Tredici Ristorante : thirteen

Calling out the foodies out there : a new Italian goodness in Senopati.

It was not hard to find this one, once you find Crematology, step aside to your left, and this pretty white building is residing in Suryo street. First step into this restaurant and I was hooked with the ambiance. Everything was so homey, with fireplace and bricks on the wall, Tredici surely succeeded in offering this kind of atmosphere.

Asking what behind the name, the owner patiently explained that Tredici means thirteen, without any specific meaning, just personal favorite, was chosen to be the title of their new baby. Basically their concept was making an Italian restaurant with affordable price without losing its authenticity and ignoring Indonesian's palate.

 

Going through the building made me love it even more. Behind the homey area, there was this kind of outdoor blue and green were dominating, blue pond was on the corner. Such a refreshment to the eyes. And ice cream to accompany the feeling? It was just a matchy-matchy!

Caprese (68k). 

A colorful starter consisted of tomato, mozarella cheese, black pepper, oregano, and balsamic modena vinegar. I like the freshness of everything on the plate!

Gnocchi Valle D'Aosta (85k)

Potato dumpling with great texture, mixed with tasty shitake mushroom cream sauce, with cuts of fontina cheese on top. I love the way it blended in my mouth, Everything on the plate was flavorful.

Lonza Di Maiale Pizzaiola (96k): fried pork loin with white wine. A little disappointment for the pork, it was a bit chewy and was not suitable for my liking. The sauce was too sour and everything on the plate was too overwhelming. The side dishes were great though, buttered spinach with great seasoning and palatable potato gratin to save the plate.

Champion of the day: Salmone Al Cipollotto (118k). A big chunk of Norwegian salmon with great seasoning, I prefer having this one without the tomato herbs ragout on the bottom of it. It was not bad though, I just could not stand the strong sour taste. Sauteed vegetables and butter vegetable were just okay, anyway.

One word to describe Tredici : it was pretty, and they are preparing the bar area in level 2, It must be great having a place to drink up in this comfortable place. Looking forward for another visit to try their pizza and tiramisu (they said it was really good, too bad I could not give it a try because it was not ready). Services were fine, although I found they were a bit confused about details in menu when I did ask them. Well, they are still new anyway. Can't wait until they're settling everything down!

Tredici Ristorante

Jl. Suryo no 42, Senopati

Jakarta Pusat

021 7204567

Fat Straw : The original honey boba

I am a big fan of bubble drink. I just can't resist the chewiness and sweetness inside it. I used to be a sucker for Chatime and closed for any other bubble drink. But some of them offered much more interesting concept and now I am open to try them!

Fat straw just opened their second branch in Gandaria City, after having one in Kelapa Gading. Good idea of spreading their wings in South area after settling down in North one. And Gandaria City is much closer to me, and it made me excited to try it even more.

I loved their store in Gandaria City, the catchy name, the color, the ambiance, the lighting. Every little aspect of this place was such a good combination to make a great hang-out spot. And of course, a good food and drink. ;)

I rewarded myself with peach green tea with honey boba (17k), milk tea with honey boba (18k), ice milk drink with honey boba (28k), and ice milk drink with honey boba taro pudding (28k). I prefer the milk tea one since their milk drink was too sweet for me, even in less sugar one. The best think about it was their honey boba, perfect consistency of chewiness, oh and have it in large size to make it even cuter with the fat short packaging!

And yes, do order their toast while you're enjoying the drink. Brick toast with matcha cream (28k) was such a perfect companion through this sweet afternoon. Thick toast covered in green tea jam (yes, green tea jam, interesting right?;) ) and green tea ice cream. Beautiful presentation, and I was in love in my first bite. Everything was mixed so well in my taste buds.

I did have fat toast too. Not a bih fan of it, because of the greasy fried toast with peanut butter inside. Tasted great though, if only the could make it less oily.

I intended to be back soon to try another toast of theirs. They did have honey boba toast on the menu and I haven't tried it yet!

Overall this place is really lovable. Great food and drink indeed! ;)

Fat straw

Gandaria City Mall

Level G Unit MG6

Jl. Kelapa Niasa Raya, blok QB 5 no 6

Kelapa Gading

Jakarta Utara

021 4584070

Wake Cup Coffee

Having a tiny coffee shop has been my secret little dream since long time ago, so when a friend of mine told me that he was opening one, I was more than excited. Excited to be happy of my friend's great job and excited to try another new coffee shop in town.

Turned out it was not their first shop, Wake Cup had its sisters in Graha BIP and Wisma 77. I loved how they gave it the name: Wake Cup. Sounds catchy and creative. It was not big, but it was easily found in Metro lower ground. Such a perfect place for daddies to wait for mommies, huh? Expanding their wings to Gandaria City was one big good step!

