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

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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!

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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

Web: http://noahsbarn.com/

Twitter: https://twitter.com/noahsbarn

Single Black Coffee

Their Signature "Magic"

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

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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

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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

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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

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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

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Dwilingga: 10 Years After We Visited the Same Vendor...

Going to this place is like reminiscing our college time. We sometimes bumped with current ITB students (mostly architecture students who are chasing their deadline) and thinking: we are like that 10 years ago...

The food itself is also remain the same. The ever favorite Internet Keju or Indomie-Telur-Kornet-Keju (Instant Noodle-Eggs-Corned Beef-Shredded Cheddar Cheese) remain their favorite menu until now, and I can say it still tasted sinfully good like the old days.

Hopefully this place can still be here in the next decade.

Enjoy!

Dwilingga
Jl. Ganesha (in the corner of Jl. Ganesha and Jl. Ir. H. Juanda)
Bandung

Indomie-Eggs-Cheese

Internet Keju

Grilled Cheese & Banana Sandwich

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Homemade Sirloin Steak

We are so amazed with our visit to Pasadena Steak House yesterday, that we decided to try and make our own steak. The taste is still need improvements (a lot), but we guess it is going to the right direction :).

Enjoy!

Homemade Sirloin Steak

Ingredients:
200 gr Sirloin steak (you can ordered it through your favorite butcher, or in supermarket)
Carrot, slices in finger size
Broccoli
Ready to cook french fries
Champignon mushroom
Red wine (optional)
Worcestershire sauce
Yogurt/ cream
Salt
Pepper
Eggs (optional)

How to make:
Put salt and pepper into the meat
Grilled the meat on high heat for around 3 minutes on each side. Let it cool for about 3-5 minutes.
Cooked the mushroom inside the pan where you cooked the meat, add cream, worcestershire sauce, salt and pepper. Add red wine to your liking.
In other pan sautee the carrot, broccoli and fried the french fries.
Fried an egg if you need additional protein
Serve it while hot.

Enjoy!

The Steak #1

The Steak #2

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Warung Steak Pasadena

I will begin this post with an unusual plead.

In Bandung, there were so many old school steak house which serves great steak, but with the presence of new funky so called steak house with no identity, the old school steak house have become a rare vendor.  Sometimes it amazes me to eat in a so called steak house, but they also served rice, japanese, and even chinese food in it. I mean, c'mon! Steak house should only serves steak and potato, not steak with rice. Italian food is acceptable for me, but Indonesian, Chinese, even Japanese food? -_-".

Sadly, because they upheld the tradition and only serves steak (and the occasion Italian food), most of the new customers do not goes there. The result is whether they changed the strategy (and sells wider range of foods), or rely on regular customers who really liked the old school way.


The same case is probably happening in this steak house. We have been passing this vendor everytime we went to Paris Van Java (PvJ). Every time we passed it we swear to visit it the next time we went to PvJ. Finally after tenth or so visit to PvJ, we decided that we should go there exclusively without going to PvJ first.

The place is very old school, which we liked, a lot. Their menu is very straight forward, which we liked, a lot. They can serves the meat in accordance to our request, in this case medium rare, which we liked, a lot. And they serves a big portion of steak. So big, we thought we ordered a steak in Texas (where everything is bigger there), which we liked, a lot. Lastly, their price is very affordable, around Rp 60.000 (US$ 6) per portion, which we really liked, a lot.

In the end, this steak vendor is a dying breed. And for steak lover like us, we think it is one of the last few places in Bandung where we can get a great original old schooled steak.

Enjoy!

Warung Steak Pasadena
Jl. Sukamaju No. 33 (in front of Pasar Sederhana)
Bandung

The Interior

The Menu #1

The Menu #2

T-Bone Steak (can you see how big it is?)

Sirloin Steak (Huge!)

 

The Exterior

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Zeevruchten Chocolade

Got this chocolate from one of our clients from Holland. The box is beautiful. So beautiful it took us almost a month to finally open it. Inside is a sea-themed chocolate with milk and hazelnut ingredients. Really mouthwatering.

We present you the pictures so you can enjoy it (the pictures) with us. No worries, all of it have been safely secured inside our tummy :p.

Enjoy!

