Yogyakarta Foodies: The Unique Taste Sensation from Gudeg

Have you ever visited to Yogyakarta? Or, do you live there? Then, what is Yogyakarta? Yogyakarta is a province-level Special Region in Indonesia which is a fusion of the Sultanate of Yogyakarta and the State of Paku Alaman. Yogyakarta Special Region is located in the southern part of Java Island, and is bordered by Central Java Province and Indian Ocean. The city is also dubbed “Kota Pelajar” because there are some of the best campuses that became the choice of students to study there. In addition, Yogyakarta also has typical food that is quite unique and much liked by people. Well, Pesona Lokal will discuss about that food so you will not be curious.

One of the famous foods in Yogyakarta is Gudeg. What is Gudeg? Have you ever eaten it? Gudeg is a typical Yogyakarta food made from young jackfruit cooked with coconut milk and spices to taste more delicious. Gudeg has unique flavors such as sweet, salty and savory. Usually people enjoy this meal with complementary foods such as Krecek, Egg, Opor and Crackers.

Behind the delicious taste, the way of making Gudeg is also not easy. You will need time to cook it for about 2 hours. The ingredients needed to make Gudeg such as palm sugar, young jackfruit (cut into pieces), boiled eggs, bay leaves, coconut milk, coconut water, galangal, garlic, red down, coriander, salt, pecan, pepper powder. The ingredients of manufacture are quite a lot, but it's still easy to get it.

The way to make Gudeg is first Boil the jackfruit for a few minutes, then place the young jackfruit, galangal, boiled egg and palm sugar into a pan. Add some coconut water that has been mixed with fine spices, stir evenly and pour in the pan. Then Cook all the ingredients for 2 hours with medium heat, after which the coconut milk poured and destroy the cut jackfruit. Next, Cook jackfruit and other ingredients until the coconut milk out and Gudeg reddish brown. Finally, Gudeg is ready to be served with other companion.

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The Heaven of Pasuruan; You Must Come to Enjoy Its Beauty!

Exploring every angle of beauty in Indonesia is never ending. Indonesia has a lot of beauty and uniqueness of culture, tradition, culinary and also tourist attractions. There are many tourist attractions that you can enjoy so you do not have to spend a lot of money to travel abroad. Because there are too many beautiful sights in Indonesia, so you get confused to choose it. But you just calm down, Pesona Lokal will always provide the right solution for you who like to travel. One of them will be discussed below.

This tourist place is located in one of city in East Java precisely in Pasuruan. Maybe you feel a bit unfamiliar with the name of this city. Pasuruan is a city in East Java Province, Indonesia. The city is located 60 km southeast of Surabaya, the capital of East Java province and 355 km northwest of Denpasar, Bali. The entire area of Pasuruan City is bordered by Pasuruan Regency. Pasuruan City is on the main coast of the north coast that connects Java Island with the island of Bali which makes it as a city with a large economic prospect in the eastern part of Indonesia. That is a brief explanation about the city of Pasuruan. Then, how about the tourist place?

Who would have thought this small town turned out to havevery beautiful water attraction? Its name is CobanBaung which means Waterfall. Coban Baung is located on the slopes of Mount Baung in Sumbersuko, Kertosari, Purwodadi, Pasuruan and East Java, Indonesia. But, Pesona Lokal just wants to describe its beauty alone.

Coban Baung has a charm of extraordinary beauty that is able to attract tourists to come. This waterfall only has a path, so you must be careful to get there. However, by the time you pass the path, you will be presented with the beauty of towering and shady trees and there are many monkeys who are faithful to welcome you so you will not feel lonely when traveling. Set up in the Coban Baung, you will enjoy the beauty of a high waterfall and have a fairly heavy water discharge. For those of you who love to play water, this place is perfect for you. You can play water as much as possible.

Coban Baung also has a variety of facilities that you can use such as toilets, parking areas, mushola, food stalls and others. So you do not have to worry if you have to stay long there.

Then how to go there? You can go there by car, motorcycle, bus or other public transportation. You just pay the entrance fee of about Rp. 7.500 and vehicle parking costs around Rp. 5,000. The cost is quite cheap is not it? And do not forget to bring the camera, because you will definitely capture every corner of this Coban Baung beauty.

