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Gudeg

Gudeg is a traditional food from Central Java and Yogyakarta, Indonesia which is made from young Nangka (jack fruit) among other things, boiled for several hours with palm sugar, and coconut milk. Additional spices include garlic, shallot, candlenut, coriander seed, galangal, bay leaves, and teak leaves, which last imparts a brown color to the dish. It is also called Green Jack Fruit Sweet Stew. Gudeg is usually served with white rice, chicken, hard-boiled egg, tofu and/or tempeh, and a stew made of crispy beef skins (sambal goreng krecek).

There is three types of gudeg; Dry, Wet and East-Javanese style. Dry gudeg is a gudeg which only have a bit of coconut milk and served dry. Wet gudeg is a gudeg which have a wetter look than the dry gudeg. It used a lot more coconut milk. Meanwhile, the East-Javanese style gudeg employ more spicier and hotter taste, compared to the Yogyakarta-style gudeg, which is sweeter.

NYPD Investigates Hit-And-Run In Brooklyn Sunday

2 Women Struck, Sent To Hospital

BROOKLYN ― Police were investigating a hit-and-run in Brooklyn Sunday.

Two women in their 20s were struck by a car while crossing the street in Prospect Heights. The driver took off after.

The incident happened around 4:30 a.m.

When rescuers arrived at the scene, one woman was unconscious, the other was lucid.

"All I saw was two bodies on the floor. From the distance, I couldn't really observe, but what I did see is that the two ambulances basically pulled away two people. I couldn't tell if they were covered or not," one witness said.

Both of the women were taken to King's County Hospital. Their conditions were unknown.

Old Nintendo system sells for $13,105

Everyday folk discovering colossally valuable collectors' items amid everyday junk has been the lifeblood of antiques shows for years, but it's not every day you see a real-life gold-in-the-attic tale play out on eBay.

Last week, North Carolina eBay user lace_thongs35 thought she was putting up an everyday, 80s-era Nintendo Entertainment System (together with five games) up on the popular auction site. But less than an hour after the first bid, the price was over $6,000 -- and on Wednesday, when the auction closed, the final selling price topped $13,000.

Why? Not the console itself, but one of the games bundled with it -- a deeply obscure 1987 release called Stadium Events, a highly sought-after collectors' item. But it wasn't even the game itself that was worth the bulk of the money -- it was the original cardboard box, which collectors value at a breathtaking $10,000. Fewer than 10 complete copies of the game are thought to exist, and retro gaming aficionados consider it one of the hardest-to-find NES games ever made.

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Which was the first food cooked in a microwave?

In 1945, Percy Spencer discovered that when popcorn was placed under microwave energy, it popped. This led to many experiments with other foods, and ultimately, the birth of the microwave oven.

Should NBC have shown video of Nodar Kumaritashvili's death?

When NBC kicked off its coverage of the 2010 Winter Olympics on Friday night, it was with a much different introduction than originally planned. The broadcast started at 7:30 p.m. ET with a somber intro from Bob Costas and Matt Lauer that detailed the death of Georgian luger Nodar Kumaritashvil earlier in the day. It was a respectful and necessary decision, but far from the triumphant opening sequence that was doubtlessly in the can.

After a brief description of the tragedy from Costas and Lauer, the pair sent it to NBC News anchor Brian Williams, who delivered a lengthy report on the death. At the start of the piece, Williams warned viewers that "the pictures are very tough for some people to watch," but he spoke for just a few more seconds before video of Kumaritashvili's final run began. So when the video opened with a shot of the 21-year-old waiting in the gate before his training run, it was a bit jarring. It became more so when the video jumped ahead to the horrific crash, which was shown in slow motion. Seconds later, a longer, slower shot was shown. A still photo of Kumaritashvili receiving CPR was also broadcast. During the eight-minute report that opened the show, NBC showed the crash three times, the final two of which lingered on shots of the Georgian's body.

Other than the initial airing of the video, everything else seemed gratuitous. Showing Kumaritashvili in the gate 48 seconds before his death was eerie, and the photo of him getting attended to by first responders was the definition of macabre. He was already dead. What is the news value in showing him futilely receiving CPR?

Though it's been written that airing the clip was a sensationalistic ratings grab, it was a perfectly acceptable decision (even if it's at 7:30 p.m. ET in a program geared toward family viewership). Still, it's safe to say that a vast majority of the 38 million Americans who were watching the Opening Ceremony hadn't yet seen the gruesome clip of Kumaritashvili flying off the course and crashing into a metal pole. Was a brief warning that suggested only "some people" would find it tough to see enough?

Before we vilify NBC, let's recognize that they were in a difficult spot. If they didn't show the video, people would be complaining that the network was protecting its asset (the Olympics) and not providing detailed coverage of an important story. That wouldn't be gratuitous, it would be bad journalism. Overall, the network handled a bad situation in a professional way.

