Rumah Air

Last Saturday, my girls and I went for a short trip to Bogor. The traffic that day was crazeeeeeeyyyyy. Seriously, what is it with the traffic and the mobile reception these days, huh Jakarta? It took us more or less 2 hours to reach Bogor and we went straight for lunch at Rumah Air. I saw this online that they serve Sundanese food with natural greens ambiance where they have all the gazebos (read: Saung) for customers to sit and enjoy their meals. It was located inside upscale Bogor Nirwana Residence. The place was very big and they also have an area for children to play.

 

That day the weather was extremely hot and humid. Sadly, all the dining places were open air so accompanied by the very very hot and humid weather, we sat under a Saung and start to order. The service as predictable was unbelievable slow. We knew that the service will took some time as the place was very big and in separated areas and we hardly see many waiters walking through our spot. 

There were not really much options on the menu, we figured to just order what we can order and later we just find other place to eat again if the meal was disappointing. We ordered Gurame fried fish (67,5k), Karedok (10,5k), Sayur asem (15k), Kangkung cah terasi (10,5k), Ayam bakar & Ayam goreng (14,5k/ pcs). As our meals came, so were the flies. The small candle in the table was not helping at all. The flies were everywhere.

The meals actually were not bad, it was ok. But between the traffic, the hot weather and humidity, the slow service, the not vary menu options, and the disturbing flies keep on flying around while we're eating, I found the lunch was way irritating than acceptable. It was good to know the place, but I don't think I will go there twice. 

Rumah Air

Jl. Raya Boulevard CBD

Bogor Nirwana Residence

South Bogor

Ph. +6251 8200666

http://rumahairbogor.com/

Quoted: Donald Trump

Many people are afraid to fail which lead them on becoming afraid to try. They can dream, talk and even make plans, but they didn't take important steps to invest their money and business.

To be succeed in business world, you have to take risk. Even if you fail, at least you have learned.

There never was and never will be a ski Olympic winner that never fell. They learned and fix their movement by trying again and falling again, not by talk and see.

- Donald Trump -

Ismaya Catering Co.

This was a late post. When I still work at Menara BCA,  my office hours ended at 6pm and every working days I will always stayed at office until 6.50pm before I went to parking lot due to the 3in1 policy. One day, I was not feeling on waiting at office and as my office building is linking to Grand Indonesia shopping town, I decided to kill my time at Ismaya Catering while waiting 3in1 ended. 

Ismaya Catering Co. was one of restaurant under Ismaya group. I wasn't sure why it called Ismaya catering since they only serve light snacks and pastry. The place was quite crowded when I got there. The non smoking section was outside along the alley of Level 1, too bad they put the tables right in front of a stage where there was some performers singing, so the music was too loud that like it or not I had to sit inside where the smoking was allowed. 

I went to the pastry display and there were only few options which didn't really bring appetite when I saw them, but I go ahead and ordered Pistachio cake (30k). I am a fan of Baskin & Robins' pistachio ice cream, so I figured the cake should be alright. It was pandan chiffon layer cake covered with crunches of pistachio. It was not bad but too sweet for my taste.

*image of Ismaya Catering was downloaded from Google.

Ismaya Catering Co.

Grand Indonesia Shopping Town, East Mall Level 1

Jl. MH Thamrin No. 1

Jakarta

Social House

Last Sunday was one of my colleague's birthday. As it was fell on Sunday, one of the girls planning to surprise her and I went along with the idea. The plan was the birthday girl's boyfriend took her to Social House for a birthday breakfast and we went there to surprise her. The plan worked out successfully. We were all not a morning person type, but seeing our friend's surprise and happy face surely worth the lesser sleeping time. =)

I always enjoy coming to Social House as I like the ambiance and their food. I've been here couple times but it was my first time trying their breakfast. They were not as packed as usual during morning time. It was a good feeling to actually can dine here without buzzing crowd for a change.

