Tribute to Batik at Dapuraya Pasaraya

As an Indonesian, I'm very proud of Batik as I think it is one of the inventions made by the Indonesians, which is highly acknowledged by the whole world. Last week, together with my fellow foodies friends, I visited Dapuraya, the long-time existing food court of Pasaraya which is located at Kemang. In this October month, they were having the event called "Tribute to Batik", in which the management provide free spaces for the batik sellers, coming from all over Indonesia, to sell their products and encourage more Indonesians to wear Batik. They want to educate the people various types of Batik produced in Indonesia and provide the opportunity for the Batik lovers to add their collection as well as for the non Batik lovers to start wearing Batik.

There are quite many sellers participating in the event, and they mostly come from cities located in Java, such as Pekalongan, Solo, Yogyakarta, and others. The products offered are not limited to shirts and pants, as they do offer ties, shoes, sarongs, handkerchiefs, and even tablewares and room decorations. Types of batik provided also range from the printed one until the written one.

As I mentioned before, the location is at a food court, so you might wonder about the foods provided there. You don't need to worry as I will definitely share with you about it. Remember, I'm still a food-blogger so foods definitely come as one of my most effective incentives. First time coming to this food court, I was really surprised by its size as it's so huge and it sells so many varieties of Indonesian traditional dishes coming from almost all areas in Indonesia. You can find Soto Ayam, Nasi Liwet, Gudeg, Gado-gado, whatever you name it! If I might say, they simply provide almost everything! Not only the main courses, they do serve Indonesian appetizers, snacks, desserts, and beverages. Some of the sellers are even the ones, which have been well-known for long long time.

To buy the food here, you need to buy the food court card in prior and put balance into it. It basically becomes your money here and you need to maintain minimum balance of IDR 5,000. At that time, I was lucky that I went there with my friends so we could order various dishes and tried each other's. I had Nasi Gudeg Komplit from Bu Yu Jum, Selat Solo from Solo Baru, and Sup Ikan Salmon. For desserts, I opted for my all-time favorite, Serabi Solo with chocolate and cheese toppings. Actually, they still have some other recommended dishes like Burung Dara, Nasi Liwet, Sate, Pempek, and others but we're already too full! Overall, the foods were quite nice although the price were not as affordable as the traditional Indonesian foods you bought at depots/warung. However, it could always be an option when you want to have Indonesian foods with cozy yet still traditional ambience. Additionally, the service was quite fast and the waiter/waitress were highly responsive. The most important point, you can get the chance to visit their Batik shops right after you enjoy your meals. So why don't you give it a try? You'd better be hurry before October ends :)

Taste: 7.5/10

Place: 8/10

Service: 8/10

Price: 7/10

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Dapuraya at Pasaraya

Address: Pasaraya Grande Blok M LG Jalan Sultan Iskandarsyah 2

Phone: (021) 7207 201
Opening Hours: Mon - Sun 10am - 10pm

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Classy Brunch at Lareia Cafe

I always feel super excited everytime I can find spare time to update my blog and share with all of you about places I visited. I've been extremely busy lately that it's so hard to even have 7-hour sleep :(.

 

Okay cut the story short, I felt quite lucky that there's national holiday on Thursday last 2 weeks. Coincidentally, I had to attend the wedding of my friend's sister at Saturday the same week, at Surabaya. Of course I didn't waste the opportunity to visit this city after almost 1 year not going there.

 

So there I was, taking advantage of my short sweet escape in Surabaya and maximizing the opportunity to try as many restaurants as possible. One of the most wanted places for me was Lareia Cafe. I have been waiting for this time long long time ago. As the result, it's the first place I visited in the trip!

 

First time stepping into the cafe, I was quite surprised that the design even looked way more beautiful than the gorgeous pictures posted by so many people. Mainly-themed with white, it immediately stole my heart with its classy and elegant ambience. It simply made me feel so 'princessy' dining in there, especially with the nice and speedy service offered by the waiters and waitresses.

