One of popular drinking in Turkey is ayran.This drinking created from yoghurt, mix with water and little bit salt. At food stall and restaurant that serve ayran in fresh way, this drinking come with thick foam on the surface. If you buy ayran in bottle or box, then shake it first, so foam created. Ayran usually serve at hot day.

At cold days, popular drinking is sahlep. This drinking made from pure milk, mix with powder from orchid root. This orchid root powder made milk have thick and sticky textures. Serve while hot with little bit sugar, sow with cinnamon. Yummy!

Orchid root powder is also used in Turkey ice cream processing. Tender texture of ice cream becomes tough. This unique character exploited by ice cream seller to make special attraction to attract buyer.

Turkey is one of country in the world which involves milk, especially yoghurt in daily life. In culinary treasure, milk not only appear as drinking, but also in appetizers, main course, and desserts, in various form like milk itself, yoghurt, butter, also cheese.
In Istanbul, there is distric that recognized as best yoghurt producer. Kanlica is the name of this district, place in Asia side, at the border of Bosphorus Strain. Kanlica Yoghurt is thick, creamy, and yummy!
The yoghurt is very flawless, with pretty sour degree, Served in plain or original taste, along with confectioner sugar which can be sowed as you wish. If you have time, the best way to taste this yoghurt is go down from boat, tasting Kanlica Yoghurt with sit at beach, shaded with trees.

Talk about restaurant in Indonesia, there are a lot of restaurant in Indonesia which have western menus. So you don’t have to worry if you visit Indonesia. For sample, there is Italian restaurant in Shangri-La hotel, Jakarta. The name of this restaurant is Rosso. Rosso serve North Italian cuisine in its menus.

As it name, Rosso (red in Italian language), the interior is dominated with red color with contemporare design concept, make this restaurant looks luxury and elegant. Rosso lounge spread romantic atmosphere, with the obscure lightning, and music, make we feel cozy to break out at rush hours working. One of favorite menus in Rosso is Trilogy of Veal Tenderloin, at price IDR 185,000 or USD 19. This menu contain of meat which separate in three pieces, with different topping in each piece. Why trilogy? Because the meats roasted with three different wine; Black Olive, Asparagus, and Porcini Mushroom. The meats are so tender…Hmmm….yummy…isn’t it? Other favorite menu in Rosso is Bird Nest pasta with Cheese Porcini Mushroom in Traditional Spring Chicken Sauce.

How about the drink? You could try non alcohol mocktail called Coconut Kiss. Coconut Kiss contains of pineapple juice, coconut milk, coconut water, syrup, and grenadine. Or you can try You and Me (orange juice, banana, and grenadine), or The Tropical (banana, orange juice, and honey).

Rosso does not open in whole day. For lunch, this restaurant opened at 11.30 am till 2.30 pm of West Indonesian Time. For dinner, Rosso opened at 6.30 pm till 9.30 pm of West Indonesian Time.

Original writer Angelina Maria Donna, adapted and translated to english by reog. Source : KOMPAS

1000 years of Anatolia Country powered by Ottoman Dynasty in 600 years made the palace cuisine had a lot of variation. And years to years, Palace cuisine slowly became growth as common people cuisine. There is expression that there are only three major culinary places: Turkish, Chinese, and France.
What reason made Turkish culinary became major culinary in the world? Turkish, as geographical is a transition between East and West, and Turkish was stop in point of Spices traffic, so it is surprising if Turkish became top world’s culinary. The culture collide expand the culinary.One example of famous food in Turkish is Lokum or loukoum, known as Turkish delight. This food kindly like marsepein (Dutch), made from sugar and starch. The popular version was water rose taste, soft pink colored. In the middle of this food, you’ll find kind of peanut, like pistachio or hazelnut.

At the past, lokum only made for Sultan and his royal family. Right now, lokum sold ever where in Turkish as food souvenir. Lokum usually served as guest welcoming food at the door. In USA you’ll find fruit bars, seems like lokum, but with fruit taste.

The opening dish or hors d’oeuvres in Turkish called mezes. The famous mezes is humus, porridge from chickpeas, deliciously salty. Other mezes seem like baba ganoush in Lebanon, but in Turkish, it called gozlemedi. Gozlemedi is eggplant porridge cooked with yoghurt.

Dolma is kind of mezes too. Beside Turkish, you’ll find dolma in Greece, Israel, and other Middle East countries. Dolma is spices cooked rice, mixed with pesto (pine nut), wrapped with grape leaves, steam and served cold with sliced lemon. Another mezes is goat brains cooked with lemon juice.

Usually, guest took 4-5 mezes, eaten with kind of bread, served with Turkish red wine. This tradition seems like in Korea, opening dish eaten with shoju.

