Yummmmm-O!!!

Howdy....

I think I'm channeling my inner cowgirl here for some reason, cause it appears howdy is the greeting of the day....or Salemat Pagi or Salemat Siang or Salemat Malam. But you guys don't know those.....hehehe so it's howdy for the English speakers, lol.

Anyway, E & I just had a fabulous steak for lunch, and I am quite impressed with myself, that I could possibly make such a delicious thing......so let me start from the beginning:

Yesterday was E & I's "date day." Of course, what else is there to do other than go into Surabaya!! So we woke up at normal time (for E it's 6:35, for C it's 7:15) and waited for the driver and car to take us into Surabaya. There was mild traffic on our way in, and we had to make 2 errands before we had our time, and I was hungry by this point, cause I had already been up for 4 hrs and not a drop of food, so we stopped by McDonald's. A open 24-hrs, delivery available 24-hrs, McD's in the middle of Surabaya. We got a Double burger combo #5 with no onion and a coca-cola to drink. Now, it tasted exactly the same!!!!!!! Smelled the same too. Even inside the McD's was the same!! We did drive thru, but still I snooped around inside from the car...does that make sense? (I know my English is getting a little rough....like earlier I couldn't even think of the word for Exclamation Point ->!!<-) Ok point being, it was good, E and I split it, and it was enough to hold us over til lunch. After our quick bite, our first stop was Hi-Tech Mall, where we exchanged the headphones that we use to talk on Skype, for a different pair, and it was quite simple and easy. Then we hopped back into the car and headed over to our favorite place.....none other than Mal Galaxy!! When we got there we made a quick pee stop and decided to walk around and see what we wanted to do. We ended up getting these flavored potatoes up on the 2nd floor...you can chooses chili and cheese, spicy bbq, I can't remember this flavor, regular bbq and original. Which one do you think we chose? Spicy BBQ of course!! They were delicious, and E had been telling me about them since before he came back to Indonesia...so it was quite nice to see what he's been raving all these times. We also got a bottled water for me, and Pure Sugar Cane drink for E. (I tasted it.....and it's.....something I wouldn't ever desire to try again.....)

After our 2nd snack of the day (we sound like little piggies...but it's really not like that.....) we decided to dual it out once again in AIR HOCKEY!! We love this game. Or at least I do. E seems like he throughly enjoys it as well. We went into TimeZone (that's the name of the Arcade) and played a Zombie killing game, a few of those, then some other game. Then we went to the Air Hockey table.....we decided to play the best of 3.....so Game 1 winner is: CARLE (7-5)!!! Game 2 winner is: ERI(7-6)!! So all tied up.....and Game 3.....w...i...n...n...e...r...is: ERI (7-4)!!! Eri won, of course. Eri ALWAYS wins!! But we had a great time playing the Air Hockey. It was awesome. By that time, we were all worn out from Air Hockey, we decided to eat lunch. (It took a long time to play...since we are both so good ;-) ) We decided to have lunch at Wok. (No sadly enough, not Duck King....but I know they recognized me, and expected us to come in...but we didn't.) Wok is a good place to eat, Eri had something with dry hard noodles and pork, and I had Fried Rice Finny. Whatever that is...it was red fried rice with some kind of sauce in it, it was good. Then we went to the 2 toys stores in the mall, and looked at all the cool stuff. Then to BreadTalk to buy...what? BREAD!! And then to J. Co Donuts to buy Tiramisu donuts...and an iced coffee beverage...or if you're E, you buy Thai tea, which isn't that bad tasting...only if I liked tea more ;-) By this time it's 215pm and we have to leave at 245pm, so we are sitting inside J.Co deciding what for dinner....ohhhhh wait......I forgot something....before BreadTalk, we went grocery shopping at 99 Ranch and bought groceries....DUH..... :-) ok, so we decided to order a pizza from Pizza Hut and take it home for dinner, so when we got back, we could just relax for the evening......so we ordered it, waited for it, (and I finally have mastered the art of using the bathroom in Indonesia, thank you thank you!) and got it, and headed home. (Which after eating the Pizza, I think I told E, remember how we said we weren't going to eat at Pizza Hut anymore? Yeah...I think we must of forgotten that when we decided to order the pizza.....when we started eating it, that memory quickly came back....lol. The pizza we tried this time was wayyyyyyyyy better than the pizza we had last time, yes, but still wasn't delicious. Sorry Pizza Hut. I will be looking forward to your thin crusted pepperoni -self when I come back home, until then, no more Pizza for me...for sure!!)

