Most Adorable Birthday Present Ever!

On my last birthday, my two best friends got me the most adorable birthday present ever! They got me this popcorn machine like the ones that you can find at circus, except this one is the mini version. Just look at it! Isn't it adorable?

It is red in color, with a hint of dark gold on the sides. The machine is very compact and light, nonetheless portable and very handy, very suitable for slumber parties. And it is easy to operate as well - all you have to do is plug it in, turn it on, pour some popcorn into it, and let magic do the rest of the work. In less than five minutes, you will have your batch of popcorn ready to indulge. 

Unfortunately, the machine can get a little bit out of control when it pops out the fresh popcorns. Most of the popcorns flew everywhere, leaving mess on the floor and inside the machine as well. There was a bit of corn flakes here and there, as well as leftover white puffs and crumbs. As a lazy bum, it's a bit of a challenge to clean the machine afterwards.

I know my last birthday was on November last year and, boy, has it been a such long months. This is a very late post, but better late than never, right? 

Taruna in Frame

As pilot cadets who enroll in Sekolah Tinggi Penerbangan Indonesia, we rarely get long weekends due to our tight schedule in the institution. Last Thursday was Chinese New Year, and we were lucky enough to be able to have a day off from the day before. We thought campus would immediately start on Friday, but then we received a news about how our headmistress was kind enough to extend our days off until Sunday. I was overwhelmed by the fact that we actually get a five days off from the institution. A chance like this is as rare as finding Waldo in Katy Perry's Candyfornia! 

To make a good use of our long weekend, the gang and I decided to do a rendezvous at Pantai Indah Kapuk to have culinary adventure. Ambar, my dorm mate at Sekolah Tinggi Penerbangan Indonesia, slept over at my house on Thursday night. We ganged up with Gavin and Aryo in the morning and headed to PIK approximately at 10. Gita, who is also my dorm mate, caught up with us just before shalat Jumat with her boyfriend/myclassmate, Ramdhan. 

Our first stop was Hakata Ikkousha.

It was an hour before mid noon when we arrived at the ramen house. The restaurant was still unoccupied by hungry citizen, getting us a table was as easy as going in an amusement at Disneyland with a fast track ticket.

#handsinframe

Condiments

Gavin's cold ocha

Aryo's milk drink with tapioca bubbles

Crepe tester from Fold Crepe Annie - love the Oreo Crepe so much!

Happy Hour was at 11AM - 2PM. For every purchase of ramen, we get a discount for chicken karage, fried gyoza, or grilled gyoza by only paying Rp9.800,00 for each portion. Being a sane person, that I am, I quickly ordered myself a bowl of Ramen Babi Spesial and a plate of grilled pork gyoza. If it wasn't for the Happy Hour, I would get charge more or less Rp30.000,00 for a plate of gyoza. Crazy, right? 

Loving the lovely and appealing presentation of my noodke. My Special Pork Ramen was served with a dash of sesame seed, soft boiled egg, chopped leek, and sliced pork. Two thumbs up for the runny egg yolk! 

Compared to Ramen 38 - Sanpachi, my ramen broth was rich in flavor, yet slightly salty to my taste, and less thick. The noodle was cooked well done, making it tender and less chewy. If only the waitresses were concern enough to ask how we wanted our noodle, like they do at Ramen 38, I would definitely have my noodle curled up in a medium well goodness. I'm not satisfied with the super thin pork slices. Even though it tasted deliciously fatty and savory, they could definitely thicken the cut. It's a good thing the dish was big in size and they soft boiled their egg, or else I would rate the ramen house a 6 out of 10 instead of a 7.4. 

Ramen Babi Spesial - 55K

Grilled Pork Gyoza

I ordered a plate of Grilled Pork Gyoza as a side dish, while Aryo had the deep-fried ones and Gavin had Chicken Karage. We shared our side dishes and even tasted each other's ramen broth - in which I conclude that Gavin's Chicken Curry Ramen's broth was very typical with Indomie's Mie Kari Ayam, while Ambar's ramen broth is the spicier and chicken version of my Special Pork Ramen, and Aryo's Pork Shoyu Ramen was savory with a hint of sourness here and there. 

