--> Aswin and Alia's Food Journey: April 2013

Mamak Kitchen: A Fusion of Singaporean, Malaysian, and Thailand Cuisine

Opened in the mid of 2013, the restaurant is serving a fusion of Singaporean, Malaysian and Thailand cuisine

Bali (Culinary) Trip in March 2014

Finally, after a year of planning, we are able to set up a trip to Bali. Very excited! Alia has been mentioning about Ubud for quite some time and now this trip is about to be realized.

Welcome Home: Nanny's Pavillon Housewarming

On 30th of April 2014, we were invited to the housewarming of the newest Nanny's Pavillon restaurant in Jalan R.E. Martadinata (Riau), Bandung.

Caffe Bene: Korean Coffee Shop in Bandung

Alia has been craving to visit this place for a while, so when the time comes to visit she was delighted

Warung Sangrai: Real Indonesian, Eat With Their Bare Hands!!

Located in the opposite side of Mamak Kitchen, the restaurant is serving traditional Indonesian Food with one particular course that are standing out: Quails

4/27/2013

Snack Gifts from Kupang, Indonesia

A nice thing about Indonesian, mostly they who lives outside of Jakarta & West Java area is that they really proud of their culture and food, and they really wanted to share it with their guests.
This is also what happened during our trip to Batam and Bintan, and recently what happened to our parents during their trip to Padang and Kupang.

In this post we will try to cover several unique gifts from Kupang. We have not tried it yet right now, but we bet it will tasted yummy, as it comes from their heart.

Enjoy!

The mixture of gifts from Kupang

Kue Rambut (Hair Cookies)?

Chili Sauce (this is definitely for Alia)

Gula Mata Sweets

Manggarai Coffee! Can't wait to try them!

Local Cookies

4/24/2013

Travel Reminder: Some Useful Travel Tips Based on Our Experience

During our travel couple of weeks ago to Bintan, Batam and Malaysia, we are learning (via hard experience) that when traveling there are several important things that we should remember. This blog post will serve as a reminder for us on what is important when traveling for our future itinerary. Hopefully this can also be useful for you guys who are also planning a trip.

We will try to make it in bullet points for easier reading.