 

Choosing what to order, I was drowned in confusion as I just wanted to order every single thing displayed at the showcase. Yes, I'm a dessert freak and all the cakes were just too tempting to be true! Being in the dilemma for quite some time, I then picked 2 savoury dishes and 2 cakes to try.

 

Hawaiian Soka Crab Burger (IDR 80k)

This dish was surely the winner for presentation. It looked so engaging that I was so excited to taste it, especially because I loved Soka crab so much. Great news, it didn't only have gorgeous look, but also tasted awesome. The soka crab was perfectly cooked and generously given, and the portion was highly satisfying. Not to forget, the french fries did come as perfect companion.

 

Burmese Red Pork (IDR 85k)

If you're typical Indonesian who always think that you haven't eaten without having rice, you needn't worry as they do serve rice. My choice went to this pork, served with butter rice. I personally didn't really fancy rice, but this one was surely an exception. The texture was flawless and the seasoning was not over powering. I really loved the pork as well as it's tender, not greasy, and the spicy taste perfectly suited my palate.
 

  

Cappuccino (IDR 34k)

For this one, I wouldn't give much comment as I was indeed not too peeky when having coffee. As long as it's not too acid, it was always a nice cup for me.

 

Strawberry Lassi (IDR 36k)

This was actually my friend's so I only had a sip of it. Healthier choice and definitely a good substitute to your caffein intake. However, it might be quite heavy if you're taking it with full course. 

 

Chocolate Souffle Cake (IDR 44k)

Now it came to dessert, the part which was able to drive my excitement the most. First trial went to this 'happening' cake, posted by almost everyone on my instagram timeline. The gooey salted caramel had always made me drool and once I had the very first spoon, it's exactly the moment of truth! You might think I was over-exaggerating, but trust me, I had no single doubt that any chocolate lover would fall for this. Not much sayings, it's just soooooo chocolate! 

 

Lychee Watermelon Cake (IDR 46k)

180-degree different to the previous cake, this one came in very light texture and refreshing taste. This would be the best choice for you who loved something fresh to end your course. It's not too sweet, and the combination of lychee and watermelon were simply enjoyable.

 

It was unfortunate that I got so full and could only try 2 of the cakes. I would surely go back some time (I hope) real soon. One important note, the price is quite affordable as well considering the huge portion of the foods served, especially the savory ones. For you who happened to visit Surabaya or stay in Surabaya, Lareia Cafe is doubtlessly a must-try!

 

Taste: 9/10

Place: 9/10

Service: 8.5/10

Price: 8.5/10

Thanks for Reading! :)

 

LAREIA CAFE

Adress: Ciputra World Surabaya, 3^rd Floor

Phone: (031) 5120 0196

Opening hours: Mon - Sun 10am - 10pm

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Hometown Food Craving Satisfied at D’ Solo

It’s been a long long time since the last time I wrote a blog post. Yes, I sincerely apologize to all of you who have been waiting for so long for another reference from Tummy Prosperity. I’ve been assigned to work in Japan for the last 6.5 months and all the workloads did not allow me to spend some time for updating my blog even though I really wanted to.

 

Ok, cut the story short, here I am already back again in Jakarta, meeting again the ‘extreme’ traffic and the hot sunny weather. However, it’s still great to be back here, as I can speak Bahasa Indonesia again, meet tons of friends, gather and hunt new places together with my foodies fellas, and for sure, eat Indonesian foods again!

 

I don’t know if it’s a coincidence or you just need to call me lucky, at this third weekend I spent in Jakarta, I got the invitation from D’ Solo, a traditional Javanese restaurant, who has just expanded its menu range by adding one well-known dish from Makassar, South Sulawesi. Well, if you’ve just guessed that they now serve Coto Makassar, yes you’re 100% right!

