As Cool/Breeze As Water For My Earshot Part 1

{INTRO}

 JUST TOOK THE COOL/BREEZE WATER SHOOT FROM NGALAM RESTAURANT

BY ME AS ALWAYS

DAMN RIGHT

!!!!!!!

{LOL-ING}

Maybe you'll be bored when i repeatedly says about; "Music must be tasted like Cool/Breeze water, 70% cold + 30% lukewarm formula".

Okay, i'm not a genius-scientist, i doubt i'd ever achieved any single science bienalle things, even i was based from science class high-school grad.

But, for my ear and my brain a.k.a emotional physics i need soothing factor. Music. Not some yoga-freak-instrumentally music please! Because i loathed yoga-asian-philosophy-antics, honestly.

Normal music like pop, jazz, swing, rock, tech. every genre that tasted Cool/Breeze, i'll take it. With the combo of cool/breeze water, air-conditioned (18-20 Celsius) room, fluffy pillow/cool sheets, and light/oceanic aromatherapy.

=

zzzSLUMBERTOPIAzzz

So, the BGM for this very first session is from;

Jingga - Tentang Aku

It's from the 90's, a year that i favored so much, i think all the music comes from that era are essentially cooler than this GAGA/BIEBER viruses cladding for now. Jingga is Indonesia's band...err...rather like 1 vocal, 1 keyboardist, okay like Aussie's own Savage Garden, yeah just like that.

I loved how she sang, her vocal is a real thing, not 'over-touch', not 'beyonce-ing', not 'gaga-tech', just simple soothing voices.

The keyboard-guy just as savvy as the vocalist, elegant but not too chopin-ic, just divine, simply naturally, just like music should be play, i don't need act-so-guru-ripped-off-so-called-musician in my ear anyway!

savvy/divine

savvy/divine

savvy/divine

savvy/divine

savvy/divine

xxxxxxx

xxxx

xx

x

Brown Colored Food Spelled Yum-Tastic Part 1

No kidding, every brown food always tastes delicious, unlike the green one (except, matcha flavored stuff!), ironic much, the earthy colour has contradicted meanings against each other. Back then i'm not a veggie person, regards my childhood, i've always in fighting-mood when my parents forced me to eat my veggies. Well, veggies always had a bad reputation for me, you know; bitter, slightly rancid, grassy smelled, and stuffs, no wonder i'll choose to be meaty person; for now, chicken, beef, and fish, yeah...savory one. Brown food isn't always be meaty and deep-fried, there's one thing works like magic, chocolate. There's no way i'll stop eating chocolate, the good-mood-saviour. People who hates chocolate, i think must be suffered enough to enjoy the great tasted, pity, in my humble opinion.   

Growing up, i'm eating veggies just because to enhanced my body to be err...healthy? skinny? beautiful? yeah...for self-image purposes, i'm not going crazy like some of hypocrite lunatics that say anything but fair about eating meat, health-concerned people who preaches to everyone about how bad eating good/comfort things like; junk food (which happens to be my all-time favorite), fatty/sweets things (come on! Everyone needs them to be happy) and soda/alcoholic drinks (it's the advance culinary invention, it's not a sin you hypocrite losers! We have self-control you see, we're not robotics!). Anthony Bourdain, Andrew Zimmern, Adam Richman, and off course my dearest Nigella Lawson, always be my constant heroes (yes, i'm TLC freaks), they're really humanize the meaning of gastronomy, not some kind 'patronized/Mr.perfectionist/utterly bullshit' one (HAHA*fill-the-blank*HAHA), they're really enjoyed/appreciated/created their food for REAL!

