Resep Daging Se’i Asap Khas Nusa Tenggara Timur, Hot Smoked Cured Meat (Beef, Pork, or Venison Deer)

Daging Se’i, Indonesian Hot Smoked Cured Meat Bacon from East Nusa Tenggara Island

Daging Se’i is an Indonesian style bacon from East Nusa Tenggara Island, an authentic dish of Rote descent people. Daging sei derived from the word daging which is meat and se’i that means thin strip sliced, so daging sei is  thinly slide meat strip that hot smoked until dried and throughly cooked. Daging se’i mostly made from a pork or beef, but the anchester used to made daging se’i from wild boar or games venison deer.

Daging Sapi Sei Asap, Indonesian Hot Smoked Cured Beef

Daging sei babi or hot smoked pork meat is iconic food souvenir from Kupang City, you ain’t travelling to East Nusa tenggara Island unless you give daging sei babi a try. Daging babi se’i also the most popular food souvenir people expecting if you’ve got a chance to travelling there. For those who can eat pork such local moslem tourist, you can taste the daging sapi sei or hot smoked beef instead the pork because there’s also several halal daging sei restaurant there.

Homemade Hot Smoked Beef

Daging se’i  or hot smoked beef, pork or venison meat  traditionally only contain with salt and salt petre as seasoning, that’s it!. The smokey flavour is what made it taste specials. Nowdays, manufactured bacon usually stuffed with tons of preservatives and stuffs you even don’t wanna know about, but this traditional daging sei asap is usually remain contains that simple ingredients, the only additional ingredients usually added is mono sodium glutamat (MSG) and i bet it’s still much more healthier than the store brough smoked bacon.

Daging Sapi Sei, Cured Hot Smoked Lean Beef

Daging sei making is begin with the selection of the meat first; what ever kind of meat you want to made daging sei; beef, pork or venison, make sure  you choose the lean cut. The loin, the eye round or the silverside of the beef, pork or venison usually using for this recipe. Removed any silver skin, fat or sinew because it’s will not be rendered  from the low temperature hot smoking. The meat then sliced into 1 inch maximum thickness then seasoned and cured with spices, salt and salt petre. Traditionally, the seasoned meat is hung first in a perforated sack to let the dripping liquid running out off the meat during the curing process for at least 6 hours. Once the cured meat had a firmer and dry texture, the meat then hung and exposed with air to develop a pellicle for another 4 hours before ready to hot smoking.

Beef Tenderloin Hot Smoked Meat, Daging Sapi Sei Asap Has Dalam

Sei daging asap usually using native wood called kayu kosambi (Schleichera oleosa). Kayu Kosambi is called Ceylon oak in English, Malay lac tree or Macassar oil tree contain essential A number of wood smoke compounds act as preservatives. Phenol and other phenolic compounds in wood smoke are both antioxidants alongside other formaldehyde, acetic acid, and other organic acids,, which slow rancidification of animal fats, and antimicrobials, which slow bacterial growth. But i can’t find any of kosambi wood nearby, so i’m using mangoo wood instead .

Damn Delicious Daging Se’i or Hot Smoked Cured Meat from East Nusa Tenggara

For hot smoking you need to inisiate the fire first and let the block of dry wood turned into charcoal first. Never let the fire had any contack with the meat you want to hot smoked, so i keep enough distance beetween the meat with the firing wood. Once the wood turend into red charcoal, you can put it in the smoking chamber or a simple grill  like me.  Put the meat in a metal net with at least 15 inches from the charcoal, you want the smoke that cooked the meat, not the direct heat from the charcoal.

Starting the Charcoal by Firing the Wood Block Away from The Meat, DO NOT LET THE DIRECT HEAT from CHARCOAL CONTACT the Meat

Once your charcoal is ready, now let’s begin  to make the smoke, shall we ? The smoke can be initiate by putting some dry wood chips that priorly soaked in water for about 10 minutes to enchanced the smoke formation. The other method is using fresh green leaves, you can lay the green leaves over the charcoal and let the magic happen.

Once the Charcoal Ready, Scatter The Soaked Woodchips to Generate the SMOKE and let the SMOKE Gently Cook The Cured Meat

Hot smoking process is between 165 and 1850 Fahrenheit (73-85C) and this temperature is definitely cooked the meat .”Hot smoking exposes the foods to smoke and heat in a controlled environment.. Although foods that have been hot smoked are often reheated or cooked, they are typically safe to eat without further cooking. Within this temperature range, foods are fully cooked, moist, and flavorful, if you let the temperature raised more than 185 °F (85 °C), the meat will shrink excessively, buckle or even burned.

Homemade Hot Smoked Beef or Daging Sapi Sei Asap

My brother in law is running a Pentacostal Church in Sungai Lilin, about 3-4 hours drives from my place in Palembang City. My sister’s house  had a very wide yard so nobody will probably complain about the smoke if we held a barbeque party there, so i love to practice my barbeque skills there. Several members of the church congregation had Nusa Tenggara descent, so i’m lucky to practice making daging sei with their family secret recipes and techniques.

Recipe Hot Smoked Meat or Daging Se’i from Kupang City

I’ve try making daging sei or hot smoked meat bacom from beef, pork and also venison deer meat and it’s turned out really good. My favourite is the venison or daging sei rusa. I love the flavour and the texture, smokey and natural mild gamey flavour of venison deer meat is really got my taste buds.

16 Pounds Hot Smoked Beef, I kinda Nailed it !!!!

This is hot smoked beef or daging sapi sei, my big sister “trick” me to made this for her gathering party. This is 16 pounds of beef that i cured with a very simple salt, sugar, garlic and red coloring agent. I’m using red yeast rice powder for the curing marinade. I’m not using any salt petre for my hot smoked beef because it won’t be last for more than next 2 hours and definitely did’t need to be preserved with salt petre or other nitrate preservatives.

Daging Babi Sei or Hot Smoked Wild Boar Meat

This is daging babi sei or hot smoked pork that i made several days after making the daging sapi sei or smoked beef. I’m using wild boar tenderloin meat for this recipe and i kinda like this even more compare to the commom farm raised pig. Hot smoked wild boar is taste nutty, sweet and very succulent and tender, i’m not a fans of lean meat but i’m really digging this .

Daging Rusa Se’i, Hot Smoked Cured Venison Deer Meat

This is daging rusa se’i asap or hot smoked venison deer meat. This smoked venison deer bacon made from wild Sambar Deer meat (Cervus Unicolor), Sumatra island native large deer with large and rugged antlers with uniform brown to dark grey colour. Sambar deer meat is considered as delicacy and also healthy choice of meat because it high in protein and low in cholesterol and trans fat. I like the venison deer steak simply because i like it’s natural light gamey flavour and if you lucky enough the traditional market in Sungai Lilin  provide venison deer meat occationally.

Daging Se’i Masakan Daerah Khas Kupang Nusa Tenggara Timur

Daging Se’i atau Se’i adalah daging asap tradisional suku Rote di Provinsi Nusa Tenggara Timur. Daging sapi, babi ataupun rusa dibumbui dengan garam dan sendawa, digantung selama 6 jam (kyuring) didalam karung berpori agar cairan dapat keluar dari daging, lalu diasap dengan kayu bakar yang berjarak cukup jauh sehingga panas dari asap yang mematangkan daging tersebut bukan lidah panas api secara langsung. Daging sei dapat dimakan langsung, tapi  jika sudah disimpan beberapa hari, harus digoreng lagi, atau dimasak dalam tumisan bunga pepaya ataupun sayuran lainnya.

