Fishy Treat

So the story of my life: Mon-Fri at my beloved kost La Belle Maison, on Saturday afternoon my family scooped me and my dirty laundry back home. But I was totally excited to have dined out yesterday at GI. How I missed that it! So I'm always in a mood for Western style food so this is The Manhanttan Fish Market. I guess it's a bit like Fish and Co. I wanna have my Carl's Jr. next week, hopefully. So, there's a Ramadhan special for four so we just went ahead and order that. :P

The mushroom soup go with the specials. I have to say it'was too salty and savory. I was hoping for a good mushroom taste. But I like that it was blended, not the cheap cream and mushroom soup.

I love the fpur people platter. It got dory, french fries, flavored rice, prawns, fried mushrooms, clams and calamari. The taste that jumped at me was actually the fries. It was actually really good! I wish I can fry decent fries like that. The Dory was fine as well as the mushrooms and clams. Not so much about the calamari. It's a bit bland really. Can calamaris absorb flavors? Anyway, I managed to eat on prawn. You see, my lips won't let me eat prawns. So I have to put it on the end of my mouth and chew it quickly. Or my lips will feel weird and uncomfortable.

Yea, it was a great fishy treat. Although you have to pay a hefty price for these, it's worth the try!


PS: Went furniture hunting and saw this. That's very....interesting. Oh I just love strolling in an hardware or furniture store. I just want to scoop 'em and stuffed them in my room. They are gorgeous :D


always,
hana.

Time Travel

My family made a trip to Bandung last weekend and I've been searching online for the best restaurant in the city to try. For Saturday night dinner, we went to INDISCHETAFEL, at Jalan Sumatera No. 19. This is a Dutch inspired themed restaurant, designed to be like an old house in Indonesia during the Dutch settlement. As soon as you walk in, you'll see old gramophone, measuring device, grinder, fan, stuff like that. My grams said the floor and furniture really looked authentic.

For starters, we order this: bitterballen, but with a twist: cheese. The cheese was generous; it's so good, perfect for cheese lovers.

Dad order this smoked ribs, the house specialty. What can I say? It was gorgeous. It is well portioned, a real value for money. As ribs go, it was one of the best I've tried. It's tender and nice, but the barbeque sauce was a little too..tense and strong for my tastebuds. This goes for about 70-80 thousand IDR.

My brother's was this tongue steak. I was like 'What?' but when I tried it, it was heavenly. I really don't think it would taste so good. But try to avoid thinking about the actual tongue, or you'll have an unpleasant eating experience, like I did :P

My dinner was a simple sirloin with mushroom sauce and mashed potato. Meat quality, not so tender, but the portion fit. Oh, and the mashed potato tasted like potato, not so much spices going on. Warning, there is a lot of potatoes, you'll be full with it. The sauce was nice. Yum. Steaks go for around 50-60 thousand IDR.

The food flow was good, the food presentation was top notch, ambience not so much. Because it feels like home, everyone acted like they are really at home, laughing and talking too loud, and sometimes making jokes that failed to entertain. But through out the night, the radio played old Dutch songs, which really goes with the theme.

Oh, there is also the shop, selling cookies and baked goods.


always,
hana.

Do Nothing Birthday

I turn 18 today, don't feel like older though. But I have to say, I've got a lot to be thankful for in my 17th year on earth. Thank you, God :D My Facebook wall was full of wishes, I can't even reply them all. But I got my wish today, to watch Despicable Me, which is okay :D

with my cousin, Ribka.

Yesterday, I watched The Karate Kid (again). My friend Hosanna was treating us, how can I say no? He's going to Bandung for college. Gonna miss you buddy :D

jess, ben, hana, dimas, gabs, hosanna, kania

and had a late lunch at pancious, ordered the mushroom fetucine to compare with MOF's. MOF is still my favorite. This one isn't well portioned. It made me uncomfortably full. But the sauce is good, the pasta is good, highly recommend this for empty stomachs :D

Oh, and earlier last week, visited the Jajanan Bango Festival at Parkir Selatan GBK, Senayan and savor these Indonesian delights:

Mie Aceh: Perfect for those who love spicy food, alarming for me who don't. But I have to admit that is good.

Mie Koclok from Cirebon: I have broth was phenomenal and interesting, you don't see white broth often. Also very good. Gotta try that again when I go to Cirebon.