The gyoza shared the same size with my thumb and the filling was not that generous. My grilled gyoza tasted excellently savory, even when it was rather oily for a dumpling skin with very few minced-pork filling, and the edges were deliciously chewy and crunchy. Aryo's gyoza was crispier than mine and shared the same taste. I'm not fond of Gavin's Chicken Karage because they were super oily and they were over coated with batter. The chicken itself was spicy and sweet at the same time, which tasted a bit off for me.

Aryo's Pork Shoyu Ramen - 58K

Aryo prefers to have Fried Pork Gyoza to accompany his ramen with

Ambar's Ramen Ayam Tamtam - 58K

Gavin's Chicken Curry Ramen - 58K

A plate of Chicken Karage that belonged to Gavin

Boy, were we stuffed! The portion of the dishes at Hakata Ikkousha was big enough to make cadets like us feel full. We had to wait for around an hour to let the food go down to our digestion system before we could make it to our next stop, Shirokuma.


Yup, Shirokuma. I clearly stated on my previous post about Shirokuma that the dessert place was simply overrated. So, what made me go back to the soft cream palace and decided to give it another chance? Simply, the adorable limited edition dessert: Delicutesh Cream!

My Delicutesh Cream, woohoo!

Delicutesh Cream consists of panda-shaped mixed soft cream on a cone. The dessert is only available during the month of love and it has a limited serving per day. I fell in love with the adorable looking panda ice cream, so I decided to give it a go. 

As I told you before, despite the creamy texture of the soft cream, I am not satisfied with the matcha soft cream. The green tea flavor was not strong enough to be called "green tea" and it was dominated by the bitterness instead of the sweetness. I had a hard time devouring the awful bitterness of the green tea, but I made it eventually. In the end, I can still conclude that Shirokuma is simply overrated, and that the Delicutesh Cream would definitely gain love from its' lovely appearance but not from its' sweet deliciousness. 

The adorable Female Panda Cone

Gavin ordered a glass of Green Tea Latte that tasted none like latte but more like water with green tea powder. It was clearly a BIG NO for me. On the other hand, Aryo seemed to enjoyed his Twist Soft Cream. The soft cream melted very quickly, making him had to lick the vanilla and green tea soft cream that dripped all over his hand. 

Green Tea Latte - 25K

Twist Soft Cream - 15K

Sharing your ice cream is good, people!

Not satisfied with my ice cream, we decided to visit another ice cream cafe, the Northpole Cafe. I've been curious with this particular dessert house, simply because of its' various choices of ice cream flavor. I surfed the web about its' whereabout and explored Instagram just to find beautiful pictures of its' ice cream that made me go fidgety. Luckily, Northpole is only three restaurants away from Shirokuma, so we only had to walk a bit instead of driving ourselves. 

The new dessert join specializes in ice cream. They have four choices of ice cream cone, with 16 different flavors of ice cream that costed you Rp25.000,00 each. Three of the flavors are exclusive flavors that will costed you another Rp10.000,00, which are Baileys, Diablo Beer, and Choco Ferrero. 

Same like Baskin Robbins, they have this policy that allows the consumer to taste the ice cream before they can decided which flavor to get. Curious about the beer flavored ice cream, I asked the ice cream lady for a tiny spoon of it. The moment the ice cream made contact with my taste buds, it became clear to me why they sell it for Rp35.000,00. The beer flavor is strong in this one, very bitter like how a beer should taste, yet there was a hint of vanilla sweetness here and there. I'm not a big fan of beer, so tasting is enough for me. But for those who fancy the bubbly and fizzy sensation of Diablo beer, you should definitely get the ice cream!

I went for the Salted Caramel ice cream with Oreo cone. Even when the cone was super small, on the edge of it was a generous amount of melted marshmallow and Oreo crumbs that tasted superb! I didn't know Oreo and marshmallow worked well with each other, especially with a scoop of the salty and sweet Salted Caramel ice cream. 

