My Four New Favorite Eating Places in Jakarta [FoodBlog]

Maybe not everyone knows that I have moved back to Indonesia since late November 2012 for good (I think), but I am just gonna update about my food-life for the past two months. Below are the list of food-chains or restaurants from the least expensive to the most expensive that I just tried once in my life, but I am gonna go back again anytime soon, because all of them were scored pretty good based on my taste bud.

1. D' Cost Quick

After they established a fairly good name in F&B industry in Indonesia past few years, D' Cost Group decided to open their new type of food-chain, namely D' Cost Quick. To be honest, I never tried D' Cost Seafood Restaurant before, but when I tried D' Cost Quick in Pasar Festival, Kuningan, I was surprised with the price that relatively less expensive, about 12-22k IDR (~1.4-2.4 USD) per portion even for neighborhood mall and nice taste. Like usual, I tried something with weird name: Mie Cumi Saos Bangbang. Another plus is that they provide dine-in customers with free-flow tea, so drink as much as you want, just be responsible.

2. Salero House
Trying to have "chick" decoration, this eating place caught my friend attention, because we seldom see any Padang Restaurant with this kind of interior design. Moreover, the menu list is all about Padang, even you could find pasta ala Padang style here. I was curious about how the taste of Martabak ala Salero and I was surprised how they changed the filling of it with beef rendang and for me it tastes great! In case you wanna give it a visit, it is in Kota Kasablanka.

3. Caprese Restaurant, Pizzeria & Bar

Also located in Kota Kasablanka, similar with Salero House, this place has a good food and nice staff with great ambiance (or maybe because me and my friends came after lunch hour passed). So far I have tried their pizza, lasagna, and pasta, which in my opinion those three are good.

4. Gyu-Kaku
For this, I should have said thank you to my friend, Dinda, who organized our new years eve gathering in this place, Gyu-Kaku (Pacific Place), otherwise I would not know how good this place is. Gyu-Kaku is Japanese BBQ Restaurant, but the one that I want to highlight is actually their desserts. I tried Coffee Pudding.

[Food] Where Should NTU Students Eat in Jurong Point?

After wrote a post about what I ate during my internship and the fact this post is considered popular among the post I wrote so far (top 10), with support of another fact that my friends sometimes inquiry to me about where should they eat in Jurong Point (JP), I decided to write this post. Basically, below are the eatery places that I consider nice place and food for you to try and my judgement is a bit subjective, so feel free to comment if you think it is not as nice as I state here. The order is in ranking mode, with number 1 as the highest rank, while number 5 as the lowest rank. And you will notice, I option out foodcourt, but I do eat there of course. :)

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1. Ayam Penyet Ria

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If you go to Ayam Penyet Ria at basement level nearby old FairPrice (old Jurong Point), you should try their Ayam Penyet, Empal Penyet, Soto Ayam, and Rawon. The fact that I am Indonesian might cloud my judgement about this ranking system, because I am still proud to be Indonesian and want to promote Indonesian culture, food and others at my best efforts. But if you like spicy food, you can really enjoyably take the chilli as much as you can, and the chilli is really the spicy. The beverages that I would recommend will be Indonesia Avocado Juice, because the way Indonesia serve it, we put in condensed chocolate milk on top of it or around the inside glass. Deliciously sweet! :)

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2. Ambush

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Located outside challenger, level 2 of old Jurong Point, Ambush will offers you quite wide variety of sumptuous western style dishes. If you happen go here, you should try their Meatball and Chip. The meatball is really nice, which I think it is their made-in-house meatballs, not really frozen meatball from supermarket. But if it is the latter case, then I should ask them where they buy it, because it is nice!

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3. Old Town White Coffee

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The location of Old Town White Coffee is a bit hidden, at Level 2 of New Jurong Point but located all the way behind nearby FairPrice (cant really describe the location well, but you can always ask me if you need help to find it). This resto is come from Malaysia, so you will expect of local and Malaysia food fusion together, which in fact I think both are quite similar. If I go here, usually I will order their nasi lemak, because it is quite filling and the complement dishes (small portion) are quite nice. One of the nasi lemak variation will be Nasi Lemak Special. For the beverages, can try their Spirulina Orange. But well, you can taste the orange since the taste is really strong, but not really for Spirulina. But the temptation to try something new (from the drink name) couldnt be resisted for me. Beside it, you can try their (something) hot chocolate, the taste I can say beat Starbucks hot chocolate, for real!