For the first part, i want to shared my brown food haven that traced from our culinary legacy, one of them, it's from the TeSaTe restaurant, located in Plaza Senayan, Jakarta. It's a traditional indonesian food for real experiences that usually you've got from our street hawkers but with the chi-chi-but-not-expensive a.k.a snotty environment, not like fussy 'hotelier-ized' one, still keep the real tastes and method. So, let's started now then;

So this is a brown drinks, a traditional indonesian quencher; "Es Kunyit Asem" it's iced drinks consists of; tamarind, turmeric and palm sugar. It's refreshing, and not forget, the compliments that you'll see in the silver spoon, it's pair of "Ting-Ting Jahe", it's a cashew-ginger candy, perfect companion with the sooth-herbal concoction. The pandan leave over there isn't just an accent, you may stirred your drinks before you slurped it for the aromatic effect. This drinks which i called legacy has many potential healing factor; to energized the body, to cured body odour, to cleansed the toxic for menstrual woman, and also to enhanced our appetites, indeed.

Yes, the meal speaks the restaurant's name and speciality itself, "TeSaTe" means a shout from Satay Man hawkering around to sell the stuffs, like "Satay...Tay...Satay!!!", oke...it's not Satay, it's Sate, the meat-on-the-skewer things originally came from Madura, East Java, Indonesia. This version on the shoot up there is "Sate Ayam Ponorogo" the chicken satay (skin, meat, and egg) with the special creamy/chunks cashew-peanut sauce, from Ponorogo, another East Java quarter speciality, also famous with "Reog Ponorogo" art performances. The sate came in iron-n'-charcoal pot to keep it warm, the meat itself stay moist too. I do like the chicken skin sate, yeah, it's fatty-karma, but it's sinfully good, the unforgivable taste noted from the cashew peanut sauce with the hint of "Kecap Manis" (again, our sweet soy sauce legacy). "Kecap Manis" made the sauce even savory without 'sarcastically' sweet. The chili and shallots bits extra acted as 'cuts' that gives you spiced-up in your tongue

TeSaTe restaurant not just like a 'traditional' restaurant in the making, it has modern-chic conceptual interior, before we entered the main room, we'll encounter something like this. The menu was excellent variety and not too expensive (a person's complete meals wil comes around 10-15$) from appetizer to dessert, and comes in english too, the service is pleasant, but do make reservation 'cause it's always packed when in lunch time. So...that's my first brown food experienced, i'll post about it again, soon enough, because brown food never dies, veggies is okay, but savory will wins at all causes, BROWNISSIMO!  

My Starbucks Anthem, The Everlasting Story Part 1

Don't get me wrong here...if i've posted something 'global-branded' thing doesn't mean i'm bluffing/adv.crazed. The reason i'm dedicated something to post here, because i'm been there, i'm falling in love/addicted to it. So not strange enough now if i'm dedicated to the lovely place i've been hangin' around right now. Yes, Starbucks Coffee is the 'global-branded' king, the mainstream space, coffee culture founder, the old man of the cafe euphoria. I've been there not just sip my favorite drinks, but also a place for me to socialized, to blog around (the free Wi-Fi (unripped-off) there was amazing!), and simply enough, to get relax (the interior indie-BGM, cool!) . For me Starbucks not just a cafe, it's more like convenient-slash-cult oasis.  
                                  

Yeah...the ingenious logo shoot up there i took from Starbucks Pondok Indah Mall 2, Jakarta. I love the place, it's semi-courtyard in the middle of shopping center, when my family just want to shopping-shopping-shopping i've just place my ass there, as i don't really like lingering shop-2-shop, just exhausting. I can sit there by hours and won't get bored, i think the place speak itself. Just like the 'space' on architecture, it has many meanings, and Starbucks gives me the awesome meaning to it, cozy, comfort, careless.

While i'm really enjoyed my time there, it doesn't mean i love all the concoctions, as my taste was turned to be resistible one. Here...my reviews of Starbucks drinks part 1 that i've tasted regularly. All the item's photo below was courtesy of Starbucks web mecca itself.  

1. Iced Green Tea Latte, my addiction, my #1 favorite, i loved the contrast between the sharp matcha with milk that makes it mild and comforting. See my earlier post here.

