..It's a journey after all.. : Food and Travel Blog based in Jakarta: May 2012

Monday 28 May 2012

Colourful Grass

two weeks in a row..
I told you I will go back to Bluegrass to try out for their food.. and I did last Saturday.. Again, we didn't make any reservations, so we're ended up on the same seats like yesterday.. Without further ado, let me just show you the pictures.. It was still quite bright so we took our pictures before it gets too dark




Drinks. From left to right : Peach tea, iced mint toblerone chocolate, regular iced chocolate and lavender tea

Plank Salmon. I love how the presented it on a plank of wood. I love love love the sauteed vegies especially the mushrooms. They're the same as mine actually. You can request if you wanted your fish half done, but since Teng is temporarily prohibited to eat anything raw, she ordered it well done..
Rotisserie Chicken.. It's a half a chicken and it's yummy. It's served with roasted baby potatoes and salad
I ordered this Stuffed Pork Chop. Inside it was melting cheese with herbs.. Below the meat was mashed potato. It's quite huge for my portion. They served it with baked beans and sauteed vegies.
American Classic Burger with fries. I wanna take the bun off so you can look at the patty, but there was sauce all over and the onions and mayo were sticking to one another, not pretty. But it tastes absolutely YUMMY
This is the grilled lamb shank. It's served with sweet soy bean sauce  just like how the Indonesian likes it. It's okay..
For dessert, we tried the banana brulle this time. Again, I really love the combination of warm and cold in a sweet dish. 
My empty glass needs a refill
 What I really love about Bluegrass is their variety of menu. You can have western, asian, indonesian dishes at one place. And the choices of appetizers, main courses, and desserts are plentiful that it takes sometime to decide what you're going to order.

I give an 8/10 for food. The seats outside are surrounded with mosquitoes, so better reserve for the indoor area. But you'll get the view of Bakrie Tower from outside. It's a good hang out place and definitely a decent one. They also have a long list of alcoholic drinks that you need to kick off for the weekend.. I also love the price range. They have the food that is around 75k-100k, which I think is a standard price for a main course, to foods that is worth 500k. For what it's worth, this place is really worth trying..

Visit their facebook page HERE

Wednesday 23 May 2012

Sweet Endings

I am bloated.. *currently and literally* My stomach is bulging out.. I spent the past evening, from 6 till 8 or 9-ish in eating Taiwanese snacks..

First, I ate Taiwan Dian Xin extra crispy chicken which is in Pluit Village Mall and a cup of their delicious drink. Today I ordered the orange green tea, usually I always order the black mango tea which is superrrrr deliciousss..  I somehow prefer Taiwan Dian Xin's chicken compared to Shi Lin XXL crispy chicken.. The seasoning is bolder and you can tell the abang to always pour some more salty or spicy seasonings on your food.. Unlike ShiLin's seasonings which basically is only pepper, non-salty, the-more-you-add-the-spicier-it-gets(WHICH IS A PROBLEM TO PEOPLE LIKE ME WHO CAN'T HANDLE SPICY THINGS).. Plus they have much more choices of what you wanna fry. They have mushrooms, corns, chicken popcorn, etc etc.. The batter is also different from ShiLin's.. They use batter instead of dry ones, so you can imagine how it is..

Unfortunately, I deleted the photos and I didn't take any pictures today. But I have posted it on my instagram..

Anyway, after I finished eating that, I went home and not long after that, I went to Sweet Poetry in Muara Karang.. Go to their FB page in HERE.. They have all the information you need.. And without further ado, I will give you the previewsssss

A friendly humble place indeed

The prices are very reasonable!
We accidentally bumped into my big sis's friends who introduced her to this place. And that's just my Mom busy with her BB.. I wanna snap a picture of the whole place but it's an epic fail I guess.. 
The menu.. It's quite clear, they put both English and Indonesian, not forgetting all the pictures of toppings and some pics of the dishes
The decorations somehow feel so Taiwanese
Tang Si, which means Sweet Poetry
The drinks. I was so full already, so we didn't order any drinks.. 
Some of the delicious picturesssss
This is peanut, red beans and bubble.. Below it was shaven ice with the right amount of sweetness.. Yummy! I think they poured coconut milk on the bubble.. or maybe just milk, I'm not quite sure but it's certainly top notch
The purple and orange thingy is Q-balls. It's like Taiwanese version of biji salak.. And below it is grass jelly. So far this is the most fragrant yummy tasting grass jelly I have ever eaten.. Even my mom, who is very hard to please in the matter of tasting new things, admitted that the grass jelly is superb..
My mom loveeees ginger. The broth is ginger and on the inside, we have the Q-balls, honey beans and bubbles. The ginger broth is very pungent. So those of you who are a ginger fan, this one will please you oh so much. My mom was digging this one the whole time and kept complementing the ginger taste..
Now this one is my favorite. The thing on the top left is taro paste (I LOVE IT), next to it is the red beans,  then Q-balls, and bubbles.. Below it is the same shaven ice like the ones in the first picture.. 
Again.. it wouldn't be right if we're not narcissistic 
Lil sis
Big sis, mommy, lil sis (I don't get why she stared)

