Showing posts with label Taruna. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Taruna. Show all posts

Saturday, April 15, 2017

Perjuangan Beli Keripik

Udah hampir enam bulan lamanya gue nggak terbang dan gue kangen. Dulu, bisa setiap hari gue terbang, bahkan dua sampai tiga kali dalam satu hari. Gempor, sih, untungnya nggak sampai thypus, but it was fun while it lasts. 

Ada, dari seluruh penerbangan yang gue lakuin semasa gue jadi taruna, yang paling nggak bisa gue lupain, yaitu pas terbang solo gue ke Lampung. Gue benar-benar terbang sendirian ke Lampung dan saat itu cuacanya lagi kacau. Sekacau jamban yang habis dimampirin setelah semalamnya gue makan Samyang dan Sate Taichan pakai Bon Cabe. Kebayang, kan?


Gue berangkatnya udah agak siang, sekitar jam sembilan lewat. Padahal harusnya gue terbang jam tujuh pagi, tapi karena satu dan lain hal, gue harus berangkat dua jam setelahnya. Jam segitu, langit udah mulai dipenuhi awan, namanya awan cumulus. Semakin siang, semakin banyak awan, dan ukurannya semakin besar.

Gue paling takut sama yang namanya turbulance. Mau itu karena masuk awan, ketampar angin, maupun goyangan kecil karena pas takeoff dapat crosswind, semuanya gue nggak suka. Untungnya, pas pergi ke Lampung, cuacanya masih bagus, jadinya adem-adem aja dan semuanya berjalan dengan lancar. Tapi, pas balik ke Budiarto, gue harus nembus awan gegara waktu itu udah satu jam menuju siang bolong dan tebal awannya nggak karuan. Gue nggak ada pilihan lain selain menembus awan, mau cari celah pun nggak bisa karena bentangan awannya rata. Setengah jam terakhir sebelum gue mendarat di Budiarto, gue sempat nggak berhenti mengucapkan, "Tuhan Yesus pimpin" setiap detiknya karena gue masuk awan. Kacau, sih, kalau disuruh ngulang lagi gue ogah. Tapi, untungnya, gue mendarat dengan selamat di Budiarto.


Nah, yang paling gue suka dari penerbangan gue ke Lampung adalah oleh-olehnya. Yak, Keripik Pisang Kepok! Dengan perjalanan ini, secuil cita-cita gue sebagai pilot, yaitu jalan-jalan keliling dunia dan nyobain setiap makanan dari setiap daerah yang gue singgahi, tercapai. Gue berhasil ke Lampung dan beli jajanan khas Lampung, yaitu si Keripik Pisang Kepok.

Dari semua varian rasa yang pernah gue coba, Melon, Strawberry, Coklat, Susu, Asin, Keju, Manis, yang paling gue suka adalah rasa coklat. It's my favorite! Keripik pisangnya renyah banget, ada yang tebal ada yang tipis, dan semuanya berbalur bubuk coklat yang bikin nagih bukan main. Gue paling demen kalau udah tinggal sisa remah-remah pisang, dengan gumpalan-gumpalan bubuk coklatnya. Sedap bukan main!


Udah menjadi tradisi kami, taruna penerbang, untuk selalu membawa oleh-oleh khas Lampung yang satu ini setiap kami menyelesaikan terbang kami ke Lampung. Gue udah melewati stage itu dan gue seneng banget. Lebih senengnya lagi, gue berhasil bawain "hasil terbang" gue ke Ibu dan Bapak gue. Mereka masing-masing gue bawain Keripik Pisang Kepok, satu rasa Keju, satunya lagi rasa Manis.