2. Caffe Misto, the poor/ghetto version of cafe latte, the cheapo alternative(beside regular brewed one). The tasted very much like ordinary latte, but because it's Starbucks, the coffee part tasted really strong, intense flavour. I liked whether it's hot/cold and sometimes add vanilla/caramel flavour into it. Nice and affordable if i'm in the broke conditions.

3. Iced Caramel Macchiato, well...it's my first Starbucks experienced. I've remembered that i've really had enough of the taste, it's the strong coffee note that made me headache (how embarrassing! I'm a coffee-phobic that time, err...before i'm entered campus, you know, when my time-phases still normal). But now, it just refreshing enough.

4. Okay...next up Iced Coffee, the vice-versa of earlier, when i'm struggling in architecture days, i've become extremist person. I love the bitterness, sharpness of the coffee note to maintained my bitter/sharp/hurt/emotional/depressed/humiliated of my already scattered heart from my post-annihilation of the architecture studio sessions. It's my truly 'marijuana'-caffeine-loaded of my psychological-aid until now. 

5. Java Chip Frappuccino, okay...this is the trendy stuff that i'm really regret tasting it. As i much liked iced coffee, i don't really get it the concept of heavy-loaded-of-ice-mix with the ever-wonderful Starbucks drinks. It's overdone, as i don't like froze-bite in my tongue over my already air-conditioned-bite body, not good. So this drinks was my trend-entry, thanks to the discount-BOGO-bank-promotion, just shared with my friends though. Good choice when my opportunist mode just turned on.

      

PS: Ha! I told you this reviews was a part 1, so it will be continued, SERIOUSLY!

It's My Patriotic Act Over Slice Of Srikaya Toast

These days singaporean-coffee-hawker-theme became popular in Indonesia. No offense, but it’s just insanely ridiculous. It’s not i’ve anything against that, no. But, Indonesia has many good things to made as trend, ironically, we just copy-copy-copy from others culture, it’s insane. From ‘gaudiesque’ non-contextual architecture, so-called-indie-fake-band-and-other-stuff, even the europeanism frikkin' snobbery  traits on celebrity and socialite, horrible! Coffee hawker is just one tiny example, it started when the popular Singapore’s coffee hawker brand, Ya Kun Kaya Toast had placed their popularity in Jakarta, and it was booming.  I love the kaya-toast, teh ping, and soft/runny boiled egg combo though (as my Dad favorites combo too), but it’s just an ‘okay’, not wonderfully good. The Ya Kun always packed of peoples, especially on weekend, the concept was smart-ass approached, i don’t mind about it. But for me, there’s one contender that can beat those Singaporean cool franchises, its Kopi Lay, the North Sumatran (Medaners) version of true coffee hawker, located at Eat & Eat Food Court Concept, Mal Kelapa Gading 3, Jakarta.

The history of coffee hawker it’s not originally came from Singapore. It brought by the chinese immigrants, hokkien spoken/Southern Fujian, Taiwan descendants, that have been recited around Singapore, Malaysia, and Medan (North Sumatra, Indonesia) for centuries. So no wonder, there’s a lot of franchised/ghetto/modern version of coffee hawker amoba-ized everywhere. It‘s just the same as “Warung Kopi/Warung Tegal” in Jakarta, and else here, it’s essentially a place to hang out (usually for workers/salary man) after hard days labor, drink a couple of solid-black coffees with easy snack, discussing reality of life, then get relax. Just easy like that.

Now, back to Kopi Lay, i’m always have a regular combo from there, consists of; “Es Teh Tarik”/pulled-iced milk tea or “Milo Dinosaur”/iced Milo with full drenched with sprinkled, well... Milo. That refreshing drinks doesn’t come plain; they dressed in vintage glass, perfected by small tea plate with the complimentary of finger biscuits, nice! The meal itself; “Toast with Gula Melaka”/dark brown french toast, tasted comforting, with the retro-thick-sliced-home-made bread. And for the egg (there’s no proper coffee hawker combo without soft/runny boiled egg combo, damn right!), and Kopi Lay excelled that by using “Telor Ayam Kampung”/free-ranged egg. Take that Ya Kun guy!

