I was born in Indonesia and migrated to Australia in 1999. Here, I realize that there aren't many East Java restaurants that I can go to when I need to have authentic and traditional flavour fix.
It is also hard to find the correct ingredients when we live in foreign countries, we need to find substitutes!
Not to mention what those ingredients called in English.
It's frustrating enough to read the recipes books,. It is more frustrating when we went in Asian supermarket, walking in and out the isles for half an hour trying to find what we want and can't ask the staff because we don't know the English name. We will go nuts! believe me, I've been there and done that.
I remember, years back, I went to buy kemiri nuts (candle nuts) and got home with chestnuts instead. Just because I've never cook when I was in Indonesia, so I didn't know how Kemiri looks like in great detail. I just saw pictures and they look alike.
Luckily, I lived in small village when I was in Indonesia, where everyone knew everyone. Where we never locked the front door and our kitchen was accessible by a lot of people. Wife would swap recipes, and our huge kitchen would suddenly became a commercial kitchen with fantastic cooks whenever we had wedding party. I've tasted authentic flavour of East Java. And after years of calling home, asking my mom for our family recipes, keep practising to cook, using subtitutes ingredient and managed to get the right flavour, here I am creating this website to help out fellow immigrants to cook Indonesian food and to get the flavour as close as possible to the original taste! I also include the English name for ingredients.Oh, and I won't use flavour enhancer or MSG.
I include super simple step by step videos about how to cook the recipe. Two minutes Video! Why I do this? Because as a photographer, I am a visual person, I need to see to understand. I am also an inpatient person. Whenever I watch the cooking show and if it takes too long to do something, I will yell "hurry up, what's the next step?!". My life's also pretty hectic, like everyone else who lives overseas, we don't have maids to help us out taking care of the house. We have limited time to do stuff, therefore I simplify everything! (My mom will yell at me when she saw the way I cook). If you wondered why I haven't put exact measurement for ingredient, I believe cooking is art, therefore you need to find your own taste. Nah, actually, I just never measure anything, so I can't put it on my recipe. Try and error will train your eyes to see the correct measurement. Besides, size of garlic and french shallot here and in Indonesia are different. Some of the vegetables also have different size, so, best is just use your instinct. :)
I have the privilege of owning a great professional camera, my videos are sharp and clear with nice styled photographs to illustrate the final product. I hoped that this website will help people who live far away from Indonesia will be able to cook the traditional Indonesian food.
Please subscribe to get new recipe update, subscribe to my channel too http://www.youtube.com/user/groban4me
Finally, fellow food lovers, welcome!!!!
And do not hesitate to send me emails for requests, questions or comments.
Cheers
Sherly
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