Lontong balap seller with typical carried-cart.

The physical development of the city of Surabaya is exceptional in the last decade where a lot of housing, property and real estate were developed. Giant buildings like malls, plaza, hotels and apartments were popping up. But all was not enough to give a unique identity for this second largest city in Indonesia. All buildings and property are thriving equally homogeneous in almost all major cities in Indonesia.

This article is expected to reveal the various uniqueness of Surabaya city. So many uniqueness in Surabaya, starting from places, objects, culture, art, food and physical character, a truly unique and legendary. The goal, for people who once lived in Surabaya or Surabaya younger generation to better recognize these hero city in more depth. For those of you a native of Surabaya, Surabaya-born or at least have lived in this city and is currently living outside the area will be able to reminisce back as the remedy of missing his native land, beloved Surabaya. So what are the uniqueness of Surabaya city ?

One answer is lontong balap.

Lontong Balap is one of the Surabaya city specialties that is not found in other areas. Lontong balap is a special food mixture, rice cake, vegetable seedling / sprouts with fried tofu and lento. With a sprinkling of fried red onion, red onion leaves and a spicy chili shrimp-paste make lontong balap delicious flavor steadily. Accompanying these foods is shellfish and iced young coconut drinks called “es degan”.

The lontong balap sellers that are still exist until now are on Kranggan Street. Exactly in front of ex-Garuda cinema. Hence he is often called Lontong Balap Garuda . This Kranggan road connecting roads in the city center protocol that on north is Jl. Blauran, Jl. Bubutan and Jl. Praban to the south of Jl. Arjuno, Jl. Semarang and Jl. Kalibutuh, or better known as the Pasar Tembok.

Among the western foods invasion such as fried chicken, pizza and other processed foods, as evidenced lontong balap Garuda survives until now. This shows that the lontong balap is one of the Surabaya and East Java community culinary cultural assets which is firmly attached, not deterred by changing times.

What about the price? No doubt: VERY CHEAP! and certainly affordable by all economic groups.
So you should not confess “arek Suroboyo” when not having hobby eating Lontong balap .
Do not say to know the city of Surabaya when’ve never stopped by Lontong Balap Garuda .

Great couple, lontong balap, shellfish satay and iced young coconut.

A row of lontong balap and iced young coconut stalls on Jl. Kranggan Surabaya. Lontong Balap Garuda

Source: www.BestSurabayaProperty.com

Last week, I had a great opportunity to interview my friend Gera from SweetsFood.com. He shared his passion in food, Sweets Foods blog and his experience when he was a kid.

Well, I hope you enjoy this interview and I look forward reading your comments.

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Q: I read about you in your Blogger profile that you always been interested in food since you were a kid. Can you tell us more about it? Any fun experience in food when you were a kid? And what’s the first food you tried to cook?

Gera

Gera: I’ve been always interested in food because for me it was and, today, it’s still a pleasure visiting food stores / supermarkets.

As you guess I spend lot of time there, sometimes more than the necessary. As a sportsman frequently I’ve been attracted by the nutrition and healthy aspects behind the yummy dishes. I tend to eat relatively slow so I can relish more the food, now I know it’s better for the digestion.

A funny experience was in a camping (till today love outdoors) when I tried to make fried fish. The oil was very hot and at that moment it began raining, some drops entered and made little sparks, but the worst was that I tried to extinguish them with more water…a fire explosion of several meters! Now I know that hot oil and water aren’t a good combination

Me: I just know that hot oil and water is not a good combination (will never try, could be dangerous). But that was fun really fun Gera.

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Q: Also from your profile, you’re from Uruguay.
Is there any special food from Uruguay that you can share with us, that anybody should taste it when they’re visiting Uruguay? Or Special food that only served in certain occasion or celebration in Uruguay?

Gera: Uruguay is the beef kingdom; it’s a must to eat good beef cuts in the typical parrilladas. The traditional Uruguayan cuisine has one of the largest diversity of the world in beef dishes and the parrillada (beef barbecued with firewood, not coal) is one of them.

As the Uruguayan’s palate has its origin in Europe and now also, it’s mixed with other cuisines like Latin American, American, Japanese, and Chinese cuisine, only to name a few. We’re a country of immigrants and all of them supplied us different dishes and styles of cooking.