 

When I heard from them that they’re excited to let me try this newly launched dish, my heart jumped excitedly! I guessed it’s been more than a year since the last time I ate Coto Makassar, the most famous dish from my hometown.  Oh yeah, for you who haven’t known where I originally come from yet, now you know it.

 

When I first arrived at D’ Solo restaurant at Melawai, I could immediately tell that this restaurant was ‘Soooo Java’. The decoration of its 2-storey outlet strongly gave the ambience of Java. Yes, as I said before, it’s indeed a traditional Javanese restaurant, who used to serve Javanese dishes only.

 

However, despite it sells traditional dishes, don’t expect that it look like warung. The restaurant is actually so cozy as it’s spacious and it does have modern touch on the design. The service is very satisfying for me as well as the waiters and waitresses are responsive and dexterous.

 

So here comes the part I’ve been waiting for, the food-tasting for Coto Makassar! For you who have not heard about this dish or might have heard it but haven’t tried it and wonder what it is, let me give you brief description about the dish. Besides the form, which is soup, Coto Makassar is totally different from Soto. The spices mixed into the soup as well as the appearance are really distinctive from Soto. The main ingredients are ground peanuts and candlenut, while the meat used is mostly beef although in Makassar you can find some sell it with horse meat.

 

Similar to the order process for Coto in Makassar, here in D’ Solo they also asked which part of the beef I wanted to be mixed into my Coto. Don’t get surprised, but yes, Makassar people love to have innards like intestine, liver, lungs, heart, tripe, tongue, and even brain in their Coto so all of those things I mentioned were served here. And my choices, which was kind of mainstream in Makassar but I recommended you to go for if you’re newbie for Coto, are the beef itself and heart. You needn’t worry about heart because it basically doesn’t have any particular smell or taste and I somehow couldn’t really differentiate it from the beef.

 

As you know, Indonesians mostly couldn’t eat without chili, so you’re right if you expected this dish to have certain chili sauce to enjoy with. For the original one in Makassar, the chili sauce’s basically made of chili only. However, D’ Solo’s one mixed it with tauco, the paste made from preserved fermented yellow soybeans. Although it’s pretty different, surprisingly I really loved this chili sauce. For some of my friends who couldn’t really eat spicy food, they said it’s really spicy but there’s no big problem as you could add the chili into your coto based on your preference. Besides, using the Makassar style, I did mix it with a little soy sauce (some people also loved to have it with lime). As the companion, this Coto was enjoyed with Ketupat or Buras. You might be familiar with Ketupat but had no idea what’s Buras. Simply said, it’s just like Lontong as the rice’s mixed with coconut milk and the taste’s a bit sweet.

 

Looking at the presentation of the dish, at first I thought the taste would be quite different because this Coto had brighter soup color. However, having my first spoon of it, I was amazed as it tasted really similar to my favorite one in my hometown. The soup was so rich, even when I tasted it before I mixed it with any other ingredients! If I had to mention the difference, perhaps it’s just a little bit more oily but luckily, the super tender beef and heart made me able to enjoy it until the very last sip of the broth. Not to mention, their Ketupat and Buras also came as flawless partners to the Coto as they were scrumptious. Overall, I was so in love with it and it could be a perfect healer for my craving for my hometown’s foods.

 

Actually, I was really tempted to try D’ Solo traditional Javanese dishes as well. Its Nasi Liwet and Selat Solo looked so mouth-watering, and its Serabi Solo reminded me of my university days back then when I really really loved to buy this traditional cake. Additionally, all of the dishes are sold at very affordable price, which were mostly within the range of IDR 20k – IDR 30k. For side dishes, many of them were even below IDR 10k! Unfortunately, I have had early lunch with my friends before coming to D’ Solo so our tummy could just afford the Coto. Therefore, I’m really looking forward to having my next visit to D’ Solo to have a try on their traditional Javanese dishes!  

