Soto Surabaya dengan Bumbu Tumbuk

Soto bukanlah makanan asing bagi warga Jakarta, baik yang isinya daging ayam atau sapi, cukup banyak peminatnya. Karakteristik rasa dan tampilan menu pun bisa bervariasi berdasar daerahnya.

Bila ingin mencicipi soto Surabaya yang khas dengan taburan koyanya, coba saja datang ke kedai Soto Bumbuk yang berlokasi di jajaran Ruko Taman Palem Lestari, Cengkareng. Di sana, akan dapat dirasakan soto Surabaya yang diolah dengan cita rasa dari pemiliknya, Lina.

Salain rasa, pengolahan bumbu masaknya pun terbilang masih tradisional. Caranya dengan ditumbuk. Dengan begitu, rasanya pun lebih nikmat. “Karena itulah, saya menamai kedai makan ini dengan Soto Bumbuk (Bumbu Tumbuk),” kata Lina.

Istimewanya lagi, meski tempat makan ini berada di ruko dengan pendingin ruangan yang nyaman, tapi harganya bisa dibilang murah. Bahkan, bisa bersanding dengan pedagang kaki lima. Misalnya, harga soto ayam hanya Rp 8000/porsi. Sedang soto ayam mie dan soto ayam lontong, harganya cuma Rp 10.000/porsi. Makanya, Lina menyebut rumah makannya memiliki “Rasa Hotel Bintang 5, Harga Kaki 5”.

Enaknya lagi, Soto Bumbuk juga menyediakan sandingan soto selain nasi. Seperti campuran mie atau lontong. Selain itu, tersedia pula aneka minuman seperti, es jeruk, es cin cau, es agar-agar, dan lainnya.

Makan soto tidak nikmat bila tanpa sambal. Nah, Soto Bumbuk juga punya sambal goreng khas yang terbuat dari cabe rawit merah dengan campuran kuah soto. Rasanya cukup pedas dan masih beraroma soto.

Kemudian, sambil menunggu pesanan, Anda bisa melihat-lihat berbagai produk interior seperti kawat nyamuk, vertical blind, roman shade, krei, dan sebagainya. Produk yang diimpor dari Taiwan ini, sengaja dipajang di ruang makan dan dijual dengan harga mulai Rp 100 – 500 ribu/m2. Tersedia berbagai jenis kain dari kualitas standar sampai deluxe dengan warna-warni yang variatif.

Soto Bumbuk yang baru saja dibuka akhir Mei 2010 ini, buka dari pukul 09.00 – 20.30.

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Green Belt Dengan Sejuta Pohon Bakau

Pemprov DKI Jakarta kini memiliki taman wisata alam di daerah konservasi mangrove. Taman seluas 99,82 hektar yang terletak di kawasan Pantai Indah Kapuk, Jakarta Utara ini, akan menjadi paru-paru kota bagi warga Jakarta.

Panas terik siang menerpa Pantai Indah Kapuk (PIK). Suhu panas saat itu kira-kira 350C. Gerah dan keringat membasahi sekujur tubuh para awak AdInfo yang berniat menyambangi Taman Wisata Alam Angke Kapuk (TWA) tersebut.

Tak lama berselang saat berada di pintu masuk TWA, udara berasa sejuk karena semilir hembusan angin yang melewati sela-sela rerimbunan pohon bakau (mangrove). Sebagai catatan, hingga kini baru ada dua taman wisata yang dipenuhi pohon mangrove, yakni di Jakarta dan Bali. Ke depannya, diharapkan daerah lain akan mengikuti langkah Jakarta dan Bali.

Taman Wisata Alam sendiri dibangun dalam 12 tahun terakhir dan berada dalam pengawasan Pemprov DKI Jakarta. TWA sendiri merupakan bagian dari wilayah pesisir pantai Jakarta Utara yang telah dilabeli sebagai green belt, termasuk Kawasan Taman Wisata Kapuk Angke.

Taman ini diharapkan bisa menjadi andalan dari 12 destinasi wisata pesisir yang sekarang sedang giat-giatnya dipromosikan. TWA memang diplot sebagai lokasi konservasi hutan bakau sekaligus sebagai tempat wisata alam dan terbuka untuk umum.

Diresmikan Menteri Kehutanan, Zulkifli Hasan pada 25 Januari 2010 lalu, TWA memiliki area seluas 99,82 hektar dan akan menjadi paru-paru kota bagi warga Jakarta.


