Wednesday, March 28, 2012

Gourmet World


Despite of the fact that Kemang is filled with bunch of restaurants, it's not really a place that I go often due to the traffic. However, last Friday was public holiday and the traffic was so smooth that we decided to go to Kemang area for our dinner. I didn't really know what I wanted to try so we thought that we just drive there and see what enticed us. 

When we reached Kemang, we drove around and when passing through Ranch Market, I remembered there was a place called Gourmet World (previously Gourmet Garage) located on the second floor, famous for it's Wagyu burger. The Wagyu burger was so famous that it was mentioned several times on Jakarta Good Food Guide. I figured it would be the right time to check it out.

Sunday, March 25, 2012

Hachimaki Ramen



Have been hearing a lot of comparison on society between several ramen places in Jakarta who served the best ramen. Being in love recently with Ikkousha's ramen led me to try Hachimaki for the first time.

Wednesday night, the place was not crowded but people were coming in continuously during our dinner. The interior was dominated with red and white color with artificial bamboo as part of the decor. Place was not spacious but they do have outdoor and second floor.

Friday, March 23, 2012

Tapas Movida


Hubby and I had been talking about Spanish food a while ago, but I didn't really know which one good until one day I saw Pak Bondan's TV show where he went to Tapas Movida for their Paella. Unfortunately, it was located at Cipete area, far from where we live and well known for the traffic, so we sort of delay the visit until last Saturday night, it was around 8 something when we thought we were just gonna stay home due to a tiring afternoon. Hubby was sleeping after he got back until almost 8, woke up and mentioned about Tapas Movida. I wonder if he had a dream on us going for a vacation to Spain. Hola!

Wednesday, March 21, 2012

Drop Dead Diva


Anyone saw these series? If not, you should. 

The series is about an aspiring model named Deb who is killed on a car crash, but there's been a mixed up and she was not send straight to heaven, instead she was brought back to life in the body of a recently deceased, brilliant & overweight lawyer named Jane Bingum.

I always love a movie about lawyers. Lovin' how brilliant the way they talk in front of the juries to defend their client. How I adore lawyers... well at least the ones on the movies. 

Anyway, am currently addicted to these series. I just recently found it when I was sitting home and all my regular channels were playing reruns, that's when I switched to non regular one and found Drop Dead Diva. A must watch. It was brilliant, funny and enjoyable. I am not really sure if others paid cable was the same on the channel number, but the channel on my paid cable was SET number 160. 

If anyone does know about these series and know where I can find the DVDs, pleaseeeee drop a comment. Pretty please...

Monday, March 19, 2012

Bakmi Bangka Aon


I saw the review about Bakmi Aon on irenesgettingfat a while ago and I had been drooling ever since. The noodle's picture looks so tempting. =)

Hakata Ikkousha

 Oishii!!!

The only words can describe how good the ramen was. 


There were many reasons on why I should try Ikkousha much much earlier than just now:
1. It located not far from where I live.
2. How fast it become one of the best ramen in town.
3. The never ending queue.
4. Everyone I met and all reviews I read had claimed their ramen was superb.
5. Had been in almost blogger's post I knew of.

Then why it took me almost one year to finally eat here? I don't know!!! I am one of those very curious person about food, especially new places, but I just never really into trying Ikkousha, until last Tuesday. I was picking up my bestie around 11am and suddenly I have this urge for a bowl of the famous ramen. As her house was in the neighborhood with Ikkousha, we went there for lunch.

Thursday, March 15, 2012

Soup Restaurant Jakarta


It's a habit of mine to write down dining I wanted to try on my Blackberry, therefore when I don't have a clue on where to eat, I can just open my note for some idea. Soup restaurant had been on my note since I can remember. I know it is not something new, this place had open at Plaza Indonesia for God knows how long, but never once I step in no matter how many times I wanted to. However, I had been to one of their branch in Spore, I remember my friend and I were just landing at Changi and she took me for lunch at Soup on Terminal 2. Once I tried their Samsui chicken, I just knew that I had to take my parents here, as they are big fans of Samsui chicken. 