Ok, about the steaks, we bought 2 Australian cattle steaks from 99 Ranch.....and we decided to eat them today for lunch. So we started marinating them last night. We cut off all the fats and soaked them overnight in this:
4 cloves of garlic
Worcestershire Sauce
A1 Supreme Garlic Steak Sauce (I'm not sure if they sell this in US or not.....)
All Purpose Seasoning
Cajun Spices
Rosemary
Pepper

And oh my god....it is like perhaps the best steak we have ever eaten!! We had it with grilled corn (wrapped up in small amount of butter and more garlic) and fresh grilled Squash and Zucchini mixture....it was soooooooooooooo good. You guys should try it!! And the best part about it, there was no oil!! Everything, literally everything here is deep fried in oil, so it's really good to have a meal with no oil!!!

Here's the picture of the Shark/Alligator statue I was too lazy to get last time.....
Oh, and here's the story about Surabaya, taken from Wikipedia....in case you don't remember the whole shark/alligator background info....like why it's there (and I really took these pics, by the way):

"Surabaya is commonly said to derive its name from the wordssura or suro (shark) and baya or boyo (crocodile), two creatures which, in a local myth, fought each other in order to gain the title of "the strongest and most powerful animal" in the area according to a Jayabaya prophecy. This prophecy tells of a fight between a giant white shark and a giant white crocodile. Now the two animals are used as the city's logo, the two facing each other while circling the city's monument, the Heroes Monument. This folk etymology, though embraced enthusiastically by city leaders, is somewhat dubious. Alternate derivations proliferate: e.g. from the Javanese sura ing baya, meaning "bravely facing danger". Some people consider this Jayabaya prophecy as a great war between Surabaya native people and invaders in 1945, while another story is about two heroes that fought each other in order to be the king of the city. The two heroes were Sura and Baya."

And here's a picture of us from last week....right after we took the pics of the Shark and Alligator:


Oh and yes, today is Thanksgiving...so Happy Thanksgiving to everyone!! It's like the first time I've never been to Nanny's (Memaw to some....) for Thanksgiving in a long long long time....but no worriesNanny, I'll be back soon........and gosh how I miss that chicken casserole, and the corn, and the ham, and deviled eggs, baked beans, mac & cheese, ummmm all that stuff!!! Ok, enough day dreaming about Thanksgiving feasts....lol. And since it's Thanksgiving, I guess I need to share what I am thankful for, right? Well, let me think, it's like so obvious, BUT here I go:

I am thankful for being able to have the time to come to Indonesia and spend some months with Eri. Thank you Mom & Dad. Thank you Bobby for taking care of the house, my kitty, and my dog. I could never express my gratitude enough....and thank you for the support. Thank you for listening and understanding my want to go to Indonesia. I've never lost a parent, but I'm glad I was able to be here to help comfort Eri along the way with all his en devours. And my desire to get married abroad.....lol. (Wait til ya'll see the video, the wedding was amazing!) I am thankful for Eri....for being an absolute amazing host, making the transition for me smooth as possible. I'm thankful for being able to get married, to literally my best friend, (which that brings on a whole other topic, of which, before we even started dating, Eri was indeed my best friend, so I really got to marry my best friend.) At this moment, I am thankful for everyone and everything. Honestly. Thank you for your passion, your loyalty, your support. I love every single one of you.

Okies, that's it for now. Love ya.