Yup, that guy just making my order, "Es Teh Tarik". As you can see, the stall was retrotastic! The vintage plank/canister, old owner's family portrait, F&N creamer can, and...the "Selai Srikaya"/indonesian version kaya jam on a plastic jar, okay...it's not like Ya Kun, singaporean version which pale green, it's more yellow-pale-tan colored (as they aren't contained "Pandan" and "Suji" leaves).

The chinese folkore pin-up right there just one of the props from Kopi Lay stall. The rest, well, there's vintage knick-knacks like; "Fan Bo" beauty powder, Carnation condensed milk can, and so on. Overall, it's pleasant experiences to lingering the place itself, food and drinks are very affordable, and such a relief matter to escape from all-things-singapore booming in Jakarta for a while, BREATH!

My Taste Bud Know I Want To Break Free

After my angsty-pre-emotional post, i just need a relaxing break, and the nearest thing i could think/feel of, it's by remembering my favorite place to satisfy my taste. Different than "Pondok Kuliner" that i mentioned in the earlier post, this is more little restaurant formed, located in Pondok Indah, Jakarta, called "Resto Ngalam". This interesting eating spot, side-by-side the well known massage parlor institution "Bersih Sehat" (It's Clean and Healthy!), just served the traditional culinary sensation from East Java (Surabaya & Malang) specialities. 

I just remember my first visited, it's from last month, and the only time i took the photos. The interior it's simple, modern twist with a little of pop factor. I don't take the interior photo but more of the meal of the day shoot, the food itself very represented the restaurant theme. For example, i took the entree, the dessert-like-sweet "Perut Ayam".

Yup, just like the name and it's form, "Perut Ayam" literally translated as chicken intestine. This sweet spiral thing, it's the indonesian version of doughnut. This made from mixing the simple batter, consists from; plain flour, egg, and liquified Java's palm sugar, and then you deep-fried (with the spiral-ing tech from the egg-skin-holed) it with a lot of palm oil. For just an entree, this "Perut Ayam" really kicked out your taste bud, it's not heavy, not-to-sweet, and the crunchy-outside-moist-inside effect just so amazing. It's yeast-free, bread-improving-free, topping/filling-free too, just simple as a snack, but more healthier.

As for the main course, my light-but-refreshing meal are; "Soto Gubeng" East Java speciality of lightly herbed meat broth, accompanied with hard-boiled egg, rice, and kick-ass sambal. The meat broth was lovely, the herb was blended well, and delicate in taste (it wasn't like curry, okay). The sambal just made a zingy factor to cut the savory/meaty consistency. And...for the perfect ending, just drink a glass of "Lime Squash" and your sanity shall be relieved. And it's not even a diet meal ever, the culinary of Indonesia was essentially healthy, made by grinding a fresh herb, lightly choice of meat, not heavy ladden in fat and dairy products. It's a veggie wonderland, if you know how to choose, and the best of all, it's damn cheap food mecca compared with most of other asian countries, PROUD!

As We Sings Long Live The Coke King

Call me a freak, but i've used to be anti-coke person back when i was a kid. It's a weird sensation when i first tasted it, i've described it as a 'ant-bite-in-your-mouth' tingle sensation. And i was 7 yrs old that time, yes, the era of 90's, Mc'D and Coke love affair like romeo and juliet, gen-x populated the world, and i'm still a weirdo 'cause i can't swallowed all the good trends back then, simply pathetic. And my great sense of coca-cola phobic stil growth until the end of my elementary studies. I'm very like the vanilla milkshake person, more gentle, and kinder than myself right now, you know, age of innocence.