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The Simple Dance That You Always Learn in School on Art Subjects

If you hear Batak, what's on your mind? You might imagine people who have a strong temperament. But before you think like that, let's find out first. What is batak? Batak is one of the largest tribes in Indonesia that comes from North Sumatra. The tribe has a unique name in their last name that indicates their family identity or it is called a "clan". Batak also has many traditions, culture and art. One of them is “Tari Tor Tor or “Tor Tor Dance”. You must know with this dance, because when you were in school, you studied it on art subjects.

And for those of you who still do not know, what is Tor Tor dance? Tor Tor dance is a dance derived from the Batak tribe that performed by a group of dancers accompanied by a traditional music called "Gondang". Generally, this dance is performed during the ceremony. Tor Tor dance is not just a dance, but this dance also has a meaning as a medium of communication between participants of the ceremony. It can be seen from his movements.

Tor Tor dance cannot be separated from Gondang, because before the event begins, host (Hasuhutan) perform a special event called Tua ni Gondang, so the blessing of gondang sabangunan. In the implementation of this dance is very unique, host (Hasuhutan) must make a request first to the drum gondang. In making a request, the host (Hasuhutan) should use polite words. This request is a request to the gods for the whole family of the host to gain health and well-being. Every request spoken, gondang will be played with a different rhythm. And after the request is complete, the dancers group out to set their standing position at the time of dancing.

Every Tor Tor dancer should wear “Ulos” and use musical instruments / gondang (Uninguningan). There are many taboos that are not allowed during a torpedo, such as the dancer's hand should not cross the shoulder-high limit, if it does mean that the dancer is ready to challenge anyone in the field of shamanism, or a martial arts race, or a fight mental energy and others.

Tor Tor dance is one of the cultural identities of Indonesian art that we must always keep and we preserve. Although some of us are not from Batak tribe, but what's wrong with us learning this dance?

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The Healthy Way to Lose Weight! You Can Do It Every Day.

Everyone want to have a beautiful body. Women want to have a slim body while men want to have a muscular body. So, a lot of them especially who have fat body are trying hard to lose their weight. The various ways they do, one of them is diet. They do diet such as eating less, keeping food and exercise. But there are many of them are wrong in doing diet. They think by eating less or not eating at all, it can help them to lose weight. That's a big mistake.  Because, when we are on diet, we have to keep up with exercise.

Exercise is an activity to train our body that we can do every day either with light activities such as walking up to heavy activities such as work out. We can exercise anywhere and anytime, at home, at the office or in the gym. Exercise has many benefits for our body, besides making our body feel healthy; we also get beautiful body shape as we want.

When we are on diet, exercise plays an important role. Maybe, if we think that by reducing the meal alone can reduce weight, why should we exercise? The thought is very wrong. In our body, there are two important components of calories and muscles. If we only eat less, our weight will decrease rapidly. But, we know that what diminishes is the amount of muscle mass. As we know, muscles have an important role in the body that is changing the calories that go through food into energy. Can we imagine, if our muscle mass is reduced, then the calories that enter into our body will accumulate and cannot be converted into energy perfectly. So by the time we stop dieting (eating less) we will become fatter back sooner even fatter than before.

It is very different if we do diet with exercise, such as cardio and work out. When we diet by doing this way, our weight will not go down quickly; even our weight may remain the same or even rise. Why is that? Because when we do cardio and work out every day, our muscles mass will increase. That's very good, because the muscle will work very well when it will turn calories into energy. Of course, every calorie of the food that we eat every day, it will not accumulate to fat, but it will be the energy that we need to perform our daily activities. So, as much as any high-calorie foods that go into our bodies, we will not easily become fat. And of course, we'll be healthier.

So, when we want to diet, the main thing we must remember is the diet in a proper and healthy way of exercising. Indeed, we will feel tired and lazy when we want to exercise. But we must remember that our goal is to have a good and healthy body. “Pretty needs sacrifice”.

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This is Barack Obama's Favorite Food That You Can Cook at Home!

CNN travel published the list of the best foods favored by readers in 2011. There are 50 lists of food in it. CNN Travel holds the best food vote again in 2017. In the list of foods, there are three Indonesian foods in the sequence number 1, 2, and 3. In the first place is Rendang, the second is Fried Rice while in the third place is Sate. Pesona Lokal has been discussing about Rendang and Sate in the previous article.