For special occasions or celebrations in Uruguay, we’ve similar rituals like Spain, Italy, France, UK and Germany. Hence if you come here, the variety of dishes is huge.

Me: After asking this question, I was a bit curious to Uruguay. so I Google it and found this wonderful building

The.

The Solis Theatre

Solis Theater (Teatro Solís) the Uruguay’s oldest theatre.

and these look delicious dishes

Milanesa

According to the source, it can be made with cow meat , chicken, or fish meat. .

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Q: Now, talking about Sweets Foods. What drive you to make SweetsFoods.com? What’s your main purpose?

Gera: I like the history, the ingredients and really the living about food experiences all over the world.
Hence, I want to share my passion with everyone.

I also enjoy the social media interacting of blogging and the sociological-psychological aspects behind the new phenomenon called the Web 2.0.

The other important theme for me are health & fitness articles most on food basis but not exclusively, based in my own experience as a sport lover & adventure race runner.

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Q: Still about Sweets Foods. what’s behind the name SweetsFoods.com? do you have certain meaning with the name?. and Actually I mistyped it several times with SweetFoods (without “s”)

Gera: As you know I like sweets in other word desserts, and I wanted that this point was reflected on the name of my blog.

I know that this extra (s) in the middle led to confusion but it was a requirement of Google because the name without the “s”, was taken. Anyway, sweets = desserts, a good way to register this name

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Q: We have entered in 2010. Sure (maybe) everybody have a new hope (or maybe a plan). So, What’s your goal you want to achieve in 2010 (that you might have missed in 2009)?

Gera: I need improving my social networking as well as technical aspects of the blog and my writing too.

My goals are to go on increasing the blog as much as possible and to continue adding more sections already planed to get it more interactive. I’m satisfied for the continual growing of the same but it can be improved always to reach a wider audience!.

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Your feedback is really welcomed.

There are many sidewalk stalls in Indonesia. They are called “5 foot sidewalk stalls” because they sell on sidewalk (known as Pedagang Kaki lima: or 5 foot) where the width is 5 feet long. So, we don’t need to come in a restaurant or food stall to fill in our stomachs. If our pocket is in crisis, come and try food in the sidewalk. They usually sell on a small tent or pushcart on sidewalk city. They have unique ways to attract people. For example, a meat ball seller strikes the meat ball pan or a Indonesian chicken noodle seller makes sounds by bamboos. Sure, it will not be a boring culinary tourism.

selling food on sidewalk

Rice Table

Meal times in every region is sometimes different. In western and middle part of Indonesia, usually main food is cooked in the morning and consumed around mid day. Commonly, Indonesian kitchens only cook 1 or 2 meals a day. Then it is heated again for dinner.

It is different from western culture where food is eaten consecutively such as appetizer, main food, and dessert. Indonesian culture is eating main food directly without any appetizer or dessert, whereas Indonesia has many cakes, cookies, and snacks and they’re suitable to become desserts. In fact, the cakes are often eaten anytime among breakfast, lunch, and dinner. There’s no certain time to eat cakes. And there are many servings and fresh Indonesian drink such as es campur (mixed ice), es teler that can be served after main food.

Also, as a country where most of the people are Moslems, rules of religion has changed tradition. Therefore, praying before eating and using right hand when eating seems obligated and it is taught since in childhood. So, generally using a spoon is on right hand and fork is in left hand.

Zucchini has been known since hundreds of years ago by residents of Central America and North America. Furthermore, zucchini spread and widely known to many countries around the Mediterranean valley and African.

Zucchini is a family of Cucurbitaceae.At first glance, zucchini looks like a cucumber, but it’s just has dark green skin. Compared with the cucumber, zucchini flesh and seeds are soft and not too watery like cucumber.

In terms of nutrition, Zucchini contributed quite enough fiber that is 1.6 g/100g. It Also contains 0.9 g protein; 0.3 g fat; 4.3 g carbs and 20 calories. To get the fiber as much as possible, preferably do not peel when you cook zucchini .

Zucchini, French Kitchen’s Mainstay.

Zucchini

Zucchini is the current mainstay of vegetables in the France kitchen and Italy. One very popular dish from Provence, France is ratatouille. zucchini often to be steamed , made to pickles, baking. In addition, Zucchini flowers are also processed into a delicious meal. The most common is the way the dough dipped in flour, then fried.