Soto H. Ahrie from Garut: it's basically meat soto with rice, plus peanuts! I hate peanuts; and the soto was okay. Didn't really made a big impression.


I'm going out of town next week, so I'll post a batch of food posts. Coming very soon.


always,
hana.

Weekend Treat

Went out to Senayan City to watch The A-Team, did some window shopping, bought a book *Veronika Decides to Die. Review is coming!* and ate at Spageddies.

Absolutely love the mushroom soup. Creamy with little pieces of mushroom, with fried shredded potatoes; very savory, and mushy in a best way. This is very cheap, only 10.000 IDR !

This the three meat combo, with pepperoni, italian sausage and chicken. Italian sausage was great, almost has a spicy taste to it. The cheese was glorious but I thought it was a bit tasteless. I was waiting for that significant cheesy sensation but it failed miserably. Not savory enough for my Indonesia tongue. It needed extra ketchup to activate the flavors. Pizzas ranges around 60.000-70.000 IDR.

This one is a portion, enough for two I suppose. Spaghetti Carbonara, with mushroom and smoked beef. It was overwhelmingly creamy, but same as the pizza, wasn't very savory. The cream was too bland, the beef flavor didn't do much to enhance it but the pasta itself was in the right of my satisfactory level. Eating too much made my stomach a little funny. Pastas go for around 40.000-60.000 IDR

PS:
got my Veronika Decides To Die by Paulo Coelho, one very awesome piece of work.

Renewed Power

Hey, it's been well after a week after my last post. here's some life update, from the desk of Hana.
-It was my high school PROM on Wednesday.

l-r: lishea, hana, amelia, rachel and patricia.

I had a good time spent with my best buddies, Amelia, Jess, Loren and Patricia. Amelia and I are going to UI but Loren is going to NAFA, Singapore. Gosh, she's leave in July, before my birthday. ; ( hope Jess and Patricia can join us at UI. Good luck! Anyway, everyone was so cool with their proper suits and amazing dressing, their hair-dos, too. Well, prom itself was a little boring but it's fun to have reason to put on a dress and make-up right? Hey, high school is finally over.

-I watched Sidney Mohede Live Recording on Thursday, after being picked up at church after my 'KoRem' meeting. It was also very cool. The collaborations were awesome, with Maya Hasan, Andi Riyanto and a orchestra and choir. I have to watch more of these kind of concerts.

-I watched Shrek Forever After on Friday. Well, I think the story is 'just okay'. I didn't remember laughing on any scenes. But since it's Shrek and it's the last one, you have to watch it. Plus, I ate Burger King. It's the highlight of my week, junk food with plenty of chilli sauce and the best beef patty, ever, with reasonable prices.

So here's my post of the day, item found around the world wide web.

*we all know I have a thing for coastal theme and the sea, despite the fact that I get seasick and I hate lounging on the beach. It's true the coastal things attracts me because the shade of blue I love so much, navy, dark blue. I found this awesome white and blue anchor bag. I want it so much! Isn't it nice?

this is by Thomas Paul. I want plates like these!

it's available at Daytrip Society, a shop in Maine, USA. Why does these cute things only available abroad? Is something like this sold here in Jakarta? Here's their website, which also sells awesome one of a kind sea-themed goods and environmentally friendly items. How cool is that?

*SOCKS Are in for SUMMER? I've been seeing the trend all over the web. Is it any good? Wearing socks with high heels? I thought, 'It's not a bad idea,'

*These dresses sure scream my version of eccentricity. They are by Mara Hoffman and you gotta love the printed dresses. via I am a greedy girl!

*San Remo Pasta is one of the best quick cooking pasta in a package! Guess what? It's actually from Oz

*oh, I've always wanted one of these Goldfish Crackers

*One of my favorite show on TV is Man vs. Food at Travel and Living Channel. This is just nuts!

always,

Hana.

Add Shine

Went to GI today, my ultimate hang-out place; because of Forever 21 of course. But strangely I don't buy clothes, I just love browsing through them and imagining if I can afford all of them ;(

But today I was determined to buy accesories for prom. I've travelled to Mangga Dua yesterday but no luck finding a prom dress. I've finally decided to wear my old dress, and just add some more bling. I hate using jewelries so I had some trouble looking for the perfect set of jewels for my dress.

