what is it with this froyo obsession

Eclair still rocks :)

chocolate brownies

It is cold. It is snowing outside. It is weekend time. What would be better than baking something delicious?

By popular demand, here is the recipe for home-made chocolate brownies. It is so easy, it would never fail. Think about this: last summer, after I was injured in a football match, I had a surgery on my left hand. Effectively for weeks I could use only my right hand. Guess what? I still baked brownies when I was in the mood!

Ingredients: 4 eggs, 200 gr sugar, 100 gr flour, 100 gr butter, 100 gr bitter chocolate.

Preheat your oven to 450 K (OK, it's around 180 C or 360 F). Melt the chocolate. Melt the butter. In a bowl, stir together everything. Grease a pan and pour the mix. Bake for 30 minutes. Enjoy!

For a variant, add slices of fruit to the mix. My favorite is mango, but banana and orange apparently work pretty well. Usually I also spice it up with a bit of ginger and/or cinnamon.

for the glorious nation

Approaching the Qt 4.5 release, in order to relax the atmosphere a bit, and while I was just back from vacation in Indonesia, last week I brought nice goodies to the office. Read what I posted to our internal list:

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Subject: durian, for the glorious nation of Indonesia
Date: Tuesday 24 February 2009
From: Ariya Hidayat <ariya.hidayat@trolltech.com>

Executive summary: try durian candies I brought, find them on the desk in the 5th floor, next to the stairs.

Durian [1], an arguably very nutritious and delicious fruit, my all-time favorite snack, best things before sliced bread and LISP, is unfortunately forbidden to be carried in the flight, placing it in the same category as guns and drugs. Since I am not a brave as our Chief Troll (with his cheese adventure), instead of smuggling a large quantity of durians, cowardly I fall back to a simpler solution: durian (flavored) candies. For me, they taste fantastic (albeit not as heavenly as the fresh fruit, or when made into mixed drink [2,3]), but for most people, they stink, smell horribly, and taste disgusting.

When you start the losing fight with your stomach, when you count the minutes in the toilet, when your days in Emergency Room are almost over, now think about it: how do most Asian feel about European cheese? [4]

Now I am back on completing my patent application on "Method and Apparatus of Information Extraction from Combatants Using Exotic Tropical Fruit", before someone ratifies the counterpoint as an addendum to the Geneva Convention.

Enjoy the ride!

[1] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Durian
[2] http://flickr.com/photos/ariyahidayat/3293814359/
[3] http://flickr.com/photos/ariyahidayat/3294638128/
[4] Surprisingly, "durian" and "revenge" share a general theme: they are best served cold

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These candies of course can not reach the real taste of the fruit itself, especially when made into fresh drink like the picture here:

sweet potato vs steamed sponge cake

If you happen to visit Malang (East Java), do not skip the chance to visit Bakpao Telo right in Lawang, a small city just before Malang. The shopping complex is located conveniently on the main street, its enormous size makes it impossible to miss. What is unique there? A lot of assorted snacks (cakes, cookies, chips, and many more), made of highly-nutritious sweet potatoes, known here as ubi jalar or ketela rambat, often shortened to tela or telo, hence the name.

Needless to say, the following delicious steamed sponge cake (bolu kukus), which costs me a fortune (20 Eurocents or a quarter dollar), is my favorite.

everything is better when you hear that shout

In Oslo? Don't miss Mithas The Sweethouse (Grønland 2A Oslo)!

Photo by this girl.

fresh waffle

By popular request, here is a quick and easy recipe for making waffles. It is so easy, it would never fail.

Ingredients:
2 whole eggs, beaten
300 gr all-purpose flour
160 gr butter
140 gr sugar
1 teaspoon baking powder
100 ml milk
vanilla, to taste

Of course, you also need a waffle iron.

(Photo is taken by this girl)

strawberry couverture

That's a fantastic dessert. Inspiration is from Google, I mean of course literally, the first page of google.com today :-)

(In case you miss it, check this out)