Mrs. W

WOW!! Been married for 2 weeks already!

Hi hi hi!

Well, I thought I would update...but I don't really have a whole lot to update on....sorry :-(
Eri works in the store downstairs 6 days a week....so we spend a lot of time at the house, lol, which is cool actually, lots of quality time spent together.

What else....Eri got a motorcycle!! It fits all his traveling needs for the little town of Mojokerto, and now he can go out to the grocery store, or whatever need be..!! It's cool, it's a Honda Wario (pronounced Vario)....but it's cool. I will take a pic of it and post it soon.

Hmm.....other than that.....we went into Surabaya again last Tuesday...and I finally remembered to take a picture of the "Shark and Alligator" statue thingie. I have been wanting to take that pic since my arrival here and I was finally able to do it. But I'm entirely too lazy to find Eri's camera to post the pic, lol, sorry.

Well that's it for now.

Mrs. W

Wedding Photos

Well, I think the title is pretty self explanatory ;-)

At the altar praying to Eri's parents....asking for their blessing for our marriage, etc....

Walking into the ceremony.....

Here come the Monks.....there were 4 of them in attendance....

Lighting the 5 candles.....color means something......I can't remember.......

Awwww.....there we are......at this point we already exchanged rings, and were about to wrapped up in the blanket....

This was a very fun moment....once it was tied all the family and guests started clapping their hands. Our hands were also tied, then they put the blanket around you while the Monks sprinkle holy water on you and give you blessings.

That's us :-D

Saying thank you for coming....in a Chinese traditional way....

This is our wedding cake..........we had 2 of them.....yummmm......

After the ceremony everyone came back to the house and we all had dinner and cake and just say around til about 8pm........overall it was a great time. I have about 150 more pictures and lots of video and a wedding dvd, so everyone be ready...I will show them all to you when I come back.

Love ya.

Mrs. W

Phew!!! What a great day!!!

Eri and I woke up early and went into Surabaya for the day......

We woke up at 6am and left the house by 7........
And went to the Immigration Office to extend my VISA (WOW!! been here 2 months already!!!!).........then that was super quick....so we then went Hi-Tech Mall, which guess what...sells everything Technology related. Computer's, hardware, software, everything. We picked up a headset and microphone to use Skype......then we headed to the one of the many malls of Surabaya, and ate lunch at Pizza Hut -- Indonesia. I was thinking it might be better than Pizza Hut in USA, because KFC is so much better.....but it was.....disapointing. But filling. So after lunch, we headed to the Cinema XXI, and watched Quantum of Solace, the new (new in Indo....) James Bond movie...and it was good!! From that mall, we headed to Mal Galaxy (Galaxy Mall, lol) to go grocery shopping at 99 Ranch....which is like an import grocery store. But first we went to the top floor and battled it out in 2 rounds of Mario Kart in the Arcade, then went grocery shopping. Then we went to eat dinner at The Duck King (click the link...this is really the one we went to!!). After dinner we went to BreadTalk, for some bread....and then J.Co Donunts, for donuts and some coffee drinks. Then headed home at about 6pm!! WOW!! What a full day!!

I'm talking to my Mom and Sister on Skype!! It's exciting.....but sometimes it's not as great as expected...

That's it for not. I'm going to go start cooking spaghetti!! Yumm!!!

CW

Let's talk about......food!!

So, I'm sitting here, it's about 1:30 Thursday afternoon, enjoying a bowl of my Indonesian-style Ice Cream, I thought I would share with everyone some of my favorite (and not so favorite) foods of Indonesia, so far--

Here's my scale of deliciousness...dollar signs....lol....but anyway, the more dollar signs, the more delicious ;-) Five is the max, 0 is the least. 

Ice Cream -- $$$$$

It's like traditional American Ice Cream, but with ice, bread and gummies, with a light coating of sweet chocolate sauce. Yes I said bread. The gummies are green and pink. The pink ones are frozen and round, while the greens ones are fat little worms. All piled together in a bowl. Yummmmm.......I'm going to miss it when I come home. 