This time, Pesona Lokal will discuss about Indonesia's 2nd best food in the world that is fried rice. Fried rice is a rice dish that has been fried with oil and simple spices and with a mixture of chicken, beef, seafood, eggs and vegetables. Many people love this dish. Not only Indonesian people, former president of United States Barack Obama also really like this food. Fried rice became one of his favorite foods. When he visited Indonesia several months ago, he expressed his longing for this second best food.

Fried rice is a very popular Asian food. Many traders in Indonesia sell this foods. They sell it by cart and move around. However there are many restaurants that also sell fried rice with a choice of flavors.

Are you a fried rice lovers? You can also cook this food by yourself at home because the ingredients are easy to find and the way of making it is also very easy. The ingredients for making this fried rice are rice, chicken or beef meat, eggs, vegetables, cooking oil, onion, garlic, chili, sauces, soy sauce, salt and flavor.

How to cook fried rice? First, mash the onion, garlic and chili. Then stir the spices until fragrant. After that, insert the eggs, stirring into several pieces. Enter chicken or beef meat. Add vegetables, salt and flavor, and then put the rice. Next, add sauces and soy sauce, and then stir until blended well. Finally, fried rice is ready to be served and eaten with crackers.

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Do You Want to Be Healthy? These are the Ways You Need to Do!

Who does not want to be healthy? Surely, we want to our body to be healthy all the time, because in a healthy body there is a strong soul. We must always remember these words and apply them to our lifestyle. It is not only about fashion style and hair style that we always look at every day, but we also have to maintain our healthy lifestyle, so we are always be healthy. Implementing a healthy lifestyle is not easy, we need to be consistent and restrain ourselves. But there are some easy ways how we can apply a healthy lifestyle in our daily lives.

1. Wake up in the morning and exercise

Waking up in the morning is very difficult especially if you have to exercise. Just imagining it already feels lazy and tired. But we need to know that when we exercise in the morning, our body will feel fresher. In addition, daily activities that we have to do will feel lighter.

2. Eat regularly

Eating regularly is also good for our health. We should get used to breakfast, lunch and dinner. Do not ever procrastinate our eating hours, because it will make us susceptible to diseases such as ulcer and gastric acid.

3. Drinking a lot of water

Water is the source of human life. Water has many benefits for our bodies. In addition to launching metabolism, water also prevents us from dehydration. It would be very dangerous if humans lack fluids in the body. There are some people who say that human can survive without eating, but they will not be able to live without drinking. For that, we should drink water at least eight glasses a day.

4. Eat fruits and vegetables

Fruits and vegetables have many vitamins that are good for our body. Some of us may prefer savory, sweet and salty foods like fried food, cake, fast food or junk food for our snacks. As we know, those foods are not good for our body and it can induce some diseases such as diabetes, obesity and others. Change the bad habits. Replace our snacks with fruits and vegetables that will keep our body protected from dangerous diseases.

5. Get enough rest

Most of us really like to sleep at midnight or stay up late. Because there are so many activities that make us to delay our rest time. We need to know, our body needs to restore energy and create new spirit. Thus, it will be better if we sleep at least 8 hours a day.

6. Always passionate, thankful and positive thinking

This is the most important point. Not only physical health that we need to keep, but we also keep our mind and soul in order to be balance. We should always be passionate in doing daily activities even though it feels heavy, we must always be grateful at all times with what we get, and the last is we must always positive thinking in everything. Because a positive mind will affect us to always do something positive.

Those six ways that have mentioned above are very easy to apply in our daily lives. Let's change our lifestyle habits into a healthier lifestyle, so we can feel the beauty of the world.

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Do You Like Snorkeling? You Do Not Have to Pay Dearly for It. Just Come to This Beach! Nglambor Beach

Indonesia is a country that has a lot of natural beauty in every corner such as beaches, mountains, islands and others. In every area definitely has a beautiful tourist spot, especially a beach. Beach becomes a favorite place to relax enjoying the waves and the beautiful scenery around it. But there are many beaches newly realized their beauty by people, one of them is Nglambor Beach.

