Finding the God #2: Surprise

Ini adalah tulisan lanjutan dari posting saya sebelum nya Finding The God #1: Arrival,

Malam semakin larut, seorang mudaritsah (seperti kakak pemandu) mengantar saya ke dalam muslimah center. 

"Nanti tidurnya disini ya, bareng - bareng" katanya. Ruangan itu cukup besar, beralaskan karpet hijau dan terdapat lemari-lemari kecil berjajar. Ternyata kami harus tidur disatu ruangan berisikan sekitar 30 orang. Wow, saya belum pernah berbagi kamar dengan segitu banyaknya orang. Terbayang nanti pasti nggak nyaman. 

Lalu beliau membuka koper saya untuk memilah-milah baju. 

"Wah, baju kamu semuanya nggak lolos" 

Apa? lolos apa?? saya pun sedikit bingung. Ternyata selama di pesantren kami harus memakai baju yang benar-benar syar'i. Gamis hitam panjang, jilbab putih besar, lengkap dengan kaos tangan, kaos kaki, daleman jilbab dll. Jadi terpaksa saya beli hampir semua baju-baju saya on the spot. Sedih juga melihat dompet, tapi nggak apa lah. Ikhlas. Karena memang sebelumnya saya nggak punya gamis, cuma punya rok sedikit. Sisanya celana jeans. 

Lalu kakak mudaritsah bertanya kepada saya,

"Nomer pentingnya sudah dicatat? hapenya saya sita ya" Jederr. Saya nggak tau kalau hp bakal disita. Saya datang ke sini memang dadakan dan nggak tau banyak info. Alhasil saya pun mencatat dan menghubungi orang-orang dekat  bahwa saya tidak akan bisa dihubungi selama sebulan kedepan.

Program Dauroh Qolbiyah (DQ) yang saya ikuti sebenarnya sudah dimulai. Saya telat 2 hari. Santri DQ lain sedang menjalankan program orientasi katanya. Asiknya saya hanya akan kebagian 2 hari orientasi ke depan hihii.. Itu pun juga surprise, Pesantren ospeknya seperti apa ya? ahh.. tapi di geologi saya sudah makan asam garam per ospekan, kayaknya nggak akan ada yang lebih dari itu. Dulu di geologi ospeknya saja 9 bulan. Kurang apa coba? Tahun pertama kuliah teman angkatan pada rata-rata semua perutnya saking seringnya sit up. Eh tahun-tahun akhir malah pada membuncit lagi.haha Jadi saya pun santai menghadapi orientasi ini....namun ternyata...

To be continued...

Pict: Masjid Daarut Tauhid Bandung. Kami wajib shalat di masjid ini selama program berlangsung.

Finding The God #1: Arrival

Pesantren Daarut Tauhid Bandung... 

Tempat ini  menakjubkan buat saya. Awalnya saya kesini cuma karena ingin memperbaiki sholat saya yang buruk. Ternyata saya mendapatkan lebih dari itu. 

Sore hari menjelang buka puasa di hari kamis, saya sampai di pesantren itu. Tukang ojek yang mengantar saya pun pamit. Firasat saya tempat ini pasti menarik, karena sepanjang jalan saja yang diobrolkan tukang ojeknya adalah: Tauhid!

"Coba deh teteh jam dua bangun, sunyi.. dunia lagi tertidur teh.. tapi coba bangun dan sholat.. beuh itu rasanya teh, seperti dekat gitu dengan Allah!" begitu masih ingat saya kata - kata tukang ojek tersebut. Cukup kaget juga saya mendengarnya. Saya pun tersenyum dan merasa ini bukan jalan yang salah.

Ketika sampai di pesantren, ternyata pesantrennya berada di lingkungan masyarakat dan terbuka (bukan berpagar tinggi seperti bayangan saya). Waktu itu menjelang adzan magrib, saya melihat ratusan santri duduk berjajar berhadap - hadapan di bahu jalan membentuk barisan panjang. Di depan mereka terhidang banyak makanan dan cemilan untuk berbuka. 