Although Zucchini is more widely used in the Western kitchen, it is also suitablef for being cooked with spices and tastes of Asia. For example, pan-fried with simple spices, processed into soup, sliced like matchsticks to mix Shahe fen noodles fried or boiled, or dough filled with meat or shrimp.

If served raw in salads, for example, do not have to zucchini peeled, simply cut to length or crosswise, and then dipped or doused with sauce.

So far chocolate is always identical with the black forest cake, brownies, muisjes, chocolate candy. In fact, chocolate like it was enriched with sugar (sucrose), saturated fat (butter), and trans fats (margarine) that can damage the health and teeth.

Contrary to the fact that eating chocolate may damage the teeth,but  just the original chocolate is rich in potassium and phosphate compounds that are capable of crippling the bacteria that causes tooth porous. Chocolate’s fat is dominated by unsaturated healthy fats, especially oleic and linoleic. Compared to  tea, catechins levels of compounds in chocolate is much greater.

Both these compounds help shrinking the levels of “bad cholesterol” LDL and knocked out fat deposits in blood vessels, so the risk of stroke and heart attack can be reduced. This efficacy is what makes chocolate good to your heart health.

Chocolate

One way to reap the benefits of chocolate is, brewed Cocoa powder with boiling water. Cover, let stand until warm. Give just a little honey to reduce the sense of bitterness.

Avocado is rich in minerals, potassium, but low sodium content, it encourages the comparison base in our bodies. Decreased acidity of the body (blood and tissue) will suppress the emergence of diseases caused by the condition of the body too, such as allergies, headaches, panic, respiratory disorders, digestive disorders.

Avocado

Because the levels of folic acid and its vitamin E is also high, potassium avocado is more effective in reducing hypertension and may help expedite the flow of blood. Unlike other fruits, avocados almost contains starch, a little fruit sugar, but abundance of cellulose fibers. These factors make the avocado is recommended as part of the menu to control diabetes.

Breakfast menu that fits in food combining is fresh fruit. It Can be sliced fruit, fruit salad, juice, lassi (fruit juice added with yogurt) or a smoothie (fruit juice is made thick, and usually mixed with bananas). Because, fruit provides ready-made energy, in the form of fruit sugar (fructose), which can be easily digested and absorbed by the body efficiently, without draining the energy metabolism. This is in accordance with the metabolic cycle are still in exile, when the body is not ready to perform the function of digesting food.

Yogurt and Fruits

Because it is easily digested, fresh fruit leaving the stomach more quickly, so we are more easily hungry. About every two hours, we need to consume more fruit to meet the demands of hunger and keep blood sugar concentration to remain energized. If necessary, we may take a dish of fruit or fruit juice can be enriched and with plain yogurt that is not laced with synthetic sweeteners, coloring or essences.

In addition to yogurt, we can also consume animal protein such as eggs cooked without or with a little cooking oil. Its Amino acid composition that makes egg protein can be easily digested. It’s just that, serving poached eggs or omelet enjoyed separately from consuming fruit.

Fruit should be consumed 15-30 minutes before eating the eggs. For serving fried eggs (omelet), for example, eggs may be mixed with vegetables, like carrots, broccoli, onions, peppers or tomatoes.

More to read

7 Healthy Eating Habits , my friend Gera from Sweets Foods posted a very nice tips on how you can be more healthy by (a bit) changing your eating habits.

The belief that the white meat is more healthy than red meat makes some people feel secure when eating chicken. In fact, chicken now cultivated in the same way that is not safe as a cow. As a result, chicken fat content increased, while the bond muscles become loose, because it contains water and fat.

Of course, this does not apply to free-range chicken, because it is usually grown naturally and organically. Thus, both beef and chicken meat has as much a threat to health, if consumed in excessive amounts

Chicken Meat

According to a study published by the Journal of Science of Food and Agriculture, that the safest way to cook vegetables is to steam. In the study examined the nutrient content of broccoli cooking 4 different ways. Heated in a microwave, boil, boiling with high pressure and steam.

The result, with microwave heating has reduced the content of flavonoids and antioxidants in broccoli that has the potential to reduce the risk of cancer as much as 97%. Boiling has knocked out 66%, heating with high pressure has damaged 47% while the steam was cut broccoli antioxidant flavonoids and less than 10%

Because, vegetables are not mixed directly with water, so no loose antioxidants

Steamed Broccoli