Coca-cola itelf has been the symbol of teenage lifestyle, the glory king of soft drinks for all time. There's many competitor battled for that title, but the red-white-black flag still waving proudly right now. When i'm in high school, we've had trip to the coke's factory in Cibinong, West Java, near our school. Lovely, how the fact of simple coca fruit made all the magic happens (not forget the fizzy-bubbly CO2 as chemical mantra), and the fruit has been a traditional cure for headache, how practically genius! Right now, i'm cured for my cokephobia (thank goodness), and i'm really enjoyed the magic black drinks paired with cheese pizza, the sensation of oh-my-gosh, perfectly mated. And to think of that, i'm saved by my late bloomers syndrome from being child obese, for too much coke in their childhood's innards.

As for my great appreciation to the king of coke, i'm taking regards to snap a great army of retro cocazoids. It's located in a fancy restaurat "Mari Sini" (Come Here...!), in Supermal Karawaci, Tangerang, Jakarta. The fun is, the coke's liquid still attached inside retro bottle for a very long time, so...i don't think it's still drinkable, it's just a feast for your eyes only. The bottle itself gave myself a huge inspirations; making wall for my bedroom with that seems reasonable (and cooler) i think, or gLAZY (glass + lazy) chair, or a giant cokezilla guardian statue, oh yeah there will be so much ideas. So...as the gen-x goes sing, always coca-cola!!! 

PS: Did you spot their commander, standing amused on the frontline, SHORTIE!

Suck My Green Tea Latte Brain Out, Don Corleone!

It must be a shallow phenomenon that made Don Corleone, a.k.a The Godfather built some kinda huge cult worshippers. It's not that i really hate Coppola's most hella good work (i adored Coppola's), but there's something i found really annoying about one-upman-shit charismatic persona.

In the other hand, Hannibal Lecter had something that Corleone didn't , the art of solitary psychocologic act. He do his evil work alone, NOT drag along the poor weaklings to drown in hell with him, just like Corleone did (shit!!!). I bet if Corleone didn't had a huge amount of people-eat-shit-following-party member and his dumb family, he's nothing but crap.

Well...blame me. Maybe because i really enjoyed Dr. Lecter's trilogy to many times, compared to The Godfather's that made me really passed out in a very first half hour. How genius Dr. Lecter can be; he's art guru, psychology master, scientist, decent traveller, mind-gamer, and everything that he want to be has to be cool enough for him. Don't forget that he has some unindentified magnetic charm, so much better than so-obvious-fine-charmer.

Goes on...talk about taking relax time, i had this Thomas Harris's Hannibal english version hardcover-clad book from public library in Senayan, Jakarta. The book's cover itself was simple, sophisticated, and very represent Dr. Lecter quality : solid black (his hidden evil), gold plated title (his avant garde taste), and blood velvet on reverse side of the cover (his addiction to blood...,and flesh).

And just like any other book-inspired-movies, book WIN off course! The horror, detail by detail was hypnotized (and really amused) me. I really...(mean it) really enjoyed my so called 'bible' though. For the best thing ever, when you started to munching this dictionary-thicked-wonder-of-work do mated it with best concoction as your post-angst quencher. Starbucks Iced Green Tea Latte, is my personal choice, one of my addiction in the past of couple months right now. I'd better choose just latte than the superfamous Frappucino. Why? 'cause i always feel when i drink any Starbucks's Frappucino, it always ended like i was eating a pile of flavored ice, and it wasn't good thing. Starbucks Iced Green Tea Latte is my stressed quencher, mood maker, my thirst savior. The only upset thing is, it's quite expensive compared to others Starbucks coffee, it's only tea for pete sake!

On picture, there's my aunt's coffee, and chicken spinach omellete muffin (YUM!). Starbucks is located on Supermal Karawaci, Tangerang, Jakarta. Very cozy place to eat, read, drinks, and net-browsing (*cough*blogging*cough*)...there's few charger provided each seat which placed near wall. I know this combo of Thomas Harris's Hannibal with Starbucks Iced Green Tea Latte will seems little bit odd, but it's really work for my tranquillity-search-momentum.

PS: My first entree never be this good though, YIKES!!!