Mereka memakai syal warna - warni. Masing - masing warna menunjukkan program yang sedang mereka ikuti. Takjub saya ketika melihat barisan syal biru tua yang bertuliskan "Santri Tahfidz Daarut Tauhid". Saya belum pernah melihat sekumpulan penghafal Al-Qur'an sebanyak itu. Jangan kira santrinya hanya usia remaja, dari anak kecil hingga tua renta ada. Jujur saya menitikkan air mata, namun masih sambil tersenyum.

Pict: Muslimah Center. Tempat tinggal santri perempuan di Daarut Tauhid.

Di Muslimah Center, sendirian saya menunggu admin untuk mendaftar dan membayar program yang akan saya ikuti. Terlihat berlalu lalang para santri, dimana - mana membawa Al-Qur'an. Mereka berjalan sambil menghafal, duduk di genteng sambil menghafal, di balkon sambil baca Qur'an. Sungguh, dimana - mana terdengar lantunan ayat suci Al-Qur'an. 

Aneh, sepanjang hidup dibumi manapun saya tidak pernah merasakan suasana seperti itu. Lingkungannya benar - benar damai. Wajah - wajah disana berbeda sekali dengan wajah yang biasa saya temui di kota besar seperti jakarta. Disini orang - orangnya auranya beda, tenang, senyum, damai, terlihat sekali bahagianya. Benar sekali firman Allah di surat Ar-Ra'd ayat 28  ".. Orang - orang yang beriman dan hati mereka menjadi tenteram dengan mengingat Allah. Ingatlah, hanya dengan mengingat Allah-lah hati menjadi tenteram". 

Pada hari itulah perjalanan saya di pesantren asuhan Aa Gym tersebut dimulai. To be continued...

Cooking Class 2 "Soto and Stir-Fry"

My mother next lesson is chicken soto and Tempe & Green bean Stir-fry.

3. Chiken Soto

My Chicken Soto

Ingridients for the gravy or sauce (kuah):

2 spoonful of Pepper

6 Onions

2 red onions 

4 lemonleaves

2 ginger plants (pound roughly once)

1 gingger (pound roughly once to extract the smell)

1 Kunir (Javanese yellow ginger)

2 salam leaves

Salt (as you desire)

Ingridient for main content:

3 slices of chicken

1 cabbage

1 cup of bean sprout

celeries

Chicken stock

10 glasses of Water

Ingridient for condiment (sambal):

10 small chillis (hotter than the bigger one)

2 small onions

salt

How to make the gravy or sauce:

1. First create the spice: Pound the pepper, onion, red onions, salt, and kunir, make sure until very tender

2. Boil the water (100 degres celcious), mix with the chicken stock, 

   then put in the spice, plus: salam leaves, orange leaves, ginger plant, gingger 

3. Stir for 5 minutes

How to make the main content:

We will boil each vegetable separately.

1. Chop cabbage into very thin long slice, put in boiled water (not the gravy) for 1 minute, then lift and set aside

2. Put in the bean sprout in boiled water for 1 minute, then lift and set aside.

3. Fry the chicken, then shred them by hand into small pieces, set aside.

4. Cut the celeries

Put each vegetable in one big plate to serve.

How to make the condiment (sambal):

1. Put the all the chilis and onions into boiled water for 2 minute, and lift.

2. Pound the chili, onion ad salt on a pound stone (using a blender will reduce the taste)

topping:

cut 7 red onion into thin slice, then fry it until brown in colour. 

This fried red onion is used for topping.

Serve each component (vegetable, sauce, condiment, and topping) separately on the dining table.

How to eat is: take a half cup of rice, put each vegetable and a little condiment nicely on top,

then pour the sauce in the bowl. Complete it with fried onion topping or chips. This recipe is for 5 persons.

This is basicaly what soto is, but usually Indonesian people eat soto with any side dish (lauk) as desire.

For example with fried tempe, or fried chicken.

Soto is a very common Indonesian dish, especially in Java, even for the poorest one. We eat soto usualy for lunch, but it's dependent.

Many school canteens provide soto as their menu for school break. I ate soto almost every first break at junior high school.