Before searching for the tresures, I was thinking of trying BENIHANA, that cool restaurant from US which is pretty famous with celebrity. I walked to the restaurant, looked at the menu and decided to turn away. I cannot believe the prices there. I had to switch to more friendlier, cheaper Japanese restaurant.

Remember a few months ago I went to Pasta de Waraku, earlier I went to Waraku!

Mine was Chicken Katsu Curry Don. The curry was amazing and you can't go wrong katsu. No sure about the soup though. It wasn't miso so I didn't like it.

Fried Salmon. This was delicious, like fish and chips without the chips and different species of fish.

I wandered around the East Mall and Ranch Market had just opened. It offers 25% discount for HSBC cardholders. I bought some totally useless/rare/expensive goods and food. I was thinking to buy Ben and Jerry's ice cream but it'll probably melt when I reach home. So my brother spotted frozen White Castle hamburgers. White Castle is pretty famous in US right, one of the best burger chain there. So we just had to try. You'll find things you've never seen before. I use Herbal Essences shampoo and found very different scent from what I normally find at my local supermarket. I just had to smell each one!

Oh, it's a restaurant called ninety nine, part of the Ranch Market company. Says it has 99 menus.

so the hunting began for a necklace and bracelets. we spotted this gorgeous feather headpiece. I had to try. I didn't buy it though, its price is ridiculous. Is it real feather? But it does look very posh and glamourious, perfect for my prom theme but I just can't buy it.

So ended up with these babies.


Oh, I do hope my prom will turn out alright. One night only right?


-hana.

On the Counter

Hey all, went to see my last French Film Festival earlier, Le Petit Nicolas. I'll review it and the others later. But had lunch at KITCHENETTE, an ISMAYA group restaurant. It offers a kitchen feel, complete with stuff you can found in a kitchen: spices, counter tops with blender, meat grinder, coffee grinder, fruits, eggs, all that jazz. BEWARE, it's always full and I had to be put on the waiting list for some time, considering it had just opened and offers a great concept.

Its specialty is galette, it's like crepes but with a different dough, I think.

the galette, ARNAUD. It's like a big pancake, with beef patty, eggs, onion and cheese. But it's not very savory, not many spices in the dough. After searching through Wiki, galette is made from buckwheat while crepes made from wheat. I have no idea what the difference is.

this is my meal, a baked crepelle. Basically chicken and mushroom wrapped in the galette dough with the most glorious cheese. waaaaaaa. Nice tomato sauce, a fair amount of mushrooms and chickens and can't forget the cheese.

a French onion soup. Somehow it's very sour. It has that tinggling feeling. Not my type.

I love the menu. It is glued to a cardboard; very environmently friendly. I like how the classified the menu. There are Grandma Stella, Uncle Chin, Grandpa Luigi, Uncle Raul; feels like a family recipe.

the kitchen! oh la la!

I like the place I sat on earlier, it's on the outer side of the restaurant so I did some people watching, just like in France, with French music, too. I'm not so sure about the price because it can be very pricey. The flow of the food wasn't good either. The galette took forever to be seved. I don't know; maybe it's because the place was full. But a foreign guy--whom job I don't know, maybe the manager?--came and delivered the food and he said 'You have been waiting long; it's on me'. I thought he was joking but no he wasn't. It wasn't on the bill! Thank you, Mister foreign guy who runs the restaurant!

-hana.

Journey

Hey all. I didn't do anything exciting over the past few days. But I did go to BSD City yesterday to visit my uncle and aunt who just got a baby girl named Alexa, cousin #4. But before going to Eka Hospital, went to eat at Aloha Raja Seafood. Mum found it of the internet, through Jalan Sutera. It is located in Alam Sutera, cluster Sutera Harmoni. It's a small, suburban eatery.

This was the best, saos padang prawns. delicious!

It's pretty affordable but the clams and crab sauce failed to absorb through the shells, making it rather tasteless.

-hana.

PS: Best of luck for SIMAK UI for Jessica, Patricia, Amelia, Andrea, Marina, Putri, Dave, Sherly, Anastasia, Yoana, Topher, Vinca, Tere, Ruth, and Clarissa. Ganbatte!

A Sweet End

SATURDAY, had lunch with Sherly, Tannia, and Tantia for Tannia's 18th birthday at Pasta de Waraku, Grand Indonesia.

couldn't resist a good cup of frozen yogurt.