They're using house blend Aceh gayo and West Java. I just loved to see the coffee drip.

Firstly, excuse my picture because I found it was quite dark and my digital camera was not compatible with the dark ambiance. 

Well, it was the taste that matter,right?

I do not know much about coffee, but I found myself a fan of their Coffee Latte (21k). A smooth one. A kick to start the day.

I did try their green tea latte, tasted good, but it was too sweet for my liking. 

Tuna Salad croissant (24k).

Freshly home-made croissant with tuna and mayonnaise. The croissant itself was crunchy, although my kind of favorite one is the crispy outside-chewy inside-one, it was not bad.

Overall the taste was quite good, although I have not tried another menu of theirs. With affordable price and decent coffee, Wake Cup could be your take-away-wake-up-coffee, or an afternoon kick to keep those eyes wide open.

Wake Cup Coffee 

Gandaria City Mall

LG, inside Metro Depr Store

Jak Sel

Graha BIP

Jl. Gatot Subroto kav 23

Jak Sel

Otosan Japanese Food

Hello readers! I'm back to Jakarta at last! ;)

Yogyakarta has been a great great experience for me, I would like to pay another visit next time, even I am thinking about working there. Back to Jakarta, everything is much faster here, the people, the ticking clock, it feels like everything is rushing. But something makes me miss this city the most : the food.

After months of-not-writing-any-blogpost, Zomato team invited me to attend a foodiemeet up at Otosan Menteng. It was their annual gathering with different theme each month. Basically I knew Zomato since their launching period last year. The manager contacted me to write some reviews and I really thought this could be something big. With a friendly-user-apps for smart phone, Zomato helped my life a lot, and I know they helped yours too, right? ;)

A hint about Otosan, they are a family business which claimed to be the first one to introduce tomyam soup, far before becoming many people's favorite. Located on the busy street of jalan Sabang, they are perfectly strategic to be back and serve you these Japanese food!

Okay lets dig in the food! 

Salmon Soyu Don

A bowl of perfectly grilled salmon with butter rice. The fish was fresh, with no fishy smell at all,although it was quite a small slice. It was good to eat all of it in a scoop. The fried garlic on top made it even better (more garlic, please!). 

Yellow submarine

Some might like it so much, some wouldn't even bother to give it another try. The yellow sauce was not cheese, which was a mainstream idea to cover up your sushi. Yes, this one was mango sauce. The flavor was blasting and gave a surprise right on the first bite.

Okinawa roll
I prefer this one than the others. The sushi was fresh with a hint of lotsa wheat covering the sushi. It was fresh, light, with crunchiness inside. It was something you might wanna have to have your afternoon snack.

Fresh horenso, oborosuki, chikuwa, enoki mushroom, and beef slice for suki. They do have 3 different kinds of soup. Otosan spicy, Otosan sweet, and Tom Yam. I liked Otosan sweet the most, although I have to put some soup from Otosan spicy to make it better. The soup was really sweet and I did not think it would fit every taste bud well.

And here was the champion. My kind of palate cleanser : cawan pudding.

A creation to improve the usual appetizer cawan mushi into not-so-usual cawan pudding. It was smooth, sweet, and topped with grated cheese which made it even greater. It was there to balance the sweetness they said. 

Overall it was a good catch up with all of these new foodies. Thank you for having me, Zomato team! It was splendid. ;)

Otosan

Jl. H. Agus Salim no 57. Gedung 57, Lantai 3

Menteng, Jakarta Pusat

021 70500658

Hello from Yogyakarta!

Hello!

After weeks of sleepless night on the hospital, I eventually write this one. I am currently having my co-ass period in Panti Rapih Hospital in Yogyakarta. Having my job in Yogyakarta was such a great deal. My culinary trip started at the moment my shift ended at the hospital. 

Start with something traditional from Yogyakarta : Gudeg Yu Djum. Located on the crowded street of Kaliurang, this one is not hard to be found. There are many other kind of gudeg, but this one is more like a dry one. To compensate this, I asked for more sauce from the boiled egg. Spicy and sweet at the same time, it was quite enjoyable for my palate. Their sayur nangka, was not that great though, too sweet to contribute the taste on my plate. However, I was a big fan of their krecek, this one had a pinch of spiciness to give a balance of it all.
(Gudeg telor/gudeg with egg - 9k)