Dengan memiliki jutaan tanaman mangrove, nantinya daerah ini berfungsi menghalau air laut pasang atau rob, termasuk abrasi laut. Di sini juga terdapat tempat pelestarian flora dan fauna sekaligus sebagai tempat sarana pendidikan masyarakat.
Menurut Menhut, dalam pengelolaannya, konservasi flora dan fauna itu akan melibatkan rakyat seluas-seluasnya. Rakyat akan diberikan pendidikan akan arti penting konservasi hutan mangrove.
Senada dengan Menhut, Wali Kota Jakarta Utara, Bambang Sugiyono mengatakan, wilayah Jakarta Utara telah dijadikan wilayah green belt, termasuk Kawasan Wisata Alam PIK dan menjadi bagian dari jalur dan tujuan wisata di Jakarta Utara.

Paru-paru Jakarta
Selain sebagai daerah konservasi pertama di ibu kota, TWA ini juga merupakan satu-satunya yang berada di ibu kota negara. Taman ini, selain menjadi paru-paru Jakarta, juga sebagai tempat pelestarian flora dan fauna dan sarana pendidikan masyarakat.

“Kami harus mengikutsertakan rakyat seluas-luasnya dan memberikan pendidikan kepada mereka. Tujuannya, agar mereka sadar pentingnya konservasi alam seperti yang tengah dilakukan Taman Wisata Alam Angke Kapuk,” tegas Bambang.

Menilik dari sejarahnya, pada tahun 2007, kawasan ini menyimpan 79 - 100 juta pohon produktif. Namun, karena telah terjadi abrasi, maka sepanjang tahun 2009 dilakukan penanaman pohon mangrove secara kontinyu. Sehingga pada tahun 2009, tercatat ada 203 juta bibit pohon bakau yang ditanam di kawasan tersebut.

Dulunya, banyak sekali penambak liar di sini. Perlahan tapi pasti, berbagai pihak terkait berusaha mengembalikan fungsi lahan ini sebagai tempat konservasi hutan mangrove, juga aneka binatang yang ada seperti biawak dan udang.

Tidaklah susah menuju lokasi TWA, ada beberapa akses jalan untuk menuju ke sana. Bisa melalui Tol Kapuk atau Jalan Mandara Permai (depan Rukan Cordoba). Posisi tepatnya berada dekat Yayasan Tsu Zhi atau belakang Rukan Gold Coast, Bukit Golf Mediteranian (depan Fresh Market).

Berjalan menyusuri rerimbunan hutan bakau di atas trek jalan yang terbuat dari kayu, seperti mendapatkan sensasi tersendiri. Suasana di sini tenang dan damai, tidak seperti suasana hiruk pikuk kota Jakarta yang menjemukan. Di taman ini, juga terdapat fasilitas pengamatan burung, pondok alam sebanyak 8 buah, dan rumah kemping sebanyak 30 unit.

Pengunjung TWA akan dikenakan sanksi apabila diketahui memancing ikan. Sanksi itu berupa hukuman 10 tahun penjara atau denda 5 miliar rupiah.

Warga ibu kota diharapkan agar turut menjaga kelestarian Taman Wisata Alam Kapuk Angke ini. Warga juga diminta untuk turut menanam pohon di area tersebut sehingga isu pemanasan global dapat teratasi bersama.

Diharapkan di tahun-tahun mendatang, kawasan tersebut akan dapat memberikan kesejahteraan dan kemakmuran bagi warga sekitar. Setidaknya jika taman ini berkembang, secara ekonomi akan menguntungkan warga sekitar. Sebab warga bisa berjualan souvenir sehingga denyut perekonomian warga akan berdetak keras.

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Perfect 10 Minutes in Sex

Couples who think they’re not measuring up because so many celebrities boast about sex sessions that last all night can take some comfort. Contrary to popular fantasy about the need for hours of passionate activity, sex therapists say around ten minutes is perfectly satisfactory.

In fact, shows such as Sex And The City and Desperate Housewives have created unrealistic expectations of bedroom performance that can only lead to disappointment. Real couples are satisfied with making love for between three and 13 minutes – and can find anything over ten minutes tiresome.

Researchers Eric Corty and Jenay Guardiani conducted a survey of 50 members of the Society for Sex Therapy and Research, which include psychologists, physicians, social workers, marriage/family therapists and nurses. They have collectively seen thousands of patients over decades in the U.S. and Canada.

