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If my friend hadn’t asked me about how to make chicken with some cheese, I would probably have never posted this. So here it goes. This was more than a year ago – before my return to Indonesia. I was still in Haiti and was on a completely different diet: the ‘seefood’ diet (I see food and I eat it).
Based on one of the recipes in ‘The Australian’s Women’s Weekly Make It Tonight’ 
series (with slight modifications), tonight’s menu is one that is (or can be) cooked in the microwave from start to finish. Here are the ingredients:
The recipe suggested to cook the macaroni in the microwave as well, but to save time, I just cooked in on the stove as usual while I started with the other parts. So, while the macaroni is being prepared, cook the onions with the butter, on high temperature for about 3 minutes or until the onions are soft. Then, add the minced meat, cook on high, uncovered, for 10 minutes, stirring twice while cooking. Add the tomato paste and mustard, stir evenly, cook uncovered on high for 2 minutes. Add the milk, cook uncovered for 10 minutes or until it boils and the moisture thickens. Add the cooked macaroni, stir in 2/3 of the cheeses and parsley, mix well, and then add the rest of the cheese and parsley on the top (to cover the macaroni so it doesn’t get dry in the microwave). Cook for another 3 minutes or until cheese melts.
What I would do differently, is actually stir fry the onion so it will not have a slight sour taste. I would probably also add more cheese. Well, on second thought, I would not make it in the microwave again. I think this deserves a full attention and full time dedication. The onions should be stir fried, and so should the meat. And when it’s all mixed, it should go into the oven instead of microwave, to give it a chance to have some crusty top. Next time, I will try the oven method and post the difference here. And, this would probably be more of a weekend recipe, since the preparation to serving time is more or less one hour – 30 minutes too long for a couple just back from a long day at work. 
So the workaholics stayed in the office until 19.00 today. Automatically, none of us were in any mood to cook anything. Actually when we were leaving the office, I told my hubby that the food today (pasta with smoked salmon) would be easy and would only take 11 minutes (as per description on the pasta wrapping), but on the way home my hubby suddenly changed his mind and offered to eat out in Kemang.
Originally we were going for Burger King (yes shame on us, junk food two nights in a row, but we needed some feel good food after the hectic day), so we went to the one place in Kemang where they opened shop, Codefin. When we arrived there we spotted Cafe de Paris, one of the cafe that we liked but were missing when they closed in another area in Kemang (Plaza Kemang 88). So we ended up eating there instead.
I remember once Peder ordered steak with ham and cheese, and I remember how much he liked it because it tasted good and it was medium cooked exactly as he liked it and the meat was tender. So I went for that this time. Unfortunately that was a mistake because this time the meat was a bit dry and tough.
So we thought we’d get some dessert which would get us onto the good side. We ordered one chocolate mousse to share. When it arrived, it looked very familiar. I once tried to make chocolate mousse and it was a complete disaster. It turned out to be slightly fluffy on the top (as it supposed to be) but very gooey on the bottom. 
And that was exactly how this chocolate mousse was. The only difference is that my version didn’t use as much rum. So we decided, the best chocolate mousse still belongs to Brasserie (another restaurant in Kemang).
Another thing that was highly annoying about today’s experience is the ridiculously loud music that was playing from the ground floor and could be heard from the restaurant which was on the first floor. That’s something I really don’t understand about the Indonesian way of presenting ‘accompanying music’. See, in a concert, a band should be playing loudly because the concert is all about the band. But when you go to a mall or a cafe, the music presented should only be a side kick, and should not disturb the true purpose of the place.
This was what happened last night: the band that was hired to play in the ground floor, in a lobby, to a mix of people who are sitting and enjoying their meal suddenly became the centre of everything. The speakers were too loud and too powerful for the small area it’s supposed to cover. Their voices were not really good, and it was so horrible when they held their notes, thinking “I’m so good I can hold my note this long” while their voices were cracking and unstable. So not only were we forced to just sit and eat without being able to talk, we also had to endure the not-so-good voices which was not entertaining at all. So… in the end it was not a ‘feel-good’ experience. But you know what was good? I was in the company of the man I love who loves me back, and we’re married. Isn’t that convenient? 
Well, apparently it doesn’t really take much time to find an excuse to call in the guys from Amigos to deliver their cheeseburger. We like it obviously because it tastes good, the burger patties are very juicy so it’s not as dry as any regular burger from other places (well except Burger King)
Usually they serve it with garden salad and slices of water melon but they haven’t done so in a long time. Now they serve it with onion rings and coleslaw. We skipped the coleslaw but I enjoyed the onion rings.
Other than the picture of a cute little chick in between burger buns held by my hands-twin, I didn’t really find any interesting hints on what to put on a chicken burger. So we used the really basic ingredients: mayo, tomato sauce, mustard, tomato slices, cucumber slices, lettuce and cheddar cheese. We used ready made burger buns that was available in the supermarket. The buns were sooo thick that we decided to slice out the middle part and not use it.
When we started to eat, we realized we forgot rings of onions. But never mind, it tasted delicious anyway! And this must be the best looking picture of food I have ever taken so far for my blog.