Nglambor Beach is a beach located in Purwodadi, tepus, Gunungkidul, Yogyakarta and Indonesia or in the middle between Jogan Beach and Siung Beach. Because Nglambor Beach being in the middle between Jogan Beach and Siung Beach, it makes Nglambor Beach does not longer than other beaches. However, this beach still has a natural landscape that is not less beautiful. The first time we come to this beach, we will be served with a very extraordinary sea view. The beach is not too wide so we can walk enjoying the warm sand from the east end to the west end.

Because of its location in Yogyakarta, this beach is also included into the south coast. As we know, the southern coast has very large and fierce waves, so we will feel afraid to swim or just get closer to the beach to enjoy salty sea water. But, on this beach we need not fear, because the waves on the beach are quite calm. We can still enjoy the beautiful underwater. Underwater scenery is very beautiful. There are many coral reefs and various types of fish. This is what makes Nglambor Beach as a favorite beach for snorkeling. Not only snorkeling, we can also swim to enjoy its warm sea water.

The southern coast is usually famous for mythical and mystical stories, but it is different from Nglambor beach which is far from mystical word. However, this beach is also used as a place of execution of tradition of sea alms ceremony like other beaches. Sea alms ceremony is called "Ngalangi" which in Indonesian means "Menghalangi" and in English is “Blocking”. The ceremony also aims to ban local people from catching fish around this beach. Residents or fishermen can only catch fish around this beach once a year only. Residents around this beach also have the awareness to always keep the beach clean, so the beach is always clean from the garbage.

If we want to come to this beach, we only need to pay entrance fee for RP. 5,000. But we must walk to the beach because of the narrow road. Our vehicle can we parker by paying about Rp. 2,000-5000 only. It is cheap enough is not it?

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Know the Art of Sundanese Dance That Has been Worldwide; Jaipongan

Sundanese is one of the tribes in Indonesia that comes from western Java. This tribe is famous for its culinary paradise. In fact, the Sundanese are known for their white-skinned, beautiful and handsome people. In addition, Sunda also has a dance art that is quite famous until now. That is “Jaipongan”.

Jaipongan has been known to be an art dance from the Sundanese community in West Java. This dance has become an icon of the tribe of Sunda. Almost in every event of art or intent, even a special carrying Sundanese culture or not, Jaipongan dance seemed to be a mandatory agenda to be performed.

Jaipongan was born through the creative process of the cold hands of H Suanda around 1976 in Karawang, Jaipongan is a cultivation that combines several elements of traditional art karawang such as pencak silat, wayang golek, banjet mask, ketuk tilu and others. Jaipongan have been growing rapidly in Karawang in the beginning of 1976. Jaipongan position at that time became the art of alternative entertainment performances of traditional arts that have grown and developed earlier in karawang such as pencak silat, topeng banjet, ketil tilu, tarling and wayang golek. The existence of jaipong gives new and different colors and patterns in the form of packaging, ranging from the arrangement of the musical composition to the form of the composition of the dance. Before this performance art, there are some influences that became the reason for the formation of this social dance. In the urban area of Priangan for example, in the elite society, social dance influenced Ballroom dance from the West. While in folk art, social dance influenced local tradition. Traditional dance performances are not separated from the existence of ronggeng and pamogoran. This dance began to be widely known since the 1970s. The emergence of dance by Gumbira Gugum was originally called Ketuk Tilu development, because the dance base was the development of Ketuk Tilu. The first work of Gugum Gumbira is still very thick with the color of ibing Ketuk Tilu, both in terms of choreography and accompaniment, then became popular with the dance of Jaipongan.

Characteristics of Jaipongan Kaleran style namely; cheerfulness, erotic, humorous, spirit, spontaneity, and simplicity (natural, what it is). This is reflected in the pattern of presentation of dance to the show, there are given the pattern (Ibing Pola) as in the art of Jaipongan that exist in Bandung, there are also dances that are not in the pattern (Ibing Saka), for example in Jaipongan Subang and Karawang art. This term can be found in Jaipongan Kaleran style, especially in Subang area. In its presentation, this Jaipongan style of tangling, as follows: 1) Tatalu; 2) Flower Gadung; 3) Gopar Kawung Fruit; 4) The Opening Dance (Ibing Pattern), usually performed by single dancer or Sinden Tatandakan (sinden attack but cannot sing but dancing sinden song / interpreter); 5) Jeblokan dan Jabanan, is part of the show when the audience (bajidor) sawer money or giving money (jabanan) while greeting outboard. The term jeblokan defined as a couple who settled between sinden and spectator (bajidor).