Eri's Favorite Drink -- $$$$$

I have no way of describing this drink other than it's good, and full of sugar, oh and also full of those green short fat wormies from before. It looks like a glass of throw-up based on the color, but you sip it, and it's just delicious. What's in it? Sugar, and lots of it. That's why I only drink a small tiny amount, cause too much sugar makes me sleepy.

Nasi Goreng -- $$$$$

It's Indonesian for fried rice. Different than American Chinese style fried rice. But good still the same. You should totally try it. Especially you Patricia...packed full of rice and veggies. 

Mie Goreng -- $$$$$

I love this stuff. It's fried noodles, with meat and sweet soy sauce, and and and what else.....hmmmm.....veggies, and something else I can't remeber.... But there are many variations of Mie Goreng. Order it one place, then order it somewhere else, it's totally different. Sometimes it's wet, sometimes you need broth to pour over it. But reallllly good. 

Bakso -- $$$$$

Well, Bakso is meatball w broth...and then there's Bakso Goreng, which is guess what....Fried Meatball.....but it's good nonetheless. I love the meatballs. The broth is good, usually poured over noodles. I had noodles and Bakso, both fried and normal for lunch today. Yummmm.....oh and Eri's drink, and ice cream. Gosh...I'm sounding like a pig, but it wasn't really as much food as it sounds....

Soto Ayam -- $

It's ok...every once and a while....back when I first arrived we had it for lunch, then dinner, then lunch again, and I had enough Soto Ayam to last a lifetime. Ever since, I have had no interest in it. But it's cheap and easy, so people like to eat it a lot. Oh yes, before I forget, it's I have no idea....it's like a soup you pour over rice with miscellaneous parts of a chicken floating around. Actually now that I think about it, it's not the taste that is so bad, it's the miscellaneous parts of the chicken is why I most likely won't eat it.......

Fried Tofu -- $$$$$$$$$$$$$$$

Yumm!!!!!! It's delicious! And a variation is stuffed fried tofu, and it's just as good. One time I had veggies stuffed inside, and the other time I had meat. Yumm yumm!!

Beef Soup -- $$$$

It's good. It's exactly what it's name implies. 

Sweet and Sour Chicken -- $$$$$

Very good stuff. Again, not like American style Sweet and Sour chicken, Indonesian style. 

Steamed veggies -- $$$$$$

Good

Shrimp Chips -- $$$$$

They are.....hmmm....let me explain them most accurately. They are shrimp flavored, but their texture is like pork rinds...... they are good. I used to feed them to the birdie outside Eri's Uncle's house.......

Mooncake -- $$$$$

It's soooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo good. But entirely too much grease, and butter. But they are like cakes with nuts and a little bit of chocolate. If you need to use the bathroom quickly, these are the things to eat, but they are sooo worth it. They are freakin good!!

Ding-a-ding Tofu Cart -- $$$$$

It's a dude that comes around at night and goes ding-a-ding-a-ding and we know it's the tofu dish. It's fried tofu with potato, rice thingie, peanut sauce, and some veggies I don't know the name of, and it's good stuff. Especially when it's warm. 

Sate Ayam -- $$$$$

Chicken skewers with peanut sauce and rice thingies. Rice thingies are like sticky rice but cone-shaped...... Yumm!!

Lamb Sate -- $$$$

Lamb skewers....peanut sauce ones, and soy sauce ones....but the place that sells those has THE BEST limeade in the whole world, so far. It's most likely because of the sugar, cause the sugar here tastes so good!

Little green coconut balls -- $$$$$

They are little green balls with warm liquidified sugar on the inside, and coconut on the outside. They are good. 

Shark Fin Soup -- $$$

Eri's Aunt that just returned from Japan, made it for us after our wedding. I drank the broth, and I wanted to eat it, but I couldn't bring myself to eat shark. I love those guys.....and I just couldn't do it....it's a major delicacy, I at least had to try to eat it. The broth tasted surpringsly delicious.

