Chocolate Pudding, an Indonesian Dessert?

As we're saying goodbye to year of 2007, I've got many invitations to the Christmas/year end gathering. One gathering that I went to, was a pot luck BBQ with office colleagues. The host asked us to prepare one unique dish from we come from. That's tough. I need something that's easy to make, yet universally acceptable for the multi-nation guests' palate who attended the gathering.

After long thought, I decided to bring the chocolate pudding. Indonesian style. The pudding was made of agar-agar (seaweed) powder. That defined the Indonesian-ness of the pudding. Because usually people associate pudding with gelatine/Jello or cakey-like pudding. Not for this one. Unlike gelatine, agar-agar resulted in a light texture of the pudding. And as for chocolate, who could resist its omnipresence!

For the final touch, it was served with the custard sauce, spiked with lots of rum! That's how I grew up with, eating this kind of pudding in weddings, birthdays, family gatherings.

I presented the chocolate pudding in a lovely serving dish (not pictured here), courtesy of the wonderful host of the day. The pudding looked so decadently tempting and shiny. And it prompted the question from the guests, "is it an Indonesian dessert?".

I have no idea. But I think, it is.

A wife of Indonesian colleague commented, "This is just the pudding I have always known, made of agar-agar, eaten with custard sauce with rum!"

I guess, I did not make the wrong choice with this one.

Recipe was taken from Detikfood. As explained above, the custard sauce was not mocha, as specified in the recipe. I omitted the dark chocolate and coffee powder and replaced them with 2 tablespoon of jamaican rum.

Part of Working Life Puzzle

I was in a middle of phone conversation with my counterpart in Japan, who happened to be a Japanese (surprise..surprise).

C: So Kimura-san*, can you find out the reason for the shipment delay of our unit?
K: Of course, Cindy-san. Just provide me the serial number of the unit.
C: It's TOHV005
K: So, it's T-O-H-D-005?
C: No, it's,...T for Tokyo, O for Osaka, H for Hokkaido, V for Victory, zero zero five.
K: Aahh..Sorry, Cindy-san, is it D for Dog? Dog, the animal?
C: No, Kimura-san, it's V for Victory, not Dog.
K: Aah..B for Bird?
C: No, it's V for....(fish, fly, finish..yellow,..blue..pink..I can't think of any word that start with V) Victory! You know..peace!
K: Aahh..Sorry, Cindy-san..I don't know that!
C: Oh, it's V for Victory....win..gamble, you know..V for Victoria..the queen? Queen of England?
K: Aahh..Sorry, Cindy-san, I don't know what you are talking about!
(I started to get panic. Calm down, don't panic! It's not that bad, recite the alphabet..ABCD...RSTUV.that's the V, he should get the point)
C:Kimura-san, in the alphabet..it's the RSTUV. That's the V.
K:Aah..Cindy,san..I still don't understand.
C: Do you want me to email the serial number to you?
(This didnt make sense, the reason why I had to call him was because he never replied my email)
C: Hold on, Kimura-san.
(I put the phone on mute. Knocked on my next cubicle neighbour, Colleague 1. Coll. 1 worked in Japan for 3 years. He claimed to be conversant in Japanese. By now, everyone had been intently listening to my phone conversation, since my office did not have voice absorbent facility. Everyone just could hear me, loud and clear).

C: Coll 1, what's the word that start in V in Japanese?
Coll.1: Japanese does not use letter V, Cindy!
(Thanks a lot)

Coll.2: Try..very..very bad..very very stupid!
(Good idea!)

C: Kimura-san, it's V for very..very beautiful!
K: Oh ..yes, I know..V for very very beautiful! It's TOHV005?
C: Yes..yes..yes!!!!!

After that fateful conversation ended, colleague 2 commented, " I can't wait when you have to spell out the serial number with the letter F to them!"

Oh well, just an excerpt of my daily working life!

*name had been changed to protect privacy.

Happiness found: Cheesecake Brownies

For a short period in my life, I was part of the (then) yuppies in the city area in Jakarta. I wore suits to work, I put on make up, I went to malls for lunch. The guys also put in the suits and ties. Fridays were filled with creambath sessions or foot reflexology, and also my newfound happiness.

It was in a cafe in Bursa Efek Jakarta (Jakarta Exchange Building), I found this very addictive slice. I found cheesecake brownies. I was so madly in love with it! And so did my family. There's never a weekend passed without this heavenly cake in our family. High in sugar, high in fat, high in calories. Sinful as it was, it gave us such a worldly happiness in a bite.

So, what's this thing really? It's just simple brownies topped with cheesecake. And it's so me and Yohan. I am a cheesecake person, and Yohan, a chocolate lover!

Been searching high and low for a recipe that comes close to what I had in the BEJ Cafe (can't remember the name, but sometime ago, I made an effort to go to BEJ just to buy the cake). 

And guess what, only last week I bought a new recipe book just because I wanted to come up with the evil twin of the cheesecake brownies of my past.

So, after so many failed attempts at brownies, I braced myself for this one earlier today.

I took the recipe from here. With some modifications to the original recipe.

The result was better than I expected. The cake was so lovely. The brownies was fudgy and chocolatey, while the cheesecake was so soft and cheesecakey. Pardon my poor choice of words, I am an analyst, not a food critic nor a recipe writer.

Isn't it great if we can find our happiness in a slice of brownies?