A Fancy Breakfast

All the way from Bali, Monsieur Spoon has finally opened their Jakarta store in Urban Farm Pantai Indah Kapuk. Since the store is always very crowded on weekend, I decided to go there on Friday.

 

I arrived at 10-ish am, on the weekday and still got waitlisted for more than 10 names. Since I'm a strong-willing person, I decided to just wait. How long are people gonna take to eat their breakfast right? WRONG. I kinda waited for almost 45 mins till I got my seats in the restaurant. 

While waiting for my reservation, I jajaned a couple of snacks in the Urban Farm area. I actually love the Urban Farm's concept. It is located in an outdoor area, and kinda not giving me any Jakarta vibes. 

After having a 20 mins conflict of heart regarding whether I should be ganjel perut first or not, I decided to buy these two snacks.

The first snack is a seafood meatball bowl from Naked Ramen. I decided to order this because it has a small portion and is also cheap (only IDR 19k if I'm not mistaken). Just a typical seafood meatball that I usually find in Lawson. But the sauce is really good. They spread some kind of mayo and green onion on top of it. They also spread some kind of crunchy stuff in there, I don't know what is that, but it kinda elevated the food taste.

The second one is a pie from Wicked Pies. I ordered the Feast and Melt pie, and to be honest I didn't eat it because the waiting for my reservation has finally come to an end.

It was already 11 a.m. My stomach is starting to growl yet I still feel hesitant to order a main meal here because I'm tempted to have lunch at Ask For Patty later. So I decided to order their super healthy bowl and shared a truffle scrambled egg and mushroom croissant with a friend.

The second my food arrived, I have no regret at all. Yes, it takes a long time for them to create this, I don't know why, but the bowl is actually very refreshing. I love every scoop of it. The one thing that is missing is actually the granola. They said they kinda running out of granola at that moment, nevertheless, it's still a good dish. The base is consists of a dragonfruit that combined with a banana, it was perfect.

If you're looking for a light dish, the food above could be a perfect option for you. By the way, they're kinda running out of a croissant when I ordered this, so they changed it to another pastry that I don't really remember the name hehe. The smell of the truffles is strong on this one, but not too much. The texture of the scrambled egg is soft and moist. To complete the dish, they also add sliced ​​mushrooms in the middle. A really nice touch. Definitely will re-order this.

To be honest, I wouldn't want to queue for more than 30 minutes just to eat a fancy breakfast, so I didn't really recommend the place when it already has more than 10 wait-listed names. But the food is great, really worth the wait. But it would've been nicer if I didn't wait that long to eat my breakfast.

One Sunny Day

What could be a better activity to do on a sunny day besides swimming? 없습니다~

So during my stay at DoubleTree Hotel, I decided to swim for at least an hour. I arrived at the pool at 09.45, and the pool staff told me that my visit was only allowed for one hour until 10.45. Just like what I planned. This is how the pool looked like from my point of view.

I love the fact that the swimming pool is circling the pool bar, and gave me the feeling of exploration.

Since I went there in the morning, I decided to bring my breakfast to the pool.

These are the coffee from Because Coffee by Harlan + Holden. After serving countless cups throughout Seoul and Manila, they finally opened their first store in Indonesia back in 2020. It is located on Pacific Place at the 1st floor. But sadly, I actually haven't got the chance to visit their store since it's always packed. So I decided to order them for accompanying my swimming session.

I ordered their sea salt latte, and to be honest it was to die for. I love the fact that I can smell their roasted coffee right away the moment I sip mine. The seal salt cream is somehow reminded me to a flavor of a cotton candy. It's sweet yet I can still taste the saltiness. Since I drank the coffee while enjoying my swim, the ice got melt easily due to the direct hit of sunlight. But surprisingly, the more the ice melts, the better it is to drink because the taste is much more balanced. 

Besides coffee i also brought my favorite cookie from Dough Lab. The O.G. I always love the texture of their cookie, it was not too tough and not too soft either. It's actually very chewy. The thing that escalate the flavor the most is the grain of salt at the top of the cookies. 

To conclude my story, both of them are actually have a similar flavor yet they still compliment each other really well. Top notch, great breakfast materials indeed.

Hot Pot Delight

Last weekend I went to Haidilao on Grand Indonesia to enjoy the festivity of Christmas Eve. Having to dislike beef made me avoid this kind of place. I'm not much of a hotpot guy, so going to a place where they sell boiled meat it's not something that I look forward to. But Haidilao has captivated me since the first time I went there. It broke my fourth wall and made me craving for a hotpot ever since. Compared to the Gancit one, the place on GI look way much bigger and less crowded. 