Gudeg Yu Djum
Jl. Kaliurang KM 4,5 | Karangasem CT III/22, Yogyakarta, Indonesia
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Bakso Bethesda (Bethesda meatballs)
I did remember the day I attempted to try this legendary meatballs. It was a bright day, and the sun was not gracious to hide its sunlight. But surely the hunger beat it all. However, finding the right legendary meatballs was not that easy. There are some different location and mixed reviews about which one is which, and I decided to try the one located in the corner of Bethesda canteen.
Accompanied by the sound of street musician, the bowl was served. After added soy sauce and chilly here and there, the first mouthful of soup was pleasing, tasty and appetizing soup. The meatballs itself was good, although I prefered a crunchy one. Surprisingly the meat cubes inside the soup were really tender, effortlessly tasty. Overall it was good, but I did expect more. Or did I try the wrong meatballs? :p
Anyway, I could not stand to try tempe penyet next door and turned out their garlic chilly was great!

(Bakso Bethesda-14k ; Tempe penyet-7k)

RS Bethesda
Jl. Jend. Sudirman 70, Daerah Istimewa Yogyakarta, Indonesia

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Since I miss spicy food the most, Ayam geprek (8.5k) Bu Rum easily won my heart. Basically it was a smashed crispy fried chicken together with cayenne pepper, as spicy as you could handle. I did order one with level 8 cabe rawit, and tasted really great. Additional smashed tempe and egg made it even better. I did enjoy it with more-than-my-usual-portion of warm rice! (yes, this was that good!)

Ayam Geprek Bu Rum
Jl. Wulung Lor, Papringan Depok, 

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Stepped away from traditional food for a while, I dragged myself into this hidden gems in Yogyakarta. I never had my Mediterranean food before, so trying this one could be challenging. Located on the quiet street of Tirtodipuran, this one was quite tricky to be found. It was not big from the outside, but they did offer the comfy ambiance I loved. Homey atmosphere with orange bricks on the wall would pleasantly welcome you.
I did order duck confit for myself, which was their recommendation. I was surprised to see the generous amount of duck and cheesy potato gratin, all was for 59k. Such a great deal! The duck was okay although a bit dry, sauce was quite nice, the potato gratin was such a winner.
Their shish kebab was not bad too, great presentation with surprisingly fulfilling portion. I still found the grilled chicken was quite dry, or was it the way Mediterrenean food tasted like? Anyway, trying out this restaurant was not a regret. 

Mediterranean resto by Kamil
Jl. Tirtodipuran no 24 A. Mantrijeron Yogyakarta
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My night snack wouldn't be the same without this. Stepped into Beverly Hills, which served roti bakar and Indomie susu. Thick toast of omelette beef with beef floss on top (14k), this one really was the winner. Slices of fried egg (not an omelette, but still good tho) and beef really boosted the taste. I could have it all for myself. 

Another one that caught the eye from their menu was indomie susu (14k). Yes, that famous Indonesian instant noodle cooked with their fresh milk! Thought it would be weird, turned out quite good in combination. It was savory and thanks God the milk was not that strong. (I wonder what would it taste like if it was that strong :p)

Roti bakar beverly hills

Jl. Prof. Ir. Herman Yohanes Sagan 

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After those days with traditional Yogyakarta food, my taste buds craved for something modern. Luckily Phuket Restaurant was quite famous here. Their naan bread was nicely fried, a good appetizer to dip with condensed milk while waiting for my order. Mango salad was fresh, but not too sour, which was good.

Pad thai was my favorite dish among all. Ayam kemangi also worthed to order.

PS: they had this Phuket restaurant next to Frankwurst near Gramedia, which offered different menu. I did not recommend to try that one, anyway :p

Phuket Restaurant

Jl. HOS. Cokroaminoto No.240

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Michigo located on the 3rd floor of Ambarukmo Plaza, which bring a new concept to dine in Yogyakarta.

I had their Japchae, mozarella topokki, and bimbab. Japchae tasted great, perfect sweetness with tender beef on top. The topokki was allright, although the sauce was too watery to my liking. Bimbab tasted good, the sauce mixed it well with all toppings inside. Having these food healed my craving for Korean food.

Michigo

Ambarukmo Plaza 3rd floor

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After hours to walk in the long road of Malioboro street, sipping drinks in Indische would be a great idea. Loved their ambiance of old Java and vintage decoration inside. Javanese fried noodle tasted good, asked for extra chilly to make it even better! Their teh tarik was their excellence, I recommended to order the hot one. :)

Indische Cafe

Jl Jend. A. Yani No. 6 Benteng Vredeburg Ngupasan Gondomanan Yogyakarta 

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Overall this post told the story of my first two weeks in Yogyakarta. Feel free to drop some comments and suggestion about interesting places here! ;)