Egg tofu w peanut sauce -- $$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$

It's egg and tofu mixed together, fried, then has peanut sauce on top!! So good! I love it!!

KFC -- Well, KFC I eat maybe once a week.....I eat the chicken wrap #4 combo with a Pepsi....lol. Sometimes fish filet. But it just tastes better here!!

I get made fun of (in a nice way of course) for eating rice 1.) by itself w no sauce or meat or anything and  2.) I eat it with a fork. They have never seen anyone eat rice with a fork before, lol. They eat rice with their hands or a spoon. But never a fork!! Hahahah!!

Now that's all the food I can think of at the moment......or at least the ones I eat on a regular basis...

I must go wash my ice cream dish now.

Love ya. 

CW

Ok ok I have some explaining to do.....

Yikes!!

In that picture below, Eri and I had just gotten married!! Yes yes, married. I think everyone pretty much knows by now, but on Friday we had the civil ceremony, then on Saturday we had the Religious ceremony.....our wedding date is 11/08/08!!  You have to have both types of ceremony for marriage to be legal here in Indonesia.......why did I decide to get married in Indonesia, you ask? Well, to think about it, Eri and I were already engaged.....and being here with his family, chances are we aren't going to come back anytime soon, (especially since the last time Eri was here was 8 years ago) so we decided to get married here..... 

On Saturday his Uncle presided over our religious ceremony, and it was quite beautiful. All the chanting was pretty cool too. The civil ceremony....was....interesting....but it's all said and done now.

Eri and I can finally stay in the same room and it not be looked down upon. But on Saturday we also moved into his Mom's home, and get to stay together. Thank goodness.....

His Mom's home/store is really cool. It's a four story house in the city part of Mojokerto. The bottom floor is the business, Hardware Store, like Mojokerto's version of Home Depot, then the top 3 floors are the house. The house is huge btw. It's fun seeing all the pics of Eri with his parents, and old year books from Singapore.....and he was the cutest baby!!

The bottom floor has a very distinct smell to it, and that smell reminds me of my grandpa's workshop. Papa's workshop in Bobby's basement. I was telling Eri the other day how the smell just brings back soooo many memories of him. And we have talks about him....

Speaking of which, today is the anniversary of his death, he passed away on 11/11/92..... it's hard to believe it was 16 years ago. Time really does fly. This morning when I was paying respects to Eri's parents and Grandpa, I also payed my respects to Papa for this day. Gosh.....I really miss him. He was/is a very important man in my life. 

Rest In Peace Papa. Love you.

That's it for today. I have to go do wifely things, I made a promise to the Indonesian government I would do so ;-)   Seriously. I'm not kidding. I had to promise some crazy stuff, but that's for another blog. 

Goodnight everyone. I must finish my Tuesday now. :-D

Mrs. W

ohh what does the weekend hold in store for me?

It's Friday here in Indonesia....and Eri is taking a nap. We just got back from lunch a few hours ago with his Aunt and Uncle and Grandma...... it looks like it's going to be a pretty easy going weekend, not much too do.

Let's hope I survive, they keep opening the fridge, which as Durian in it, and trust me, if you have ever smelled Durian, you know how I feel!! But yeah, I can't even describe it's horrid smell, but it oddly enough doesn't taste like the smell. (Mama.....it's the stuff that Eri gave me a while back that I kept in the fridge, that you told me to never bring in the house again!! ;-) only except this one is open so smells 10x worse!!!

Eri and I took this photo today before his nap....so I thought I would share it, I thought it was kind of cute. Say cheeeeeeese!!!



Have a good weekend!!

Carle

I drive on the other side of the road NOW!!!

Hi hi!

