Jakarta - Day 6

This was a lazy day...J and I were stuck at home cos there was no car to bring us out. Bummer!

So when dusk came...I couldn't stand being at home anymore! And I got one of the male servant to drive us to Senaya Plaza...hehehe...

I wanted to have dinner at Rustique, cos I wanted J to try their Wagyu beef, which I enjoy very much. We were presented with a bread basket and mandarin oranges - just because it's Chinese New Year...I thought it's a nice touch!

We decided to try the difference between the Wagyu and the Angus dry aged beef...whatever that means! Guess which steak is which!?

This darker and thicker steak is the dry aged beef. It's quite "beefy" tasting, and the red wine sauce that comes with it is quite delicious too.

And this is the Grade 6 Wagyu steak! It's juicier cos of the higher fat content (eh...so sinful!)...and more tender overall. I prefer the Grade 9, but it's only available in 750gram, and both of us can't possibly finish that much steak!

It was an enjoyable dinner overall...and I will be back with more people next time, so that we can have the Grade 9 Wagyu! *drool*

Jakarta - Day 5

It's the 2nd day of Chinese New Year, and I'm already tired of eating Chinese food all this while! So me and J decided to go walk around in the new Grand Indonesia mall, and find some nice food to eat.

But the traffic jam was horrible! And we were ravenous when we finally reached the mall! The mall is soooo huge, that I don't know where to start to look for food! I came up with the brilliant idea to just go into the first decent restaurant that we come to...and guess what loomed ahead of us....Crystal Jade Kitchen! Eh, not exactly the cuisine I'm looking for...but my stomach won over my taste buds!

And then I saw the promotion for Peking Duck! Yum! Ok, I am going to get me some duck!

I like the tableware...it's in unconventional shapes, and I think it's really pretty. We ordered quite a lot of food, and surprisingly, J wanted fried rice! Ha! He doesn't usually fancy fried rice, but I love it! :)

The Peking Duck was served first, and I was very excited to see 8 pieces of them! Hehehe...which means we can have 4 each! Or maybe I can steal one from J's share :) Ok, I love Peking Duck, and usually if you eat with a group of people, you will probably only get 2 pieces each, which is totally unsatisfying! The 8 pieces of skin came from only half a duck.

Beside the duck, is the prawns with salted egg yolk - hmm...I still prefer Asia Grand's version of this dish.

Here is a plate of the obligatory greens....which tasted ok lah....

We requested for the remaining duck meat to be cooked in black pepper sauce. I've never heard of people pan frying the duck meat with black pepper sauce before, and was curious to try it when I saw the option in the menu. Usually, they shred the duck meat and stir fry it with bean sprouts.

The duck meat was good! But there was just too much food for the two of us, and we couldn't finish them all.

After the sumptuous lunch, we had to walk it off, and off we go to Harvey Nichols! I'm really looking forward to go there, because it's supposed to be THE department store to go to in London, right? But everything in there cost millions and millions of rupiah! *faint*...we walked out...after like browsing for 10 minutes...

Ok, can't afford the stuff there, but I spotted a cool looking cafe inside, and decided that I can probably afford to have tea at Harvey Nichols :) And the name of the cafe is kinda cool...Social House.

After walking around the other shops in the mall, we walked back to Social House to get some drinks. Check out the cool menu clipped to a clothes hanger!

I ordered their special iced lemon tea...and I absolutely love it! It taste a bit like Running Amock @ Loof.

Check out the drink...and my Louis Vuitton bag! :) Ok, I wish it's my bag, but I actually borrowed it from my aunty for the whole week I was in Jakarta...hehehe. I like this bag because it's roomy, and it has a base to keep it in shape, very practical size too! I can keep all my barang-barang comfortably inside.

The iced tea comes with a scoop of lemon sorbet...yummy! Very refreshing!

J ordered the apple pie, and it comes with a scoop of ice-cream and berry compote. Very nice!

This is the California maki that we ordered. Couldn't resist ordering the sushi from their menu, cos they all looked so good. We easily polished off the small makis, and they were rather delicious. Yum!

I am glad I found this cafe, and I will definitely come back to try their other stuff when I'm back in Jakarta the next time! And I really like the cosy feel of this place, and service is friendly and efficient...and of course, give me more of the iced tea please!

Jakarta - Day 4

Welcome to the Year of the Ox! Yes, I'm still posting Lunar New Year happenings! Ha!

The day started early in the morning with visiting and becoming a vegetarian for half a day. I don't mind eating veggies for the first half of the day after all the feasting the night before at the reunion dinner. It's a tradition that my family has been observing for years, and I don't really know what does it signify.