Resep Daging Sei Asap Khas Nusa Tenggara Timur/Kupang

Resep Daging Sei Asap Khas Nusa Tenggara Timur/Kupang :

Homemade Hot Smoked Meat Bacon (Beef, Pork, Venison) Recipe:

Ingredient:

• 1 kg lean meat (beef or pork or venison deer)
• wood block, for making charcoal (you can use charcoal )
• woodchips, soaked in water for 10 minutes for generate the smoke

Homemade Curing Smoked Beef Recipe:

• 1/4 tsp *sendawa/ salt peter/ curing salt
• 2 tbsp salt
• 1 tbsp brown sugar*optional
• 1 tbsp garlic powder*optional
• 1/2 tsp nutmeg*optional
• 1/2 tsp cardamon*optional
• 1/2 tsp rosemarry*optional
• 1/2 tsp blackpeppercorn*optional
• 1/2 tsp  caraway*optional
• 1/2 tsp red food coloring (i’m using red yeast powder)*optional

Cara Membuat Daging Sei Asap Khas Nusa Tenggara Timur :

How to Hot Smoked Meat Bacon from Scratch:

• Mix the meat with the curing ingredient, let it rest in fridge for at least 12 hours, discard the dripping liquid, patted dry.
• Once the meat is already cured, the texture will be firmer and the color turned darker
• Hung or exposed the meat with fan, let the it the outside layer form a dry pellicle before hot smoking process
• Meanwhile, fire the wood block or charcoal until ready, put the wire netat least 45 inches above the charcoal, so the direct heat won’t too much contact the meat (you want the heat of the smoke touch the meat)
• Scatter the soaked woodchips or sawdust, springkle with a little bit of water if necessary, let the smoke released
• Put the meat above the wire net, do not overloded and kept some space beetween the meat so the heat of the smoke have a greater contact with the meat
• Keep the heat constant, let the smoke generate gently, ass more soaked wooodchips if necessary and cooked the meat until dry and the internal temperature reach 200 F (90 C), it takes above 3-4 hours for 1 inch thickness with gentle heat hot smoke
• Now your Daging Se’i or Hot Smoked Meat Bacon is ready to eat, sliced thinly and enjoy with some chili sambal.

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Roasted Chicken with Yogurt & Milk Curd with Ricotta Cheese & Herbs

Roasted Chicken with Milk, Yogurt and Ricotta Cheese Custard with Herbs. Whole chicken butterflied then roasted with the skin side up until the skin is slighly browned and the meat is half cooked, laid in a pyrex caserole bowl then poured with a custard made of milk, yogurt and egg yolk, then crushed garlic, ricotta cheese and herbs scattered over the chicken and then baked for 45 minutes until the milk and yogurt curt browned and the chicken is  completely cooked and tender.

The baked chicken in yogurt and milk custard is inspired by Jamie Oliver roasted chicken in milk which is really moist and taste damn delicious and comforting, but there’s a flaws about it. The skin side of the chicken that facing the milk mixture is soggy and there’s a separated curd and gravy once it cooked. So i adjust the recipe a little bit to make a little bit dry curd and add any ingredients that suits my licking.

The milk and yogurt curd mixture for the roasted chicken can be seasoned with any kind of your favourite herbs; rosemarry, thyme, sage, bayl eaves and a dash of cinnamon is  just perfect for my licking, I also like some licorice flavour of dill weed and some star anise, it’s blend perfectly with the tangy creamy yogurt. Fresh herbs for this yogurt and milk custard baked chicken is preferred, but eversince it’s kinda hard to find this western kitchen ingredients, the dry herbs is working well too.

You can improved the yogurt and milk custard by adding some Homemade Fresh Pork Sausages or some Homemade Spicy Chorizo into it, even chopped precoooked veggies to made some real heavy one pot caserole roasted chicken sounds a good idea.

This recipe is awesome, you’ve got all the scrumptious things about roasted chicken; the skin is crispy and the meat is tender and succulent. The skin side of the chicken is exposed with the direct heat from the upper heater element of the oven while the meat side down is always contact the milk and yogurt mixture and allowed the flavour infused.

Ayam Panggang Yogurt dan Susu. Ayam ras utuh, dibelah dua pada bagian dada, dipanggang sampai kulitnya sedikit kecoklatan lalu dicampur dengan campuran yogurt, susu, kuning telur dan bumbu-bumbu. Kaserol ayam ini kemudian dipanggang dalam oven sampai ayam matang sempurna serta custard susu dan yogurt berwarna kecoklatan. Orang palembang bilang Lemak Nian !!!

This is the secret recipe to make a very crispy roasted chicken skin; blowing the skin off the meat, so the fat in between can rendered and make the skin crispy. First, you need to clean and wash throughly the chicken with running water, pat it really dry with paper towel before you inflated the skin. You can use your finger to separate the chicken skin from it’s meat but i had another option with greater result; using air pump!

Crispy chicken skin is made using a simple baloon pump or bicycle pump, insert the tips of the pump into the chicken skin through the neck skin, secure the neck skin to make sure there’s no air coming out and start to inflate the chicken skin with pumping air into it, you can help with massaging the skin to distribute the air and make sure all the skin inlated from the meat flip the chicken over and do the same in the chicken breast section. Yup it is that easy, i’ve try to use this technique for my Roasted Peking Duck and Herb Butter Roasted Chicken, and it’s skin turned out really crispy!!!

Right after the chciken skin inflated with pump throughly, i butterfly it from the breast side and then rubbed it with generous ammount of salt, pepper and crushed sage leaves. After the chicken skin inflated completely, you can butterfly or even spatchcock the chicken to make it easier to roast in the conventional oven. For this recipe, i need to pre-roasted the chicken before baked it with milk and yogurt curd, so i put the chicken over metal rack in a shallow baking pan and then roasted it with upper heat only to browned the sin a little bit. Remember, you don’t want to cooked the chicken, just need to rendered the skin fat a little bit to make it crispy.

After the chicken roasted until slighly browned with skin side up using only upper heat, the chicken laid with skin side up in a caserole pyrex glass. The gravy from the half cooked chicken colected and mixed with milk, yogurt and any other ingredients then poured on the side of the half cooked chicken to baste only the meat side of the chicken. The chicken caserole than baked until the curd is browned and completely set for about 45  minutes.

Now, you enjoy your fest of Roasted Chicken in Yogurt and Milk Curd with Ricotta Cheese & Herbs. My asian licking usually asking some steaming hot rice for this chicken, but you can enjoy this with freshly baked brioche or  baguette bread, it’s up you.

Recipe Crispy Roasted Chicken in Yogurt and Milk Curd with Herbs & Ricotta Cheese:

Ingredients:

• 1 medium size chicken
• 1 cup plain whole milk
• 1 cup plain all natural whole yogurt
• 1 egg yolk
• 1/4 tsp Homemade Garam Masala
• 1/4 tsp freshly ground black peppercorn
• 1/2 stick salted butter (60 gr), melted
  
• salt to taste
• 6 cloves garlic, bruised
• 6 pieces dry Sage leaves
• 2 Pieces extra Sage leaves, finely chopped for rubbing the chicken
• 4 pieces dry Bay Leaves
• 2 sprig of Thyme
• 2 sprig of Rosemarry
• 1 Spring of Dill Weed
• 100 gr Fresh Ricotta Cheese, crumbled

Tools: Baloon Pump for blowing or inflating the chicken skin

How to Make Crispy Skin Herbs Butter Roasted Chicken with Cilantro, Parsley, Mint and Dill:

• Clean and wash throughly the chicken with running water, pat dry, set aside
• Insert the tips of the baloon or bicycle pump into the chicken skin through the neck skin, secure the neck skin to make sure there’s no air coming out and start to inflate the chicken skin with pumping air into it, you can help with massaging the skin to distribute the air and make sure all the skin inlated from the meat.
• Flip the chicken over and do the same in the chicken breast section until all side of the chicken skin inflated from the meat
• Rubbed the chicken with salt, black peppercorn, garam masala and chopped sage leaves all over the surface, butterfly from the breast side (you can spatch cock is as well)
• I also apply some bamboo skewer to fix the chicken wings position
• Put the chicken in a shallow baking rack, baste the chicken skin with melted butter, put in the second rack of the oven in preheated 250°C (Only Upper Side Heat) for about 15 minutes until the skin is slighly browned and the meat is half cooked.
• In a glass bowl, mix the yogurt, milk, egg yolk, salt and pepper, and the remaining butter, set aside
• Once the chicken skin is browned, take it out from the oven and pour the gravy into the milk and yogurt bowl then transfer the chicken carefully into a pyrex caserole bowl.
• Pour the yogurt and milk mixture into the caserole and then scatter all the herbs, garlic, ricotta cheese.
• Pop the chicken in milk and yogurt into the oven and roasted it in 180°C for 30 minutes
• Increase the temperature to 225°C for about 15 minutes until the chicken skin skin got nice golden brown color
• Let the Roasted Chicken in Milk and Yogurt caserole rest for at least 5 minutes before carved and served.