4. Tempe & Green bean Stir-fry

My Tempe & Green bean Stir-fry

Ingridients:

5 onions

5 red onions

2 red chilis

2 green chilis

3 small chilis

1 bundle of green bean

1 carrot (sliced)

1 tomato (sliced)

tempe (chopped blocky/ cube)

1 ginger plant

1 salam leave

3 sponfull of dried shrimp

Salt

sugar

javanese sugar

Soy sauce

1/2 glass of water

How to make:

1. Cut green bean into 3 cm length manually by hand

2. Fry tempe until half cooked, set aside

3. Chop onions & red onions into thin slices. Chop all chilis into oblique or skew orientation.

4. Prepare the pan, fill in the cooking oil until medium heat

5. Fry the onion & garlic until half cooked

5. Put in all chilis, dried shrimp, tomato, salam leave, javanese sugar, and ginger plant, until smells nice

6. Put in the green bean, carrote, and tempe into the mixture

7. Put in the water, cover the pan and wait until the bean tender

8. Put in the salt, sugar, and soy sauce

the dish is now ready for 6 persons, serve with rice and side dish.

The side dish (lauk) could be anything, but here I will prepare "tiny sea fish crispy chips" ("keripik teri"...what a long translation) as a very traditional and original side dish:

1. Soak the tiny sea fish in hot water for a while

2. Create flour dough: mix flour with water and egg, put in the tiny sea fish

3. Fry the fish and flour dough litlle by little on hot pan.

Finally, serve the Tempe & Green bean Stir-Fry with rice and side dish.

Maybe this dish already exist for hundred of year in Java. But I don't know. As soto, this dish seems very traditional, but still acceptable & delicious.

Cooking Class 1 "Vegetable & Chicken Liver"

How fun to be a female. When we're kid we play cook with fake ingridient.
Now, we know how enjoyable cooking can be. The famous American cooking book "The Joy of Cooking" really figure it out.
Eventhough a lot of chefs are male, but million other male don't care about cooking.
Females born with hormon that makes them love this kind of thing. So, thank's God.

My mother teach me to cook the dishes I'll post in this blog. Mostly are Indonesian daily traditional food. Old recipes, but that's okay.
A simple dish could be amazing, depend on how the cook. Remember Ratatouille?

My ability is average, but I'm eager to learn.

So, let's start the class:



1. Gado-Gado

I  forgot to photo the dish, do I browse from the internet  

This is a very fresh dish.

Ingridients of main content:
4 boiled potatoes
1 bundle of green bean (buncis)
1 carrote
3 tomatos
1 cucumber
4 boiled Egg

Ingridients for nut sauce:
1 cup of fried nut
4 red chili
1 onion
a little salt
3 spoon javanes sugar
2 lemon leaves
1 tamarind
1 glass of hot water

How to do the vegetable:
1. Boil the potatoes, buncis, and carrote, until tender, then  set aside.
2. Cut the potatoes and all vegetable into small pieces.

How to make nut sauce:
1. Fry chili and onion until half cooked
2. Pound the chili and onion on a stone pound
3. add salt, lemon leaves, javanese sugar and then pound again
4. Blend the nut until soft and tender, then pound it with other ingridient
5. Soak tamarind on hot water for a while
6. Add the tamarind water with the nut condiment to make the saouce more liquid.

How to serve:
Put the potatoes, vegetable and the half of bolied egg on a plate, then pour the nut sauce on top.
This recipe is for 4 persons. The key of making gado-gado is the freshness and the correct vegetable boiling time, and also the deliciousness of nut sauce.
It's so yummy...


2. Sambal Goreng Ati

I  forgot to photo the dish, do I browse from the internet

I'm not sure what's the english translation.

ingridients:
5 boiled chicken liver
7 red chilis
2 small chilis
5 onions
4 red onions
dried shrimp
salt
ginger plant (pounded once)
salam leaves
1 stalk of Petai
2 cup of coconut milk
a glass of water

How to make:
1. Pound onion and red onions, all chilis, dried shrimp and salt.
2. Fry the pounded ingridients in a medium heated pan until half cooked
3. Add salam leaves, ginger plant, petai, stir a while and then add chicken liver, stir it.
4. Add water, let it mixed a while
5. add coconut milk, wait until boiled, then add salt again as desire.

Serve it with rice, for 5 persons.

When I was a Kid #2: Bedtime Stories

I think, in  the game of life, Childhood is a bonus stage from God.

At kindergarten, I rarely watched our old colourless television.

I often played arround at my aunt's house, watched everything she watched like some dangdut tv program and adult sinetron though I didn't get it.