Jaipongan may be referred to as one of the identity of West Java, this is seen in some important events related to guests from foreign countries who come to West Java, then greeted with Jaipongan dance performance. Similarly, the arts missions to foreign countries are always equipped with Jaipongan dance. Jaipongan dance influences many other arts in West Java society, both in wayang art performance, degung, genjring / terbangan, jaipong, and almost all the folk performances as well as in modern dangdut music that collaborated with Jaipong into Pong-Dut art. Jaipongan has been diplopolized by Mr. Nur & Leni.

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The Delicious Chicken-Based Dishes from Bali; Ayam Betutu

Italian has Roma, Japan has Fujiyama, Australia has Sydney, but Indonesia has Bali. Who does not know Bali? Almost everyone knows how beautiful the island is. Bali is one of the islands in Indonesia that has many natural beauties, traditions and culture that is able to attract local and foreign tourists to come and enjoy its beauty. Not only that, Bali also has a special food that has become legend and is liked by many people, that is “Ayam Betutu”. The name of this food you may have heard even though you have never tasted it.

Ayam Betutu is whole chicken filled spices Balinese herbs. Then the chicken is roasted. Not only chicken that is used as a base ingredient, you can also use the whole duck. This Ayam betutu is very famous in Bali especially Gilimanuk area. There are several variations of how to process such as wet Ayam Betutu, dry Ayam Betutu and Ayam Betutu in the oven. But the spices used are also the same and it will make everyone who sees them want to try its deliciousness. Balinese spice has its own charm so for the first time to taste it; they will feel addicted and want to try eating it again.

The ingredients for cooking this food are chicken or duck as a basic ingredient, big red chili, ginger, turmeric, galangal, lemongrass, onion, garlic, pecan, pepper, coriander, sugar, salt and chicken broth. You will find them easily.

Then, how to cook it? First, mash all the spices, then sauté until fragrant. Remove the spices and then let it cool. After that, sprinkle chicken with the spice. But before it, sprinkle chicken with juice of lime and salt to taste tastier. Then, wrap chicken with banana leaves; do not forget to add orange leaves, bay leaves and lemongrass. Next, steam chicken about 2 hours then roast the chicken into the oven with a temperature of about 185 degrees for 30 minutes. Finally, Ayam Betutu ready to be served and eaten with warm rice.

What do you think? It is very easy to cook Ayam Betutu at home isn’t it? But, if you cannot cook it by yourself, you can buy it at restaurant because there are so many restaurants which become Ayam Betutu as their favorite menu.

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How to Choose a Dress Model for a Thin Man to Look Gorgeous?

Many people think that people who have thin bodies are easier to wear various shirt models than people who have a fat body. The assumption is not really true, because skinny people also have difficulty in choosing the model of clothes they will wear. The wrong shirt model will make their appearance look unattractive. Even making they look weird. For that, if you have a skinny body you should pay attention to how to choose clothes that fit your body shape. Here's how to choose clothes for skinny body to look more fascinating especially for men:

1. Layering Technique

This technique is enough to help your skinny body. But keep in mind; do not overpower your clothes too much because it will make you look drowning. Just wear a shirt and you wear sweaters. This will make you look fat and cool.

2. light-colored clothes

In contrast to overweight people who are advised to wear dark clothes such as black or dark green to make the illusion of their bodies look thinner, thin people are advised to wear clothing that has light colors. But do not just wear clothes in one color only; you can wear clothes two different colors.  

     

3. Clothing that has a horizontal style

Choose clothes that have a horizontal style to make your body look thinner. You must avoid clothes that have an excessive style so you do not drown. And do not choose clothes that have a vertical style because it will make your body look thinner.

4. The right size of shirt

Men do not usually take a long time to choose the clothes they will wear. They tend to be more indifferent than women, so they do not pay attention to the size of the clothes they wear. Incorrect dress size will also affect their appearance. Skinny men are advised to choose the right size of clothes, not loose and not narrow.

5. Wearing a rounded collar or called a turtle-neck

When other people who have a fat body look ugly wearing this type of clothing, you will look good. You should avoid the v-neck collar as it will highlight the shape of your bones.

These ways you can apply to support your daily appearance. Do not make a mistake to choose the appropriate clothing model for your body shape.

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