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4. Bakerzin

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Bakerzin and Old Town White Coffee are actually in the same position in my ranking preference, but since Bakerzin price is slightly higher, so I mark it down (budget-conscious customer). I know Bakerzin should be a place you enjoy your cakes and desserts, but I had meals here before and it was quite good during my visit. Their pizza is quite nice, since I prefer to have thin crust pizza and their pasta quite filling and tasty as well. I tried their Mushroom Carbonara Sauce Pasta where the sauce was just nice.

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5. Thai Express

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This resto can beat Bakerzin if only they can upgrade their service. Instead of Thai Express, they should call themselves Thai Snail I can say. Regardless of their slow service, which I will recommend if you are not urgently hungry and want to have longer chat over your meals, the food are nice and suit my taste, esp their dessert when I ordered their set menu.

So, do you think any other resto that better than those 5 I mentioned above in Jurong Point, if yes, let me know, and I will make some changes if I agree with your opinions. For a moment, enjoy to try all of the above! :)

[Author Corner] Slaugthering: Why Some Indonesian Care, Some Don't

Disclaimer: If you are vegan or some activist who objects about slaughtering, please refrain from reading or even comments on this post. Your concerns are appreciated but not in this post, because I wont talk anything about how violent or so-wateva about slaugthering. Thank you.

Read an article about the way of people do slaughtering of the animals and which one is good,  and some arguments I had lately triggers me to write-up this post.

Basically if what's the article said is true (I havent dig up the research paper, so if anyone who found the paper, please let me know), then I have no objections about Islamic-way of slaughtering is the best way so far that human race can have. But been lived in Singapore and Indonesia so far (luckily only 2 countries), makes me ponder why some people really care about slaughtering and why some don't.

As you know majority of people in Indonesia are Moslem, while Moslems in Singapore are in minority portion, but the standard in Singapore is so much higher compare to Indonesia, particularly about what we are going to talk about at this post: Slaughtering.

According to google (type: "define: slaughtering" in your google search bar):

slaughteringpresent participle of slaugh·ter (Verb)
Verb:
Kill (animals) for food.
Kill (people or animals) in a cruel or violent way, typically in large numbers.

The fact that there is halal certified in Singapore are the key part why Moslems in Singapore have such so-called double standard. During arguments about it, one of my friends insisted something about the non-halal way of slaughtering whenever I have meal in non-halal resto (no pork, no lard). But when I confronted saying: "then you can not eat at all if you pay a visit to Indonesia, coz you need to have your own animals for you to slaughter by yourself, then you know it is halal". Then the argument about it stopped.

Another friend of mine said to me: "well, since Indonesia has big percentage of Moslems, about 90%, so it is matter of trust among Indonesian". Well I do believe that Indonesian themselves have their own concerns about it, but then they do not really take a big issue and then when I brought such values to Singapore, some people will start to judge and so. Well, it is up to them to judge for what I consume (not only food, everything!).

So back again to Indonesia, with population of more than 260mil (no idea why this number came up), the population itself is more than 40 times of Singapore population. It is only population, if you talk about areas, then it will be even worse. Then it comes with the way people buy their raw meats in Indonesia and Singapore. In Singapore, majority of people will simply buy their raw meats from modern market, while in Indonesia, most of them will buy from traditional market. So from here you can see, why in Singapore they can easily-controlled whether the raw food is halal or not, while in Indonesia it is nearly to impossible. Can you imagine if every morning my mom should ask to the sellers whether the raw foods were slaughtered in Islamic way? It is only in the perspective of my mom, what about in the perspective of the sellers? How many people will ask them? 100 a day? or maybe even more!

Although in Indonesia the government can come up with halal certificate, so it will be more reliable, soon enough there will be a lot of fake-halal-certificate around. To be honest, Indonesia people are so creative in doing such things, because our government can not really keep-up to what their citizens can do illegally, unlike here in Singapore that has less people and less area. Then it will create another problem.

Another scenario is to refrain people from buying raw meats in traditional market then direct them to modern market thus government can control the halal raw meats, there will be a lot of objections around the country i.e. more people lost their day-jobs. It will create another problem.

Morale of the story

Let yourself knows about other people life background, before you start any kind of arguments

[Food] Oil-Free Prawn Crackers

It is nothing really great about it, but I just simply wanted to write it down what I found last week.

Actually I heard about it quite long time ago, when one of my friend in Indonesia told me that she cooked raw prawn crackers in her microwave, but I never tried it only until last week.

My mom knows that I like cracker so much, thus she put this raw prawn crackers into my luggage when I went back for hari raya. Normally I will cook it with oil and pan, but because my block pantry changed the traditional gas stove to the heat inducer, so I cant use my normal pan anymore to cook it, and I am so lazy to go to another block to use it. Due to that reason I purposely searched in youtube and I found the above video.