Japanese cartoon hadn't enter my favorite list yet. So, my brain was still original, with no foreign cartoon intrusion.

At that time, every night my father told me bedtime stories, kind of old local fairytales. So, we sleep together in one long room (now the room's almost collapse caused by earthquake).

There're two big bed for 5 of us. Sleep time was the time we had waited all day long, as if we wait to watch favorite tv drama.

Kancil

My father was really good in telling stories. It's flowing. No tv, but it felt like I watched a big cinema screen on my mind, every sceen was up to me, I mean about the setting, the faces.

The title were: Kidang Talung, Bawang Merah Bawang Putih, Timun Mas (Golden Cucumber?), tens stories of Kancil Nyolong Timun (Mouse deer the Cucumber thief), Kancil Ngapusi Buaya, 

Popok Beruk Keli, Belang Telon, Malin Kundang, Roro Jonggrang, wayang, and a lot more. Yes, I know all that stories before I fell asleep, created amusing dreams.

Timun Emas

My favorite story besides fairytales were stories about the world outside, for example about pasar malam, country abroad, or story when my father wandering for job.

Me and my young brother would cry like a baby if my father wouldn't tell stories. Besides stories, my father had plenty of riddle and magic trick collection, and also story telling with finger siluet on the wall when the electricity off.

We always failed to answer the riddle or magic trick. What a kind father he is, He bought bunch of little toys for us when he get back from work by his bycycle.

On the other hand, my mother only knows one story titled The origin of "Tinggi" (tinggi is kind of bed louse). We weren't bored even she had repeated it for many night.

Yeah, all of those thing triggered me to had a better childhood imagination. Deepest thank's to my parent. :)

.........After that period, tv played great role on my childhood world with american and japanese cartoon.

Flashback to my 2011

Hi there,

Maybe I'll give a little short post, in this new year... How was my 2011? 

It was the periode of my duty to be a secretary at HMTG FT UGM (student organization in my departement). I took that position though I'm not really confident in being a secretary, something that really not me.

Why was it so? First, I'm not an industrious and careful person, both are the basic needed requirement to a position which the job desks are concerning the meticulous administrative problem.

But, I did learnt a lot. Anyway, HMTG is a good place to learn. For me, it's more look like a life miniatur of someone who tried to reach succeed. Many of enthusiastic and hardworker friends created many amazing programs. They all did and thought their best.

And what else?

Oh, KKN. Two months from july - August, together with 19 other UGM's students, we did an obligatory task to dedicate our knowledge for the good of society. It could be a good idea, perhaps they wanted us to make change or bring solution to the community.

But, in reality, it was no really use. Plenty of uneffetive and useless time, with no great result. Or maybe it was just the case in my KKN.

On top of everything, I do love the volley ball game in my KKN society. I call it: Great game, Great players! Okay, however chalenging the society is, for me KKN is over after 2 month and nothing really attach in my attention besides the volley game. It was a lot of bored.

I tried to learn french by my self with no background study. I'm at the very very beginner level. I admit that it's a difficult language especially to hear! How fast and how unclear!

If I'm allowed to wish, I wish someday I could understand and able to hear the french thoroughly. I'll be thrilled and delightful. If only I could take a course. But, a million thank to the internet. For me, internet is the "new" window to the wide world.

Tens of language websites with hundred of pages are available free to learn, by hearing mp3s, watching videos, pictures, games, flashes, softwares, books, and more!

We can do almost everything through the internet.

At june 2011, I lost my Dell laptop and smart modem. Both are perfect and quite productive for me. Until one day at monday morning, when I got back from campus, I found my room's door was opened harshly, a lot of wood cutting on the floor. I was unbelievably saw no laptop above the table. Soon I realized what happened.

Dell Vostro

I hate to loose something expensive and important, I searched it with every effort I could. Well, it's clear that I'm neither spy nor detective. Later, I understand that I shouldn't regret the incident. If you loose one, then just get a better one someday! Now? I'm using a 10" netbook, less responsive, less productive, too slow and not suit me. But, I'm grateful for this little help.

Anything else?  

Well, another assistant activities, another movies, books, languages, knows more people, starting my final assignment, and nothing of my goals really become true. But I am working on them.