They were asked to rate a range of times for sexual intercourse that they considered adequate, desirable, too short and too long. Most of them classed lovemaking that lasted three to seven minutes as ‘adequate’ and sex lasting between seven and 13 minutes as ‘desirable’.

However, anything longer than 13 minutes was rated ‘too long.’ Most agreed that sex that lasted between one and two minutes was ‘too short’ to provide satisfaction.

The researchers said they wanted the results to ‘encourage’ couples.

‘Today’s popular culture has reinforced stereotypes about sexual activity,’ said Mr Corty, an Associate Professor of Psychology at Penn State University.

‘Many men and women seem to believe the fantasy of… all-night-long intercourse.

‘This seems a situation ripe for disappointment and dissatisfaction.

‘We hope this survey will dispel fantasies and encourage men and women with realistic data.’

Corty and Guardiani published their findings in the Journal of Sexual Medicine. The survey comes as counselling services reported an increase in the number of couples complaining that they are disappointed with their sex lives.

Counselling organisation Relate has seen a two-fold increase in the number of couples turning to sex therapy in the past five years. A separate survey published this month has shown that most married women would now rather go to sleep, read a book or watch a film than have sex.(kompas.com)

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Jet Lag Leaves Kidneys in Another Time Zone

Human beings aren't built to cross time zones. After an international flight, it takes days for the body to overcome the fatigue and nausea of jet lag, the biological price of doing business in the modern world.

That's because every organ keeps time with its own separate clock. Though the brain tries to synchronize all of these clocks on a daily basis, some are more stubborn about resetting than others when adjusting to a new time zone and sleep schedule - according to a new study of sleep-deprived mice, which have internal clocks similar to ours.

"Jet lag is a big mess of different clocks," said Gregor Eichele of the Max Planck Institute of Biophysical Chemistry in Gottingen, Germany. A transcontinental traveler's brain may adjust to being in Paris the day after his flight touches down. But his pancreas may continue to tick away on New York time, while his kidneys count the seconds somewhere over the Atlantic Ocean.

Genetic Clockwork

To study these clocks and develop a way to treat jet lag, Eichele woke up a group of laboratory mice six hours earlier than usual - simulating an eastward flight from Chicago to London with the flip of a light switch. He then measured changes in their gene activity as their bodies adjusted over the following 8-9 days.

Genes are the gears that run our internal clocks. All of our organs possess the same ten or so "clock" genes, which govern the production of molecules that keep time in a regular rhythm. But though the liver, the skin, and the brain share the same genetic clockwork, they each run on their own clock independent of the others.

In sleep-deprived mice, some of these molecular clocks adapted more quickly than others. Those in the pancreas - which regulates the body's production of energy - resisted the change for days longer than those in kidneys, for example.

When the molecular clocks of different organs are significantly out of synch, bodily functions that require chemical communication can be disrupted. Eichle said that could explain the diverse symptoms of jet lag, which range from insomnia and depression to gastrointestinal problems.

Studies have shown that the brains of aircraft crew who experience chronic jet lag tend to shrink and make more stress hormones, and the menstrual cycles of female flight attendants are disrupted by regular international flights.

"We know that chronic jet lag causes stress and impacts our health," said Kei Cho, a neuroscientist the University of Bristol in the U.K., who discovered these effects. "This new research addresses one of the biggest questions in biology - how the genes are changed by disturbances to the sleep and wake cycle."

Jet Lag Resistant Mice

Searching for new ways to combat jet lag, Eichle examined one of the fastest adapting clocks - the adrenal glands. These glands are thought to work with the brain to provide a master clock that synchronizes all of body's clocks on a daily basis.

Using a drug that temporarily blocks the activity of adrenal glands, Eichle and his team created a batch of jet lag-resistant mice. A small dose administered a day before their sleepless ordeal set their adrenal gland clocks back by an hour - allowing their organs to begin the process of adjusting and reducing the time it took them to adapt to an earlier wake-up call by two or three days.

"Nobody has really ever achieved this before," said Eichle, who published the research on June 23 in the Journal of Clinical Investigation. "It's a first step in the right direction towards a treatment for jet lag."

Don't expect to see this drug on the shelf any time soon - the U.S. Food and Drug Administration has yet to approve a drug for jet lag, and the risks of tinkering with the body's clocks are significant.