It was 2 years ago. I completely forgot about the place until couple weeks ago I was scrolling down my note pad and there it was written at the end of my note. My weekend mostly spent with my family but weekend also was the busiest and crankiest day to find a parking spot at Plaza Indonesia, so I had been really... I mean realllyyy reluctant on going there at weekend until last Sunday, I finally managed to force my self to go there. I went with my parents around 1pm and spent almost 30 minutes to find a parking spot, I was hungry and super cranky when finally the guy in orange uniform found me a spot to park. 

Wednesday, March 14, 2012

Opus Cafe


A casual hang out with my ex colleagues led us to a new place named Opus Cafe. Opus was this small chic cafe taking Dome's old position at Plaza Indonesia. I thought that the place only served coffee and light meals, turns out they have quite many selections of main courses. That day, they were having 50% off on their steak selections using a certain credit card. 



Monday, March 12, 2012

Introducing Starbucks Blonde Roast

Several days ago, I was invited by Starbucks Indonesia to attend "New Starbucks Roast Spectrum" held at fX Sudirman. Lately I have been getting several food tasting invitations, but I never had the chance to go due to some reasons, so this was the first food tasting I managed to go. Yay! 

Starbucks introduced their newest blonde roast which was a smooth lighter type of coffee. In the event, they explained to us that the reason they created blonde roast was to satisfy customers who are looking for a lighter not too strong coffee. There were two variants for the blonde roast which are: 

Veranda Blend

Combination of chocolate & peanuts from Latin America that is best pairing with food containing milk chocolate and peanuts.







Willow Blend

This coffee is from Latin America & East Africa with citrus flavor, creating a very light beverage type which is best pairing with food with citrus flavor. 







I am not a coffee expert as I don't drink coffee, but I did taste a small cup of Veranda blend and it was lighter than the one I sipped while ago from my mom's coffee cup. At the same occasion, Starbucks also introducing their four new variants of spring foods. 

VIA Red Velvet Cake Roll (25k)

I think it was a good idea for Starbucks to create their own Red Velvet along with so many red velvets in town. What makes theirs different was that they added VIA coffee inside the roll cake. 
For my personal flavor, I didn't really like the coffee taste in the cake as to me the coffee taste was too strong that it dominated the red velvet flavor. 

Fillo Chocolate Raisin Pastry (27,5k)

This one was my favorite. The combination between the chocolate with almond, vanilla, butter and raisin covered in the crispy crunchy fillo pastry was to die for. I really enjoy my every single bite.



Chocolate Raspberry Danish (22,5k)

The danish was a very crisp pastry covered in sugar glazed with combination of chocolate and raspberry  in the center. It was a little bit too sweet for my taste.



Toffee Almond Bars (21k)

This one was also my favorite. The crunchiness of almond, white and dark chocolate was just simply delicious. It had toffee taste so it was not too sweet. I like! 



Aside from the blonde roast, Starbucks also had two new beverages to offer for this spring which was Cocoa cappuccino and Caramel cream coffee jelly frappucino. They didn't served the cocoa cappucinno on the food tasting as cappucinno was best to drink while hot due to the foam, but I got to taste the caramel cream coffee jelly frappucino and it was good. At first I thought it will be too dairy as it was mixed of milk, ice and caramel syrup with whipped cream, caramel sauce and coffee jelly, but turns out the milk was not over powering, I actually like this one. 