Salted Caramel Ice Cream with Oreo cone - 40K

Gavin's share of ice cream with plain cone - 25K

We tasted each other's ice cream and they all tasted sooooo good! Ambar's Choco Lemon Ice Cream was very chocolaty with a strong lemon flavor, yet Gita's Choco Ferrero was way more chocolaty than Ambar's - even when it was hard for me to distinguish the Ferrero chocolate inside. Aryo decided to get creative with his dessert combination, so he went for the Hazelnut Ice Cream with Fruity Loops cone. 

I know, the dessert at this cafe can be pretty pricey, but I don't see why you can't enjoy good quality ice cream once in a while.

Ambar's Choco Lemon Ice Cream - 25K

Again, sharing is good!

Aryo's Hazelnut Ice Cream with Fruity Loops cone - 40K

Gita's Choco Ferrero with Milo cone - 50K

After we screamed for ice cream, we move on to our last pit stop, which was LOCALE24 Diner & Bar. We only had drinks at this restaurant/bar, while we wait for a couple of friends to join in the fun. I had a glass of Pina Colada that was overflowing with coconut. It was rather challenging for me to finish my drink because I didn't enjoy it at all. Same thing with Gavin and his Mojito that definitely used green food coloring and syrup in the making. Unfortunately, the battery in my Mom's Leica died just as I was about to take picture of the drinks, so, no pictures in this one. 

It was fun having culinary adventure with my fellow heavy eaters. True, we only visited four restaurants that day, but we also shopped for street snacks on our way to Pantai Indah Kapuk - such as the sensational Hot Jeletot, boiled quail eggs, and cheap cheese sticks. Not to mention, I bought a portion of Nasi Bungkus with grilled fish, tempe, and salted duck egg on my way home. Can you imagine how much weight I can gain in just one day? 

"The time you enjoy wasting is not wasted time."

Hakata Ikkousha

Ruko Garden House, Blok B

Bukit Gold Mediterania

Jalan Raya Pantai Indah Kapuk

Pantai Indah Kapuk, Jakarta

Opening Hours:

Monday - Sunday: 11AM - 10PM

Contact:

+62 21 2903 3271

SHIROKUMA

Ruko Crown Golf, Blok A No. 23

Bukit Golf Mediterania, Jalan Pantai Indah Kapuk

Pantai Indah Kapuk, Jakarta

Opening Hours

Monday - Sunday: 12PM - 10PM

Contact

+62 21 2923 7523

Northpole Cafe

Ruko Crown Golf, Blok A No. 57

Bukit Gold Mediterania

Jalan Marina Indah Raya

Pantai Indah Kapuk, Jakarta

Opening Hours: 

Monday - Sunday: 12PM - 10PM

Contact:

+61 21 2921 0357

LOCALE24 Diner & Bar

Ruko Gardon House, Blok B10-11 

Bukit Golf Mediterania

Jalan Raya Pantai Indah Kapuk

Pantai Indah Kapuk, Jakarta

Opening Hours: 24 Hours

Contact:

+62 21 2903 3162

Bumblebee Water Bottle

My best friends, Icha and Dila, went to Singapore last month and got me this awesome Bumblebee water bottle - thank you guys, I love it! The liquid container is big and tall, maybe enough to store a liter of water. And what I love the most about the water bottle is that is came with a flip straw. How can you not love a flip straw? Even though I'm not the number one fan when it comes to Transformer, it excites me to have such merchandise. My Dad though, whose laptop's desktop background is Optimus Prime, was thrilled when I told him about my new water bottle.

Meet Bumblebee

It comes with a flip straw, how awesome is that?

And it's not just a regular water bottle. When you open the lid, you will see packs and packs of gummy candies. There is enough gummy candies for everybody! The candies share the same shape with orange. They come in four different flavors, judging from the different color packaging - yellow, blue, red, and green. But, I have only figured out one flavor so far, which is guava. 

Those gummy candies were sweet and chewy they were hurting my sensitive teeth. They were coated with sugar, so, for those who have sensitive teeth, or maybe even cavities, should be careful.

Candies!