Tannia has a thing for prawns and seafood.

This is mine, I like cream sauce better. The sauce is gorgeous but mixed with the oysters, I think not so good.

_________

SUNDAY, tagged along with my bro to SOUNDSATIONS at Grand Ballroom, Pacific Place. We saw Hollywood Nobodies, White Shoes and The Couples Company, Jens Lekman and Kings of Convienience. To be honest, I don't know their songs (I don't even know Lens Lekman until yesterday) but it was fun! I love their music so much, I had to put them on my music player.

awesome end to a week of madness.

-hana.

PS: I bought three new novels!

-Shutter Island: I love it too much, I should buy Dennis Lehane's other books.

-Along Came a Spider: Finally found Alex Cross' first

-Suzanne's Letters to Nicholas: a romance by James Patterson? Why not!

-Maximum Ride: It's going to be a movie so I think it's worth reading.

Bought James Patterson's at BOOKS, a second-hand bookshop selling English novels, cookbooks, textbooks, and more at TEBET TIMUR. I love BOOKS, it is a great deal.

Melting Pot

{photo from Banar Fil Ardhi via Kompas.com , not mine}

At first, I wasn't into Crocs, the shoes that everyone so loved. I don't see the beauty in rubber clogs. I find them hideous! But as I always made the wrong decision with my shoes (a.k.a. wounded feet) I gave in and bought a pair of McCall and it feels heavenly. Now I love Crocs, but not the clogs, thank you. The flats, please.

So, as you all now there's a Crocs Give Back Sale up to 70% in Senayan City, right now until March 19th. Yesterday I went there, after school. I actually went to the same event last year, and endured a 2 hour queue. It was the same yesterday. But the officials provided seats as we wait, yipee! we started waiting from the 5th floor and the sale was on the 8th floor. A lot of people didn't mind standing in line for 2 hours, just to get a comfortable pair of Crocs.

Inside the hall, people go crazy. You'd see Crocs spread across the floor, shoes that normally costs about 400.000 to 1 million rupiah. It's like a market! People even bring babies with them! It is just a trick to get in faster *because of the baby* or the baby actually needs a pair, I don't know, man.

I bought a pair of Santa Cruz. My brother bought two because Crocs is such a reliable footwear for doctors on call, like him. We bought another for our Dad, because he travels.

After picking up some Jibbitz, we stood in line of payment for another hour. What a night.

-hana.

Strolls at the Park

After getting a much unsatisfactory mid-semester grades, my family and I went to Central Park at Jl. S. Parman, West Jakarta. Having inspired by a TV show on the Travel Channel the previous night, I was feeling like Japanese. I'm not a sushi fan; don't believe in the raw cooking beliefs. But we ate at Sushi Tei today and I ordered a Katsu Don, with chawanmushi and three sushi. My brother ate seven.

It's veggies, meat and mushroom in miso broth. That white thingy was paper.

A festive sushi platter.

There was an HSBC 50% discount on SoSa. I tried the new flavour, melon mint. Couldn't taste the mint though, which was a good thing considering I loathe mint.

Later, saw a bakery called BreadLife. It's very similar to BreadTalk, with bigger bread *more pricey too, obviously*

RUGBY. That's.a.huge.bread, ladies and gentlemen

I recommend the DONUT KATSU *the one with skewer*

It is 9 days to UN and grades isn't going up. I need a miracle...so I can be more diligent.

-hana

TGIF

I went to the J-Town Creative Junction Fashion Bazaar last night, at Senayan City 6th floor. I usually don't go with the style of these bazaar but since my friend, Dea asked me to go with her, I didn't say no. Brands like happy-go-lucky, retail therapy and saint and sinner was there. I especially like Saint and Sinner because their collection are grey, blue, black, and white; four of 'my colors'. We didn't buy anything; we didn't plan to. But Dea found several shoes she adored. She loves fashion very much.

I should go back to Senayan City though. I went to Dorothy Perkins and saw some beautiful casual shirt, an investment for college. Woohoo.

Oh, I forgot to bring my camera. Dang.

the shoes are new off an online shop, Pacman.

a hand me down bag, which I love very much!

I'm planning to watch Alice In Wonderland today. Alice!

-hana.