No harm to try, so I tried it the night when I searched the video, and I found some interesting info. By using microwave and place all of the 6 prawn crackers at the side of plate, you can set the timing as 1:10 with "instant cook" choice from your microwave. For me it worked out and I have finished the whole can of first batch cook-prawn crackers.

Since my mom gave me 1kg of raw prawn crackers, so I still can cook it and get oil-free prawn crackers! This way make my life healthier, but I dunno if there will be side effects with eating too much of foods heated by microwave. Will be there any drawbacks to me? O.o

[Food] Intern who Spent Money for Daily Necessity

My experiences during my internship last summer in SGEntrepreneurs is not only resulting in networking, real-job experiences, and self-improvement, but also resulting in knowledge of food available around SGE office. Located in South Bridge area, the office is surrounded by quite various places to eat at, i.e. circular road, central mall, raffles place, and Funan mall. All of those places are up to 10 mins walk from my office.

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Circular Road

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There are few places that I tried during my internship in this road.
1. Sinar Pagi Nasi Padang
It is so far the best Nasi Padang that I've ever tried in Singpore. Been talking about this quite a lot to my mom, because last time she came here, she had difficulty in adjusting with the food. She is totally an Indonesian, particularly Padangnese, because she majorly only can eat Padang food. So will be happy bringing her to this shop when she comes to visit me again. One of the food variation that I tried.
2. Hawker Centre
There is only one hawker centre in Circular Road. Among all of the stalls, I tried only one stall, The Malay Stall. Typical Malay Stall, it sells foods namely like Mee Rebus, Mee Goreng etc. But, I didnt tried such things, instead I tried more of their type Chicken Rice, starting from their Chilli Chicken Rice till their Black pepper Chicken Rice. On top of that, they also have Fried Rice, which can be considered worth-it to try, since most of the price in this area kinda pricey for an intern. :D
3. Yong Tau Foo Shop
I thought there will be no difference in the taste of Yong Tau Foo, because it is consist of foods that being put into the soup. But apparently I am wrong. Their Yong Tau Foo is the worst Yong Tau Foo that I've ever tried. Well, I only tried Yong Tau Foo in Banquet previously, VivoCity and Jurong Point.

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Central Mall

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There are a lof of resto that you can try in Central Mall indeed, but as intern and limited budget of everyday, here are the places that I went.
1. Burger King
Well, everyone knows how Burger King taste I think. And since it is franchise, they will adopt the same SOP globally, so the taste is supposedly the same. Beside in central mall, there is a Burger King opposite UOB Builiding as well, nearby Raffles Place MRT station.
2. Freshness Burger
As the name of the shop, all of their ingredients are fresh, which indirectly indicating that they are using organic ingredients somehow. Due to the quality of ingredients, you will see the price difference as well between this shop and "normal burger" in the other shop,
3. B1 Level of Central Mall
There are few numbers of eatery in this level. At the shop that selling this Crispy Chicken Cutlet Set Rice, you can find Laksa and some other soup noodles menu with their home-made drinks such as green tea, grass jelly, etc. While at the shop that sells Chicken Katsu Curry Set, you will find that they give you a lot of curry till you cant see the rice.

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Raffles Place

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I did not really try in Raffles Place, because so lazy to walk down there to simply get my lunch. But there are few numbers of resto in Raffles Place such as cedele (one of their nice menu) and TCC (there are other TCC in Funan and Central Mall as well). If I am not wrong to recall, I only bought from Mr Bean above the MRT Station before in Raffles Place area.

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Funan Mall

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Out of numbers of makan places that available in Funan Mall, I tried these 2 places.
1. TCC
It was during lunch hours and was really a busy hour for them, especially when I was eating there, there was an offer 1-for-2. I was eating with a friend, so we use that offers. From taking order to get the food ready took about 20 minutes. And if you ever eat with me, you will know I am the slower eater ever you met in your life. So hence with this, I would not go to this kind of place anymore if my office is really strict about lunch hours timing.
2. Qiji
Located at one of corner in Level 1 of Funan, it is one of my favorite makan place because they served it efficiently, so you can enjoy your food without long waiting time. I will consider eat here if I need a quick lunch as well. And you need to bring colleagues to get the seats while you are ordering the food, because it is really packed during lunch hours. I tried quite numbers of their rice set, here is one of them: Chicken Set Nasi Lemak.

Well, there are quite a lot of other places that I can try on around and there are some places that I ate before but I do not really feature here due to my personal reasons. So which one is your favorite place among those 4 I mentioned above?