Each pack contains a pair of orange-shaped gummy candy

Sushi Ya

My two best friends and I were going to visit Magnum Cafe today, but due to some unfortunate events we decided to change our destination. The nearest dining place at that time were TIS Square, an area at Tebet where you can find numerous food joints and bistro. Without any ado, we hopped into a cab and made our way to TIS Square. 

Sushi-Ya

You can find lots of restaurants and cafes at TIS Square - such as H.E.M.A., Starbucks, Pizza Hut, Steak 21, PHO 24, and Dunkin' Donuts. Sushi-Ya was our choice of restaurant. We entered the restaurant, rest our bottoms, and immediately ordered some Japanese dishes. Dila ordered herself a plate of Shrimp Tempura Roll, while Icha and I had some Salmon Sushi. Then, for the main course, Icha and I ordered the same dish, which was Teriyaki Salmon. Dila, on the other hand, had a couple sticks of Yakitori. 

Dila's Shrimp Tempura Roll

Icha's Salmon Roll

My Salmon Sushi was chubby and enjoyable! The chef was very generous with the amount of the rice that he used to make the sushi. Most sushi bar would just use a small amount of it, but not at Sushi-Ya. Topped with a thin slice of fresh salmon that tasted sweet and delicious, the rice was glutinous and sweeter compared to other sushi bars. This particular sushi costs approximately Rp12.000,00.

Two Salmon Sushi of mine

Dila's Yakitori

After I finished my Salmon Sushi, I proceed to consume my Teriyaki Salmon platter. Served with juicy and crisp salad and a bowl of warm rice, this dish costs Rp60.000,00. The salmon was nicely grilled, it was well done, just the way I like it. It tasted sweet and savory, but mostly sweet from the Teriyaki sauce. This dish tasted beyond delicious! I think it was clearly shown on my face because, at one point, Dila said, "Kin, your face.. it's like as if you're in ecstasy.". 

I managed to finish my plate of Teriyaki Salmon - the rice, the juicy salad, the kyuri roll, and the fish itself were wiped out - and I could actually settle for another plate if I didn't have breakfast beforehand. Icha couldn't finish hers because she was too full. 

Teriyaki Salmon that came with crisp salad and a bowl of rice

My bowl of warm and slightly sweet rice

I was stuffed, but my dessert stomach was empty. I quickly browse through the menu and select a dish from the Dessert section. Tutty Fruity Ice Cream was the one that caught my attention. It costs Rp18.000,00 per portion, consisted of a scoop of Vanilla ice cream, strawberries, slices of peach, and honey-coated corn-flakes. I fancy the combination of the ice cream and the peach the most!

Tutty Fruity Ice Cream for dessert

It felt so good to be reunited with good friends, especially when there were good food around! We chatted and ate. We took pictures and videos. The only thing missing was.. my wallet. I forgot to put it my wallet inside my bag, leaving me with not more than Rp6.000,00 that I accidently found in my jeans' pocket. Can you imagine the inconvenient of not having money to pay your dishes with when you were the one who ate the most, hence has to pay the most? But then, came Dila to the rescue! She was very nice for letting me borrow her money to pay my lunch, otherwise I would have obliged to stay back at the restaurant to do some dishwashing. Long story short, this afternoon was great!

TIS Square

Sushi -Ya 

Jalan Letnan Jendral MT. Haryono No. 9

Jakarta Selatan, DKI Jakarta 12810

Birthday Surprises

Dear readers,

I am proud to announce that I am now 18 years of age! 

November 23rd was the day I turned 18. I woke up to a sight of my Mom making Tumpeng in the kitchen. Tumpeng is a cone-shaped rice, with various dishes surrounding the mountain of rice, which is usually consumed by Indonesian during a special event. In this case, my birthday. Indonesian believe that the cone-shaped rice represent the mountains in the land of Java, which is the house of the Gods, and the side dishes surrounding the rice are the things given by the Gods that we harvested. The peak of the Tumpeng is usually cut and gave to the most important person. He, or she, could be the one you love most, the eldest, or simply the birthday girl.