When we reached there, the birthday girl had ordered a plate of The "old time" favorites overhauled (75k) for shared with her boyfriend. It looked so tempting so we decided to ordered the same one and one plate of the hangover (65k). The orders didn't took long to be served. In the old time favorites were two choice of eggs, baked beans, bacon, sausage and social bacon hash. We could chose the bacon between pork or turkey. While the hangover came in slightly smaller portion consisted of jumbo sausage with creamy polenta and truffle scrambled eggs. We can chose pork or beef sausage, we chose pork and it was delicious. Both dishes were. After that the boyfriend ordered one Ricotta hotcakes (65k) to shared. A pancakes with mixed wild berry, fresh banana, maple syrup honey and roasted almond butter. It was a typical pancake until we added up the maple syrup. It really did bring out the flavor balance.

The "Old Time" Favorites

The Hangover 

Ricotta Hotcakes

Homemade Ice Lemon Tea

It was one of my most pleasant Sunday morning. Having fun with friends accompanied with good nice breakfast. What's more to ask?

Social House 

Grand Indonesia Shopping Town Level 1, East mall

Jl. MH Thamrin No.1 

Jakarta 

Ph.+6221 23581818

Sate Padang Asli Petak IX

My best friend and her sister took me to China town (a.k.a Pancoran) around 5 days after Idul Fitri so the streets on our way there was still quite smooth. Even the parking was still a headache. China town was not really a place I like to go. I don't really comfortable with any place which include traffic jam and buzzing crowd, however, I was persuaded with the famous Sate Padang. I wouldn't say that it was the best, but it was good. This time, you are allow to judge by it's picture. ;)

 

Sate Padang Asli Petak IX

Petak IX, Glodok Pancoran

North Jakarta

Seafood S.F.6

I went for lunch at Seafood S.F.6 yesterday. The place was located at Pantai Mutiara and it was near the famous Bakmi Sakaw @Cafe Dermaga. If it was not because of my parents just ate here with their friends and told me about this place, I wouldn't have known as they didn't really have any signboard and it really looked like an abandoned warehouse from outside. My parents told me they have a great seafood dinner there and the place was always full house every night.

When I reached there, it was around 2pm and the place was not crowded yet. Entering through what it look like a warehouse, we walked along these counters where fresh fish, prawns, clams and crabs were put inside aquariums that we can chose directly for our fresh seafood. Walking through, they have dining chairs in the dock where we can just dine next to the beach. Is it beach? Hmmm... well at least there were waters. It was nice, we can feel the wind blows and air breeze.

Anyway, there were 3 of us and we ordered Ikan bawal bakar kecap (154k @22k/ounce), Cumi saos padang (40k), Kangkung cah terasi (17k), Kerang bambu tauco (35k) and Tahu isi (18k). The fish was very well seasoned, I can't stop licking my spoon for the seasoning. The squid padangnese sauce however was a disappointment. It was too sweet where I thought Padangnese sauce should be more to spicy than sweet. Isn't it? All the dishes were cooked delicious but my favorite was the clams. It was superb. It came in big size portions and the Tauco sauce was extremely good. I really recommend the clams to be a must order dish. Looks like my parents does have quite seafood taste. Oh yes, don't order the Tofu, it was hideous, no prawns and the vegetables inside were not in good taste. 

Seafood lovers... This place is truly recommended. Please take note on the opening hours though as they have break off hours.

Seafood S.F.6

Komplek Pantai Mutiara Blok S.F.6 

North Jakarta

Ph. +6221 6692825

Open hours: 11am - 3pm

                   18pm - 22 pm

Bakmi Babat Senen

One of my enjoyable reading is a free magazine named Media Kawasan. It is a monthly magazine where they distribute it free to certain area. Luckily my house area are included as one of the circulation place. I enjoyed it as they have many advertisement directories which we can get information on several vendors.

Last Monday, I was enjoying my lazy day by reading the September edition and saw an advertisement about a newly opened noodle place named Bakmi Babat Senen in Pluit area. Call me anything you like, but I instantly have this craving and went straight driving to Pluit by my self just to try this noodle. =) I should get rewarded with miss curiosity or miss greedy to be more exact considering the stupid traffic lately in Pluit. 