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Salmon Sous Vide Stuffed with Braised Tofu Skin, Served with Orange Lemon Sauce & Asian Black Rice Salad

Salmon Sous Vide with Orange Lemon Sauce, Served with Black Rice Salad. The fillet of salmon trout fish rolled and stuffed with bean curd or tofu skin then slowly cooked in low temperature waterbath, seared with blowtorch and cut, paired with black rice salad  This is a healthy, tasty and elegant dish, packed with bursting flavour and contain high protein, fibers and nutritional values, and also low calories!

Just like my previously Sous Vide Eel Fillet Recipe, i’m using beer cooler for sousvide my salmon villet rollade. Instead of beer cooler, any kind of heat insulating chamber is good to sous vide fish fillet; thermos, dewar flask or vacuum flask, as long the chamber is big enought to completely submerging the entire fish fillet and also to mantaining the temperature for extended periods of time.

Sous vide salmon or other fish with beer cooler is a very simple task; simply fill up your beer cooler with water just a couple degrees higher than the temperature you’d like to cook your food at (to account for temperature loss when you add cold food to it), seal your food in a plastic ziplock bag, drop it in, and close your beer cooler until your food is cooked. You can simply adjust the temperature to your preference with hot water after the waterbath temperature drop about (1-2)°C after 1 hour soaking your salmon fillet, that’s why it’s better you use a good insulating beer cooler. Yup, it is that simple!!!

The salmon stuffed with spicy tofu skin or bean curd which cooked with kecap manis or Indonesian sweet soy sauce. Tofu skin, yuba, bean curd skin, bean curd sheet, or bean curd robes are films collected During the boiling of soy milk in an open shallow pan while in the process or making tofu, the film and dried into yellowish sheets known as tofu skin. The tofu skin soaked overnight in a fridge just before cooking, then slowly braised with sauteed garlic, shallots, oyster sauce, soy sauce  and kecap manis (Indonesian sweet soy sauce).

The black rice salad consist pluffy and tender cooked black rice, blanched chayote shoots, orange pulp, sous vide baby carrot, pickled silver skin onion, blanched winged beans, beansprout and edible black mustard blossom. You can put anything you want on your black rice, the more color the veggies the better. I recommend any kind of root vegetables like parnisp, beet root,cherry belle radish, daikon radish, it’s blended well with black rice salad.

The black rice salad for serving the sous vide salmon rollade  tender cooked black rice in a room temperature, served along pickled silver skin onion that gives an extra tangy n spicy flavour. The lettuce gives an extra crisp to enlighten the salad texture. Pulp of Navel orange gives a bursting sweet citrusy flavour once it pop out in the mouth, to let the black rice didn’t too starchy. The dressing for my black rice salad is very simple, a classic asian style dressing consist of soy sauce, avocado oil and aged rice vinegar.

The Orange-Lemon sauce for the salmon sous vide is pretty basic. I like the orange and lemon balance and the flavour didn’t overpowering each other. My favourite ratio is two part orange and one part lemon, so every two cups of orange juice you need only one cup of leon juice, but for the zest i like to add 1:1.

Making the lemon orange sauce for salmon sous vide is easy. First you need to melt butter in a skillet then add chopped garlic and onion. Saute the onion until translucent  but not browned, add a tablespoon of all purpose flour to make some roux and saute until the flour is not smells raw without browned it in a very low flame for about 2 minutes, then 2 cups of orange juice and one cup of lemon juice added, stirred it well to prevent any lump on it.The orange-lemon sauce then seasoned with salt pepper, and sugar (you can use honey instead) and reduced a little bit then once it cooked, add the orange and lemon zest. You can served the orange  lemon sauce directly or you can sieved it first.

Sous Vide Rolled Salmon Fillet, Stuffed with Braised Tofu Skin :

• 1 Pound (500 gr) salmon fillet, cut into 15 cm long fillet
• 1 cup braised tofu skin with soy sauce
• 1/2 grams genuine Spanish saffron
• 10 grams fresh basil leaves, patted dry, roughly chopped
• 2 tbsp kaffir lime juice
• Salt and pepper to taste
• 30 ml extra virgin olive oil
  
• Ziplock plastic bag

Garnish : Black Mustard Blossoms, Micro Green Herbs and Micro Red Amaranth

How to Make Sous Vide Beef Brisket Steak Using Rice Cooker:

• Season the salmon fillet  generously with kaffir lime juice, salt, and pepper, let it sit marinated in the fridge for at least 10 minutes.
• Patted dry the salmon fish fillet then spoon the braised tofu skin over the salmon fillet, Rolled the fillet and make sure there’s no air poket inside
  
• Rolled the eel fish fillet on a genuine Spanish saffron until it covering the salmon fillet generously
• Lay the salmonfish fillet in a cling wrap plastic then rolled it over, thighten the end to make a nice cillindrical shape
• Let the is in the fridge for another 2 hours until set, cut the end then put it in a ziplock bag and then pour the olive oil
• Submerged the ziplock bag in the water partially to pushed the air out ouf it.
• Secure the ziplock seal once the air removed from the bag
• Place ziplock packed saffron seasoned salmon fillet  in the preheated beer cooler  waterbath in 42°C (i assume the temperature will drop to 40C after a couple minutes the salmon fish added)
• Let it sit in the waterbath for 1 hours, put some weight to let the bag completely submerged.
• Take away the sous vide salmonfish fillet bag from the beer cooler waterbath, set aside until it reach room temperature
• Pop out the sous vide salmon fish fillet from the ziplock bag, patted dry a little bit
• Seared the rolled salmon sous vide until slighly browned and toasted with blowtorch flames.
• Served the the Soy Sauce Braised Tofu Skin Stuffed Salmon Rolade Sous Vide with the black rice salad , sous vide baby carrot, beluga caviar, micro herbs, shaved Parmiggiano-Reggiano cheese and lemon orange sauce

Recipe Orange Lemon Sauce:

• 1 tablespoons butter
• 2 cups freshly squeezed orange juice
• 1/2 teaspoon orange zest
• 1 cup lemon juice
• 1/2 teaspoon lemon zest
• 2 tablespoons freshly squeezed lemon juice
• 1/2 cloves garlic, finely chopped
• 1/2 tablespoon chopped onion
• 1 tablespoon of all purpose flour
• salt, pepper, sugar/honey for taste

How to Make Orange Lemon Sauce :

• Melt butter in a skillet, saute the onion and garlic until translucent  but not browned
• Add the flour to make some roux, saute until the flour is not smells raw but not browned it in a very low flame for about 2 minutes
• Pour the orange and lemon juice, stirred it well to prevent any lump on it.
• Seasoned the orange-lemon sauce then with salt,  pepper, and sugar/honey, it must be balance of sweet and sour
• Reduced a little bit with continous stirring, add the orange and lemon zest.
• Sieve the solid ingredients and the orang lemon sauce is ready to served

Recipe Braised Tofu Skin with Soy Sauce for Salmon Stuffing:

• 100 grams tofu skin or yuba (soaked in water overnight to soften it)
• 2 cloves garlic, smashed
• 1 shallots, roughly chopped
• 1 cm ginger, bruised
• 2 tablespoon soy sauce
• 2 tablespoon kecap manis (Indonesian sweet soy sauce)
• 1/2 tablespoon oyster sauce
• 1 tbsp olive oil
• 2 cups water

How to Make Braised Tofu Skin with Soy Sauce:

• Heat the olive oil in a wok pan, saute the garlic, shallot and ginger until nicely browned
• Add the soaked tofu skin and all ingredients
• Simmer until the water is complety evaporated and the flavour infused into the tofu skin

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Palembang, A Photography Journal of Musi River Overflowing Blessing The Lives of People

Ampera Bridge: The Landmark of Palembang City

Palembang, A Photography Journal The Blessing of Musi River Flowing Over The People. Palembang the capital city of the South Sumatra province in Indonesia is the second-largest city in Sumatra Island after Medan. Palembang is located on the Musi River banks on the east coast of southern Sumatra with land area of 374.03 square kilometres and a population over 1,8 million people (2015 estimated). This journal begin with the question “What would Palembang Citizen do without the Musi River???”