Compared to the big chain Taiwanese dessert joints (Yes I am talking about Honeymoon Dessert), I prefer this place SOOOOOO much more! First, their prices are very reasonable and they serve bigger portions.. Second, the taste is BETTER... Unlike Honeymoon Dessert which mostly offer you with fruity dishes, this one has its own niche and uniqueness.. Third, it's near to my house.. Forth, this month, they have BUY 1 GET 1 PROMO.. So yeyyy to that!

Sunday 20 May 2012

three little pigs

Caught me red handed.. I am guilty as charged.. I have been spending most of my salaries for eating.. Now I am left with almost nothing and probably will rod out of starvation in my room.. Okay. I guess that's too extreme..

Yesterday, Anggi, Ivan and I went out to Otel Lobby and bluegrass out of the blue.. They were fully booked so we went there early and made the reservations at 4p.m.. when we arrived, the place was empty.. This is the thing I hate the most about fancy places, All of the chairs are booked for 6 p.m-late.. You have to make reservations daysssss before the it day.. Anyway, moving on from that issue, it's picture timeeeee 







Yes yes.. I'm getting chubbier each day..


That's my ginger lemon honey tea.. The stupid thing is, they don't dissolve the honey beforehand.. They separated the honey in a small glass, I ordered the iced one, those two won't dissolve.. Genius much?
I love the big clock on the wall
My view
For entres, we have OTL meatballs.. it's good, but the emping makes it look easy
Anggi ordered the aglio olio.. She said it tasted like kwetiao.. Not that great.. 
Beef Wellington.. This one is quite good.. 
If you were there, you can definitely see the smoke coming out from the inside.. It's so fragrant and warm, it made you wanna gobble everything at once..
This is my steak and onion.. Just a 200 gr steak with palenta and onion rings.. I was always curious of how palenta tastes like.. I've tried it yesterday. It's like eating runny mashed with the taste of yogurt.. The waitress had suggested me to change the palenta with mashed but I refused.. 
I gotta say, the place is definitely nice. The food was okay, not bad.. You can still find some menu that will entertain your lips. But to be honest, it wasn't special. It was good, but not special.. Overall, I will give the food a 7/10.. Visit their website by clicking HERE to see their menu and for further info

We were only allowed to stay until 6 p.m at Otel Lobby so after we finished eating, we went across to Bluegrass for dessert.. Yeah, they are famous for their rainbow cake. BUT I AM NOT ONE OF THOSE MAINSTREAMS WHO ARE CRAZY ABOUT RAINBOW CAKES, RED VELVET, BLUE VELVET, BLACK VELVET.. or whatever the next sponge cake with food colourings they are gonna create.. Those cakes are overrated! Kids these days are so hipped by almost everything that is in season..

So anyway.. ehem.. We decided to order just one dessert and share it cause we were so full.. I ordered the lychee bread pudding.. At least that is something worth trying cause it takes more effort that just making layers of sponge cakes with different colours.. *bitch please*

And before we were seated, I went to the restroom. On the way there, I saw the glass kitchen and they piled up these ribs, small, medium and humongous sizes as if they were unused clothes.. I was drooling again forgetting the fact that my tummy was screaming "HELL NO!".. They were pretty famous for their ribs but I realized I just couldn't eat anything anymore.. It was pretty dark outside, I couldn't get clear pics without using flash..

That is Bakrie Tower behind us.. and a bunch of staffs..

Otel Lobby from our table

This is the mocktail Ivan ordered. Watermelon with lemon and grapes.. 
Warm comforting bread pudding.. Nyummy! EAT THAT WITH THE COLD COLD ICE CREAM..  Makes you melt literally.. I should learn how to make this at home..