Overall, I had a pleasant afternoon. It was a new experience for me accompanied with delicious pastry and smell of coffees. Not only they didn't let us go back on empty stomach, Starbucks also didn't let us go back empty handed, we were each given a lucky bag with one tumblr and Dark Sumatra roast coffee inside, and I answered right on a question games so I got an extra cute mug. ;) 


Thank you Starbucks for having me, it was fun. :) 

Sunday, March 11, 2012

(Closed) Bliss

I always have this sympathy towards Bliss whenever I passed the place. My sympathy was raised due to it was simply located in the busy dining street at Pantai Indah Kapuk just beside the super crowded, Bobabits and other tenants, but sadly Bliss was always seemed to be empty with customers whenever I came across the place during my visits to other tenants beside it.

One day, I spotted a promo by Bliss at Disdus.com and I bought several vouchers to satisfy my curiosity of their food. So several weeks ago, I headed there with my husband and parents. There was only 1 table filled when we walked in. The place was actually designed quite nice and clean with red and black dominated, it really strikes Chinese ambiance agreeable to their cuisine type. 


We ordered Ayam goreng mentega (40k), Cingkong kepiting (40k), Cumi saus padang (43k), Hotplate kangkung sapi (48), Lindung cah fumak (38) and Tomyam soup (40k). The orders didn't take long to be served. Our hotplate kangkung sapi was still sizzling when it was delivered, and it tasted delicious. Tomyam soup was also very nice with the right balance of sourness and I like the cingkong kepiting, it was not oily and delicious. As for the rest of the dishes was so so.







It really took me by surprise that their food was quite good. It was really ironic comparing to the quiet view I saw most of the time. I think Bliss really deserve to have more customers as their foods were not disappointing. Good luck! 


Bliss
Ruko Crown Golf B-03
Pantai Indah Kapuk
North Jakarta
Ph. +6221 85588989
Opening hours: 7am - 10pm

Wednesday, March 7, 2012

Taste Paradise (Jakarta)


About a month ago, I heard that a popular Chinese dining from Singapore, Taste Paradise opened their first branch at Plaza Indonesia. Taste Paradise is one of restaurant under the famous Paradise group in Singapore and rank second as the priciest among the groups. I once had a dimsum at Taste Paradise Ion and the place was decorated nice. I was very excited to try them when I heard they opened here. So last Sunday I went there with my family.

It was located on the 4th floor above mi item, buzzing with crowds when we reached there. After being on wait list for about 15 minutes, we were seated. The place was huge and nicely decorated. Very upscale Chinese modern dining, it was 3 times more grand than the one at Ion Orchard. I was quite amazed by how they decorated the dining. They were connected directly to Hyatt, so they have two entrance, from Plaza Indonesia or from Hyatt. At Hyatt, it took place on the same floor with C's. 


When I scrolled down the menu, I noticed how the place designed was in line with the price range. Initially we were planning on having a morning dim sum, but we were late and reached there around 11am, so we decided to combine some dim sums with heavy meals. For the dim sum, we chose Steamed shrimp and chive dumpling (19,8k), Steamed shrimp and pork dumpling (20,8k) and Steamed rice roll with fresh shrimp (24,8k). As for the main course, Fried rice with tobikko fish roe (98k), Sauteed live prawns with preserved olives and spring onions (112k), Osmanthus infused crispy roasted duck - half portion (138k) and Braised edamame tofu with mushrooms in duck reduction (88k). 






I actually am the type of person who cannot have Chinese meal without any veggie, I always include minimum 1 plate of veggie when I ate Chinese, but as I looked at the price, the green veggie without any minced meat started from 78k and honestly I thought it was ridiculous to pay such price for green veggie, so I skipped it. Hihihihi

The service was polite but it took forever for our meals to be served. Anyway, we all love the food. The duck was very juicy and tender, while the skin was crisp. Lovin' the shrimp as well, it was sauteed well that we can still feel the crunchiness. However, I didn't like the edamame tofu, the duck reduction was ok not too sweet but the soft tofu felt too mushy for my taste. The fried rice was amazing! It was such a simple dish cooked with fish roe, but it was very tasty. The dimsum was nice, I especially like the steamed shrimp and chive dumpling. 