Cerita (Nggak Diajak) Ngampung

Dulu, jamannya masih hidup di barak, kadang kalau lagi bosen, gue suka kabur malam-malam dengan kawan-kawan gue. Kadang gue orangnya cukup prosedur, taat peraturan maksudnya, tapi cuek-nya gue lebih besar ketimbang ketakutan gue untuk dihukum. Gue lebih pingin bersenang-senang, meskipun ada kemungkinan buruk yang bisa terjadi kedepannya, ketimbang nggak ngapa-ngapain karena takut. Akhirnya, ada suatu masa di mana gue sering banget lompat tembok barak dan kabur ke tempat hiburan terdekat. Kita, para taruna, nyebutnya "ngampung".

Ngampung ini udah ada dari jaman Bapak gue jadi taruna, dulu banget sekitar tahun 1980-an. Ada yang bilang ngampung, ada juga yang bilang "ngota", yang arti kasarnya adalah main ke kampung, atau ke kota. Sederhananya, kita kabur dari barak untuk cari hiburan.

Hiburan bagi gue saat itu adalah, nggak kurang dan nggak lebih dari, jalan dan jajan. Gue diajak ngampung buat beli martabak aja udah seneng, apalagi waktu itu sering diajak ngampung ke Enigma. Enigma itu adalah semacam tempat nongkrong di Serpong - bisa makan, bisa mimik-mimik cantik, bisa juga main billiard - cuma sekitar setengah jam perjalanan pakai kendaraan sewaan dari barak.

Dalam hal ngampung, gue hanya sebagai profokator pada siang hari, yang tugasnya manas-manasin kawan-kawan gue dengan, "Eh, ngampung, yuk!" atau "Aduh, pingin martabak, deh." Masalah jadi ngampung atau nggaknya tergantung inisiatif yang lain, pada mau gerak, atau pada males. Biasanya gue selalu dikabarin sahabat gue kalau jadi jalan. "Ket, ikut ngampung, nggak," katanya. Gue akan ngampung kalau dia ngajak, tapi nggak pernah gue inisiatif ngampung sendiri, kecuali waktu itu saat gue dan teman-teman barak gue ngidam banget makan pizza dan akhirnya gue nekad kabur berduaan naik motor demi beli dua loyang Pizza Hut. Dedikasi tanpa batas!

Pernah suatu kali, gue nggak diajak ngampung, entah alasannya kenapa. Sedih, dong, rasanya kayak didepak dari geng, padahal mungkin dia cuma lupa ngajak aja. I have this tendency to overthink stuff and take something way far more serious than it should be, but I forced myself not to dan pura-pura nitip martabak sebagai oleh-oleh. "Mau martabak, hehehe," kata gue manja dan dibalas dengan, "Mahal, ngapain juga beliin lo martabak." Rasanya pingin nyebur ke sawah sebelah barak.

Berhubung barak gue difasilitasi dengan modem wifi.id, jadilah gue begadang berduaan dengan laptop, sementara dua teman barak gue udah pada di dunia mimpi masing-masing. Tiba-tiba gue dapat LINE call dari salah satu kawan gue, menginstruksikan gue untuk ke koridor barak. "Ket, koridor bentar, dah," katanya.

"Ngapain, Pin" tanya gue.

"Dibawain martabak nih sama si Puki," balasnya.


Wah, langsung lupa diri. Gue mencolot dari kasur, buru-buru pakai celana training dan kaos olahraga, dan meluncur ke koridor barak. Waktu itu belum ada CCTV, jadi taruna masih bebas berkeliaran diatas jam tidur. Kalau sekarang, mah, udah lebih ketat.

Bener, dong, gue dibawain martabak. Pertama dan terakhir kalinya. Dan gue sekaget itu karena gue tau betapa meditnya sahabat gue yang satu itu (baca cerita gue yang ini, deh). Seketika langsung seneng. Setelah gue terima kotak martabaknya, gue balik ke barak, dan bangunin teman-teman gue.

"Wey, martabak, nih," teriak gue.

Ngemil, deh. Abis itu ngantuk. Kemudian tidur nyenyak.



Bagi gue, orang yang paling baik di dunia adalah orang yang ngasih gue makanan. And, boy, you're one and always have been. 

Sunday, February 22, 2015

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:



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


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:



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: