Archive for December, 2009

Dear friends,

Have I ever told you ? That once upon a time, long time before I was banker, and sometimes in between my role as a chef, I was a graphic designer ? Well, not the best one out there but certainly a decent one. At the very least,  it paid for my living cost for quite sometime.

Anyhow, couple of weeks ago, I stumbled upon this website called fudgegraphics, and I thought, wow this blog is pretty ! And the best thing of all, the guy by the name Franz Jeitz design it himself. And then I thought, why don’t I redesign my own blog me self ? Well, I know it’s not going to be easy, but it’s worth trying.

And so I started the process by designed the blog starting by creating my own brand. Now quite frankly, it’s not that difficult, because already have something in my mind, I didn’t go through the usual process of logo design that I used to went through for my customer. Oh well, may be I did it, but in a very subconscious way.

The name simplenotch, comes from idea that once upon a time in your life, you stumbled upon incident that changes your life, or how you lived your life ? My blog exactly represent several  things that changed after these “incidents” (the long story will follow sometimes). This incidents represented as a notch, a mark that tainted your life hopefully in a good way. This notch, is more then just a mark, it’s also a stepping place for us to climb up the otherwise step and slippery wall of life.

So what ever thing that comes it should a have a notch, a chip on it, triangular empty space where it looked that someone has just whacked it with axe or something like that. I came out with various media where I could put the notch in (as you can see), before I finally set with a simple[n]otch. It was derived for [s]implenotch, but after a consult with my dear friend Mira of Shopaholic (who thought that the notched squared is to corporeity), we agreed that it make a lot more sense to put the [ ] in the [n] instead.

The evolution of design

I considered several typeface, including the almighty Helvetica. But considering that not many all pc’s have Helvetica in it, and not many people can differentiate the difference between Helvetica and Arial anyway, and even those Helvetica lover and Arial hater are still using Arial as a content typeface, I settled with Arial instead. As for the color ? Well, I simply love blue, but to put it straight, I intend the color to change over time, adjusting to the mood and seasons we are in.

The final logo, and its variation

Once the logo ready and I’m happy and satisfied with, designing the blog was not an issue. I used Artisteer to generate the majority of back script for the WP blog, but toning and customizing each design components quite manually me self. Including adding some script in the header and footer.

This is my first own designed WP template, so it’s a working progress. And yes, I’m pretty nervous when I uploaded to server. But hey, it turned out to be just fine !!! Sure, I did some tweak again here and there, and will continuously do so. So expect some changed in time to come.

So, how do you like my new brand and blog design ?

Yesterday was my birthday.  And like any of my previous birthdays, it was full with greetings and wishes from my beloved family, dear friends and colleagues.

Like any other birthday, it was also full of festive occasions, lunch out with team mates, and dinner with best friends. There were also some surprises from my girlfriend and friends along the day.

But what surprise me the most, are the gifts that I received yesterday.

It’s all started by one phone call in late morning, right at the peak moment at the end of the year drowsiness. The voice on the call introduced her self as an admin from Ace Hardware, enquiring whether I’ll be home to receive the delivery. Pretty much clueless, on what was happening I asked, what delivery that she talked about. She explained that she has in her possession an oven toaster and a gift wrap, to which I responded, “I’m not ordering something from Ace, could there be some mistakes ?”

“No sir,” she said,” this is exactly delivery for you, as ordered by…” and behold, my girl friend act with her usual wit, has bought me, a dream machine that will superbly complement my apartment, an oven toaster. Needless  to explain, those of you who familiar with kitchen and cooking, will know how an oven can make your life easier and healthier, imagine of cooking French fries without oil ? Just spread it evenly on the pan, and toast it !!! It will be ready in 10mins.

Now the next gift, would have rather long story.

As many of my friends already know, and complains to me about it, I am one of those person who resent Blackberry,  don’t even start to ask why ? Because then you will incite a thesis long explanation on why I resent BB. Anyway, because of this resentment, and knowing that all my friends have been complaining in many occasion on my attitude towards BB, I have no doubt that, they will buy me one for my birthday (knowing for sure that there is no chance I will buy it myself).

So when they handled a box, reasonably heavy and beautifully wrap, I kind of said to my self, this is it, my penultimate end of blackberry resentment, because, no matter how I hate the stuff, there is no way, not even a single way, that I will disrespect a gift that my dearest friends have given me. And whilst slowly dismantled the wrappings, layer by layer, I imagined how my days going to be with a BB in my pocket, texting, and browsing, without the slightest care with the real worlds that surrounds you. Slowly, but surely, at those minutes, I fell into state of acceptance, that I will join the club of virtual autism, that have walked the earth for the last one year.

Alas, I could never been more wrong then that. As the box opened, and the plastic unwrapped, I carefully laid my hand on the soft, beautiful, smooth black colored fabric, a super 150 wool suit, that so soft, it felt almost like a silk. A fabric so perfect and so proper to be turned into a black suit or dinner jacket that I have in mind for my beloved cousin wedding next April.

I couldn’t help by wonder, at that time, out of everything in this world that could be turned and wrapped as a gift, my friends have pick for me a beautiful clothes that I can turn into a suit, almost like knowing for sure that I would deeply, deeply, appreciate and love it. And they were right. This piece of clothes, are the best gift I have ever received from them. It was very thoughtful, considerate and sincere, that I couldn’t wish for better gifts that night.

They could be selfish. I mean if my prophecy turned out to be correct, and they did get me a BB for my present, I will still be happy and they will be happy too, because then they can have me in their BBM anytime. But such selfishness is non existence in our friendship, as they have proved. Instead they gave me, something that I have never thought, never expected, never asked, and yet I very much valued, appreciated, loved and cared for. Fair to say, it was one of the best gift from the best of friends ever.

This makes me think, maybe, just maybe, if I have to swallow my own spit and get my self a BB like they wants me to do for almost a year now, it will be for the most right and unselfish reason.

In my entire adult life, I have mostly acquired suits off the rack on the department store. My latest off the rack acquisition was two years a go, a black 2-button suits of doubtful fabric by the brand named Carthago. It’s ok, it’s not bad, but far from impressive, I am remotely satisfied, but that was what my money can buy, or at least so I thought. It wasn’t until long that one of my best friend got married, and she entrusted a beautiful batik materials in two tone, to be made a shirt.

Having no experience on custom made shirt, I put my confidence in the only tailor I am familiar with, not because of its workmanship, but because of his proximity (I regularly passed through his workshop everytime I go to work). As it happens to be, he is pretty established tailor in the district, he claimed to have tailored for a like such as city mayor, and district head. Quick observation on his suit sample, I found that it is of the decent quality. So without further due, I entrust my batik material in his hands. Some thorough measurement, and quick question on how I want the batik fits me, and two weeks later, its finished, and I’m amazed by the fit, and how beautifully the batik fits on my body. It cost me IDR200k for the tailor, money well spend.

Having satisfied with these, I came back to him again to have a gray suit commissioned. Now I have to admit, Pak Haji, as the old guy is fondly called is probably not one of those top of the notch tailor you’ll find in hotels or fancy malls. His fabrics are decent but not excellent, and his approach on tailor made service may not be comparable with those of Saville Row, but I tell you what he is, his price is affordable, he takes personal approach on each of his customers, and he gives good if not stubborn advice.

By no means I am an easy customer, so after the first thorough measurements, I return twice for refit and adjustments, and it took more than 1 month for my first suit to complete. But all in all, I am a happy customer. The fit was perfect, the material is very comfy and it compliments my figure.

Pak Haji is fairly flexible, unlike those snobbish tailor who usually insist on certain thing, he listened to my requirement, before he make comments on what he thinks about it. Whether he agree or disagree, you still can enforced your will, and he will delivers.

Having said that, his work can not be compared with the upper end tailor. His suit canvas is glued, not stitched and this alone attest that his work can not and must not be categorized in bespoke class, despite the fact that it is made from scratch and to your specific measurement.

A set of suit is offered at starter price of IDR900k (wool blend), a wool suit is started at IDR1.5mio up to IDR2.75mio. A shirt is offered at IDR250k for plain or IDR300k (stripped). You can also bring your own fabrics.

After two suits, an odd jacket, two trousers, a batik, and a dress shirts, do I still need to explain how satisfied I am ?

Paris Tailor can be contacted at 021-8619411

For whatever reason, I felt craving for aglio olio this morning. Naturally, spaghetti aglio olio is my quick win solution for my after work hunger. It’s quick, can be made in more a dozen variation, cheap and pretty brainless. The procedure is easy, and its only by series of unfortunate events you can make it wrong.

So today, I found that my craving for this particular meal, despite the nature of holiday what would allow me to do more elaborate recipe, was a bit odd.

And so after a really quick cold shower (habits derived from years of “mandi pake gayung”) I drove to Oakwood’s Ranch Market to get the supplies. Fortunately, I’ve got pretty much everything stocked in my kitchen, so my brief shop this morning only resulted in baguette, diced garlic , and 200 grams of sliced chicken breast. Other then that these are my ensemble.

The Ingredient
200 g of sliced chicken breast
2 spoons of diced garlic
Extra Virgin Olive oil
Fish Sauce
Salt and Pepper

The Pasta

• Cook the pasta al dente (boil the water, put the pasta in, don’t break just twist and release, wait as recommended by the pack). There is no need to put salt or oil into the boiling water.
• When it cooked, dry the water it
• Heat up a frying pan, when its hot, set the fire to mid, pour a generous amount of extra virgin olive oil.
• Throw in a full spoon of diced garlic.
• Soon after you can smell the unique sweet smell of garlic in the olive, and the color turned yellowish quickly
• Throw all the pasta in, give, a good toss
• Heat up the fire, and give another rounds of toss. The idea is to make sure that all parts of the spaghetti get in touch with the garlic and oil as quick as possible
• Throw 3 pinches of salt, give another round of toss
• By now, your pasta should be looked all oily. Turn the heat off, garnish with fresh parsley (or dried one)

Cooked spaghetti, see how the oil glitters under the light ?

The Topping
To be completely frank with you, the topping can be anything of your choice. For this particular I used slided boneless chicken breast, because its cheap and easy to cook

• Start by pan fried the chicken sliced in low heat, until it gets the mid brown cooked on each sides
• If the pan get to water because of the oil from the chicken, throw the oil out, until it reasonably dry, and add slight amount of cooking oil/
• Add one full spoon of garlic, followed by several squirts of fish sauce
• Stir fried very quickly, ensure that you don’t get the garlic burned or fried

Cooked Chicken, notice the brown-ish tone ?

Garnish
- Readied the cooked pasta on the plate
- Put on the chicken as topping
- Sprinkle some fresh (or dried parsley)
- Add some chili flakes (my favorite is shrimp flavored)

Bon Appetit  !!!

Spaghetti Aglio Olio original take

Spaghetti Aglio Olio as garnished by Fery with added pickled garlic !

And so its on.

As I’ve mentioned during my first visit to Mario Minardi, I  have intended to commission my first bespoke shoes at Mario Minardi. So after a week of delay get caught up in the busy office, I managed to get an appointment for measurement  yesterday.

The process was swift, after ushered to Handiman’s room, he laid down two piece of A4 size paper. He asked me to put my right food first on top of a sheet. Then he draw my foot shape with thin marker, follows every side of contour. Next, Marco pulls out a measurement tape, and he measured three things, the ball and instep circumference, and finally, the foot length. These were applied for both foot.

My foot print, notice that the right foot is slightly larger then the left ?

As it turned out to be, my right foot is slightly larger then my left foot. They explained, that most if not all people will always have different size of foot between the right and the left, this is due to different size of foot muscle. The right handed men, like me, will naturally have larger right foot, and vice versa.

And so I asked, so when you put you shoes on the store, will they actually have different size ? “Of course not,” he added, “the shoes that you find at the store will have similar size between left, or right.” But yet, oddly enough when we buy the shoes off the rack we fill that both side are just perfect fit. Thinking about it, I guess its pretty much self suggestion of convincing our self that the the shoes are good fit.

Now to be completely honest, and fair to all master shoe makers in the world, the shoes that Mario Minardi will commissioned for me, is not of bespoke breeding. Bespoke, required individual last to be made based on the customers food, this last will then be used as a template to ensure that the shoes skin and surface will perfectly draped by foot. Bespoke will also means that all process of the shoe manufacturing will be worked by hands. My shoes to be, will go slightly different way, instead of building a new last for me, Mario Minardi will try to find a last that closest to my measurement and use this last as template before making the necessary adjustment. Hence we agreed the correct term for that should be made to measure.

John Lobb Oxfords (courtesy of www.johnlobb.com)

Surely, by now you are curious on what shoes that I intend to make. In my words, its nothing fancy nor difficult, it’s a simple black capped to oxford, in calfskin. With the incoming holiday season, I might have to wait a little longer than I would have expected, but 2 weeks is nothing compared to months of time required for bespoke. Still, I can’t wait to get it done and ready.

By the way, this article will be the first of  the My First Bespoke Made to Order Shoes series. Wait for the update soon !