The Mayor Office of Palembang a.k.a The Plumbing Office

The Mayor office of Palembang, a well known landmark with also called Kantor Ledeng translated as Office of Plumbing because they also provide a plumbing service to draining water  throughout the city. The office located in downtown, used to be the first water tower  to provide  clean water for the entire city back then in 1927, builed by Indonesian architect Ir. S.Snuijf from Surabaya and the whole project cost about 1 ton of gold; which is one third of the entire Palembang city master plan budget at that moment.

The Public Park Space Nearby Palembang

Palembang is one of the oldest cities in Indonesia, based on Kedukan Bukit Inscription which on 16 June 682 ac a Chinese monk, Yijing, wrote that he visited Srivijaya near Palembang in Sumatra in the year 671 for 6 monthsand has a history of being the capital city of the Kingdom of Srivijaya, a powerful Malay kingdom, which influenced much of Southeast Asia. So this year, Palembang will be celebrating its 1332 years old of it’s existence.

Ampera Bridge; The Dining Scenes From Dermaga Piont Benteng Kuto Besak

Palembang’s main landmarks include Ampera Bridge and Musi River, the latter of which divides the city into two. Jembatan Ampera was built in 1962 using Japanese technology and architect to connect the trade across the river.

Ampera Bridge, The landmark of Palembang City

The north bank of Musi River in Palembang is known as Seberang Ilir and the south bank of the river in Palembang is known as Seberang Ulu. The Seberang Ilir is Palembang’s economic and cultural centre and the Seberang Ulu is its political centre, but nowdays the Seberang Ulu area also intriguing the investor to built several mall and modern trade centre there.

The Hectic Street of Palembang City

There are very important reasons why people throughout history have chosen to live where they do. If we look at maps of different places in the world, we will notice that most large communities and cities are located on, or near the water.  Let’s look some maps of two countries where there were early civilizations, and see if this is true. The population of metropolis city is growing rapidly, the downtown people comes by to work and doing business, hence the mobile live effect the transportation; just like the busy street of Palembang City.

The Crowded “Pasar Tumpah” Floading Market 16 Ilir View fromThe Ampera Brigde

This is daily live in Palembang, like other most of the cities are near the cost of the ocean or along river; it’s a hectic, busy and fast by all means. This is callled Pasar Tumpah or translated as “floading” market, it’s name after floading because few of the seller who won’t or couldn’t affort the rent inside the market decide to hijacking the side of the road to sold their stuffs, so the term of floading didn’t refers to the real puddle. Despite the complicated money and regulation conflicts between the Goverment, the consumer and the seller, i think it’s nice to photograph the crowd.

The Musi River

This is Musi River, flowing over more than 750 km along the river which divides the city into two parts, the Seberang Ulu and Seberang Ilir  is the longest river in Sumatra. Since the first of the Musi River has become the economic lifeblood and the city of Palembang in South Sumatra Province. The tradition, cultural and beautiful living of the river city make The President of Indonesia declared Palembang to be the “City of Water Tourism” on 27 September 2005.

Floating House in Musi River

Palembangnese people lovin the lives that Musi river given us. People began to build their homes where they could be close to food and supplies. Larger towns and cities began to spring up along trade routes. Let’s stop for a minute, and think about the locations of some of the major cities, here in Indonesia. These cities have one thing in common; They are all near water! We will also learn why these locations were important to the growth and development of Palembang City.

Stunning Domestic Corps: The Blessing of Musi River

The overflowing blessing of Musi River made the land along the rivers is fertile.  The is fertile land made the crops can be grown and more than fullfilling the domestic need of the people.  Animals can also be raised if there is enough food and water for them. People learned that they could stay in one place and grow enough food to feed their community, if they were near a water supply.

Varieties of Fishes & Edible Aquatic Animal: The Blessing of Musi River

The Musi River also provide the mind bogling varieties of freshwater fish and other edible freshwater aquatic lives. Eversince the massive exploitation, the stock of wild fish in Musi river is degradated constantly; hence the regulation of unethical and ecological method of fishing like electrical shocking, jaring pukat harimau (very tiny holes trawls) or  poisoing is banned since 2004.

Pindang Ikan (Sweet Sour Variety of Fish Soup) : The Blessing of Musi River

The culinary herritage of Palembang is also related with the fish and any other freshwater aquatic creatures. Palembang well known fish dish is pindang, a spicy sour sweet soup made of garlic, ginger, chili, and one of several sour flavouring agent like tamarind, pinneaple or cherry tomato.

A Food Court Stalls In The Riverbanks of Musi RIver

Kampung Kapitan (Fine DIning Restaurant at Seberang Ulu Riverbanks): The Blessing of Musi River

There’s always be heart warming about river, dining on the side of the river is one of the tourism attraction in Palembang. There’s several outstanding fine dinning restaurant  along the Musi River banks which is actually selling the view and the dining experience.

Floating Boat Restaurant: The Blessing of Musi River

This is floating restaurant boat boarding on the Musi River, about 1 km docking in the left side of the Ampera Bridge. Palembang citizen embrace the living on the side of Musi River, even we like to dining over it, literrary. This floating boat restaurant is also called by locals as rumah makan goyang or literary translated as shaking up restaurant because  the boat will be shaking up when a big wave streaking off the boat when gigantic boat cross over the river.

The Scenary on Floating Boat Restaurant with Docking Boats and Ampera Bridge: The Blessing of Musi River

This is how Palembangnese had a dining, nice windy window facing the Musi River with the Ampera bridge and docking-crossing over boats as the background; this is a perfect scenery for me. This view is also the favourite spot for photography and as long as i remember i’ve never  failed to impressed local Indonesian tourist and especially a foreigner backthen when i was a tour guide.

The Hectic Activities Over The Musi River

The Hectic Docking Boats Loading with Domestic Goods: The Blessing of Musi River

The docking boat is also the perfect spot for photography. As people began to travel around, different societies came into contact then different societies of people could now share ideas with each other.  People began to trade food, clothing, and other things. Many major waterways were becoming trade routes that people would travel to buy and sell goods.From these ports, goods can then move to other locations by land or river. Trade and shipping are very important to the development of towns and cities.  Shipping creates jobs, and communities develop around these locations.

The Lining Transport Boat: The Blessing of Musi River

As time went on, waterways began to serve more purposes. Rivers, lakes, and seas began to be used for transportation. People built boats, and started exploring the area around them, hence the large cities had a gigantic fort to accomodated it. Port is the very important trade centers.

Small Port Under Ampera Bridge: The Blessing of Musi River

Under the Ampera bridge, there a small port to accomodate the tourist to rent a boat to explore the Musi River. On a short 1-2 hours travelling along the banks of the Musi River will be cost you about IDR 150.000 (10 USD) on a low tourism season and doubled on the high peak season.

Photography Exploring of Mr Dentist Chef, His Collegues and Foreigner Friends

Me and three dentist collegues  friends with the accompany of two foreigner friends; a world trotter Russian couple traveller had a little adventure on the last Cap GO Meh Celebration in Pulau Kemaro. We rent a small river boat to explore the lives within the Musi River to explore the photography spots along the riverbanks.

Pulau Kemaro in Cap Go Meh Celebration

Pulau Kemaro is our first photography spot. Pulau Kemaro or Pulo Kemaro in locals dialeg is a small delta in Musi River located about 6 km from the Ampera Bridge. Pulau means merupakan island and kemaro means dry season, this delta names after it because it will be dry even in the peak of heavy rainy season. Pulau Kemaro is famous with it’s Buddish temple Kelenteng Hok Tjing Rioand Kelenteng  Kwam In with it’s stunning 9th floor pagoda tower. We had our adventure there in the Cap Go Meh or Lantern Festival (15 days after The Chinese New Year).

