Food - Glorious Food!

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia:
"Food, Glorious Food", written by Lionel Bart, is the opening song from the musical and movie Oliver! It is sung when the workhouse boys from the 1960s West End and Broadway and musical and 1968 film adaptation are dreaming and fantasizing about food while going to collect their gruel from the staff of the workhouse.

The "Ice Age: The Meltdown" variation

Having watched the movie recently (good fun, by the way), the song popped up in my mind when I looked for a title for my food link section. Which is not at all strange in view of how much I love food, even though I am not certain how I feel about a broth made from sloth or poached possum served flambé.

About the first two entries:

Onno Kleyn is a food journalist who, amongst others, writes for De Volkskrant. His blog (in Dutch), just like his columns in the daily newspaper, is worth reading. As he himself puts it: a site for 'lekkerbekken, smulpapen en smikkelaars' - i.e. for gourmets, gourmands and epicures.

The blog of meneer Wat Eet Ons (in Dutch) also came to my attention via De Volkskrant. He likes to cook and - above all - experiment with making cheese, sausage, and the like. Quite refreshing. And full of good info, too.

Indonesian Rice Table

For some years now, Schatz and I have frequented the Mittelalter Stammtisch in Hamburg-Harburg. One Friday evening a month, people interested in the Middle Ages meet for a meal, a drink and, above all, a good chat. Mind you, we don't mind when Roman gladiators or Napoleonic soldiers stop by, or Larpers, for that matter. More about the Stammtisch in a week or so.

In addition, some of us meet one Sunday a month, for a "Nähtreff". We meet to sew. Or needlebind, or embroider, work on bones, wood or ... I think you get my drift. It's not exactly a Stitch 'n' Bitch session but it comes close (Schatz says bitching should come first in that term...). And we end the day with a meal from Michi's pots and pans. The guy from Trutzhavener Feldküche, you know, that I wrote about before.

Michi

Previously, Schatz and I cooked a pancake breakfast for the December Bitch 'n' Stitch, or made bagels or such. This year I felt the need to cook an Indonesian Rice Table for dinner. Which suited Michi and Birgitt just fine as they had a gamer group in the house from Saturday afternoon to Sunday morning.

With 13 people to cook for, we had the opportunity to put together a real rice table and not just a handful of dishes. Here are some of the spices we brought along:

Sambal Manis, Sambal Udang, Surinamese Sambal, Javanese Sambal,
Sambal Brandis - and a few other spices...

And then there were other ingredients, such as spring roll skins, rice, Indonesian noodles, chilis (rawit, madam jeanette, lomboks etc.), ginger, kroepoek udang, rasped coconut and the like:

no no, I will not tell you what is in the brown plastic bag...

We started with cutting this - beef, fish, pork, chicken, tofu, and shrimps, to start with -, boiling that - eggs, for example - and marinating the rest.

The work bench

Good thing I brought my own commis chef!

In the meantime, while we were working hard and building up a sweat, Birgitt checked the action outside the kitchen where the others... you know... did sensible things:

Martina, Ute, Mara, Svenja, Britta, and Ilka (clockwise) or:
"Ze 'ens are in ze 'en'ouse" (this caption by Schatz)

In between supervising the commis and creating chaos in the kitchen otherwise, I went to entertain our friends with a little show interlude straight from Holland. Okay, 6 months too late, but that is nothing to medieval re-enactors...

The Dutch lion shows its tonsils...

The T-Shirt, by the way, is a leftover from last summer's European Championship. Football, of course. Or Soccer, if you insist. And with all those layers in front, it protects you well against mishaps in the kitchen!

Anyway, we went on cooking, and then cooked some more, and then - more!

Here's the menu (especially for Ute):

• Beef Rendang
• Saté (Chicken, Fish and Shrimp)
• Babi Pangang
• Ikan Boemboe Bali
• Ayam Roedjak
• Sambal Goreng Telor
• Loempia
• Gado Gado
• Dadar Isi
• Pisang Goreng
• Tumis Buncis (with little to no coconut milk!)
• Sambal Goreng Perai
• Sambal Goreng Tofu and Soy Bean Sprouts
• Seroendeng from coconut rasps, kroepoek, miniature french fries, roast onions
• Atjar Tjampoer
• Peanut Butter Sauce
• White Rice
• Bami Goreng

Babi Pangang, Sambal Goreng Perai, Ayam Roedjak,
Bami Goreng, Saté, Beef Rendang,
Seroendeng, Pisang Goreng, Gado Gado

As Birgitt put it "you spend 6 hours in the kitchen and they eat it all in 15 minutes."

before...

Well, it took them closer to 45 minutes... and they were STUFFED afterwards. Except for Arto, who still managed to eat a whole box of ice cream. Serves us right for not putting any dessert on the table!

and after - or:
Stuffed like turkeys on Thanksgiving...(this caption by Schatz)

For recipes, I can recommend Kokkie Blanda´s Indonesian Recipes (Dutch and English) and the Indochef. And if you do not want to mix all the various boemboes yourself (as we did), there are good ready mixes to be had in your local Indonesian toko!

PS: Nils, Gisela and Arto were there, too, and of course Birgitt, but only a "slice" of Nils survived on one of the photos. Better luck next time!

PPS: thanks to Birgitt for taking most of the pictures, and to Schatz for the gimp-magic. And the captions.