Anyway, the place was located next to Bank DKI, a line with Bapau A1. When I reached there the place was empty and I am the only customers. The owner told me that this was a branch from the same noodle place in Senen. I ordered 1 bowl of Bakmi Babat (29k) as it was their specialty. Turns out it was a wet noodle with chicken broth but we can ask to have the broth separated. It was delicious, I like the noodle and the generous beef tripe. The broth was also seasoned nicely.

It was surely a worth traffic jam meals. :)

Bakmi Babat Senen 

Jl. Pluit Karang Utara Blok H1/S No. 90A
North Jakarta
Ph. +6221 66695824

Lemon's closet 4 - LOOK BOOK

Yay! Lemon's closet 4 is ready and will be launched on Monday, Sep 19th at 6pm. Here are some of the sneak peek. :)

Full collections can be seen on http://www.facebook.com/lemon.onlineshop

 

Cheers, 

Lemon

Moving on

 

Last August was my last month working in the company I have worked at for the past 6 years. Almost everyone that I know cannot believe that I am leaving this job, literally because in all these years I have always bragged on how much I love my job. I really am. I loved it so much that it got to the point where it was not only something that I got my income from. It was more than that. I have the greatest boss ever, not only one, but two great bosses that can't possibly found somewhere else. Me and my colleagues, we really go along well. And I really do believe that I am doing good in here.

However, as much as I love my job and everything related to that, I always know that my passion is not in here, this is not something that I want to do for my future. I always know that what I want is to have my own business... even if it's a small one.

January this year, I finally doing what I have wanted to do but not enough courage to really take action. I finally submitted my resign letter.

It was hard. I rephrase... It was super hard. It was so damn hard that there were times where I can't even made up my mind. One day I was so sure that I wanted to resign, then I get to work, doing all those things that I enjoy and my mind changed again,  having second thought thinking that I could do two things in once. I don't want to let go of my position, my status, my stable income, my colleagues, my bosses. I  just simply don't want to let go the "safe road".

My bosses were kind enough to offer me in doing both things at the same time, you know I really could if I want to, I just have to manage my time really well. But got to think again, is this what I really want? Or I was just being too afraid on leaving my comfort zone that I end up being too greedy in wanting both. I was stressed up and devastated not knowing what I should choose, but I said to my self that I have to be strong and courageous. Wanting both sometimes could lead to losing both. I have to be focus on what I really want, and I think it will be unfair to the company if I do both things. So I decided to resign.

 

I am not a risk taker, and leaving all these stable good things to pursue something that I don't even know where it will lead me to was surely a risk. I was too afraid... of failing, of regretting. But I always remember a phrase that one of my distributors said "if you don't control your fear, your fear will control you".

I don't believe in the saying that time can heal anything, I believe that it can be healed when our hearts let it. And my heart did. I let my heart not to be so stressed in thinking of all the failing and regretting. There is nothing need to be regretted. If say my online store didn't work out, or whatever happens, I still have many things to explore. I will regret it more if I never even give it a shot.

"You'll be ok". said one of my boss which I forever consider as my mentor, Mr. Jerry Lu. 

People who doesn't really know me well would say me wishy washy, but the truth is they just didn't know what I felt about this company, how this company changed me to be a better person, how strong my bonding are with all of them related here, how amazingly supportive my bosses to me that I can't just leave them. Sometimes, people who can't be empathize would better just shut their mouth instead of saying something hurtful to hear.

Despite all those people who just can't put their position at my shoes, I am blessed to have people who always support me. There are too many to be exposed here, from my family, my best friends, my colleagues, my bosses but they are few persons that I really thankful for always being there listening, holding me going through those though days:

1. My mother - for all those motherly advise when all I did was crying. 

2. My husband - for believing in me, in every step and every decision I made. For being the first person who told me "you will never know unless you give it a try". For being so patience in accompany me in my buying trips, and for just being you. 

3. My friend, Veronica Agustine - for all the long phone calls and BBM chat just to support me, comforting me and listening to all the same talks again and again. 

I know if there's a will, there's a way and now I am ready to move on. Wish me luck! 