The staff's service here is just as excellent as any service in other Haidilao Restaurant. They keep spoiling us with a friendly environment and educate their customer on how to cook a certain food that we're not familiar with. They are always on standby, so whenever my glass looks less than half empty, they rush immediately to our table and refill it. My camel's drinking ability feel so grateful. 

There's also a cute staff that works here.

"Look at how cute he is when his working."

I think his jobdesk is supposed to be gliding around the restaurant to deliver our food.

I love their three combination soup, and never found another good soup that could beat it. I've tried their tom yum soup, laksa, mushroom broth, and still couldn't find them as great as the three combination soup. So yesterday, I just pushed my luck and tried their Rendang broth. I know, what an odd choice.

I always look down on this particular flavor and always joke about how weird it is to eat something Rendang-ish but with water in it. First of all, let me apologize for being so ignorant before, but the broth is so good. It contains the perfect amount of spiciness and it's very tasty.

And these are what I order.

1. Prawn Paste, this is what I always order whenever I went to Haidilao. It's an easy dish to cook, and can match perfectly with whatever broth you order.

2. Beancurd roll, more of like a side dish. It only needs five seconds for us to cook this one, yet still a really delightful food

3. Fish cake, just like any other fish cake, nothing special.

4. Chikuwa with prawn paste filling, just okay.

5. The Sauce, in here, there is no such thing as free sauce condiment. They will charge you for (I guess) IDR 30k per person. I can't really complain cause their sauce is very rich at flavor, super delicious. We could also ask their staff to make the sauce for us. So we don't have to wondering around and get confused at mixing things.

I can't say much about the beef since I don't eat any of them, but many people say they serve high-quality meat. Maybe you should try it out yourself.

Overall, going to Haidilao is always a delightful experience. I will always be looking forward to doing it again.

Tips: Always use the service that the staff's offer. It will definitely escalate your experience. From mixing out the sauce, to refilling your broth, and even getting you the fruit cup.

The Japanese Fried Chicken

New Product Alert!

Hokben has finally joined the fast-food chain restaurant's fried chicken battle. 

Their packaging is very convenient. It's really firm and doesn't break easily. Most of the fast-food restaurants are serving their chicken with a low-quality and thin carton. So when they put a very hot fried chicken, the box tends to get wet due to the excess steam. So kudos to Hokben for doing the extra mile and adding a cute illustration on their box.

Now let's talk about the chicken

My first impression, the chicken looks very pale (So I need to edit it out just to make the chicken look vibrant enough). They have a very strong smell, but the kind of smell that doesn't really bother me. The skin looks very crispy and the chicken looks bigger compared to other fried chicken. 

The first time I uploaded it on my Instagram, all of my friends are saying that this is their fav fried chicken so far. They love how crispy on the outside yet juicy on the inside. I'm 100% agree. The chicken is very juicy, I even ordered the breast part, and it's still juicy. The seasoning was very well thought-out. I can taste the black paper and also the ginger in every bite. The most surprising part is the skin. Man, you have to try it out yourself in order to understand what I'm saying. I'm speechless. Easily 8/10.

Tips: I suggest you order on GrabFood, they have a lot of discount coupons for a minimum spend of at least IDR 100k. 

A Subway's Virgin

Nothing can beat the crowd when it comes to trying this new sandwich joint. People have been coming to Subway since they officially opened their first outlet on Cilandak Townsquare back in October 2021. Two months have passed but the crowd remains the same. Lucky me, there's a new spot opened near my office and I finally got the chance to try their sandwiches.

I read a lot of reviews that say the chicken teriyaki one is the perfect dish for a Subway's virgin, and that is 100 percent, me. I never tried Subway at all. Even when I'm visiting other countries, Subway was never an option that come to mind. In fact, the crazy line in every Subway store that has opened in Indonesia is the one that draws me in. 

 

Their booth is very functional, I mean we can literally see everything. From the moment they cut your bread to the moment where they wrap up your order. We could also pick what kind of veggies that we would like to add to our sandwiches. It's a good sign since cucumber can potentially kill my appetite and most of the fast-food restaurants didn't even tell what kind of veggies that they are serving inside our dish.

Well, since I'm a coward at trying new things, I ordered the chicken teriyaki flavors as my first attempt at trying out their dish. It was surprisingly good. I'm not a really bread-person (does this noun actually exist?), so knowing these words coming directly from my mouth is actually a good sign. The bread was very moist, and the seasoning was rich. They filled my bread with tons of chicken, like literally dripping from both sides. I can't really taste the teriyaki sauce, to be honest, but it is still good. Nevertheless 8/10.

I also ordered the BBQ Chicken. Very mediocre. 7/10.

To wrap it up (pun intended), it was a really nice experience. Will I reorder it? Maybe.

Tips: Never order the wheat bread if you don't eat it right away, it will get hardened and will probably crush your teeth as much your ex has crushed your soul.