The 9th Floored Pagoda of Pulau Kemaro

The Pulau Kemaro  pagoda tower  with it’s 9th floor stand proud in the island as a main attraction to the main land. The perfect spot to capture the 360 degree of the right side of the Musi River bank.  This pagoda build in 2006 and it’s definitely need the hell of healthy mental and body to climbed out there and it’s all worthed when you see the scenery above.

Ksenia Excited the View of Musi Riverbanks From The 9th Floor of Pulau Kemaro Pagoda

My Russian friends Knesia and all of the ganks is very excited to enjoy the scenery, and of course capturing the moment with our camera. When i ask Knesia, about her Instagram and why she capturing the places and scenery she ver visited, she proudly told me that “There are no borders. My home is Milky Way galaxy, Solar system, The Earth.” then she told me that the photograph is one of her legacy.

The Hectic Traffic Over The Musi River from The 9th Floor of Pulau Kemaro Pagoda

This is how crowded traffic over the Musi River captured from the 9th floor of the pagoda in Pulau Kemaro. The large ship is called  kapal tongkang in locals, a barge with tugboat to propelled it was carrying coal. A barge is a flat-bottomed boat, built mainly for river and canal transport of heavy goods.

The Pupuk Sriwijaya Urea fertilizer Factory: The Blessing of Musi River

All of the major factories were made near rivers, including this PT.Pupuk Sriwijaya or simply called Pusri, a Urea fertilizer factory. The small brigde to connect the Seberang Ilir land with the Pulau Kemaro, so this is the alternatives route to visit the delta beside renting a boat from the Musi River.

Crowd in The Pulau Kemaro Cap Go Meh Lantern Festival all United in Harmony: The Blessing of Musi River

On our little trip to the Pulau kemaro during the Cap Go Meh/Lantern Festival i realized that we Palembang Citizen livin in harmony. We had a different background and religion but we all embrace the Cap Go Meh celebration; you can see from the picture above that there’s also may moslem citizen(wearing hijab) at that moment and  no one of my photo hunter ganks is practicing Buddism but we were there too to celebrate the Lantern Festival.

Benteng Kuto Besak, The Strengh Prove on Palembang City

Moving back to the Ampera bridge, there Benteng Kuto Besak, a gigantic fort situated on the Seberang Ilir banks of the Musi River and adjacent to Ampera Bridge, this fort is one of the Palembang Darussalam Sultanate of heritage buildings. Nowdays, used as a hospital by  health office II Sriwijaya Military Command.

Sultan Mahmud Badaruddin II Museum

This is  Sultan Mahmud Badaruddin II Museum, also located near the Ampera Bridge. This museum is flashback time machine to travel the history of Palembang  city. This museum rich in its collections and the the building itself is a historical legacy, as it is a monument of the golden aged  former royal palace of the Palembang Darussalam Sultanate.

The Stairway of Sultan mahmud Badaruddin II; Favourite Spot for Pre Wedding Photo Shoots

The stairway entrance of Museum Sultan Mahmud Badaruddin the Second is also the favourite spot for pre wedding photography. Even few of my dentistry collegues had their wedding shots in the exact angle of the photograph above

Monpera; 8th Floored Museum

People’s Struggle Monument (Indonesian: Monumen Perjuangan Rakyat), located in downtown, adjacent to the Great Mosque of Palembang and Ampera Bridge. Monpera is also 8th floored museum was build in 23 Februsry 1998 to remember the five days battle of wars of Palembang people agains the Netherlands colonialization on 1 January 1947. This landmark of palembang city also attract the youth generation with it’s roof top as a photography spot; in the other hand it’s also a test of how fit you think you are.

The Bundaran Mesjid Agung The Zero Km of Palembang City; View from The Rooftop of Monpera.

Wow, that’s my first impression for the view in the rooftop of Monumen Perjuangan Rakyat (Monpera) Palembang. You had a 360 degree of Palembang City view from here and the distance made everything seems so small. All the effort to pushe you up to the 8th floor with be worthen the moment you felt the wind and the scenery ahead of your eyes.

Te Great Mosque Sultan mahmud Badaruddin II, View from The Rooftop of Monpera

This is the Mesjid Agung or the Great Mosque on Palembang view from above. You will notice the pyramid shaped roof of the mosque featured a  chinese architectual accent with it’s upward curve in the edge of the roof.

Pasar 16 Ilir Market View from The Rooftop of Monpera Palembang

This is Pasar 16 Ilir Palembang, the 9th Floored Market in the Seberang Ilir Musi riverbank that built in 1670. This is the center market of non food items in Palembang and the 20 years of using it without proper maintenance made it unrepresentatives this days. Fortunately, the Palembang Goverment is just started the renovation project this  to improved the market to make people more comfort to shop there

The Musi River with Local Rain in Seberang Ulu Land, A Rare Moment Captured from The Rooftop of Monpera

Palembang has a tropical rainforest climate with relatively high humidity and sometimes significant winds. The temperature ranges from 23.4 to 31.7 degrees Celsius. Annual rainfall ranges from 2000 to 3000 mm. Humidity ranges from 75 to 89% with an average of 45% of annual sunshine. If you lucky like me and my ganks, you’ll got a chance to photograph the rare moment of local rain in the other side of the Palembang city; the Seberang Ulu.

The Great Mosque Sultan Mahmud Baddaruddin II Palembang

Mesjid Agung or Grand Mosque of Sultan Mahmud Badaruddin II Palembang is located in downtown facing the Ampera Bridge.  This mosque was firstly build in 1738 and renovated sevral times eversince. The mosque is the largest mosque in South Sumatra with a 1080 m 2 and had a capacity of 15,000 pilgrims.

The Main Gate of Mesjid Agung Palembang with European Doric Style

The main gate of Grand Mosque of Sultan Mahmud Badaruddin II Palembang had it’s European influence with doric style. My last trip to Mesjid Agung also shocked me because i just known that most of great grand Mosques in Indonesia is build with European architect which in fact not practicing Islam.

The Great Mosque of Palembang Exterior, A Blend of Eastern n Western Architectural

The Great Mosque of Palembang is assimilation of western and eastern architectural. As i describes before that roof got Chinese accent, the main gate had the  European acccent, in the other hand the celling had it’s Arabian influence . The minbar of this mosque is very similiar with the Great Mosqued of Medina.

Stunning Interior of Great Mosque Sultan Mahmud Badaruddin II

This is the stunning interior of The Great Mosque of Palembang, floored with the finest Indonesian marbled stone, 10 metres of European style glass Mosaic  window and roof and also a finest crystal hanging on it

The Pilgrim Croud of Great Mosque of Palembang

We Palembang citizen overwhelmed by the blessed living we had, hence we had our times for praying to God. Palembang citizen is mostly practicing Moslem, but many of the inhabitants also practice Christianity, Buddhism, Hinduism, and Confucianism.

The Blessing Live Musi River Overwhelm The Palembang Citizen; Including Mr.Dentist Chef

The photography essay of Palembang got me thinking to myself, I DAMN LOVIN PALEMBANG!!! no doubt about it. I love how the river overwhelmed the lifestyle, the cultures and the hectic lives of we all the citizen. Palembang people is very polite and welcoming to other people. As a former tour guide, i’ve been told by many foreigner tourist from around the world that Palembang people is very generous, even with a simple effortless smiles.

Dentist Chef Pindang Tulang Photograph Courtesy Featured in Street Food Gawker Signboard

The other photography project i had is to capturing Dentist Chef food photography featuring anymously all over the Palembang city; on the signboard of a restaurant, street gawker banner or menu book of a fancy restaurant in starred hotel. This is dilemmatic, i glad that they must be thingking that my photographs is awesome, hence in the otherhand they not giving credit of the Dentist Chef courtesy. I’m not saying about the money value of using the photograph as a commercial purpose, but removing the watermark on the photograph is definitely unethical. This is my statements years ago, eversince i’m already dealing it with ahappy state of mind now since one food court had a dozen or more of my photograph.