Stevan Meat Shop

Still in my mission to conquer all the new dining places at Pantai Indah Kapuk, we went for dinner at Stevan Meat Shop. From the name, I could tell that the place was similar with Seven to 7 where the concept was a meat shop which also serve meals to diners.

 

The entrance was an outdoor spot with several tables & entering the main door was the meat shop, they sold various of meat selections mostly angus and wagyu types, along with salmon, frozen sausage, fries, scallop, unagi, udon and also some fresh vegetables. Where on the non - frozen section, they were also selling different kinds of imported sauces, ketchup, oil and snacks. Back to the meat selections, we chose Wagyu mb9+ Rib Eye (71,5k per 100 grams) and Black Angus Rib Eye (38,5k per 100 grams). We asked for each 200 grams. They have the combo package valued at 35k to get the sauce + side dishes + veggie. If we only want to have the sauce without any side dishes, they will charged us 12k. It was weird, I thought that a steak should always comes with the sauce, yet they still charge us for it. The unique from them was they have options for the sauce which not ordinary found at other steak place. Other than the usual mushroom, BBQ and black pepper, we can chose to have bulgogi, kungpao and pad thai sauce. Unfortunately, I realized the other types of sauces after we already put in orders. 

Talking about the place, I like how they did with the interior where most of dining places with brick and wood concept will usually go with dark woods, Stevan chose natural light wood so the place looks bright, vintage with clean and stylish ambiance. Aside from the outdoor spot, they have indoor spot in second floor. The first floor was dominated for the meat shop only. Their tables and chairs was custom made with stamp of Stevan Meat Shop in each of them.

Sadly, the interior was much nicer than the food. Usually I always have well done for my steak temperature, but the waiter suggested me to have it medium well as it fits better for my angus rib eye. He said that having it well done will make the meat dry, I agreed and went along with it. Well, he did made a point, the meat was certainly not dry but it was not tender, it was chewy and giving me hard time on cutting the meat. While the Wagyu was better than my Angus, but overall, without trying to compare or is it too obvious for me to do so, I like Seven to 7 so much more than this one. 

Stevan Meat Shop

Jl. Marina Indah Golf

Rukan Crown Golf Mediterania Blok A No. 8

Pantai Indah Kapuk, North Jakarta

Ph. +6221 93581008

Bakmi Baji Pamai

On a particular morning some day last week, my husband and I went to Kelapa Gading area for a noodle breakfast. It was still on Idul Fitri period so we were concern that most of the foodie place will still be closed, luckily Baji Pamai was open. 

Baji Pamai noodle was from Ujung Pandang specialized in pork even they still open the options of chicken for people who doesn't eat pork. They have been a senior in noodle department in Jakarta, but it was our first time trial.
We ordered 2 portions of Pangsit mie special Baji Pamai (27,5k), Beef meatball - half portion (12k), and Fried dumpling (12k). I asked the waiter to make it half cooked as I don't like flabby soft noodle. 

The noodles came with mix of red pork meat and chicken. The noodle was good although I didn't like the red pork meat. As for the fried dumpling, it was one of the worst dumpling I ever ate. It was oily and the dumpling meat was too salty. 

Bakmi Baji Pamai

Jl. Boulevard Raya Blok FV1 No. 29 - 31

Kelapa Gading Permai

North Jakarta

Ph. +6221 4521946

Quote: Goodbye

Quoted from Ugly Betty: 

I hate to say goodbye more than once, but everyone can say that. No matter how many times we did it, for good or worse, it still stinks.

Even we don't know what we giving up, we still have to move forward. What we can do is we can't always be afraid of the next goodbye because the chances are it will never stop.

The trick is to recognize that goodbye can be a good thing. It gives us a chance to start all over again. 

MasterChef Australia season 2

My favorite series nowadays. I love MasterChef! From Junior one, to adult one. Australia one to USA, I enjoy them all. I don't really like MasterChef Indonesia, perhaps because the food presentation wasn't tempting enough even I do know that I can't even cook like that. But Congratulations to Lucky as the first MasterChef Indonesia. The food presentations might not making me drooled but the grand prize did. Kitchen set from Metric worth IDR 200 million, package to Sydney and cash of IDR 300 million. Whyyyy I was not born as a genius in culinary?!!