Zeevruchten Chocolade
Chocolaterie Guylian NV/SA Belgium

Europark-Oost 1
B-9100 Sint-Niklaas
Phone: +32 3 760 97 00
Fax: +32 3 777 06 81
Website: http://www.guylian.com/en/home/
Twitter: @Guylian_Chocs

The Box

Sea-Shelled Theme Chocolate

Beautiful isn't it?

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Old School Cake Anyone?

Sometimes we got a delivery of food that are often could not be found in Bandung. This is one of the examples. One of my dad's student give this cake to us. The name itself is not familiar for us as we could not find the vendor in Bandung.

The cake is a traditional Indonesian cake. Perhaps influenced by the Holland type of cake during the colonial era. The cake is very buttery, soft, and sweet. Nevertheless, when I mixed it with some whipped cream with no sugar or accompany it with black coffee, the taste really complement each other and makes it a very delicious breakfast dish.

Enjoy!

Majestyk Bakery and Cake Shop
Various Outlets (Jakarta, Surabaya, Medan)

The Logo

The Cake

The Box (you can see that it is only half left :p)

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Lotek Pasar Palasari

One of our favorite food that is located in one our the last remaining traditional market in Bandung. This place is a dying breed of authentic traditional food vendor that probably would not be around in the next decade or two.

Lotek is the name of the food. It is consisted of mixed vegetable which then drizzled with peanut sauce and finished with a heaping pile of kerupuk (traditional Indonesian crackers). The making process is still very traditional but yet very fresh. And with a price of Rp. 8.000 (US$ 0.80) you will get a healthy food for your breakfast or lunch (providing that you are not allergic to peanut).

Cheap. Healthy. Helping to preserve local food. Could this be a sustainable eating habits that we are often talked about?

Enjoy!

Lotek Pasar Palasari
(Located in the end of the market, just next to the Pindang (preserved fish) seller. You should asked around for it, otherwise you might get lost in here).
Jl. Palasari
Bandung

The Lotek

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Warung Kopi Purnama Again!

When you have dated someone for a long time, and then married them for quite some time, there is a tendency that telephatic thinking occurs more frequently. It is not a hocus pocus thing where magic plays a significant part (although I feel a little bit like a magician myself when this happened :P), but more likely because you are already familiar and tend to copy each other's behavior and way of thinking.

This day is one of those particular day when the telephatic thinking makes it way. After dropping our parents to the train station, we are thinking of a place to have breakfast. And boom! Both of us says the same name: Let's go to Warung Kopi Purnama! Wow! Talked about goosebumps :P.

So, we drove there. The place is as usual: fully packed. We managed to have a table in the middle of this small but crowded outlet. Changing my behavioral habits, I ordered their fried rice instead of ordering their famous egg-rolled bread. Alia ordered the egg-rolled bread. For beverages we ordered their signature black coffee and coffee with milk (you can guess which are my drink :p).

While eating, we noticed that we can ordered Bubur Ayam (Chicken Porridge), Lontong Kari (Curry with Rice Cakes?) and many other foods. Talked about encouraging the local business eh? Maybe on our next visit we will try ordered them.

Enjoy!

Warung Kopi Purnama

Jl. Alkateri No. 22

Bandung

Phone: +6222 4201841

Mobile: +6222 70738480

Fried Rice

Their Famous Egg-Rolled Bread

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Missing Your Homemade Lunch?

Sometimes you are craving for old-schooled homemade lunch. Too many exposure with fast foods, food courts, and all of those fancy new restaurants can make you feel bored and uninspired.

So when this new vendor opened near our house, we are excited. The flyer suggested that they provided great homemade meals with a very affordable price (a single set menu can cost you only Rp 10.000/ US$ 1). Strangely, they also serves Chicken Cordon Bleu and Sirlon Steak.
Hmmm... Perhaps they want to attract larger audiences...

I went there for lunch after a meeting at Telkom University. When I go there, there are high school student on a date (a very weird place for dating I might say), and several office workers already ordering lunch there.

I ordered their fried chicken, tofu, tempe, potato fritters, eggs, vegetable dish, and iced tea. For this portion of two it costed me around Rp 27.000 (US$ 2.7).  The taste was ok, and it really mend my craving for homemade foods. I have a feeling that this place will become regular when we are bored with fast food and fancy restaurants bombardments.

Enjoy!

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

The Menu

Interior with Iced Tea Background

The Food #1

Interior #2

Full set menu

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