 

 

 

Taste: 8.5/10

Place: 8/10

Service: 8.5/10

Price: 8/10

 

 

Thanks for Reading! :)

 

D’ Solo Restaurant

Address: Jl. Melawai Raya No. 189 G

Phone: 021 7278 7371

Opening Hours: Monday – Sunday, 8am – 10pm

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Meat Madness at Ribs & Bier Co.

For you who reside or often dine around Kelapa Gading area, I honestly admit that I really envy you. There are lots of delicious foods available there and last weekend, I just found another hidden gem, Ribs & Bier Co. Located at Ruko Graha Boulevard, the 2-storey venue is not as visible as most restaurants which are located by the side of the road, next to each other.  

 

I love the simple design of the venue, which is majorly dominated with wooden furniture. It is very cozy to spend your time chilling here for long time. As it starts to open at 3pm until midnight every day, most of the guests come here for afternoon meals, dinner, as well as supper. Not few of them also like to watch football match together (what so called as “Nonton Bareng”) with their friends here.

The service is highly satisfying as all the waiters and waitresses are highly responsive to any of my request. Moreover, I really love how knowledgeable they are in answering all my questions about the dishes they serve. One additional happiness for me is I don’t have to wait for too long to have all my dishes ready on the table.

Crispy Mushroom (IDR 35k)

 

 

 

 
Lately, I always start my dining session with appetizers, especially in any food-tasting events including this one. For me, appetizer must be perfect because most people will make judgment based on first impression and appetizer is indeed a major contributor in creating first impression. Great news, this crispy mushroom perfectly started my afternoon meal at Ribs & Co! It was crunchy, well-seasoned, and not greasy at all. Enjoying it with the sour and savory sauce, this dish doesn’t only look appealing but do taste succulent.

Chicken Nachos (IDR 40k)

Now the turn for the most commonly ordered appetizer, Nachos! So what’s so special with R&B’s version of this dish? I guess you can see it just by looking at the picture. Yes! That abundantly given mozzarella cheese on top of the nachos. As a cheese lover, this definitely became the one making me admire this dish. Combining that cheesy taste with the yummy chicken hidden under the nachos, this was another great opening after the first one.

R&B Co. Ribs Salad with Beef (IDR 39k)

Having something healthy for appetizer’s surely not a bad idea as well, so here’s the healthy appetizer served on the table. Yeah, actually there’s a little cheating element in the dish as we had quite generous grilled beef over there. I had to admit that the loveliest part of the dish was indeed the beef, which was tender and tasty. However, adding mixed green lettuce and blending all of them with the creamy cocktail sauce making healthy did not sound painful at all. PS. You might exchange the beef for pork if you desire :)

R&B Co. Cheese Burger (IDR 58k)

Enough with appetizers, now let’s go to the main course. Looking at the giant size, this cheese burger could be said as a definitely great deal. It served the complete combination of delicious and juicy beef patty; fresh and healthy veggies like tomatoes, cucumber, and lettuce; and most importantly salty and tempting melted cheese. If you realized, there’s something unique about this burger, which was the sauce spread below the top grilled bun. Not to forget, you could enjoy this burger with onion rings and French fries as well.

Pork Stripped with Buttered Rice (IDR 45k)

Not only burger, I did try R&B’s rice-based dish. It was actually buttered rice, combined with boneless pork ribs, which have been fried with chili oil. Ideally, the taste should be sour and spicy. However, this dish did not really suit my palate as for me, the taste was quite plain and it's a little bit too greasy; maybe due to the chili oil. If I might suggest, they might have to add more seasonings and made the taste stronger, so the taste could be even better.

Grilled Chicken Steak (IDR 58k)

 

 

I really loved this steak as the part of the chicken chosen for this dish was the breast, which was definitely less greasy. This one could be said as a perfect cure to the previous one, which did not really suit my preference. This dish had strong taste, especially because it was accompanied by the creamy and succulent mushroom sauce. For you who did not really fancy creamy sauce, you did not need to worry as you still had the choice of black pepper or gravy. One important note, the mashed potato was so so so good and I immediately fell for it at the first spoon! It was well seasoned and the texture was so moist. You actually could go for fries if you preferred, but trust me, their mashed potato was must-try!

