Oh my God, 4 months without any update 😡 Since I returned to Indonesia, I almost never cooked anymore. It’s really easy to obtain halal foods here, and they’re cheap. I guess my laziness in cooking and my laziness in updating this blog are directly proportional. I’ll just post some old photos I should have posted months ago. Throwback June 6th. That day my Plurkers friends and I went for a day trip to Ciwidey. It’s located on the south of Bandung. After visiting Kawah Putih and Situ Patengan, we had lunch at Saung Gawir restaurant. I ordered Nasi Belang Komplit + Teh Botol. It consisted of three kinds of rice, served with pepes ayam, tahu, tempe, and vegetables. My friends order Ikan Gurame Goreng Cirambay, fried fish served with hot sauce and strawberry (Ciwidey is famous with its strawberry). Actually it wasn’t listed on the menu because it was very very hot and spicy that could get you stomach ache. So only few people know and order that menu. I’ve tried it, and I couldn’t eat it 😯 The other photos are otak-otak (a kind of fish cake) and fish soup.
Last Saturday I met Anis and Arinta, my college friends. It took long time for us to decide where we would eat since everyone said terserah (it’s up to you :lol:). Finally we decided to have lunch at Giggle Box cafe & resto in Bandung Indah Plaza. I ordered this menu because it’s the only menu that had rice, CMIIW. I was really hungry so I wanted rice, haha. Well, for me this menu was not so tasty. I mean I cannot really taste the seasonings. 😛
Ru and Pati, friends I met when I lived in Komaba International House, Tokyo, came to Bandung on May 5th. That day I accompanied them having one day trip in Bandung. First we visit Tangkuban Perahu, which took about 2 hours from Bandung city. On the way back to Bandung, we had lunch at Saung Bambu Racik Desa at Jl. Setiabudhi. It was my 2nd time there, and I ordered this. Pahe is abbreviation of paket hemat (economical package, I guess :P). It consisted of nasi bakar peda (fish baked rice), chicken, tempe mendoan, lalap (raw vegetable), and sambal. The rice was spicy, but the chicken was sweet. Nice combination. But the portion was too much for me.
On April 21st, I joined UKM Gathering program, a program that was held by UKM-ITB to gather UKM’s member and alumni. It’s a kind of reunion for me after never joining UKM’s activities for 3 years when I was in Japan. After that program, some alumni and I had dinner at Bebek Garang restaurant in Jl. Sulanjana, Bandung. Bebek means duck, so it serves duck as the main dishes. I ordered bebek debus + nasi. It is duck grilled with spicy seasoning and served with rice and lalap (raw vegetable). Actually the debus word came from the name of a martial art from Banten. Debus is a form of invulnerability to sharp objects; a supernatural force that provides resistance to sharp objects, beatings, and burns. Maybe they named it bebek debus because of the spiciness of this menu. 😛
The trip from Painan to Padang took several hours since my family drove slowly. 😛 We stopped in a restaurant to have dinner. It was a kind of rumah makan Padang (Padang restaurant), but in West Sumatra we never call a restaurant as rumah makan Padang. Padang restaurant has some different serving style. In this restaurant, after we were seated, we did not have to order. The waiter immediately served the dishes directly to the table. All of the plates of food are laid out in front of us and we only paid for whatever plate we ate from. If you need any additional food, you can simply ask the waiter to bring the food you want. So you do not have to eat all of the foods, unless you are able to, haha. It was also my first time to try gulai kepala ikan (fish head curry). I knew that many people said that it’s really delicious, but I’ve never want to try it before, until that day. And in fact, it’s really good. 😀
Yesterday I went to Bukittinggi and ate nasi kapau at Los Lambuang, Pasar Lereng. Los Lambuang (lambuang, lambung = stomach) is an area where you can find many nasi kapau and katupek pical stalls. Nasi kapau is the cuisine of the Minangkabau people, specifically from Kapau, Bukittinggi. The serving style is, after the customer is seated, he or she is asked which dishes they desire. The chosen dishes will be put directly upon the steamed rice or in separate small plates. You only need to ask at least one dish, then you will obtain that dish and other additional dishes such as sayur gulai (vegetable curry), sambal, etc. This time I chose gulai tambunsu. Tambunsu is typical food of Kapau made from beef intestines filled with egg mixture. It’s really delicious. Recommended. 😀
And finally, welcome back to Indonesia, the land where it’s really easy to obtain halal food, yay. 😀 That day Pike and I went to Pasar Baru, Bandung. I would like to buy some stuffs for my new living place. Previously I thought I would just have lunch at food court of Pasar Baru, but Pike didn’t recommend that. Then we went to Istana Plaza because I would also find some other stuffs there. We had lunch at the food court and I order this menu, nasi (rice) with ikan mas bakar (grilled carp). They said that the food vendor was newly open, so the price was discounted from Rp20,000 to Rp16,000. The fish was big, the sambal was OK, and the price was cheap, but what made me annoyed was that the food came 40 minutes after I ordered. Errrr.. 😡
We ended our trip by having dinner at Siddique, Shinjuku. I often eat at this halal restaurant, especially if I want to eat halal meat when I’m too lazy to cook. 😛 But this was my first time ordering the biryani. I usually order the curry and naan. My first impression: it burnt my tongue. 😆 I guessed because of the pepper and it’s still hot. But later I could adapt myself to the spicy taste. 😛 As far as I know, biryani is usually cooked by using basmati rice. But I thought this was made by using Japanese rice. You can see that the rice grain is different. However I prefer Japanese rice to basmati rice, so it’s better for me, hehe. Buuut, the portion was too much for me that should struggle to eat it up. >.<
Yesterday some friends and I went to a day trip to Kawaguchiko. Finally I could go there and saw a perfect view of Mt. Fuji. In the afternoon, we had lunch at a houtou restaurant near the entrance to Kachi Kachi Ropeway. Instead of ordering one menu for one person, Sre and I decided to order two kinds of menu and shared them, hehe. This was the first menu. I never knew this dish. Sre said that it looks like nasi goreng. I ate it, wow, the rice was really tasty. I wondered how they make it so tasty because I didn’t see many seasoning there. Other friends guessed that it might be cooked by using butter. But I wasn’t really sure because the texture was similar to regular rice. Today I googled it and and found an explanation that pilaf is a dish in which rice is cooked in a seasoned broth. Now it makes sense, haha. I think someday I’ll cook it by myself. 😀
Yesterday I met Fine a.k.a Pipin and her super cute daughter, Hikari-chan. We went to Anpanman Museum in Yokohama. Before going home, I had dinner at Kebab Cafe Shibuya since I didn’t have any food at home. 😛 That was my second time ordering “big size” menu (last year I ordered Kofte). Well, I was really hungry, hehe. As far as I know, a Doner kebab are usually served wrapped in a flatbread or as a sandwich instead of being served on a plate. But this one was served on plate, plus they added rice there.