Mom didn't expect me to wake up early (it was half passed ten in the morning. I usually wake up after midday), so she was a bit startled when I asked her about what we were going to have for lunch, on my way to the bathroom. I believe Mom was hoping to finish the Tumpeng before I woke up. But, since I was aready awake, I ended up helping her preparing the dish.

Yellow rice is usually used in the making of Tumpeng. But, since we didn't have any yellow rice, we used red rice instead. This dish is very simple to make, as it consists of cone-shaped rice and various side dishes. Mom started with peeling the tomato and make a rose out of it. 

Rose Tomato, Step #1:

- Posses a kick-ass skill in using knife

Step #2: 

- Peel the tomato in a swirly pattern. If you haven't an idea, you may open YouTube and type "How to Make Tomato Rose".

Slowly peel the tomato

Voila!

Step #3:

- Twirl the Tomato skin round and round, and voila! you just made yourself a Tomato Rose.

Twirl the Tomato..

..and there you have it, a Tomato Rose!

Step #4:

- If you don't have any idea on what to do with the skinless Tomato, you can cut them to pieces and start munching.

Tomato for breakfast

Other than Rose Tomato, my Mom also made a flower with a green tomato. Green tomato are usually used to make chilly paste (sambal), I don't think they taste as sweet as red tomatoes. 

Green Tomato Flower, Step #1:

- Master a more kick-ass skill in using knife.

Step #2:

- Make an X on the skin of the Green Tomato.

Make an X on the green tomato

Step #3:

- Slowly peel the skin. Make sure the inner part of the Green Tomato is detached from the skin.

Peel the skin a bit

Step #4: 

- Pull the skin apart from the inner part a little bit, and there you have it!

A plate of foodstuff for garnishing

One of the side dishes that Mom made to decorate the Tumpeng with was Tempe Orek. Tempe is a chunk of fermented soybean, and in Tempe Orek, it is cut into small pieces and fried with some nuts. Soy sauce and chilly are used in the process of making this dish. Fry the Tempe and the nuts together and you will end up with a bowl of crispy and flavorful dish.

Tempe Orek 

The next dish was Sambal Goreng Kentang. You only need potato, spices, and frying pan to make this dish. First, you diced the potato. Second, fry the potato with the spices. Last, but not least, dig in! 

I love Mom's Sambal Goreng Kentang because it tasted delicious! True, it's a bit spicy for my taste, but I like it. Especially when Mom add some meatballs to the dish, yum!

Sambel Goreng Kentang

Vegetables were also used to decorate the Tumpeng. Mom used four kinds of vegetable, which were bean sprouts, long beans, water spinach, and spinach. They were quickly boiled and mixed with a rubbing named Urab. Urab here is made out of coconut and spices. It tasted savory and a bit salty.

Mixed boiled veggies

Bean Sprouts 

Long Beans

Water Spinach (Kangkung)

Spinach

Put some urab on the mixed veggies.. 

..and mix them all together

Then, Mom took out some flour and corn, and made a batter to make a corn fritter. Indonesian are more familiar with the name Bakwan Jagung, which is Corn Fritter in English. It's basically deep-fried batter with corns in it. You have got to try my Mom's Corn Fritter. They are beyond delicious you ought to want more after you finish a piece.

Corn Fritter (Bakwan Jagung)

Sliced omelette is another side dish that you can found in a Tumpeng. We didn't use many eggs to make the omelette, one is enough. You simply crack an egg open and add some salt into the gigantic cell, and stir it until it's bubbly. Then, you fry the egg mixture with a non-stick frying pan, with low fire. After the egg is nicely fried, roll it and slice it. The next thing you know, the Tumpeng is garnished with eatable confetti. 

Make an omelette with one egg

Roll the omelette and slice it

After the side dishes were prepared, Mom proceed in shaping the red rice. Since we don't have a cone shaper, Mom cunningly used whatever tools that we got to shape the rice. She used a bowl to make the base and a funnel to make the peak. In the end, the Tumpeng didn't share the same shape with a cone, but you would get the idea. 

The base of the Tumpeng

Shaping the peak of the Tumpeng

Red Rice Tumpeng

After the rice was shaped and the side dishes were prepared, it was time to decorate the Tumpeng!