As an example, main dish in Turkish is shish kebab, the most popular food from Turkish and become signature dish for Turkish. Beside shish kebab, there is doner kebab too, but doner kebab often guessed as Greece special food, named gyros. Shish kebab seems like sate/satay (meat with skewer, special food in Indonesia), cubic shaped meat, skewer with chopped vegetables and fruit, like paprika, Bombay onion, pineapple, tomato. Before roasted and skewer, cubic chopped meat had to marinate in yoghurt and spices liquid. Shish kebab served with pilaf cooked rice.

Doner kebab made from thin sliced meat, heaped, and skewer, roasted vertical. Skewer turning when roasted, so tat cooking method called gyros (turning) in Greece language. Roasted meat chopped and served with bread and vegetables.

Other popular meat food is kofteatau, spherical croquette made from chopped meat mixed with minced Bombay onion and other spices. Kofteatau can be frying, boiling, or roasting. Kofteatau named appropriate with the shape and cooking method. For example there is kadin budu name, means woman’s thigh. Funny name, but also abused. Food from chicken meat, for example is pilic topkapialias. This is stuffed chicken.


Turkish desert also have a lot of varian. The most popular dessert is baklava, flaky pastry, very sweet, contains varians of peanut. Baklava also appearance in several kind of shapes and contains, so the name. There are several names like sultan, saray, and…..woman’s navel………….oh my god!!! Beside baklava, there is ekmek kadayifi (sweet bread dessert), not as sweet as baklava.

Another dessert is sutlac, rice porridge with milk. Sutlac like Javanese porridge, made from rice and santan (squeezed coconut milk). The different: Javanese porridge use sugar coconut or sugar palm and sometimes santan pouring on the porridge. Sutlac made from rice, milk, sugar, and vanilla. Sutlac served cold, Javanese porridge served warm. Sutlac is simple dish, but special. In Turkish this dish sell in muhallebi, kind of food stall. Severals kind of sutlac and Javanese porridge or pudding could be finding in other culture. In Denmark, rice pudding is a part of natal menus, so in Portugal, named arroz doche. Spanish= arroz con leche. In Pakistan and Afganisthan named kheeratau firni (added with pistachio and kapulaga).

Adapted from artcle written by Bondan Winarno, source KOMPAS.

Chile is one of country in South America; this slim country took placed at the border of Pasific Ocean, south part of South America. From the geographic structure, it was not surprised if this country culinary had several characteristic, but one item should remained, Chile cuisine did not used a lot of spices and condiment. So, if you do not like spicy food like Indonesia food, mexico food, or others spicy food, you can choose this Chile cuisine. “At the north, you’ll find sea food as main cuisine, at the central area, you’ll find farm food like vegetables and fruits, and at the south, you’ll find meat and sea food,” said Fernando Egaña, Chile chef which famous in Cocina Aventura (Cuisine Adventure) show in Canal 7.Raw and basic ingredients/material is the most important in Chile cuisine. Maybe, a lot of kind of ingredients (also good in quality too), made people in Chile didn’t need spices to wrapped it. With 4,000 km of beach lines, sea foods become prominent. One of sea food cuisine is ceviche (cubic chopped fish). Ceviche didn’t cook on fire, just ‘cooked’ with kaffir lime water. So meat cooked because the kaffir lime acid. Cheviche served with ensalada chilena, chopped bombay onion and tomato in olive oil.
Other sea food is sopa marinera, sea soup. All of sea food set in small chopped with clearly gravy. The taste felt fresh, because didn’t add with a lot of spices, the taste of ingredients become prominent. Because the raw material was good in quality, the cuisine results tasty too.
Other food is anticuchos, from cow meat with skewer. Desert dish such as leche asada and arroz con leche .The famous food is empanada. In other Latin countries you’ll find this food too, because empanada came from Iberia Peninsula, and then spreaded it by Spanish and Portuguese.The shape seems like pastel cake, there are skin and meat content. Empanada could be eaten as a side dish or prime dish.Pastel de choclo con pino de carne is corn casserole meat added. The corn grated, wrapper the meat, known as covered pastel. Inside meat, sometimes you could find olive fruit.
According chef Fernando Egaña, Chile cuisine more luxury and tasty to ate if the food served with Chile wine, or with pisco, brandy from muscatel grape, known as Chile national drink.
So, which one cuisine did you prefer? Spicy content or lower spicy content? Every food has own characteristic, but if you like food basic on the original tasty of the raw material, beside Japanese food, please consider Chile food to become your favorite food.
Adopted from ‘Masakan Cile yang Tanpa Banyak Bumbu’ written by Diah Marsidi, source : KOMPAS. Adopted and translated by reog.