  1. Always check the baggage requirements from the Airlines that you have booked. We learned this lesson the hard way during our trip to Langkawi and Kuala Lumpur. As we are used to travel using one cabin bag, we never check the weight of the baggage that we are carrying. We never thought to check it as in Indonesia, the airline staff never check the weight. It turned out during our trip back to Indonesia from Malaysia, in the Low Cost Carrier Terminal (LCCT), the airline staff check and weigh our baggage (which exceed around 5 kg from the permitted 7 kg baggage). At the end, we must pay additional Rp 300.000,- for the extra baggage. Imagine how many chocolate that you can bought using that money? ^_^.
  2. You should always bring extra padlock which are easier to reach in your backpack. Continuing our story in point #1, since we thought we can bring the baggage into the cabin, we put the padlock somewhere that are difficult to reach. Thankfully our baggage have their built-in padlock, so we can lock them. But for next time, we will try to put our padlock somewhere that reachable.
  3. You can purchase your local train/ bus/ transport tickets in advance. What we mean by local train/ bus/ transport tickets are tickets of Monorail, Subway, MRT, BTS, etc. During our trip to Malaysia, when we reached Central Station, we quickly purchase a return ticket to LCCT terminal via the counter that expires in 3 (three) weeks. It is provide useful for us, as when we return, the ticket counter was queuing quite far. If we purchase the ticket on-the-counter, we might be late to arrive at the airport.
  4. When traveling in group and you are collecting your baggage in a hotel/ meeting point/ deposit counter, always mentioned clearly to the baggage clerk on what group you are coming from. We also learn this lesson the hard way. Our baggage was not tagged in group, and two of our baggage are left behind in a hotel in Batam when we are returning to Bandung. Thankfully, one of the group member are returning to Bandung on the next day, so we can have him bring the lost baggage to Bandung.
  5. Bring just enough clothes for your trip, especially when you only booked for cabin baggage. For example: we are huge fans of UNIQLO, and until their new flagship shop opened in Indonesia, we are often purchase them during our trip abroad. For example, Aswin when going to Langkawi and Kuala Lumpur for 6 (six) days, brings 1 (one) jacket, 8 (eight) T-Shirts, 2 (two) Batik shirt, 2 (two) long pants, consisted of one Jeans and one formal pants for the conference, and 1 (one) short pants. In Kuala Lumpur, cannot resisting to shop in UNIQLO Fahrenheit Bukit Bintang, Aswin purchased additional 3 (three) T-Shirts and 1 (one) jacket. After we went home (with additional Rp 300.000,- baggage charge), we found out that for that trip, if we are intended to purchase clothes in our travel destination, we should just bring 3 (three) T-Shirts, 2 (two) Shirts - one for conference, the other one for informal occasion/ traveling, 2 (two) long pants, consisted of cargo and formal pants for conference, and 1 (one) short pants. It will save a lot of room and weight. For learning better methods of packing, you should check @DuaRansel guide for packing here and here. 
  6. Most of the hotels local/ abroad, even the cheap ones are already preparing basic toiletries. So don't bring them, unless you have allergies or very selective to toiletries you used. Even if so, you should just bring a small portion of them using small vials that most supermarket will sells (we prefer the one from MUJI. A little bit expensive at first, but quite long lasting). 
  7. Always brings small change during your trip abroad, especially the first time you reached the airport. Sometimes we exchange currency in big number (50, 100, 1000, etc), and when we reached to the airport we realized we need to use small change to use the public transport and for tipping. Sometimes we forgot about that, and so we used to exchange them by purchasing snacks/ drinks in the airport, which is obviously more expensive than purchasing them in convenience store. 
  8. Inline with point #7, when traveling abroad, we should save the country's currency in large bills when we are returning to our country. The large bills will be used as a safety net in case we need to purchase/ pay something at the airport, such as our additional Rp 300.000,- baggage charge. The large bills if not used, can be exchanged with higher value back home, compared with the small bills. If not, at least bring extra American Dollar or Euro. We don't recommend exchanging IDR abroad, as mostly the value dropped significantly.
  9. If possible, bring extra bag that can be folded. The bag must be light and takes up small space. It would be useful for you when you goes shopping for daily meals in the country, and if needed can be used to put those gifts that your friends/ family are asking (sometimes very late) to bring home from your travel.
  10. NEVER-EVER-EVER-EVER-EVER bring any foods from your hometown, unless it is for gifts/ souvenirs for your friend in the visited destination. Some Indonesian (older generations) tends to bring items such as Sambal (traditional chili sauce), Instant Noodle, Soy Ketchup, even Rice Cooker! From our experience, those foods tends to return to our hometown, as we prefer to eat out when traveling. We are traveling, why not as well enjoy their culinary culture, instead of eating what we can have in our hometown? ^_^
  11. Be extra careful when eating raw foods/ exotic foods when traveling. Yes, salads, seafood, foreign fruit juice, and sashimi sounds wonderful and healthy, but too often we are blinded with the exotic experience and forget about our own body condition. For regular Joe like us, who are lacking good exercise, when traveling, especially on a tight schedule, our body sometimes don't act normally. They are often fatigued and tired due to constant travel, new weather condition, and foreign air condition. These conditions makes us more vulnerable. Fresh salads and spicy chili that we can easily chowed down in our hometown might trigger diarrhea. Grilled seafood that are not fresh sometimes can be gulped down easily in our hometown, but when traveling can cause food poisoning (like what happen to Alia during our last trip to Langkawi). If you will expose yourself to most of these kind of foods, it is better for you to have enough rest, acclimate yourself, and for emergency, bring medicine on your trip. You don't want to spend all your money for vacation resting in bed due to sickness, right?
We think for now, this list will provide as reminder for our future travel. Please feel free to add more points, so we can learn and become a better and cultured traveler in the future. :)

Enjoy!


4/23/2013

Coffee at Noah's Barn Coffeenery

After almost five years of blogging in JejakRasa, we are more and more drawn into the world of free spirited traveling and food blogging. Understand that we are still new and still need a lot to learn about this new fun world, we are excited to meet up with Adam & Susan from @PergiDulu, a more experienced and cultured travel blogger. 

They offered to meet us in this place called Noah's Barn. We know the place, as when we went home from Cimahi, we used to pass them frequently. But as the are is considered as "foreign" for us, we never got the chance to visit them.... Until now.

We meet up with Adam, Susan and Nindya, a blogger who also shares our passion on traveling and eating in Noah's Barn at around 7.00 PM. In a glance, the place was filled by customers who either doing the homework with their friends or having a light conversation with friends while drinking coffee. The interior was quite modern and the design was very minimalist. It is a good hang out place. The story of the place according to @PergiDulu is that the owner consisted of two guys who are brother-in-laws. They have a high passion about coffee, and have worked and studied about coffee and barista-ing for quite some time. 

We really enjoyed their coffee and their expertise in creating a good coffee drinks. When asking about their coffee, they told us that they have created a special blend of coffee from various parts of Indonesia and other parts of the world which then served to us as their own signature recipe. If you think of it, they really passionate about their work, right?