Do Not Ask Me Again Where You Should Eat For Supper At Town!

One night during hectic school term on weekday.


My Friend (MF): Egi! Where should we go if we wanna go for supper now at town?
Me (M): Ha? You mean now? It is already 10pm, you know!
MF: Yeah.. So where shall we go?
M: Errmm.. Spize?
MF: Eh we do not want to eat there, any other rec place? Do not rec me McDonalds.
M: Oh.. It is kinda difficult because it is weekday, you can try any hawker centre available there, but not sure also which hawker centre that open till quite late during weekday. What about Starbucks?
MF: Oh, which Starbucks that open 24 hours?
M: You can try the one at City Hall.
MF: Okay! I think we will go there.


Yup! Thats the scenario occured to me before. Imagine you are doing your assignments, lab reports, or maybe even watching TV series (the most likely case for me), then one of your friend asks you where shall he and few numbers of his friends eating for supper? Lucky for my friend, I was in good mood that time and picked up the phone, usually I do not pick. :)


Well, at this chance I would like to try give few places that you can go to if you are at town for supper.


1. McDonald

Haha.. Yeah, it is your first choice of all. McDonald maybe just like another meal for those of you who are super hungry. Maybe you skip your dinner or even worse do not eat at all the whole day? McD is located around SG, but only few chain that open 24/7. One of them is at City Hall.


Beside McD, maybe you can try other junkfood/fa(s)tfood brands i.e. KFC, Wendy's, BK, etc. Maybe you think, well we can always order it online, but the user experiences of travelling, order directly, and eat it at the place itself are different. So you should try if you never try before! :P


2. Starbucks

As you can see from the intro convo above, I rec them Starbucks. It just my subsconcious to tell someone during weekday to go to Starbucks if they want to stay at town until so late. Yup, I used to one of guys who camped at Starbucks doing assignments like I bring my own table. :P


But if you go to Starbucks at late hours, the food that left usually cake, cookies, or maybe if you are on diet, there are always fruits salad! :)


For sure if you go there you will purchase their beverages! Their menu on the board is clear enough for me, but you can always ask the barista in case you do not familiar with their menu. Oiya, not forgetting that do not surprise with the logo, because they just changed logo around first quarter of this year.


Basically there are few numbers of Starbucks at town that open 24/7, such as City Hall and Liat Tower. Well for further details, you can view their website.


Similar like McD, Starbucks has their own competitor, maybe you can try TCC and Coffee Bean. TCC for sure they have 24/7 operating boutique, while for Coffee Bean I am not really sure, only went there occasionally.


3. Spize

As a local "makan" place, Spize is famous enough among people in SG. Currently, there are 2 branches. One of it is located at River Valley Road (Map). Yup, I consider River Valley as town because it is quite nearby to Somerset area (I was quite surprised to find out this when me and my friend driving around).


It has built a reputation for its quality, value-for-money authentic Singaporean, Thai, Indian, Western & Mediterranean food. I have tried several menus since my first visit back then about 1.5 years ago, such as nasi goreng ayam tiga rasa and roti john.


4. OldTown White Coffee

Why OldTown White Coffee? Here is the short story behind it:


It was quite late that night when I complained to my friend who fetched me at late night for dinner. Surprisingly my friend did not want to eat at late hour while for me I was totally hungry and can eat a cow meal at that moment.


At first I wanted to strict my diet as well that night, so we went looking for a milk yogurt and my friend suggested a milk yogurt at Cineleisure, Orchard. Here we go, we went to Orchard all the way just to find out that the shop already closed! It was about 11pm and it was weekday if I am not mistaken.


Since my stomach was in hunger and my friend somehow felt responsible for it, so we went around nearby there. And for the first time that night, my friend did his job nicely by saw Old Town White Coffee and I ate there! :)


Basically Old Town White Coffee is a modern street coffee shop where the authenticity is their priority. Started from Malaysia, now they have expanded their business to Singapore. Of course they want you to take break and stay there for long time, because their motto is "Where life is happy because We take our time".  


5. Hawker Centres/Coffee Shops
As you do realize that Singapore foods mainly are supported by Hawker Centres. Can you imagine Singapore withour Hawker Centres? Some parts of Singapore will look like a death region I think. :P


Basically if you want to have supper anytime anywhere at Singapore, you do not need to worry, except for those ulu areas (hello my NTU fellas!). My experiences ate supper at town do not stop only on those four places, of course I also eat at hawker centres! :)


While at town maybe you can try maxwell foodcourt, makan sutra beside Esplanade, and maybe few others shop along selegie road, newton or even around china town area (I am not really familiar tho, so you can explore).