R&B Co. Pork Ribs (IDR 127k)

 

Finally, the signature dish from R&B Co., Pork Ribs! This was the one I had been waiting for as well as the one attracted me the most to visit this place. At a glance, this pork ribs might look not too huge as it was not as long as what you commonly saw for full-rack. Surprisingly, the actual portion was really fulfilling as the meat was quite thick. How’s the taste? Two thumbs up! As my foodie friends and I always took pictures before eating, we actually ate this dish when it was not warm anymore. Surprisingly, it tasted terrific! The texture was so tender and there’s no fats at all stuck on the ribs (I really hate when I find ribs with full of fats). Another great fact, though the ribs were not marinated with the barbeque sauce, I could strongly feel the taste of the sauce in each bite. Describing the dish in one statement, it was finger lickin’ good! No wonder R&B claimed itself as the specialist of ribs. To give you extra happiness, you could enjoy this dish with coleslaw and french fries.

R&B Co. Punch (IDR 32k)

  

For the drink, I decided to go for some of their mocktails as the weather was hot and I did need something cold and refreshing. First one was this Punch, which blended watermelon, pineapple, lychee, lemon, and peach. The taste was pretty delightful, but I preferred it to be less sweet.

Strawberry Sour (IDR 30k)

Different from the first one, this second drink brought more simple mixture; strawberry, lime juice, and soda. The presentation was so eye-catchy for me. This one was also nice as it combined sweet and sour taste. Nevertheless, I also thought it’d be better to be less sweet.

Passion Fruit (IDR 32k)

This one was my most favorite among the 3 mocktails I tried. Pineapple, lemon, and passion fruit were united to satisfy my thirst. Looking at the ingredients, you might guess how the taste would be. Yes, it was more to sour side and I guessed that’s why it suited me best.

Café Latte (IDR 28k)

This one belonged to my friend, but I knew that they used Tanamera coffee. As I’ve ever tried it right at Tanamera’s outlet, I knew how good the taste was. So you did not need to put any single doubt on this cup.

Affogatto

Another coffee-based drink was this Affogatto, which also belonged to my friend. The presentation was exceptional!

Brownies (IDR 38k)

  

Though I’d had so much scrumptious dishes, desserts were certainly not to be missed. So here’s deconstructed brownies with blueberry and chocolate sauce with 2 scoops of vanilla ice cream as the first dessert served on the table. In terms of presentation and ingredients contained, this dessert was not that sophisticated. Nonetheless, wait until you had a try on it. This brownie was mind-blowing! The chef was so smart in playing with the sweetness level of each element; the cake itself was not that sweet, but the sauce and vanilla ice cream came as the perfect balancer.

Chocolate Lava (IDR 38k)

If the brownie was mind-blowing, then this Chocolate Lava was to die for! First of all, it was perfectly runny; flawlessly passing my first test on any Chocolate Lava. Next was taste. I just couldn’t get enough, and kept taking another spoon of it. The way this dessert combined slightly salty with sweet taste did cause me an addiction. Stunning and awesome!

Overall, I was really satisfied with my dining experience at Ribs & Bier Co. I highly recommend you to give a try on this hidden gem. Don’t forget, the dishes that you must never miss are their pork ribs, mashed potato, brownies, and chocolate lava! :)

Taste: 8.5/10

Place: 8.5/10

Service: 9/10

Price: 8.5/10

Thanks for Reading! :)

RIBS & BIER CO

Address: Ruko Graha Boulevard Blok KGC No. B19, Jl. Boulevard Raya, Kelapa Gading

Phone: (021) 2937 5227

Operating Hours: Sun – Thu 3pm – 00am, Fri – Sat 3pm – 2am

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