Chiko was curious to see what Mom was doing

Mom, decorating the Tumpeng

Mom made those Tomato Roses

Of course, fried chicken is essential in Tumpeng!

It was midday when Mom finished her creation. What used to be an empty white plate had become a luxurious dish that can feed three people. There was this mountain of red rice, surrounded by colorful side dishes. There were Tomato Roses and Tomato Flower, there were also fried chicken, spicy potato, and greens. The Tumpeng that Mom made was awesome! 

Then, we proceed to destroy the beautiful masterpiece and dig in. I had a spoonful of rice with a little bit of everything. I love every single thing that was on my plate, especially the Bakwan Jagung and the Sambal Goreng Kentang.

And there you have it, a plate of luxurious Tumpeng

Lunch is served!

My Dad couldn't go home on my birthday because he had a simulator test, so he wished me a birthday greeting via Whatsapp and gave me a virtual birthday present on his Tumblr. Thank you, Dad!

After lunch, I got a text message from my colleague at work, saying that I have to drop by at Gudang Rottie, so I did. I arrived at the restaurant and I was overwhelmed. I was welcomed with a plate of red Velvet Cupcake, with a pair of lit-up candles on top. They shook my hand and gave me birthday greetings, and we took picture together. The place was a full-house that afternoon, so we quickly celebrate my birthday and got back to work. 

I stayed for a while at Gudang Rottie and headed back home. I brought the Red Velvet Cupcake that my colleague gave to me and share it with my Mom. It was nice and sweet, and a little bit salty on the edges of the cake too. The cupcake was delicious!

Birthday surprise from my colleague in Gudang Rottie

At night, I was surprised by my best friends, Icha, Dila, Sally and Angel. The came to my house with cakes and presents. The fantastic four sang "Happy Birthday" as they walked into the house, while I was giggling to F.R.I.E.N.D.S. that was aired on Fox Channel. I was overjoyed, I squealed the entire time. It was the most awesome birthday surprise I had!

Quick intro!

There were two cakes, one was from Icha and Dila, and the other one was from Angel and Sally. Angel and Sally's cake was decorated with lit-up 1 and 8 candles, and the cake had "Happy Birthday Kinan" written on it. The cake was glazed with white cream and decorated with green icing sugar and chocolate block. 

Icha and Dila's cake was bathe in chocolate ganache, and decorated with strawberries and chocolates. "NABUNAGA TWINS" was written on the cake, which I supposed would be "NOBUNAGA TWINS" if the one who wrote on the cake didn't accidently switched the vowel. Dila, Icha, and I are fans of Takehiko Inoue's Slam Dunk. The two of them made Slam Dunk fan-fictions, in which I was the twin sister of a character named Kiyota Nobunaga, hence explained the writings on their cake. 

I blew the candle and the five of us cheered happily.

SURPRISE!

Birthday Cake from Sally and Angel

Birthday Cake from Dila and Icha

We had the Tumpeng that my Mom made for dinner and the cakes that my friends brought. The five of us chatted at the dinning room while munching on fried chicken and chocolate cake, and simply had a great time. 

Dila gave me a homemade popped-up birthday card, with drawings of me, Kiyota Nobunaga, and Hanagata Toru playing basketball in it. The birthday card is plain genius because I could actually move the basketball around! "We don't have a birthday present for you because we haven't buy one," said Icha, "but, hey, we got you some cake!".

Sally and Angel got me a box filled with knickknacks. "It is called the Box of Metamorphosis, because you will find things inside the box that will transform you," said Angel. I opened the box and I was welcomed with beauty products, accessories, and a beautiful dress. I was in cloud nine when I receive such present! They told me to dress up and be a girl, so I did. The next thing I know, we were in the living room taking endless frames of pictures.

Me and my best buddies!

In summary, my 18th birthday was awesome! I got to spend it with my family and my friends. I ate lots of delicious food and cake. I had a great time keeping in touch with my friends. I was showered with surprises. I got loads of birthday greetings and presents. It was awesome!

Thank you, everybody, my 18th birthday would be dull without you guys in it!

Regards,

Kinan L. Wirastani