NBC was right to cover the story, and showing the video was a necessary news decision. The network, which usually holds a tight grip on Olympic footage, even released the tape to other news organizations because "this was a significant news event." However, showing it three times at the beginning of coverage without an adequate warning and then airing a picture of a lifeless body getting medical attention was irresponsible.

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Vancouver 2010: Finns pin Olympic hopes on cross-country women

Helsinki: Vancouver 2010 Olympics: The pressure is on Finland’s women Cross-Country skiers if the Nordic country is to reach its target of 12 Winter Olympic medals.

“The official target is for at least one gold medal,” said Finnish Olympic Committee sports director Kari Niemi-Nikkola, who is leading the Team Finland at the 2010 Games in Vancouver.

Finland has a strong winter sports tradition, but its medal tally at the Torino Games four years ago included six silvers, three bronzes and no gold.

“Women’s cross-country skiing is our strongest sport,” said Niemi-Nikkola.

Aino-Kaisa Saarinen is seen as the hottest of Finland’s women cross-country skiers this season. She won three golds at the World Championships in Liberec last year, and has an Olympic bronze from the team sprint in Torino.

Saarinen’s Torino sprint partner Virpi Kuitunen took two golds at the 2009 World Championships, but has had a weaker run this season. Last week she missed what was meant to be her final competition before the Olympic Games due to fever.

“The cross-country skiers, the women in particular, need to perform perfectly on the ski trails of Whistler for the 12-medal goal to be even theoretically possible,” regional newspaper Savon Sanomat wrote earlier this month.

“Aino-Kaisa Saarinen is undeniably in medal-shape, but even she cannot fulfill the ambitious goal on her own.”

In the Nordic combined, commentators are putting their bets on veteran Hannu Manninen, who returned to competition this winter after a break to focus on his family and studies.

Manninen, 31, won four consecutive World Cup titles in 2003 to 2007 and has had a good run at the selected competitions he has entered this winter.

Commentators expect him to bring home an individual medal to complement the team medals he has won at the past three Games.

In ski jumping, which topped ice hockey as the most respected sport in Finland in a recent survey, the legendary Janne Ahonen has returned to compete in time for the Olympic Games.

“Gold is completely conceivable,” veteran sports commentator Jari Porttila said of Ahonen, whose achievements include two World Championships, three team World Championships, two team Olympic silvers, five Four Hills wins and 32 World Cup victories.

Finland’s ice hockey lineup has never managed to rise to the highest step on the podium, and while the national Olympic Committee says the team aims to improve on its silver from four years ago, commentators are pessimistic.

“There’s no chance (of gold). The Russian and Canadian teams are of such high calibre that something big has to happen if they are not in the final,” Porttila told AFP.

On the alpine front, Tanja Poutiainen, who won the women’s World Cup giant slalom in Cortina D’Ampezzo, looks to be back on form after back problems earlier in the season.

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Vancouver 2010: Artists face off

Vancouver 2010: Artists face off: When Vancouver’s Contemporary Art Gallery (CAG) sent out electronic invitations to an upcoming group show, contributing artist Jonathan Middleton made a few small changes to his invite before passing it along.

“I systematically replaced the curator’s title with my own and made it look like I was just forwarding it along from the gallery,” says Middleton, who changed the original title, An Invitation to An Infiltration to Strange.

The first time I’ve known of a piano with four legs… (Hey! I keep falling down!). The infiltrated title is a line from a 1950s British radio comedy called The Goon Show. It refers to a scene where the main characters are duped into stealing a piano from the Louvre Museum in Paris.

“I thought it was an interesting analogy to working in a group situation with one goal of subversion,” says Middleton. “We might end up subverting ourselves instead of the institutions.”

An Invitation to An Infiltration, organized by guest curator Eric Fredericksen, examines the competitive aspect of group art shows. Rather than critiquing the natural competition that arises when work by different artists are viewed together, Fredericksen is embracing this competitive spirit — even if it leads to infiltrations of his own work.

“Since the Olympic Games are all about competition, we thought this would be an interesting way to build the relationship between art and athletics,” says CAG curator Jenifer Papararo.

When competition heats up, some people will try to cut corners. In an homage to this, the award-winning duo Hadley + Maxwell have erected a marble pedestal representing statues of Zeus, which were erected in ancient Greece when athletes were caught cheating.

Most pieces in the show have either visual or intellectual references to the Olympic Winter Games, from wallpaper made of linked rings made by New York-based two-man team Dexter Sinister to a public conversation between a game theory expert and a hockey coach after the men’s semi-final hockey game.

Middleton says he thinks he’s succeeded in changing the working title of the show to his own Goon-inspired version. To get there, Middleton had to use several subversive tactics, including making his own signs for the gallery.

“[Frederickson] wasn’t going to facilitate my title. I had to be subtle so I could quietly erase his title.”

“An Invitation to An Infiltration” runs January 22 to February 28 from 12:00 p.m. to 6:00 p.m. at the Contemporary Art Gallery, 555 Nelson Street, Vancouver. Admission is free.

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