Dentist Chef Pindang Tulang Photograph Anymously Featured in Official Palembang City Goverment Tourism Booklet

I’m very glad Dentist Chef Pindang Tulang anymously featured in the official Palembang City Goverment Tourism Booklet. Despite fact that the courtesy didn’t mention the Dentist Chef what so ever, i’m happy that i can represent the culinary of Palembang and hopefully it will attract more tourist coming and exploring the Musi River City.

Busy Road on Ampera Bridge

Traffic Jam in Palembang City; A Sign of Hectic Lives

Here comes the tricky part; before you get to nearby the Ampera Bridge,  make sure you going there in a stable state of mental, better be happy because you gotta deal with some crowded and busy street of Palembang city. If you get lucky there’s no traffic jam and traffic congestion.  This is daily basic life in Palembang, just look out the photograph of Palembang street with heavy traffic congestion, hence you definitely need some ride which affordable, comfortable, safety and yet had a great performance on the road. Palembangnese busy street need Toyota Agya for enhancing and support a hectic and mobile citizen like me.

Agressive and Youth Representatives Appearance of Toyota Agya

The Parking Lot Under The Ampera Bridge, The West Musi Riverbanks: Not a Problem Getting it with TOYOTA AGYA

My collegues friends bugging me about Toyota Agya which had been ride it for one year. My tree hugging-go vegan chick fling-pro envirometal maniac lady friend always told that she’s been saving so much money for the fuel efficency of Toyota Agya (21 km per litre, aided by its 740 kg kerb weight). Toyota Agya is one of the  Low-Cost and Green Car (LCGC) programme that’s dominating the local automotive industry in Indonesian market segment for the  first-time family car owners. Toyota Agya sold started at 11.000 USD (in Jakarta) and i guess a first jobber can afford it because the tax breaks offered under the LCGC regulation.

Spacey Baggage of TOYOTA AGYA

Low cost city car is considered as responsible way of life nowdays, no one argues it for sure.  My comfort zone of ride is had quite an impressive and aggresive exterior presentation, spacey interior with nice air conditioner, anual and automatic transmission, Dual SSR Airbag for savety concern and the most important things is spacey trunk. Why i needed a large trunk? simply because i had a few groceries shopping and sometimes i need to bring my dentistry stuffs for clinical and laboratory purpose. My photography hunting session need a space to stucked with my camera gears and stuffs.   It’s all complete feature of Toyota Agya!

Spacey Cabin of TOYOTA AGYA, Perfect for Photography Journal Hunting

I’m a 25 years old single young dentist with a very mobile and hectic lives; between the entire city for photography  hunting, the clinics; the hospital, the supermarket, the gym, the malls, the cafes, the futsal places, the few imaginary girlfriend(s) place(s) (which i wish had someday latter) and for sure for by big craving tummy that made me always  travelling and exploring through out the city to Eat more and cook more hence i’m the DENTIST CHEF. I’m very wishing that i had Toyota Agya, AGYA names even  derived from Sanskrit word which means FAST, which is just perfect for my youth lifestyle.

Sate Sapi Cucuk Manis Palembang ala Wak Din (Beef Satay Marinated with Tamarind & Kecap Manis), A Worth to Hunt Herritage Cuisine of Palembang Even Through A Traffic Jam

Sate Sapi Cucuk Manis: Grilled Beef Tenderloin Satay Marinated with Cuko or Tamarind and Kecap Manis Sauce

Resep Sate Sapi Cucuk Manis ala Wak Din Palembang. Sate cucuk manis is a skewered beef satay originally from Palembang, South Sumatra. The beef tenderloin cut  into chunky bite pieces, marinated with spices, kecap manis (Indonesian sweet soy sauce) and tamarind paste, then  skewered on bamboo skewer and grilled over charcoal.  The name of Sate Sapi Cucuk Manis derived from Sate which is Indonesian word for satay, sapi means beef, cucuk means skewered or pierced and manis is translated as sweet. You may think the Sate Sapi Manis must be sweet, not completely wrong because it’s actually taste sourish or tangy sweet because the additional of tamarind paste or locally called asam jawa.

Sate Sapi Cucuk Manis: Grilled Beef Tenderloin Satay Marinated with Cuko or Tamarind and Kecap Manis Sauce

Sate Cucuk Manis usually served with  cuko or thinner version of sourish tangy sweet sauce which also used for marinating the beef. Cuko sauce made Sate Sapi Cucuk Manis  different with Sate Madura(Chicken/Lamb Satay), which used to be served with peanut sauce. The same thing for both is they using kecap manis for marinade. Kecap manis is made of fermented black soy with a nice umami flavour and mixed it with some palm sugar and also spices into some dark, sweet, caramelized and lovely sauce as the most common ingredeints in most of Indonesia cuisines. Sate Sapi Cucuk Manis also commonlt served with some pickled chili and cucumber relish, sliced shallots and bawang goreng or deep fried red shallots.

Grilled Beef Satay glazed with Tamarind and Kecap Manis Sauce

Sate Sapi Cucuk Manis: Grilled Beef Tenderloin Satay Marinated with Cuko or Tamarind and Kecap Manis Sauce

Sate Sapi Cucuk Manis is DAMN DELICIOUS, the beef tenderloin is cooked into perfection, tender and heavenly melted in the mouth. The sourish tangy caramelized tamarind cuko sauce hit you with some umami gastrononic orgasm sensation and it just perfectly combined with the smokey grilled beef satay. I’m not kidding or made it out for you, eversince beef tenderloin is tender and not much needed tenderizer so 1 hour of marinating is just perfect. The kecap manis and spices flavour is penetrated into the meat, meanwhile the acidic tamarind paste break down the collagen in the meat protein fiber resulting a melting tender and flavourfull meat satay.

The Old Sign Board of Sate Sapi Wak Din Restaurant

The Legend: Wak Din

I love culinary adventures, not only to taste the food but also explore the philosophy underneath the dish from the original and authentic version. Sate Sapi Cucuk Manis invented by Wak Din (wak means uncle in Palembangnese) back then in the 1940-ish. Wak Din is a former blue colored job man who loves to cook for his family; eversince he couldn’t afford to purchased pricey beef tenderloin so he purchased the cheap cut of beef. Here comes the problem; cheap cut beef wouldn’t bee tender if grilled over charcoal, hence he used acidic marinade made of tamarind to tenderized the beef and voila!!! everybody lovin Sate Cucuk Manis Wak Din and then He usedh to use beef tenderloin eversince he sold it out for the first time .

Sate Sapi Manis Wak Din, The Authentic !!!

In the 1940-ish Wak Din sold his Sate Sapi Cucuk Manis with a bakul or street vendor style gigantic hampers made of rotan wood that carried on his shoulder. Right after he think he can afford some building for his restaurant, he open his warung Sate Cucuk Manis shop in Jl. KH. A Azhari Palembang then times swing byand Sate Sapi Cucuk Manis become on of the herritage cuisine of Palembang.

The Beef Satay Grilled Manually Over Charcoal with Some Help of Hand Fan made of Bamboo.

Sate Sapi Manis Over Charcoal Grill

When you reach the sighboard of Sate Manis Wak Din, you pretty much will be under estimated it just by looking the ambience. The restaurant itself is self explanatory and simple with six table that can afoord about 30 people, you won’t believe that former Indonesian President, South Sumatra’s Governor, celebrities and famous food critics had ever dining there. Then a humble and polite smiling of a middle aged Lady welcomed me when i enter the restaurant. The Wak Din youngest daughter who take over the place explained the menu and also the story about Wak Din. Excuse me if any mistaken information taken  because the satay galore already tickled my taste buds in the very beginning, i even forgot to photograph the interior of the restaurant.

