One of my favorite Indonesian Street Food is “Bakso” / also known as “Baso”.

Bakso cart

Its Indonesian version of meat balls; usually beef / chicken / fish mixed with flour. Some other “bakso” variations are meatballs in tofu, meatballs in crispy fried dough, etc, etc. [all yummieee… I swear!!!]

A meal of “Bakso is usually a bowl of chicken / beef soup; plus vermicelli noodles (rice noodles) or yellow flour noodles, some bean sprouts, onion leaves, fried onions, and of course, the “Bakso” itself.

This is not actually a spicy dish; just don’t put in any chili sauce. If you like it sweet then you can add some sweet sauce. Me personally, I’ll just add in a little chili sauce and that’s my perfect bowl of “Bakso”.

I totally recommend eating Bakso and a bowl with “Es-teller” literally means “Faint Ice”; a bowl of cold ice desert, so good it’ll make you faint (shaved ice + sweet condensed milk + coconut meat + avocado + jackfruit + some jelly).

a bowl of "bakso" and "Ice-teller"

On the street, a bowl of “bakso” + “Ice teller” would cost you around Rp10,000,- to Rp15,000,- (US$ 1-2).

In the café’s or shopping malls it’ll be 2 to 3 times of that price. But of course, it’s definitely cleaner [if you are afraid to get Bali belly / stomach ache].

Personally, the ones on the street taste better. But if you are a foreigner and you want to eat on the street, please eat at you own risk. We Indonesians have ’stronger’ belly you see….

T key and Vespa's Spark Plug

Use the “T-key” to loosen the spark plug, turn it to your right and take it out.

After a while, the spark plug will get dirty, from the burning of the petrol + oil. The oil makes it dirty, kinda like “boogers” in our nose… so just use the sand paper and clean ‘em out.  Then put the spark plug back in, cover the engine with the cap, and try to turn it on. It’ll be so much easier to turn the Vespa on, and you can feel it too when you ride it…. Smooth…..

Vespa Spark Plug

[This is going to sound a bit cheesy…]

I am perfect in my imperfection. [Hell yeah…]

My strength is what I enjoy.

My passion is what I feel.

Pleasure with meaning, is my happiness.

Gratefulness, joy and peace are in my soul.

Doing my work, I get my income.

Having a career, my soul is fulfilled.

I do Work, but I’m still looking for my Career.

I think I almost found it. I think… maybe….

[Urgghh…. Wish me luck!!!!]

My funny T'shirt

In English, it means :

I Love WIDOWS

Experienced and no practice needed

I wore ‘em to the market and the ladies laughed at me. The guys nods and smiled.

Yea… dude’s love my tees. It’s mine… go get it yourself bro…   Muahahahahahaha…..

My Very First Painting.

With the courtesy of Mr. Man Rukmana, I get to do my very first painting. Yay!!! Suuperrr Excited.

It’s gonna be a Blue Zebra. Cool!!! Because I’m an amateur, I cheated a bit (ehem…. a lot!!!).

Man drew the overall shape of the zebra for me with a pencil. And that made it so much easier. It was a peace of cake at first; I just need to separate the stripes, paint some black and leave some blank.

Painting Lesson

The tricky part is when I start painting the blue stripes. I’d have to mix it with some white to create a nice gradient from an imaginary light source to make the zebra look alive. Ooh……. That wasn’t easy. But, knowing how “talented” I am (with lots of guidance from Man of course), in about a week it is finally done. Sweet….

I didn’t actually want to stop, I didn’t think it was perfect, but man says: “Stop already, that’s good enough”!!! Hehehehe…. gotta listen to what master says.

Man Rukmana and my painting

He actually kinda “forced” me to stop because I was so obsessed with that “gradients” and was stressed out and… he was scared I guess…. It’s like I’m possessed.

It’s so easy to use “photoshop” to create such gradients. But with hands… oh my…

And the hardest part of this painting is to paint the nose, the moustache, the eye and eyelashes. Urghh… it’s hard to really paint the eye “alive”. Even Billy, Man’s son (who is also a talented painter) tried many many times but failed to follow what his dad can do.

In the end…. When we gave up, Man painted our zebra’s eyes. He did it just once and it’s perfect. Shooshh….. (That’s what 35years of painting experience does).

Bravo…. Man, and me. Yay!!!! My Zebra. Thanks buddy. I lurrrvvveee it.

Zebra Painting

* Images were screened to protect its copyright.

© Man Rukmana 2009.