Stream of Consciousness Sunday: Welcome Home to Indonesian Home Cooking!

I just got back from a week-long celebration of my first wedding anniversary (My Wedding Details are here.) Being in Florida, I gorged on fast food heaven- Dennys, Waffle House, Golden Corral, Costco (and I LOVED EVERY BITE OF IT). Note to you: Bacon Pancakes from the Denny's Baconalia Menu is AWESOME. I wish they build a Dennys in NYC.

The Awesome Bacon COOKED INSIDE my pancake at Denny's

I was insanely jealous of my cousin's apartment (1 br with a laundry room and pool, wall to wall carpeting for $700) and i was almost convinced that I should move to her apartment complex. Of course, I was in Florida and the weather is insanely wonderful all year round, compared to the temperamental NYC weather.

Before we left, I told my dear husband that we were going to a Jazzy Brunch but he ate a whole Cubano sandwich on the plane that when we landed he was not hungry. I told my friends that I was hungry and they asked me if I wanted to go to the Indonesian Food Bazaar at the Masjid Al Hikmah.

We checked out the stands and here are our food sightings before buying anything.

We didnt know exactly what we were buying. Everything looked familiar to me, so we just bought the stuff that really tickled our fancy. Here's what we bought and enjoyed!

Bakso Cahngawi - this is very similar to Pho

Chili chicken, Spicy Beef with Coconut Milk, veggies and white rice

This is what is inside that frying thing.
Hard Boiled egg inside a shrimp cake tasting like dough
with some noodles and dipping sauce.

Fried snacks, spring rolls and Steamed Sticky rice treats
All very good. very similar to Fiipino lumpia, okoy and suman. 
I must admit, I love their okoy version better.

Sate beef with Lontong
Lontong is white rice cake.
They can BBQ beef so well! To me this was the winning 5 buck meal!

I really love going away for vacations, to me nothing says welcome home than the kind of food NYC has to offer. There really is something about to coming home to someone else's home cooking!


All these were taken at last sunday's Masjid Al Hikmah's Indonesian Food Bazaar. You can find more photos about this event at Serious Eats.
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This was my 5 minute Stream of Consciousness Sunday post. It’s five minutes of your time and a brain dump. Want to try it? Here are the rules…

• Set a timer and write for 5 minutes only.
• Write an intro to the post if you want but don’t edit the post. No proofreading or spellchecking. This is writing in the raw.
• Publish it somewhere. Anywhere. The back door to your blog if you want. But make it accessible.
• Go to Allthingsfadra.com and read what others have posted. And share your link there!

Our Handmade Wedding

365 days ago, Dave and I got married at Roosevelt Island Lighthouse Park. I wanted a wedding that was fun, not formal and very reflective of us. I searched everywhere for invitations and I didn’t find what I liked so I ended up MAKING EVERYTHING MYSELF.

Save the date Cards

Wedding invitations
invitation text was inspired by the song "be my guest"
from the animated film Beauty and the Beast

RSVP Cards
Having a reply deadline stopped me from calling the people who
has not sent in their RSVPs.

Table decor and wedding favor

I picked our wedding favors to be useful at the wedding itself. Again, since it has a theme of its own, I had to source the contents and ask my friends and family help assemble the boxes.

Inside the wedding favors
The items inside the boxes helped our guests *survive* our wedding. 
I have packed bibs and wetnaps because 
we served bbq and roast pig at the reception.

I chose origami flowers over fresh flowers because I didn't want to spend money for things that will last me a couple of hours (and I have allergies). On top of that, I didn't have to do special wedding bouquet and corsage preservation. It will be as fresh as the day my husband and father-in-law folded them. YAY!

My wedding bouquet and corsage

Decorating the aisle with a flowers would have proved to be time consuming and I will have to find pedestals for them. Solution: Paper pinwheels on dowels! They spin with the blowing wind! 

Wedding Ceremony
Photo credit: Angie Dykshorn

Paper pinwheel aisle marker
Photo credit: Sara Markel-Gonzalez

Sweetheart table and backdrop
Photo credit: Angie Dykshorn

Looking back, I wouldn't change a thing. I am happy with how everything turned out. And I am happier that our first 365 days together has been a blast! Here's to the years ahead of us! Cheers!