It was a fun day filled with visiting relatives, eating all the New Year goodies, and of course collecting ang bao for me! Ha!

Jakarta - Day 3

My day started early in the morning on Chinese New Year Eve. Went to the salon to do hair hair treatment and of course to wash and blow dry it to look nice for the coming "Niu" Year :)

I also managed to squeeze in a quick brunch at the Ritz Carlton Hotel with my Bro and SIL. When we reached there, they are already closing the breakfast buffet! So we had to order a la carte.



We were presented with a bread basket and an assortment of spreads, and I spotted Nutella! Yum! And some soft cheese spread...quite good too.





The breads were soft and still warm, so we attacked them before our orders came. I felt overloaded with carbs from the breads, but I still looked forward to my order of nasi goreng (fried rice)! I don't know why, but I just love eating nasi goreng in hotel's cafes.



The nasi goreng looked good when it came. I like my rice to be topped with a sunny side up, and the sate, keropok and sambal at the side - this is how the hotels usually serve this humble dish. Unfortunately, it didn't taste as good as it looks!





Was disappointed with the meal, but it's now time to rush to the airport to pick J up! Hmmm...will probably grab some McDonald's or A&W when I'm there! Ha!

Jakarta - Day 2

Day 2 in Jakarta was the eve of Chinese New Year Eve :) And it was also the day when we celebrated Baby Bel's 2nd month birthday! My bro and SIL decided to go Indonesian and ordered nasi tumpeng for the occassion. Nasi tumpeng is usually ordered for parties in Indonesia...read on to find out more about it!

Preparations for the party started in the early afternoon, when my Aunt and I went to buy gudeg - it is chicken cooked in some sort of coconut milk sauce. It should go very well with the nasi tumpeng.

Couldn't resist taking a pic of my neighour's house as we drive out. I love their house! It's so modern zen, and so high up - good way to avoid the floods!

The restaurant we went to is so old school! Check out the 1960's decor!

Can you see the chicken in the basins? Food is usually displayed like that in traditional Indonesian restaurants, and you just pick and choose what you want to eat.

All the relatives started to arrive around 5pm, and my vegetarian cousins even brought vegetarian Indonesian food. Look at the vegetarian spread - it tastes as good as it looks.

This is the highlight of the evening - the Nasi Tumpeng. Don't you think the cone shaped rice is cool?! It is basically a cone of yellow rice surrounded by dishes like fried chicken, tempe, fried tauhu, sambal eggs, pergedil, ikan billis, sambal prawns and super spicy sambal chilli.

Check out the proud parents! The star of the party is sleeping away in the room! Ha! She is missing out on her own party!

The hosts are supposed to cut the top of the rice, to symbolise the start of the party, and the guests can start eating.

It was really fun meeting up with my aunts, uncles and cousins. And tomorrow will be another gathering for Chinese New Year's Eve reunion dinner!

Jakarta - Day 1

Brought 2 months old Baby Bel back to Jakarta for the very first time! She's a good girl! Didn't cry at all during the flight!

Baby Bel was more restless in the car than in the plane! It took us 2hrs to reach home :(

Later that night, we had dinner with all my relatives from my mom's side at Angke - the most popular Hakka restaurant in Jakarta! It was so packed and we had to wait awhile for the food to arrive. And there were 2 full tables of us hungry adults...

Check out the bottled Coke! I love it! It's so old school!

The first dish to arrive is the noodles - which we attacked with relish! I don't know how to describe the taste of the noodles, but it's really different, and it reminded me of my childhood?!

Next up is my favourite dish - the boiled chicken with lots of garlic and ginger sauce poured over it. It's like the Hainanese Chicken Rice boiled chicken, but with more kick.

And then came the dish that I won't eat! The frog legs....eh...skip! But the adults love it so much. It's cooked with preserved salted vegetable and the red stuff...don't know what it is called.

Next comes my bro's favourite dish. The eel fried with "fu mak". It's a type of vegetable that is crunchy. It blends well with the slightly crunchy fried eel.

My other favourite dish is prawns in butter sauce. Yum! Sinfully buttery and the prawns are sooo huge! My bro said this plate of prawns cost SGD50, the most expensive dish that night, but I think it's worth it cos the prawns are really HUGE!

I thought that's the end of the dishes, and out came the braised pork belly! I'm not a fan of fatty meats, but this is a traditional Hakka dish that will appear during festive periods. The adults enjoyed it anyway. I drenched my rice in the flavourful sauce.

And there is more!! The last dish was the stir fried tofu and fish with black bean sauce. By then, I'm really very full! Couldn't eat more than a bite of the tofu. The tofu has a smoky flavour to it, which was really nice, couldn't find something like this elsewhere.