Anyway, my favorite Masterchef Australia was just came to an end, and 2 of my favorites were actually made it as the 2 grand finals. Adam & Callum where Adam successfully earned the tittle of MasterChef Australia season 2. I love both of them and Jonathan also one of my favorite, I think it was a shame that he didn't win but anyway I am happy for Adam & Callum. I adore Adam's creative way of cooking and love Callum's attitude and his ability in making desserts. 

Now that MasterChef Australia season 2 ended, thank God MasterChef USA season 2 started the premiere last week. Looking forward on who will be the winner. =)

Velpa

From Cal - Roll Factory, again my recently addictive of desserts arise and it took us to Velpa. It was an Italian restaurant specialized in grill and wine bar. From outside we can saw their wine cellar displayed neatly. The place was with dark ambiance surrounding with dark woods. They have piano near the entrance and walking through we went pass the bar area before we sat down in the dining.

I asked the waiter for the desserts recommendation, and she recommended us to try their Mealty chocolate (42k) and Fruits platter (42k). We ordered Velpa punch (35k) for the beverage to share.It didn't took long for our desserts to be served. My mealty chocolate basically was similar with molten chocolate cake served with vanilla ice cream. It was not bad but didn't really suited my taste as the chocolate sauce inside the cake was too watery, while the ice cream was way too sweet. The fruit platter was a plate of mixed fruits served with lemon sorbet. Well what can I say, they were only fruits, but the sorbet was refreshing. As for the velpa punch was a glass of mocktail with mixed of orange juice, lime juice, pinneaple, raspberry jam, blueberry jam and grenadine. It was ok, the sweet and sour blended well.

Although I was not impressed with their desserts, but I will be coming back one day to try on their main course. See you Velpa!

Velpa

Gandaria City Ground flrUnit M-G43

Jl. Sultan iskandar Muda, Arteri Pondok Indah

South Jakarta

Ph. +6221 29007955

Cal-Roll Factory

My best friend and I went to Gandaria City for a chit chat lunch. Since we were both craving for Japanese food, we walking around looking for Japanese restaurant and we found Cal-Roll Factory. I remembered that this place was a franchise from USA. I was quite surprised when I saw the place as it was small and very casual, unlike most of the newly opened restaurants which like racing on who has the best interior look. This one was very fun and casual, with yellow and black color dominated the room. Their walls were all covered with pictures of menu descriptions.

 

We sat down and I got a headache when I looked at the menu as there were so many to choose from, and unlike typical sushi place, they used actual people's name and other fun words for their sushi menu, such as Marty, bill, Joe, M&M, Kick ass, bread monster, etc. I agreed with the uniqueness but definitely giving me quite some time to read on each of the menu descriptions as I can't decide what was the sushi ingredients from the name itself. Luckily they divided the sushi selections into several from their chef's recommendation, house special rolls, crunchy rolls, baked scallop rolls, and they also provided half portion rolls so we can have more different kinds of sushi types.

We went for the waiter's recommendation and ordered: 

Crunchy Roll - Agape (58k) ; Shredded crab, shrimp tempura and spicy scallop.

Half rolls - Alaskan Salmon (20k); Salmon, avocado and mayo

Baked Scallop - 58k; Avocado roll topped with baked scallop and smelt egg

Half rolls - Marty (24k); Baked salmon, smelt egg, avocado and mayo

Crunchy Rolls - Kick Ass (48k); Spicy Albacore, cream cheese, crispy seaweed, tempura crumbs

Chicken Karaage (38k)

Overall, I like their sushi. It was fresh and tasty. The kick Ass was my favorite. I don't really know what Albacore is, and I forgot to ask the waiter but it tasted like egg plant. Anyway, the Kick Ass with spicy albacore was really recommended. 

Cal - Roll Factory

Gandaria City Level UG Flr M-U11

Jl.Sultan Iskandar Muda, Arteri Pondok Indah
South Jakarta

http://www.mycalrollfactory.com/