Happy Chinese New Year 2559 - Mouse Year

恭喜发财
在新的一年里，祝你们有：
鼠不完的幸福，
鼠不完的快乐，
鼠不完的活力，
鼠不完的青春，
新年快乐，万事如意

a mouse, caught on the first day of the mouse year at my house, well...we released it alive outside the house thou!

Neem Tree

Hindu people in India use neem leaves as an offering to worship Lord Krishna, the incarnation of God Vishnu.

Neem tree, also known as Imbo tree (Azadirachta indica), gives lots of benefit to human beings. In Tuban, people plant them as shade trees all along the road. They also boil the leaves and drink the water as an antiseptic for stomach as well as curing itchiness or any skin disease. Other sources also mention that the extract of Neem leaves has medicinal properties as anti cancer, anti bacteria, and anti intestinal infection.

Neem trees are very abundant in Tuban, so it’s very easy to get the leaves. Once, I boiled the leaves and drank the water. The taste and the color of boiled neem are similar to Chinese bitter tea (kuding cha - 苦丁茶), one of my favorite tea. There is one big tree just next to my house in Tuban, so I can enjoy my bitter "Imbo" tea any time. ^_^

Around Tuban: Bektiharjo Pool and Ngerong Cave

Morning Inspiration: The song

In a fresh morning, inspiration can just easily pop up inside my head and flow wild. All tasks that require creative solution seems to be confidently manageable. One of my experience with a morning inspiration resulted in a sweet piece of music. Composing a melody was as simple as interpreting my own mood. Then the music gradually sounded in my ears. And I just took my pen and translated it onto a piece of paper.

To me, a beautiful melody is not necessarily difficult. The simple one is good! The most important thing to make such a beautiful melody is that it must simply come from the pure feeling inside your heart. So, the listeners can also feel what you’ve felt, although the melody is interpreted in different ways. A melody is contagious as it emits your expression, either joyfulness, happiness, or even sorrow, to everyone who listens to your music.

But then, back again to whether or not you have inspiration. No inspiration means no idea for creativity. Inspiration is the potion that without this, you can not be optimally productive to do anything. So, my hope from now and then, every minute and every single second: May I always be fulfilled with lots of inspiration.

Nasi Jagung Jangkar

This place is located in Tuban, very famous among locals because of their traditional cuisine: eel, frog, and catfish, cooked in hot chili sauce mixed with other herbs. It does make you sweat when you eat the hot sauce with freshly steamed grounded corn (nasi jagung). I agree with most people that eel suits best with the steamed grounded corn compared to frog or catfish. Everyone who's eating there seemed to enjoy the pleasure of every drop of their sweat due to burning sensation in their mouth. A traditional fermented drink called tuak, poured in a centhak, a traditional bamboo glass, is usually asked by visitors to accompany their meals.

As most visitors’ first impression, that place might look a bit “inappropriate” as a place to eat. But people say that this place now is in a much better condition than it used to be after they’ve renovated it. Jangkar now has more and more loyal customers; and gains more popularity, not only for local Tuban people but also among visitors. If only they pay more attention to hygiene, I believe, they will have much more customers. I admit that the foods there are very amazing! I think I’m addicted to their nasi jagung with hot eels. I my self don’t mind to eat there. Hmmm…yummy!

The green of Nglirip

This trip really rejuvenated my eyes to see all the green around, after such a busy wek stucked in the Lab.

Hot...Hot...Chili

This is because chili contains a very tiny amount of hydrochloric acid (HCl) that is responsible for the burning sensation in your mouth. HCl is the second strongest acidic compound after sulfuric acid (H2SO4). The effect of hydrochloric acid heats your body system, consequently your body will produce sweat to cool it down.

The sweating effect of chili is very helpful to people living under high air humidity like Sichuan province in China. That's the reason why Sichuan foods use lots of chili. People there eat lots of chili because they want to sweat more, so they don't get humidity-related diseases due to a long-term exposure of wet condition.

Brebes Salted Duck Egg

Here is what local Brebes people told me about the way to make their famous salted duck eggs.
What to prepare:
1. Fresh duck eggs, washed and rinsed with water
2. Abu gosok or burnt rice bran (this stuff can be easily found in any traditional market in Indonesia)
3. Salt, depending on how many eggs you use (100 eggs: 5 kg salt)
4. Water

Make the coating mixture: mix abu and salt, add water, stir them well until thick but not too watery.

Coat each egg with this mixture, then roll it on the dry abu, re-coat it tightly to make the coat layer strong and not easily detached during the storage

Keep the already coated eggs for 12 days

After 10-12 days, detach the coat, clean the eggs, and boil it. And you'll get the result like what I've done as shown in the pictures.

Thanks to Budi for being a good host

Durian + Alcohol = Hangover

Durian contains a sulfuric compound called mercaptan which strongly absorbs water from your body system, hence you'll feel dehydrated. The reason why we can not drink alcohol at the close period after eating durian is because alcohol performs a fast hydrolysis process which also breaks down water from your body, exacerbating your dehydration. The double effect of losing your body fluid will extremely suffer your brain, that's why you'll experience a hangover.

Tips: After you drink alcohol, you have to compensate it by drinking an amount of water at least at the same amount of alcohol you took. And after eating durian, drinking much water will be a wise thing to do. Never ever drink alcohol after eating durian, or the other way round!

Thanx to Lai Weng Hoi and Emmanuel for sharing the knowledge.

Prevent flu! Combat flu!

During rainy season, so many people get flu. When you have the flu symptom, try to do following things:

Drink more water
Have you heard about water therapy? It can prevent and get rid of a lot of disease in your body. However, when you already feel discomfort due to flu symptom, just think that drinking lots of water may flush the virus around nasal areas (pharynx, throat), hence preventing worse illness or infection.

Eat more
As your body fights flu virus, you need an extra amount of energy from your intake to win the battle. Push your self to eat eventhough you lose your appetite during this period, if necessary increase the quantity of your intake!

Tips: Eat as much fresh garlic as you can. The fresh garlic contains allicin which is good for antibiotic in our body. Allicin will be gone if you cook the garlic, thus eating the fresh one might be more powerful in combating flu.

Worrying about terrible breath after eating fresh garlic? It’s the sulfur compound which is responsible to make people dizzy when you open your mouth. But, don’t worry about that! Eat tomatoes while taking your fresh garlic. The substance contained within tomatoes can neutralize the strong smell of garlic.

Take vitamin C
A 1000 gram vitamin C is recommended when you are combating flu as it can increase your body immunity.

Get enough sleep
Go to sleep earlier. Allow your body to have more rest to support your recovery. This makes the healing faster.

Take medicine
This is when you feel really terrible and can’t take it anymore. Then take flu relieving pills, or as a better option, ask your doctor for a prescription. Still apply what I’ve suggested above, hopefully after taking your medicine, in the following morning you wake up, you’ll feel much better.

Do exercise
After taking enough rest during recovery process, usually your body will feel “saturated”. This makes you really want to re-activate your body. Indeed, this is a good sign of successful recovery. Do some physical exercise, but not too heavy one. After sweating, you’ll feel much refreshed.

Source: advice from my parents, my senior, health magazine, the internet, and of course my own experience ^-^