish this new project:

Beautiful Saturday

It was a beautiful day and warm day today. I didn't want to waste such a day being at home so we (iki and I) dragged papa-chan out of his computers room for a walk to the park. We went to Tetsugakudo park, took us about 20 minutes walking so I also brought a bike with me. Just in case Iki was too tired on the way back home then he could just sit on it :D

Sakura were falling all over the place now, but still worthed to enjoy in such a warm day. There were still some people doing hanami, but we chose to sit on a bench nearby kids playing ground for lunch :p

Sometimes the wind blew and lost of sakura petals fell off like a snowfall. Beautiful! Look, the ground are mostly pink now!

And I think picnicking under sakura trees with pinky ground around looked really "spring". And yeah....beautiful.

Even without the petals, they still amazed me.

A visit to aquarium

Its Spring holiday. Its crowded everywhere. It's also raining almost everyday, and sometimes the temperature still dropped down to winter time!

I always have to be creative to find something to do or somewhere to go with Iki. Once this boy is bored, he will be really grumpy and drives me nuts!

So last time I brought him to the aquarium at Sunshine City in Ikebukuro. Bobo (its how Iki calls his grandma here) also joined us this time so Iki was pretty excited.

Iki loves watching fishes, and now he is on the stage of asking about everything. It was interesting to listen to him asking Bobo hundred questions, and how bobo sometimes was struggling to give him 'proper' answer hahaha

Basically I was just walking beside "busy" Iki and Bobo. They just talked and talked. That way I got more chance to look and listen around.

Its really funny to listen to people's comments around me:

Woa...look at that crab. Must be really sweet...

That fish!! hmm yummy....!!

Oh, this kind of octopus has a lot of fat. It'll melt in ur mouth

Hmmm....that fish is best to be eaten in autumn

OMG, this aquarium makes me hungry...

Boy....I just can't help not to giggle listening to them!!

Picnic under Sakura Tree

We did it today, together with Iki's classmates (+mommies). Actually we wanted to go to Tetsugakudo park, where I did ohanami 2 years ago; but some mothers don't have any bike so we decided to go to nearby park instead. Lucky there were Sakura too there! not much, but at least we could do hanami together (^__^)

The kids play together. Look. I was happy to see Iki mingled pretty well.

When they got hungry then they came to us for snacks. I was proud that Iki could say "thank you". A small thing, but is a big thing for him!

A visit to Shin Misato

It's the nearest station to Nova's house. I was surprised to see how things changed within 2 years!! It has IKEA now, also some other shopping a.nd entertainment centers! Life must be much more exciting there for Nova's family! (ya gak, Nov? hehe)

We (me, Iki, mbak'e, Rui and Rei) went to Nova's house first. She prepared very yummy soto ayam kumplit with her special chilli sauce as well. I can't remember how many portions did I eat (>.<). Too bad I remembered to take picture after everyone finished eating :(

After getting stuffed, off we went to IKEA. Iki and Rui can play at the playcenter because they are more than 4 years old, but Kiyo can't. So poor Nova was stucked with Kiyo playing at the smaller kids area upstairs. So sorry for her, I love going around with friends. Too bad this time can't enjoy looking around with Nova too. Well, next year, when Kiyo is 4, we can do it again (^__^).

Thank you Nova, for preparing such a big lunch for us. It was sad to see Kiyo crying when we left. We'll see each other again during the next school holiday!

Temakizushi

Temakizushi has become our family favourite dinner. It is a make your own sushi, hand wrapped with what-ever-you-want for the fillings.

Things to prepare is sushi rice, seaweed = nori, the fillings and little soy sauce for dipping.

Last time I prepared cucumber, tamagoyaki (Japanese rolled egg), crab meat, and assorted sashimi as the fillings.

Just put a bit rice on a sheet of nori, and put whatever fillings you like

And wrap it like this

Even Iki can make his own

He preferred to roll it using a sushi mat

And he just loved it! We love it!

Its a simple and fun dinner (^__^)

Sakura Matsuri

Iki and I went to Ueno today for ohanami (cherry blossom festival = sakura matsuri) with in laws family. Hiro didn't go with us, he hates crowded place and he was 100% sure it will ruin his mood. So I met my parents in law and Hiro's sister family at Ueon train station. I was glad Hiro was not with us. He would definitely be backed off and went to department store instead!! A LOT OF PEOPLE. First thing I could think of when I saw them was ANTS. I felt like looking at a huge row of thousands of giant ants in front of me.

The Sakura was perfectly bloomed. Beautiful as always. There were a lot of people picnicking under the trees, and to be able to get a place, they didn't mind to come a day before or at night and waited for their friends to come the next day.

It was pretty cold today. There was no sun as predicted on the weather forecast. But we had a good time. Iki loves playing with his cousins :)

Owakarei (Sayonara party??)

Schools in Japan usually have, kind of farewell ceremony, by the end of the school year: March. It's to say goodbye to the highest grade level kids who will graduate. Not a graduation ceremony, it is held also few days after that, and usually in a very formal ceremony.

This is Iki's first owakarei, me too. Mothers are all invited to come eventhough they have smaller kids or babies. At first the teacher introduces each kid in every class, and then there would be performances and games from the students. At least, it was how it worked at Iki's school.

This is when the teacher introduced Iki's class. Where is Iki? look at the smallest boy showing his back to the audience!! I almost forgot that Iki's shy until I saw that!!!! Iki was so surprised when he entered the hall and saw mothers. I guessed then he got nervous.

But then he looked at my shocked and disappointed face. He did better when his class performed an operette. He was not as "loud" as his other friends, but he did his part.

We also had farewell party afterwards to two of Iki's classmates. Two families are moving out of the company apartment.

There I also realized, that Iki has not settled down yet in his school. He didn't play with his friends at all there. I found out later on during Teacher-Mother personal meeting that Iki doesn't play with his classmates at school. Only older kids. Oh well....

Hinamatsuri lunch

March 3 is a Hinamatsuri day in Japan. It is the Japanese doll festival to celebrate girls day, where houses whose girls display a special set of traditional ornament dolls. If you want to know more about Hinamatsuri, it's here in Wikipedia.

Last Hinamatsuri, my friend Tomomi arranged a lunch with some mothers at the meeting room in our apartment complex. She introduced me with some nice ladies. Most of them have younger kids, so it was mothers and small kids lunch actually. I was the only mother bringing no kid, Iki was at school at that time :p. Oh boy.....I almost forgot how two years old kids behave!!! seriously!

We ordered special obento (Japanese lunch box) for Hinamatsuri festival. Very delicious!!

And had sakura mochi for dessert

This is ume (plum) flower. Usually being displayed together with the dolls set. A small, beautiful yet very fragile flower. Just like a little girl.... :)