"Honestly, we don't know what all of these clock genes do in the body," said Cho. "If we try to manipulate something, the side effects might be more than we expected."

For now, the best cure for jet lag is still the slowest: one day of rest for every time zone crossed. (kompas.com)

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Stem Cells Reverse Blindness Caused by Burns

Dozens of people who were blinded or otherwise suffered severe eye damage when they were splashed with caustic chemicals had their sight restored with transplants of their own stem cells — a stunning success for the burgeoning cell-therapy field, Italian researchers reported Wednesday.

The treatment worked completely in 82 of 107 eyes and partially in 14 others, with benefits lasting up to a decade so far. One man whose eyes were severely damaged more than 60 years ago now has near-normal vision.

"This is a roaring success," said ophthalmologist Dr. Ivan Schwab of the University of California, Davis, who had no role in the study — the longest and largest of its kind.

Stem cell transplants offer hope to the thousands of people worldwide every year who suffer chemical burns on their corneas from heavy-duty cleansers or other substances at work or at home.

The approach would not help people with damage to the optic nerve or macular degeneration, which involves the retina. Nor would it work in people who are completely blind in both eyes, because doctors need at least some healthy tissue that they can transplant.

In the study, published online by the New England Journal of Medicine, researchers took a small number of stem cells from a patient's healthy eye, multiplied them in the lab and placed them into the burned eye, where they were able to grow new corneal tissue to replace what had been damaged. Since the stem cells are from their own bodies, the patients do not need to take anti-rejection drugs.

Adult stem cells have been used for decades to cure blood cancers such as leukemia and diseases like sickle cell anemia. But fixing a problem like damaged eyes is a relatively new use. Researchers have been studying cell therapy for a host of other diseases, including diabetes and heart failure, with limited success.

Adult stem cells, which are found around the body, are different from embryonic stem cells, which come from human embryos and have stirred ethical concerns because removing the cells requires destroying the embryos.

Currently, people with eye burns can get an artificial cornea, a procedure that carries such complications as infection and glaucoma, or they can receive a transplant using stem cells from a cadaver, but that requires taking drugs to prevent rejection.

The Italian study involved 106 patients treated between 1998 and 2007. Most had extensive damage in one eye, and some had such limited vision that they could only sense light, count fingers or perceive hand motions. Many had been blind for years and had had unsuccessful operations to restore their vision.

The cells were taken from the limbus, the rim around the cornea, the clear window that covers the colored part of the eye. In a normal eye, stem cells in the limbus are like factories, churning out new cells to replace dead corneal cells. When an injury kills off the stem cells, scar tissue forms over the cornea, clouding vision and causing blindness.

In the Italian study, the doctors removed scar tissue over the cornea and glued the laboratory-grown stem cells over the injured eye. In cases where both eyes were damaged by burns, cells were taken from an unaffected part of the limbus.

Researchers followed the patients for an average of three years and some as long as a decade. More than three-quarters regained sight after the transplant. An additional 13 percent were considered a partial success. Though their vision improved, they still had some cloudiness in the cornea.

Patients with superficial damage were able to see within one to two months. Those with more extensive injuries took several months longer.

"They were incredibly happy. Some said it was a miracle," said one of the study leaders, Graziella Pellegrini of the University of Modena's Center for Regenerative Medicine in Italy. "It was not a miracle. It was simply a technique."

The study was partly funded by the Italian government. Researchers in the United States have been testing a different way to use self-supplied stem cells, but that work is preliminary.

One of the successful transplants in the Italian study involved a man who had severe damage in both eyes as a result of a chemical burn in 1948. Doctors grafted stem cells from a small section of his left eye to both eyes. His vision is now close to normal.

In 2008, there were 2,850 work-related chemical burns to the eyes in the United States, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics.

Schwab of UC Davis said stem cell transplants would not help those blinded by burns in both eyes because doctors need stem cells to do the procedure.

"I don't want to give the false hope that this will answer their prayers," he said.

Dr. Sophie Deng, a cornea expert at the UCLA's Jules Stein Eye Institute, said the biggest advantage was that the Italian doctors were able to expand the number of stem cells in the lab. This technique is less invasive than taking a large tissue sample from the eye and lowers the chance of an eye injury.

"The key is whether you can find a good stem cell population and expand it," she said.(kompas.com)

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