The place is great, the food looks nice. The menu is way more variable and somehow humbler.. I will definitely go back to eat in here.. But this place has the same issue as any other place. The chairs inside are empty, and yet we were all told to sit outside where the bloody sucking mosquitoes are thirsty for your blood. Beneath my table, they put an anti-mosquitoes repellent which stink quite funky.. That ruined the whole ambiance.. And I still got bitten.. 

Just remember to make reservations daysssss before you want to go there for more comfortable seats. Click HERE to go to their facebook page.. They also have breakfast on Sundays.. I recommend this place and for those of you who are a rainbow cake junkie, you might find this place as heaven.. 


After that, we just went to PI and met up with a bunch of Anggi's friends.. Then the day after, I was kidnapped, brought to chilis.. and I ate.. a.. lot...

Beautiful Skillet Queso.. only at Chili's

 I can still feel my tummy bloated.. but I regret not even a single bit.. MUWAHAHAHAHAHAHA..


Tuesday 15 May 2012

all the things that I've done

Sorry for the absence and long haul of no new post.. I've been quite occupied with final exams..Now, I am having my 3 months of holiday, which put me in quite a pickle since I got no idea what I should be doing for such a time..

Well, what I haven't been stop doing is of course going to places to eat. I've been too lazy to edit the photos and just gonna post it straight from my Samsung Note. So, here we go..

The first place I went is located in a less glamorous location, in fact, it's quite popular for its prostitutes -___-
Don't get me wrong, I only went there for the food.. and I was with my family.. It's called WAN WEI XIANG SU KI and it is located in Lokasari. So you just go straight inside then it'll be on ur left side.. The menus are written both with Mandarin and poorly translated Indonesian. I guess most of the people who go there are Chinese.. The specialty in this place is their turtles, but my family don't eat turtles.. so for you Pi-oh lovers should definitely try this place out..

Even the utensils are just like the ones in China.. They have to sterilized it
Just the menu.. Every page is sinfully tempting..
You can see on your, we have fried shrimps (the outer skin was fried till it's so crispy u can eat the whole thing); dried chili; peanuts; sesame seed; onion; spring onions; fresh red and green chili.. It's so yummy and savory!~ 

Of course, it's not a Chinese restaurant without pork.. We were just too lazy to order the ribs, so we ordered the boneless one instead.. This is with the sweet and sour sauce.. Also very yummy


There were only the four of us so we didn't order that much..
This is green beans with salted eggs.. The best vegetable dish ever! The seafood restaurants in Jakarta usually put the salted eggs on shrimps, squids. Who knew that putting it on green beans could be so delishhhh?
Cou You Ping.. My favorite Chinese snack.. It's just flour actually and I also don't know why I am so into it. But these aren't that good compared to the ones in Little Sheep / xiao fei yang
This dish really reminds me of China.. The chicken was cut to small pieces and it makes u quite  hard to eat it cos in every piece, there is definitely bones.. but the taste.. OH MY GODDDD... Love it so muchh.. They put a lot of oil in it,so the fire keeps cooking the dish.. 
Healthy healthy.. The only way I'm gonna eat eggplant.. This is not one of the stars of the meal

Now the second place is located in a very decent location. This one is from JIUZHAI VALLEY in PIK.. They offered the same style cooking, pure Chinese dishes that haven't been influenced with Indonesian touches.. The chef is also from China, said one of the waitresses. But the menu is lesser than WAN WEI XIANG.. The things that I love from this place is the Chinese herbs, a seed-like called mala..

This is beef with veggies cooked together into a stew with lots of chili and mala.. If you can only see the black round dots, that are the mala. If you bite into one of them, ur tongue'll get numb for a while. But it's so fragrant and very different from the herbs we use in here
simple jiao zhi
Only in China I can find this..But here we are.. This is basically pork belly cut into thin slices and cooked with chili, spring onions, some spices, and again lots of oil.. YUMMY.. 
This chicken was also cut into small pieces that it was irritating to debone it on ur own, but damnnn it's salty, fragrant, so yummy that I couldn't stop taking it.. Even the chili are salty enough to be eaten with the rice alone..


If I have to compare the two places, I'll definitely go to Wan Wei Xiang for more Chinese dishes. But if we're talking bout the location, I'll definitely will go to Jiu Zhai Valley more often cause it's near my house and the area is well, not like the other one..

Both places have a typical Chinese restaurant ambiance, they really don't put much effort in warming up the place. But I don't care about it actually, the food covers it all.. Nom Nom Nom.. I'll definitely go back for some more Chinese dishes..