*BURP* That was a really a satisfying dinner on our first day in Jakarta! More good food to come!

Birthday lunch @ Shokudo!

I can't seem to keep my posts current! But anyway, here's some food porn from my birthday lunch with my colleagues at Shokudo - the pasta cafe thingy.

The sweet people in the office celebrated my birthday earlier cos I'm going on leave soon for Chinese New Year. My birthday always falls near Chinese New Year, so it's often overlooked by a lot of people who are busy preparing for the once a year celebrations. Ha! You know who you are, but I love you all still! :)

We had the tempura spring roll (can't recall the name), which is quite nice and refreshing, but a bit too bland for my taste.


We shared a few dishes, as we couldn't decide what to order from the vast menu. One of my favourite is the rosti with curry sauce. I think Japanese curry sauce tastes pairs well with a lot of carbos.


We also had a bowl of udon to warm Oinky's tummy! Poor girl needs warm soupy stuff to warm her tummy!

The creamy clam shell pasta is ok, anyway I'm not a big fan of shellfish.

It was an enjoyable lunch, with lots of office gossip and laughter!

Happy "Yuan Xiao Jie"

The Lunar New Year has officially ended! Life will go back to normal, and the feasting will stop :)

I had another wish came true last Saturday. It's a simple wish really - I just want to drive to the gym, so that I don't have to lug my heavy gym bag along! Ha! Simple, but it's something I've not done until that day!

The feeling is great! I brought 2 bags; 1 bag to contain all my gym gear, and another "glam glam" bag to tote around when I go shopping after my work out.

This is the only reason why I want to drive to the gym! Hahaha...vain or lazy? You decide and let me know.

**Note to self: Post Jakarta trip and CNY gatherings!

Bakerzin...

is not a place that I voluntarily suggest going. It was due to a really bad service experience I had ages ago, but until today, the experience still leaves a bitter taste in my mouth.

I will only go there if a friend suggests going there, or it's the most convenient place in that area.

In this occassion, I was with my Aunties, and they were too tired to walk to the other end of Vivocity to have tea by the "harbour view".

Since it was near Christmas, my Aunt ordered a slice of Fruit Cake. I'm not a fan of cakes, especially fruit cake! But they seemed to enjoy it, and that's all that matters :)

J had a slice of the Chocolate Log Cake to keep to the Christmas theme. The log cake was alright, with really thick Chocolate coating on it.


We ordered Cappucinnos and I was pleasantly surprised to see some Latte art done.

One of my Aunt is diabetic, so no cakes for her! Me being the savoury person and a good niece (hehe...) ordered some savouries for all to share.

I ordered the ham and cheese sandwich, which doesn't look like a sandwich at all. But it tastes good! Except for that overcooked egg that was plopped on top of the sandwich. It is sooo rubbery and tasteless...I don't know why they even bother with adding it!

I also ordered their "pizza" - which came cut up into triangular pieces of flaky puff pastry crusts. This was much better than the sandwich, and everyone enjoyed it too. J ate the most pieces!


Overall, the service is as usual slooooowww....and most of the times non-existent. I had to grab some cutlery myself as I just fail to get the attention of the half dozens of waiters/waitresses milling around...gazing into nothingness...

I'm glad my Aunts enjoyed their tea, and hope they will come back to Singapore soon! And next time, I will bring them to Canele!

Pasta Cafe...dessert then dinner...

We went to Pasta Cafe for tea, because that is the only place without a long Queue on a Sunday in Ngee Ann City!

J wanted to have some cake with his coffee, and the Chocolate Praline looks the most appetizing to me. I'm not a fan of cakes, but J still want me to choose his cakes for him! Duh.

I ordered the Iced Coffee, and it came in a tall glass with iced coffee cubes - or rather they are iced coffee sticks! This is really cool! This way, you will not get diluted coffee as you slowly sip and savour it.




This brilliant idea should be adopted by ALL coffee places for their iced coffees!

We stayed on for awhile, reading books and playing with our iPhone or iPod Touch. Before we know it, it's dinner time! It was nearly 7pm, so we decided to have dinner there too! Too lazy to move lah... :)

When in Pasta Cafe...you order....Pasta lah...!

The Aglio Olio pasta I ordered was ok, but not as spicy as I prefer. They added pine nuts into the pasta, which didn't do anything for me. Not a fan of nuts, in any form!

J had his usual seafood spaghetti - it was quite decent as it was chockfull of seafoods. This pasta was quite good, and J enjoyed it.

After dinner, we walked around somemore and headed home. This is again a typical Sunday for us.

Must think of something more exciting to do leh! Any suggestions?