Eri and I are back from our mini getaway to Mount Kawi.
It was a lot of fun, and is a super cool place. Literally. It felt soooo nice up there!!! And lots of people, and stuff to buy. Mount Kawi is a holy place. Buddhist and Muslim both worship here, in the same place, which is really kinda neat that they come together here. But story goes that there were 2 guys, who were like brothers, one being a native Indonesian and Muslim and the other being a Chinese and Buddhist, and they are really good people, lived good lives, and the place where you pray is where they are buried, and it's a holy place. That's all I got out of Eri about the story BUT it's really neat to see Buddhist and Muslims praying side by side. Here are a few pictures:

This photo is of the entrance into the place where you pray....you can't take pics of the temple, so I took a pic of the entrance. The temple itself is quite beautiful, we gave flowers and money as an offering. Inside of the temple there are probably about 25 or so Grandfather clocks ticking away. Also inside, are guru type people, that you give your offerings to.

This is just a street view. It's a city built on a mountain (volcano) side....so all the shops are going downhill. This pic was actually taken to show the trees in the background, see that one on the left side that is really curved? And it's cool there's that lady with the stuff on her head too, and those trees to the right are neat. I was kinda a little bit obsessed with the tress while we were here, they were just amazingly beautiful.

I just thought this picture was funny. Native American heads in little town in Indonesia.......

Yeah, this is a better view of showing what the little city was like.....how it goes down....does that even make sense?

Yep. That would be me :-)

Me standing outside the entrance to the temple.

I love this picture, this is taken up where the temple is, and that's a mosque. I really love this picture. Great job Eri!!

I asked Eri to stand there to show how HUGE that tree was!! He looks thrilled, lol. But that tree was big!! And beautiful.

Since the Internet seemed to be working quite well today, I decided to add some more pics that I haven't been able to put up since the Internet is funky. Below is the dinner Eri and I made for his Buddhist Uncle, his wife (whose body we see in this photo) and his 3 kids, Lia, Vania and Dharmadi. We had garlic mashed potatoes, with gravy, creamed corn and garlic spicy BBQ chicken!! All homemade!! And it was gooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooood!! They loved it too. It's funny, because they eat rice with every meal, his Uncle had to cook some rice to have with it.....and I had to show everyone how to eat it, it was a great time, and everyone helped in preparations!! I had fun, and so did Eri, and everyone else too.

This is me, being silly on the couch. Dad, that's your chin right there!! Yes I was hot, cause it's hot here at the equator.

Obama won Obama won!!! OMG this is just amazing!! Eri and I were sooooo excited!! Indonesia is quite excited also, cause Obama has roots here...... it's just absolutely amazing, and I am sooo amazed and excited.....Eri and I were jumping around this morning with excitement!! We even managed to get this:
And I got to drive the Toyota Kijang, and it was amazing. I must admit my head was spinning because I was driving manual from the right side.....and on the other side of the road, but I still got it. I'm the woman!!

And today for lunch I had KFC and it tastes soo good. Lunch for Eri and I cost 53,000 IDR. That's about $5.30!! But that's considered expensive...take a look at their menu, it's very neat to see what they offer.

Tonight, Eri and I are going with his Uncle to Surabaya, for what? I'm not sure, I just got a text message (they all call it SMS here....which is what it is...but sometimes I get confused like SMS? What's that? blehhhhhhh, lol. And also Sauce is Ketchup, Ketchup is Sweet Soy Sauce, so you gotta be careful to say what you want, be sure to call it the right thing, unless you are talking to Eri of course, cause he speaks Carle. Like the other day we were eating Mie Goreng [fried noodles] and you are supposed to put broth on them, and I called the broth sauce, and his Uncle got up and brought me Ketchup, lol. Which when I said Ketchup, that's sweet soy sauce.) But anyway, Eri sent me a SMS/Text message said we are going to Surabaya tonight. So yea, that's all I know :-)

Here is lil fact about Mr. Wahyudi:
When he says we are going to be somewhere in a little bit/while, he really means right now.
-OR-
When he says we are going to be here for just a minute, it's really like 6 hours. :-)

Yes, I think this blog is long enough.

Yay!! Obama!!!

Love ya.

Carle