Official name of hairy crab is Shanghai hairy crab or da ja xie in Mandarin language. In Kanton language it’s called dai chap hay. Hairy crab is cultivation in land water, so not in sea. The cultivation area is Zheng Lake.
The crab is hairy, but don’t expect that the hair wrap entire its body. The hair seems around its bite. This crab also called fur claw, because seems like woman whose wearing fur in winter season.
This special crab usually harvested in October. Until November, are the best times to eat this crab, because the crabs have tosell alive and immediately cook. Frozen crabs do not delicious. Beside Shanghai, hairy crabs could be found in China’s major city, also in Taiwan, Hong Kong, and Singapore.
Crab’s size is small. Its ‘eggshell’ is only about 10 cm. Each crab band in exclusive manner and mark tagged and give serial number to guarantee its originality. Be understanding of a situation, hairy crab’s popularity invite the hijacker.
Of course, these special crabs aren’t cheap. At Hong Kong market, this crab sold with prize HK$25 per piece. But, we can not buy only one piece, we have to buy minimal 4 pieces. At the restaurants, one piece of crab has a prize HK$ 120, but actually, the cooking process is very easy. Only boiled during 10 minutes, and served with sauce which contains ginger scratch, sand sugar, and black vinegar. In Shanghai, crab prize at restaurants about 98 Yuan, cheaper than in Hong Kong.
If we order da ja xie at restaurant, usually the server is bringing raw crab to show it to us. Beside see the size and the freshly, of course to see crab genuine identity, see the tag and serial number. Because of that, if the server forgets to show it, ask her/him to show. How do you know if the crab(s) still alive if wrapper with tight band? The method is easy; touch its eyes, if the eyes suddenly come out, the crab still alive.
Hairy crab is food that content yin (cold) element. So, don’t eat with foods that have a same element. Because of that, this food culinary served with ginger tea to balance it. Don’t eat this food a lot, because this food is cholesterol bomb!!
Hairy crab served with complete tools. There are scalp to crack the shell, scissors, and lever. And not forget, wet towel.
Wet towel is to hold on crab’s body, then break all its leg and bite, then clean up its body with wet towel. Crack the bite with scalp to out the meat. The legs cut the lower end with scissors, and then push the meat with lever.
The crab’s prize is very expensive; if you do not want to loss, first eat the meat, and then the roe. So, how is the method? First, use scissors to cut shield part of the chest. At this part, there are a lot of roe. Second, with towel and hands, take a part the body, separate its outer shell. At the shell, there are a lot of roe too. Spouse all of roe part. Eat the meat at body, legs, and bite. Meat from body is sweeter than at the others part.
At the end…..eat the roe…..Yahooiii … the taste very very delicious!!!:) Rich roe, tender meat!!!
This article source is from KOMPAS, written by Bondan Winarno, titled “Kepiting Bolognaise”, translated and edited by reog.

Do you know Roasted Peking Duck? This food culinary has begun presented in Yuan Dynasty (1206-1368). So this food has been existing since 600 years ago!!!Peking is old name for Beijing. So, if you come to Beijing, taste it. You’ll not go to Beijing if you’re not taste this special food culinary.
In the book titled 'The Complete Recipes for Dishes and Beverages', said that in 1330 Peking duck become Emperor Menus. In palace kitchen, this exclusive menu served. The chefs continuing increase the recipe to increase its delicious. This menu is very secret, but finally the recipe could go out, and citizen could taste the emperor menus too. Suddenly, Peking duck become favorite menu in Beijing….all China…and finally entire world.
If you are pick a traveling in Beijing. You’ll find the Peking duck menu in Quan Ju De (place where we eat) Restaurant. In this restaurant, a portion of Peking duck has a price 160 Yuan. If you are looking for cheaper price, but the taste is also sensational, you’ll get in Liqun Roast Duck Restaurant, 11 Nankou Beixiangfeng, Zhengyilu, Qianmen Dongdajie, and Dongcheng District.
Please watch the slicing process, because slicing process of meat become an attractive attraction. With sharp knife and skilled hand, chef begin slice the meat, and 3 minutes after, whole duck become sliced meat and ready to eat?
Thin sliced duck meat plus cucumber sliced, and added onion leaf, put in thick sauce and wrap with spices rice flour. After wrapped, the meats ready to eat! :) enjoyed…
Cooking peeking duck have some several steps. First, air pumped in the body, this method is to separate skin with its meat and fat. After that, the duck smeared with sauce, and then hanging in open air until dried. The next step, the dried duck roasted in oven until the skin crispy, the sign that the meat (will) delicious to eat.
This article source is from KOMPAS, wrote by (ds) titled ‘Oh,"Peking Duck"’. Translated in English and edited by reog.