Overall, I think it was a good dining place. Nice food, nice venue, good service, not so much on the price though. :)
 

Taste Paradise
Plaza Indonesia 4th Flr
Jl. MH Thamrin Kav 28-30
Jakarta
Ph. +6221 29923939

Friday, March 2, 2012

Hops & Malt


Almost two months ago, I bought voucher again from Disdus.com for a meal package of 1 appetizer/ 2 desserts and 2 main course worth IDR 67.000,- at Hops & Malt. After I bought the voucher, I got to know the place was located secluded in the not so crowded area in Pantai Indah Kapuk. Later on, I got to know also that the place focusing more on pub style where they have many selections of beer. Those 2 things have made me a little bit turn off as in my head, place with pub concept usually identical with loud music and so so food standard. Hence, I have been postponing my visit until the last day of the voucher's expiry date which was several weeks ago. 


I truly was not expecting much when I went there with my husband. It was weekday night around 9pm yet the place was full house. The patrons were mostly teenagers hanging out with friends and drinking, I saw most of them have Heineken on their tables. As expected, the place was super noisy with extremely loud music. I passed the waiter my voucher and he handed me a piece of laminated paper with selected choices to be chose, but the waiter quickly informed us from the 8 choices of main courses, only 4 were available that night. Sigh... One of the things I don't like from buying voucher, there's always some unfavorable catch. Suffering from the loud music and the super loud voice from teenage patrons chatting with their fiends, all I want was quickly eat, pay and leave. So we chose Chicken wings for the appetizer, Spaghetti Aglio olio and Half chicken for our main course. Food serving promptness couldn't be said as good considering it took forever for the appetizer to be served, around 10 minutes after we finished our main course, however the waiters were polite. 




The food were surprisingly nice. The half chicken were tender and well seasoned, spaghetti also cooked very nice although very small portion, while the chicken wing was hot and crunchy. So good that we decided to order another main course to share, Chicken fajitas (35k) and Banana fritter (17k) for dessert. Both were delicious. 



Overall, I understood why the place was full house. It was located separately from the all night crowded place at Ruko Crown so it was easier to park, dining was quite nice decorated with brick and wood concept and the food was surprisingly tasty. However, the loud music will definitely make me think twice on coming back, but for people who can stand with loud noise & music, Hops & Malt can be a good choice to hang out. 

Hops & Malt
Ruko Garden House Blok B17-18 A
Pantai Indah Kapuk
North Jakarta
Ph. +6221 29033210

Make a Difference



Yesterday, I accompanied my mom for medical check up. While waiting, there's a picture framed in the wall which caught my eyes. I read the story written in the picture and somehow took me into a wiser perspective. I took my BB and wrote down the story to share in my blog. 

Hope we can have some learning point from the story... :)

There was a young man walking down a deserted beach just before dawn. In the distance he saw a frail old man. As he approached the old man, he saw him picking up stranded starfish and throwing them back to the sea. The young man gazed in wonder as the old man again threw the small starfish into the water. He asked old man, "Why do you spend so much energy doing what seems to be a waste of time?". The old man explained that the stranded starfish would die if left in the sun. "But there must be thousands of beaches and millions of starfish!" exclaimed the young man. "How can you make any difference?". The old man looked at the starfish in his hand as he threw it to the safety of sea, he said "It makes a difference to this one".

Thursday, March 1, 2012

Bakmi Aluk


One of my favorite noodles in town. I had been coming here bunch of times but only remember to blog about it now. Located in Hasyim Azhari road just several ruko away from a church, so every Sunday it was filled with people having breakfast there after church session over.

What I like about Bakmi Aluk is that they cooked the broth with lots of chicken so it was nicely smell and had this natural chicken broth taste, and the noodle was not over cooked so it was not soft and slimmy. Came with chops of chicken, we can also ask for chicken gizzard & liver if like.


Bakmi Aluk
Jl. KH. Hasyim Azhari No. 42
Central Jakarta
Ph. +6221 6342175