Legendary Sate Sapi Cucuk Manis Wak Din with Cuko Sauce (Tamarind, Kecap Manis and Spices)

Sate Sapi Cucuk Manis Wak Din  usually contain five skewered beef with a large chunky of beef meat satay for a single portion. served with the cuko sauce, chili rfelish, lime wedges and deep fried shallots. I assume a single portion of beef satay contain about 175-200 grams of beef and it cost you only IDR 25.000 (about 3 USD). They will charge extra IDR 5000 for one extra skewer. You know what; i’m a true carnivour with big appetite (judging from many beef recipe feature on Dentist Chef) and 7 skewer  is enought for me. What i really ADORE about Sate Sapi Cucuk Manis Wak Din is how they didn’t put a hint of hesitate to share the recipe for me. They told me that if you made some dish passionately with love hence people will taste it within bites and i couldn’t more agree with it. There’s so many seller of Sate Cucuk Manis in Palembang; from the street vendor to a fancy restaurant of five starred hotel but the original always got it’s place in Palembangnese people heart.

Pepes Ikan Patin Tempoyak

Malbi (Braised Beef Curry with Kecap Manis)

Pindang Tulang (Spicy Sour Beef Ribs Soup)

Beside the legendary beef satay, sate cucuk manis Wak Din also served several Palembangnese traditional dishes; Brengkes Ikan Patin Tempoyak (Banana Leaf Wrapped Spiced Fish with Fermented Durian Paste). A local catfish from Musi  River, spiced with chili, shallots ginger, turmeric and tangy fermented durian or tempoyak. Pindang Tulang (Spicy sour Beef Ribs Soup with Chili and Tamarind Paste) and also Malbi Daging Sapi ( Indonesian Braised beef in Sweet Curry with Kecap Manis /Sweet Soy Sauce)

Ampera Bridge: Landmark of Palembang City!!!

How to reached the Sate Cucuk Manis Wak Din is not that hard if you can located the landmark of Palembang city; the Ampera Bridge, well all i can say is you’ve been found Wak Din’s beef satay shop. Ask anybody about Sate Wak Din and they would be gladly pointed it out to you.

Quite Busy and Crowded Traffic in Palembang City Daily Basic

Sate Sapi Manis Wak Din restaurant is in front of  small clinic called Klinik 7 Ulu which  can be seen from the ampera bridge if you standing onn the left section of the ampera bridge and facing the Agung Mosque. Prepare yourself for a ride of slower speeds, longer trip times, and increased vehicular queueing ahead of you.

Traffic Congestion in Hectic Palembang City Street

Here comes the tricky part; before you get to nearby the Ampera bridge,  make sure you going there in a stable state of mental, better be happy because you gotta deal with some crowded and busy street of Palembang city. If you get lucky there’s no traffic jam and traffic congestion.  This is daily basic life in Palembang, just look out the photograph of Palembang street with heavy traffic congestion, hence you definitely need some ride which affordable, comfortable, safety and yet had a great performance on the road. Palembangnese busy street need Toyota Agya for enhancing and support a hectic and mobile citizen like me.

TOYOTA AGYA: Outstanding Performance and Agressive Looking Low Cost Green Car

My collegues friends bugging me about Toyota Agya which had been ride it for one year. My tree hugging-go vegan chick fling-pro envirometal maniac lady friend always told that she’s been saving so much money for the fuel efficency of Toyota Agya (21 km per litre, aided by its 740 kg kerb weight). Toyota Agya is one of the  Low-Cost and Green Car (LCGC) programme that’s dominating the local automotive industry in Indonesian market segment for the  first-time family car owners. Toyota Agya sold started at 11.000 USD (in Jakarta) and i guess a first jobber can afford it because the tax breaks offered under the LCGC regulation.

Spacey Trunk of TOYOTA AGYA, incase i need to carry large groceries and dentistry stuffs

Low cost city car is considered as responsible way of life nowdays, no one argues it for sure.  My comfort zone of ride is had quite an impressive and aggresive exterior presentation, spacey interior with nice air conditioner, anual and automatic transmission, Dual SSR Airbag for savety concern and the most important things is spacey trunk. Why i needed a large trunk? simply because i had a few groceries shopping and sometimes i need to bring my dentistry stuffs for clinical and laboratory purpose. It’s all complete feature of Toyota Agya!

Spacey Cabin of TOYOTA AGYA; incase i’m going travelling with my family and friends

I’m a 25 years old single young dentist with a very mobile and hectic lives; between the clinics; the hospital, the supermarket, the gym, the malls, the cafes, the futsal place, the few imaginary girlfriend(s) place(s) (which i wish had someday latter) and for sure for by big craving tummy that made me always  travelling and exploring through out the city to Eat more and cook more. I’m very wishing that i had Toyota Agya, AGYA names even  derived from Sanskrit word which means FAST, which is just perfect for my youth lifestyle.

Sate Sapi Cucuk Manis: Grilled Beef Tenderloin Satay Marinated with Cuko or Tamarind and Kecap Manis Sauce

Grilled Beef Tenderloin Satay Marinated with Cuko or Tamarind and Kecap Manis Sauce (Sate Sapi Cucuk Manis)

Now were back to the Sate cucuk Manis, this recipe is courtesy of Wak Din and i just adjust if with the ingredients that available and suits with my taste buds:

Resep Sate Sapi Cucuk Manis ala Wak Din

Resep Sate Sapi Cucuk Manis ala Wak Din

SATE CUCUK MANIS WAK DIN
Jl. KHA Azhari, Depan Ps Klinik 7 Ulu Phone :085382263677
Palembang – Sumatera Selatan.

Ingredients of the Skewered Beef Tenderloin Satay

• 800 gr beef tenderloin
• 25 bamboo skewer, submerge in water for about 2 hours, drained
• Salt and pepper to taste

Saus Cuko ( Tamarind Sauce for Marinate the Beef Tenderloin):

• 6 red shallots
• 3 cloves garlic
• 6 tablespoons tamarind paste (removed the seed)
• 6 tablespoons kecap manis (Indonesian sweet soy sauce)
• 3 cm ginger
• 1/2 tbsp chilli/cayenne pepper flakes
• 1/2 tsp black peppercorn
• 1 tsp salt
• 200 ml water

How To Make Beef Tenderloin Satay Marinated with Tamarind & Kecap manis (Cuko):

• Cubed the beef tenderloin about 1.5 inch (about 3.5 cm)
• Prepare the tamarind sauce for marinade by process the red shallots, garlic, ginger, chili and water in a food processor until smooth
• Combine all the tamarind marinade ingredients, bring to boil and simmer until reduced half it’s original volume
• Devide the cuko sauce into two (one for marinade and one for serving)
• Mix the tamarind marinade with the beef tenderloin, let it marinated about one hour
• Put the tamarind marinated beef into the bamboo skewer(about 4 piece in one skewer)
  

  Grilled Beef Satay glazed with Tamarind and Kecap Manis Sauce

• Griled the beef tenderloin satay over a charcoal grill until your preference doneness
• Glaze with the remaining sauce from the marinade if needed
• Served the Tamarind glazed beef tenderloin satay with the cuko sauce (you can adjust the consitency of the cuko/sweet tamarind sauce), deep fried red shallots, chili relish and sliced raw red shallots.

 

 

 

Recipe Sous Vide Kobe Wagyu Beef, Served Cold with Kaffir Limes Shoyu Ponzu, Silgochu (Korean Chili Strand) & Bean Sprout

Sous Vide Kobe Wagyu Beef, Served Cold with Ponzu Sauce, Silgochu (Korean Chili Thread) and Bean Sprout.

Sous Vide Kobe Wagyu Beef, Served Cold with Ponzu Sauce, Silgochu (Korean Chili Thread) and Bean Sprout. This is an upscale dining appetizer experience which possibly gonna made you get laid tonight! A5  Kobe wagyu beef (BMS 10) cube roll from Hyogo Prefecture in Japan, slowly cooked with kelp or seaweed and sliced mushrooms until medium welldone then chilled overnight until the fat harden, cut into bite portion and then served with tangy, citrusy and kicking savoury chilled ponzu souy sauce.

A5 Kobe Wagyu Beef Sous Vide, Served Cold with Kaffir Lime Ponzu Sauce, Silgochu (Korean Chili Thread) and Bean Sprout.