Their signature coffee called "Magic", a Cappuccino type of coffee with their signature balance of milk and coffee. Really good.

As we drawn to a great conversation until around 11.00 PM, we realized that we are the last customers to sit there. Great company and great coffee always makes great conversations.

Look forward for our next visit here. 

Enjoy!

Noah's Barn
Jl. Laks. M. U. Nurtanio (Garuda) No. 39
Bandung 40184
Indonesia
Opening hours: Mon - Sat: 09.00 - 21.00; Sun: 12.00 - 21.00

Single Black Coffee

Their Signature "Magic"

Adam from @PergiDulu testing the craftsmanship of their barista.
Looks great eh? :D



4/22/2013

Nasi Timbel Kedai Rumah

One of our paper co-author friend are coming to have a lunch meeting in our house. As the clock ticking, we are busy preparing the paper material and fail to remember about the "lunch" word in lunch meeting. So when the clock reaches 11 AM we switch our task to search for the closest restaurant that can deliver their food fast.

After rummaging the food brochures (only food blogger and Emak-Emak or Mommies who have a tidy folder containing restaurant brochures :p), we decided to try order a delivery menu from Kedai Rumah.

We ordered their complete Nasi Timbel (a traditional set menu from Bandung consisted of white rice, fried chicken, fried tofu, fried tempe, fresh garden vegetables, and sambal/ chili sauce). Their delivery is fast (around 20 minutes), their food is quite delicious, and the price at Rp 25.000,- (USD 2,5) is quite affordable.

Look forward for another lunch meeting in our house ^_^.

Enjoy!

Kedai Rumah
Jl. Cijagra No. 18
Buah Batu - Bandung
Phone: +6222 95995507 / 7323815
Mobile: +62 88802037817
Blackberry PIN: 31156FBD

Complete Nasi Timbel Set



4/21/2013

Lunch Date at Sumber Hidangan

On the way to campus at lunch, we are planning to try and eat in one Ramen vendor at Braga street. It turned out, the place was fully booked, and we need to wait for reservation before we can eat there.

Hungry and running out of time, since we are in between meeting, we decided to have our lunch at one of the oldest restaurant in Bandung: Sumber Hidangan. The place usually has very irregular business hour (we suspect because the attendances, who are also quite old, sometimes take siesta moment :D), but luckily it was open when we went there.

The place was surprisingly quite full, with some young customers (our conspiracy theory suggest that they might be like us: hungry-and-bored-waiting-for-reservation-in-the-previous-restaurant), and some age fitted customers having their lunch there.

I ordered their Burger and Alia ordered their fried noodle (now you know who wanted to eat Ramen :p). For dessert, we could not resist the temptation of their signature Marasquino (Rum) flavored Ice Cream. Very delicious and it completely render our previous craving on Ramen to none ^_^.

Enjoy!

Sumber Hidangan
Jl. Braga No. 20-22
Bandung
Opening hour: 08.30-19.00
(Informal siesta hour: 14.00-16.00)

Marasquino Ice Cream (Psst... I think it got alcohol in it :p)

Beef Burger

Fried Noodle



4/02/2013

Kedai Ling-Ling Jalan Sukajadi Bandung

This is one of the vendors already been around in Bandung, but yet we have not tried it before. So when they opened a new location in Sukajadi area, we quickly goes there and try.

The place was fully crowded. No wonder, as to celebrate their soft opening, they give 30% discount for food and beverages, not bad eh?

We ordered their ramen and es kriuk (fruit flavored jelly with syrup) and it tasted ok. Also with their big portion it guaranteed to fill your tummy for the whole afternoon.

Enjoy!

Kedai Lingling
Jl. Sukajadi
Bandung

The Signage
Bar Area #1
Bar Area #2
View from the Street
Seating Area #1
Seating Area #2 
Chicken Katsu Ramen
Ramen
Iced Ocha
Es Kriuk

4/01/2013

New Addiction: Kacang Kapri Tari Bali

Our friend AMK from Bali always have a new kind of food to give to us, whenever he is coming to Jakarta/ Bandung or whenever we are visiting him in Bali. And usually what he give us is the better option of food compared with what the famous one we usually bought.

This goes with this Kacang Kapri snack (a local traditional fried peanut from Bali). He brought us this Kacang Kapri and we go nuts! It tasted sweet, savory, and better compared with the ones we usually find in Bali.

He really knows how to make us come back to Bali regularly :).

Enjoy!

Kacang Kapri Tari Bali
Jl. Gunung Tangkuban Prahu
Perum Padang Galeria 2 / 116
Kota Denpasar 80117
Contact: +62 87861919287 / +62 361 731631 (Ibu Yeni)


Kacang Kapri Tari Bali