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	May 25, 2003

THE PERFECT DUTCH INDONESIAN DINNER Last night our neighbourhood dinner club held its monthly theme dinner. Our neighbours Sharon & Gary hosted the appetizers, my wife and I hosted the main course, and our neighbours Carol & Doug hosted the desserts. We've been at this for over a year, yet I think this was the most successful dinner yet. Everything was excellent, including some recipes that no one had tried before. Since I know some bloggers love writing about food, I thought I'd try my hand at it.   My wife's family and Gary's family are both Dutch, so we had some experience with the Dutch Indonesian cuisine we decided upon. My mother-in-law's Nasi Goreng dish was the centrepiece for the evening. Here is the menu, a veritable rijstaffel, and the recipe for the Nasi Goreng. The other recipes are available on request (e-mail me): APPETIZERS Chicken Sate with Peanut Sauce Spring Rolls - Shrimp & Vegetable Coconut Shrimp with Orange Curry Sauce MAINS Nasi Goreng - Rice with Pork Tenderloin & Peanut Sauce Orak Arik Jagung - Scrambled Corn with Assorted Vegetables Oseng Oseng Sayuran - Assorted Vegetable Sate Acar - Indonesian Cabbage Salad with Ginger AFTERS Dadar Gulung - Stuffed Sweet Crepe Roll Godok Godek - Banana Fritters Klepon - Sweet Coconut Rice Balls Lapis Legit Spekkoek  - Spiced Fine Layer Cake RECIPE FOR NASI GORENG Cut up one pound or more pork tenderloin or chicken, a little smaller pieces than for stew. Put about 1/2 cup soya sauce over meat, let marinate for 3-4 hours or overnight in fridge. Put one package Conimex Boemboe dried nasi goreng vegetables (comes in a package) in pot, cover with water, place on low heat and let stand for 1/2 hour. Cut up 2 good size onions, fry for about 5-10 minutes.  Add Sambal Indonesian red pepper sauce (comes in a small bottle), about 1 tsp, or more if you like it hot. Cook 1 1/2 cups of rice. In a large frypan, stir-fry the meat until tender, add the fried vegetables, then the onions, and soya sauce to taste. Then add the cooked rice, stir fry together for a few minutes. Beat 2-3 eggs, cook and form into flat pancake shape. Cut into strips. Put nasi goreng on platter, lay egg strips on top. Keep warm. Deep fry kropoek (shrimp chips) and serve on the side. Add peanut sauce (Asian Home Gourmet makes a great packaged peanut sauce mix, or make your own). Serves six. 3:38:20 PM  trackback []  comment []

LIBERTY 2004 MEME PROJECT I've been commenting on others' contributions to Rayne 's and Kriselda' s Liberty 2004 Meme Project, and recommending that we use The Tipping Point as a process for getting traction for the memes we decide on. I thought it was time to offer up some ideas of my own. Let me start with my biases and blind spots. I don't understand why so many Americans continue to support Bush. In any other developed country, someone with his approach, extremist policies and record of failures would be soundly trounced if he ran for re-election. I also don't understand the lack of passion around electoral reform. After the debacle of 2000, when the Supreme Court ended up appointing a president because the electoral system was incapable of doing so, after seeing the abuses that partisan appointed electoral commissions can perpetrate, after seeing large corporations use huge campaign donations to buy both major parties, after seeing the abomination of 'redistricting' ridiculed as profoundly anti-democratic at home and around the world, why isn't serious electoral reform a priority in every American's mind? How can the country that prides itself as the epitome of democracy tolerate a thoroughly dysfunctional electoral system? Having said what I don't understand, what I do understand is that in every country in the world, what's happening locally trumps what's happening nationally and internationally. People care more about the domestic economy than the global one, more about domestic security than international security, more about local water quality than global warming. So here are the five principles that I believe should govern the selection of the Liberty 2004 Memes, and the process by which the memes should be used: Triage: The  target audience should be undecided, independent, moderate, occasional and 'swing' voters. No point coming up with a campaign that appeals only to those that are going to vote for us, or against us, anyway. KISS: The memes should be simple, memorable and compelling, and address the issues most important to the target audience. Not cute, not too-clever-by-half, not strident, not abstract, not demanding. Remarkable would be nice, but is not absolutely necessary. Positive and Negative:  We probably need two memes, because some people vote for and other people vote against, and we need to appeal to both. No personal attacks: As vital as it is that the positive message resonate personally, it is equally important that the negative message not be personal. The negative message needs to be about the impact of the Bush policies and the Bush administration's performance , not ad hominem criticisms of the administration. Even using barbed language like the Bush regime, as tempting and satisfying as it may be, will backfire with many moderates. Catchphrase + Stories: The memes must be a combination of a catchphrase and supporting stories . The stories reinforce the catchphrase and give it life, depth, power. The story of the rescue of the captured American woman soldier in Iraq is an example of the type of powerful story the Republicans have learned to use. We need stories that are even better, and ideally more truthful. At this stage, and with the caveats above, here are my two recommended memes: Put America Back to Work. This is the positive message, that reflects the massive unemployment, threat of unemployment and under-employment that is the legacy of Bush's economic mismanagement and collusion with multi-national corporations that have no allegience to the American people. The stories supporting it should be about real Americans, including small American businesspeople, who are struggling to make ends meet as a tiny number of individuals and corporations reap obscene profits and destroy and export jobs in the interest of increasing profits even further. It's not a new or clever message, but it meets every one of the criteria above. Salon bloggers have already provided at least a half-dozen perfect stories. Government For the People: This is the negative message, that reflects the concerns of many Americans that the current administration is unduly interfering with the rights and day-to-day lives of Americans. The stories supporting it should be stories of government terrorizing 'ordinary' Americans just going about their business: The NY restaurant diners who were assaulted and had guns waved in their faces during the bungled FBI raid. American citizens who have 'disappeared'. Personal stories of Homeland Security excesses. The implication is that the security forces that the current administration has established and inflicted on Americans are incompetent and out of control. Personal stories that show the damage of right-wing Republican social legislation are also fair game, provided the focus is on the personal impact of the legislation, not on the legislation itself. I'll post this to the Liberty 2004 Meme site, and I look forward to your reactions to my 'outsider's view'. 2:09:54 PM  trackback []  comment []

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