Cold Sous Vide Kobe Beef with Melting Fat

Yup, the A5 Japanese Kobe beef cooked ala sous vide into medium well done, you don’t misread it! You may think that i’m a jerk for cooking the kobe beef more than medium rare, don’t judje me too early. Eversince the kobe beef is gonna be served chilled, the massive ammount marbling fat must be cooked until well rendered (at least 64°C) to make sure it will be melted when it touch our palate and exposed with the natural heat of out mouth.

Sous Vide Kobe Wagyu Beef, Served Cold with Kaffir Lime Ponzu Sauce

Sous-vide is French term for “under vacuum”, a method of cooking food sealed in airtight plastic bags in a water bathor in a temperature-controlled steam environment for longer than normal cooking times for up to 96 hours, in some cases; at an accurately regulated temperature much lower than normally used for cooking, typically around 50°C (131 °F) to 60 °C (140°F) for meats and higher for vegetables. Sous vide also used to pasteurized egg, beef and other meat to made it save to be eaten raw without cooking it. I pasteurized my beef tenderloin to make Yukhoe (Raw Korean Seasoned Beef Steak Tartare with Asian Pear).

Sous Vide Kobe Wagyu Beef, Served Cold with Ponzu Sauce, Silgochu (Korean Chili Thread) and Bean Sprout.

Sous Vide Kobe Wagyu Beef, Served Cold with Ponzu Sauce, Silgochu (Korean Chili Thread) and Bean Sprout.

I’ve been cooked beef with sous vide method several times, mostly from lean and non prime cut. The choice or second grade of beef turn into tender, moist and delicious meat once it cooked sous vide style with rice cooker waterbath. So i think it’s obvious that beyond prime A5 Kobe beef gonna be turned out terrific once slow cooked in sous vide method. This  is actually sort of sousvide cooking using rice cooker as a heater to my waterbath, so no fancy equipments sousvide waterbath circulator and vaccum sealed pack machines involved.  Instead, this sort of sousvide method using amateur kitchen tools, eversince  i take care all the basic principles of sousvide on this recipe.

A5 Kobe Wagyu Beef with Massive Ammount Marbling fat

Since this is kobe beef is cooked in sort of-sousvide, the beef sirloin is vaccum packed with ziplock manually without any vaccum machine by simply submerged the ziplock package under water partially to pushed away the air. The ziplock package silicone seal then zipped once the air removed from the bad. This ziplock bag submerging method is quite efficient to pushed the air from the bag. Choose the heatproof and foodgrade ziplock bag with a good sealing feature, cheap ziplock bag may burst out while cooking and ruined your entire kobe beef batch.

Kobe Beef (Bottom Right) Sous Vide at 64°C with Rice Cooker Waterbath

I slowly cooked the kobe beef using my old rice cooker as a sous vide waterbath. As you can see from the photograph, my waterbath temperature was 64°C , but it’s actually fluctuated from 63 to 64°C if i  put the lid on. I adjust the temperature of the rice cooker waterbath with covering the the meatal pot, the more you cover hence the tempersture will get closer to the maximum temperature when you put the lid on. I let the kobe beef brisket sit in the rice cooker waterbath for about 1 hours, don’t get hesitate to leave it longer in the waterbath because it’s not a single chance your beef will overcooked, but definitely no further than 2 hours or it turn into mushy because the fat is totally renderred.  The heat source of my rice cooker is on the bottom of the metal pot, so the temperature in the bottom and the surface of the the water bath is different with about 0.5°C range, so it’s necessary to flip it every 20-30 minutes to made the beef evenly cooked. Do not forget to submerged the vaccum packed beef sirloin completely on the waterbath during the sous vide cooking, i’m putting some glass plate for that purpose.

Slow Cooked Kobe Beef with Rice Cooker Waterbath, The Meat Flavoured with Kombu/Kelp & Dried Shiitake Mushrooms

The verdict: the authentic japanese A5 kobe wagu beef is worth every single cent of it. In a fine dining restaurant you probably charged 100 USd for a single portion of 250 grams of Kobe beef steak and you won’t regret to paid it if it’s perfectly cooked. Tasting a Japanese kobe beef is beyond a gastronomic orgasm, honestly; i’m not fucking kidding about it. After all, all i can said is you live your life once, so be generous to yourself!

Homemade Kaffir Lime Shoyu Ponzu for Serving The Sous Vide Beef

Once the kobe beef cooked into medium well done with sous vide method, the fat of kobe beef is so fragile and easily melted even with a simple hand touch heat, if you wanna got a clear and clean cut, i suggest you to chilled the chopping board and the knives before slicing it. Carved or cut the kobe beef just before serving to prevent the beef meat dry out.

Cold Kobe Beef Served with Cold Lime Shoyu Ponzu

The ponzu sauce for serving the cold kobe beef is homemade. Ponzu is a Japanese soy sauce citrus based sauce commonly. It is tangy, citrusy, tary, with a thin, watery consistency and a dark brown color, the additional of soy sauce or shoyu made ponzu also callled Ponzu shōyu or ponzu jōyu (ポン酢醤油).

Tangy, Citrusy, Savoury Kaffir Limes with Melting Tender Sous Vide Kobe Beef, DAMN DELICIOUS!!!

My homemade ponzu is made by simmering rice vinegar, mirin, , katsuobushi (dried smoked bonito or skipjack tuna flakes), and seaweed (kombu) over medium heat. The liquid is then cooled, strained to remove the katsuobushi flakes, and finally the juice of one or more of the following citrus fruits is added; local kaffir lime called jeruk jungga. Commercial ponzu is generally sold in glass bottle, you can purchased it in any Asian-Japanese groceries store, but i guess it’ taste even better if you made it from scratch.

Recipe Sous Vide Kobe Wagyu Beef with Homemade Kaffir Limes Shoyu Ponzu

Recipe Sous Vide Kobe Wagyu Beef :

Serving (2-3)

Ingredients:

• 1 piece of 250 grams A5 Kobe Wagyu Beef Cube Roll Steak
  
• Salt and pepper to taste
  
• 2 tbsp butter
• 1 piece (5×10 cm) kombu or dry seaweed(for flavouring*optional
• 2 piece of dried shiitake mushrooms (for flavouring)*optional
• Ziplock plastic bag

For Serving:Homemade ponzu sauce, Silgochu (korean chili thread), and mung bean sprout

How to Make Sous Vide Beef Brisket Steak Using Rice Cooker:

• Season the kobe beef  with salt and pepper, set aside
  
• Put the kobe beef steak in the ziplock bag, put the kombu, dried mushrooms and the butter on the bagg
  
• Submerged the ziplock bag in the water partially to pushed the air out ouf it.
• Secure the ziplock seal once the air removed from the bag, let it sit in the fridge for at least 6 hours or ovenight.
  
• Place ziplock packed kobe beef cube roll  in the preheated rice cooker waterbath in 64°C for medium well done (i’m using my rice cooker with the lid cover on)
• Let it sit in the waterbath for 1 hour, flip it every 20 minutes and put some weight to let the bag completely submerged.
• Take away the sous vide kobe beef  bag from the rice cooker waterbath, set aside until it reach room temperature
• Chilled it for at least 6 hours or overnight in 4°C fridge
• Pop the veal sirloin steak out of the ziplock bag, carefully cut it with chilled knives on a chilled cutting board
  
• Put the cut chilled kobe beef sous vide in a serving bowl, served with korean chili thread, beand sprout then pour the cold ponzu sauce over it and enjoy your foodgasm!
  

Homemade Kaffir Lime Ponzu Soy Sauce:

Ingredients

• 1/2 cup shoyu /soy sauce
• 1 piece kombu, (about 3 x 5 inches)
• 6 tablespoons kaffir lemon juice
• 1/4 cup tablespoon rice vinegar
• 1/4teaspoon mirin
• 1/4 tablespoon bonito/katsuiboshi flakes (smoked dried skipjack tuna)

Instructions

1. Lightly rinse the kombu and place in a small bowl along with the kaffir lemon juice, shoyu, rice vinegar, and mirin. Cover and let sit for at least a few hours, but preferably overnight.
2. Add the bonito flakes, let sit for a few minutes and strain.
   
3. Chilled overnight n the fridge

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