Thank you cards
Top photo credit: Angie Dykshorn
Bottom photo credit: Carol Colby Tanenbaum 

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To everyone who shared this special day with us, Thank you.

Stream of Consciousness Sunday: Today in Photos

Today's SOCSunday is quite a treat because I will do it in PHOTOS and MAPS! I spent a great Two-fer with Roxwriting that really started out as a twEAT-up invite from @Action_JoJo.

We met new friends for a twEAT-up at Queens Kickshaw

The twEATers
@Stellaaa, @Roxwriting,@Action_jojo and @mojoshowbiz

This was how my profile looked on @mojoshowbiz'
twitter app before we became twitter friends.

Kathryn, another friend had dropped by at The Queens Kickshaw
and introduced his friend Aaron to us.
The Best.'Stache.Everrr!

Roxwriting and I met at the corner of
65th Street and 34th Ave (point A).
Then we walked, (the blue line) and ate at Queens Kickshaw (point B)
then took the bus (fuschia line)
to get to the Noguchi Museum (point C).

With a free family pass from our friend Rich,
we went to the Noguchi Museum

We didnt touch them, promise...

But we needed to pose photos for personal documentation

and I just had to impersonate a Leonardo da Vinci drawing

It was hot out, so we went to Costco for a Frozen Smoothie for $1.50

From Point C, Walked on the Roosevelt Island Bridge
to get to Roosevelt Island.
The Spot where the pink heart is where Dave and I got married.

And did more hiking
but not in those shoes shown in the logo.

From Long Island City, we followed Noguchi's footsteps and
walked the Roosevelt Island Bridge to get to Roosevelt Island...

We walked down this path

Watched this view while walking the bridge
and walked until we got to our next form of transportation...

We walked some more to get to
the start of the Pink line to get on the...

Photo Credits: David McGlynn, Taken from The New York Post
The Roosevelt Island Lighthouse Tram!!!

The view from the tram looks like this...

How it looks inside and what people do in it.

We ended up at Sprinkles Cupcakes (point B on this map)
after walking from the Tram's end.
The pink line represents the tram ride.

After getting off at Manhattan,
we went inside just like this lady did

Got up to this counter and ordered

A Salted Caramel Cupcake!
Roxwriting and I Shared. Dessert First is how we roll.

From Sprinkles (point A on this map) we took the subway
to Nom Wah Tea Parlor (point B).
The Green line represents the streets that passed by earlier.
That was a LOT of travelling!

Then we went to Chinatown for Dinner.
Dimsum Dinner at Nom Wah Tea Parlor

Thank you for taking the trip with us! This what we call a two-fer. It really is short for a Two-for-One outing, that usually becomes a three-fer. We take the time to enjoy museums, special exhibitions and other events if it is free or we get free passes. Once we set ourselves on an event, we just draw up a restaurant from our restaurant wish list.

Usually it is on the free or cheap side because we would rather spend our money on food and our rent. I think the total amount we spend for this day was about $35 each. That's LUNCH, DINNER and SNACKS (we snacked twice).

The Noguchi Museum Admission is $10 for adults, but we got a free pass from our friend Rich. YAY! Thanks Rich!

We live in NYC but we don't have the Sex and the City lifestyle. Yes, they brunch every weekend, but it is only Miranda that really eats in that show. Let us just say that we are both Miranda. Oh, and some weekends, we are just too lazy to get out of bed.

**Because this should be a 5 min stream of consciousness excercise, please imagine that I was telling everything in 5minutes. Thanks!

For More Info:
The Queens Kickshaw
Noguchi Museum
Roosevelt Island
Sprinkles Cupcakes
Nom Wah Tea Parlor

************************************

This was my 5 minute Stream of Consciousness Sunday post. It’s five minutes of your time and a brain dump. Want to try it? Here are the rules…

• Set a timer and write for 5 minutes only.
• Write an intro to the post if you want but don’t edit the post. No proofreading or spellchecking. This is writing in the raw.
• Publish it somewhere. Anywhere. The back door to your blog if you want. But make it accessible.
• Go to Allthingsfadra.com and read what others have posted. And share your link there!