Thursday, October 24, 2013

Food Journal : Moovina

It was another Saturdate dinner with Akun and Jubel. I actually needed to go to some ordinary place but they took me here instead! Moovina. Yup, this is another fine dining kind of restaurant with a lounge inside too, it’s in Plaza Indonesia. Moovina is basically divided into 2 floors, the upper part is Mezzanine @Moovina, it’s darker and more like a lounge with a bar area, they also have the smoking area here, and a private room to gather with your friends. It’s more modern with open kitchen concept. The lower part is Dolce Moovina, this is the one for fine dining, more cozy I guess because it has a garden theme, just really nice. They have an outdoor area also but I didn’t see it at that time.

When you see how the waiter and waitress serve, you’ll notice that it’s kinda a high class restaurant, the way they treat you is different. The uniform is nice. They were actually slow at first, they didn’t bring us the menu until I called them first. I don’t know if they didn’t see us because it was really dark or what, because we were taken to the table by one of the staff, then why didn’t she take our order too? Well after that they were just really helpful though. Helping us nonstop with our photo session. Lol.

Our orders were Chicken Cordon Bleu with Aglio Olio Spaghetti, Jon Dory Fish with Mashed Potato and broccoli, and also an Apple Pie for dessert. For a recap : it’s SO-SO. My chicken is not worthy for that expensive price. It’s just as same as 40K cordon bleu, really. And my spaghetti was really salty. Even though I love salty food, it’s just felt too much. And some of them felt like a lil bit uncooked. I don’t know. The dory my friend ate was good enough but not special, the broccoli was tasteless. I liked the apple pie though, not overcooked and not too oily, the caramel is not really sweet.

They actually have many choices of fine dining menu, start from 60K to 500K, with the choice of steak, wine, cocktail. It’s a perfect western and international dinner for you who love it. Don’t forget to make a reservation before, because it can be real full in the weekend. Eventhough Moovina has a really big space, I couldn’t find a non-smoking seat last Saturday. Well, maybe a seat at the lower floor will be better. Overall it’s a nice place. But will I come back here again? Maybe, for the atmosphere, not for the food.

 moovIMG_1631  *below picture is taken from berrybenka.com

If you see my picture above, I feel like I’m skinnier now (yay!). See my thigh there, feel like SNSD’s thigh huh? lol. But my cheek cant lie, it will not get less chubby. :(

Moovina : Plaza Indonesia 3rd & 4th Floor #06 || Ph. 021 2992 4567, 021 2992 3999.

 

xoxo,

asn

Monday, October 21, 2013

Food Journal : Le Quartier

Finally! I’m back again with some food journals. Recently I’ve been going to some fine dining places with my besties, 3 single people going on a saturdate night! Is it sound sad or relieving? Haha. I went to some awesome restaurant or cafĂ© actually but I didn’t think to blog about it since I’ve been in a long hiatus period here, so there are no pictures and it will be not interesting to tell, so I’m gonna pass but I will snap more pictures after today.

My first review is gonna be Le Quartier, a French Restaurant in Gunawarman street, right beside Loobie Lobster (which I really want to try!). Alright2, focus on the subject! We actually wanted to go to Altitude but then some bad reviews made us change our mind. After some debate we decided to go to Le Quartier (I am a hyperbolic), which was turned out to be a great idea because the food was delicious! I’m not a food critic but I do love good food! Well, the bad thing about Saturday night here is that it was fully reserved, so we didn’t get the table. We ended up sitting at the bar that wasn’t really comfortable to eat. I googled some about this restaurant and they actually have a very unique painted wall there and I didn’t have the chance to take a picture of it.

So what we ate that night was a stone-baked pizza for the appetizer. We ordered white ham and truffle. It is a thin pizza with a lot of pork meat at the top (you can see the picture, I aint lie when I said LOT), a very tasty mozarella (I could feel it melting in my mouth) and there’s green pea pesto under the pork which is perfectly seasoned and also pine nuts. Well, I didn’t taste the truffle though. But I think it was the best pizza I’ve ever tasted. Of course with quite high price. For the main course we ordered an angel’s hair aglio olio with grilled prawn, seared baramundi with lemon butter sauce, and a grilled double chicken breast. The aglio olio was super tasty, but I think they used too much oil in the plate so it’s kinda too wet for me. But it tasted good and spicy (actually spicy means tasty for me, lol). And I got lil surprised because actually the pasta didn’t have any topping, I paid extra 50K for that 3 prawns! ugh! Or else you can choose chicken for the topping. Haha. The seared baramundi was damn good too. I tried a lil and everything tasted in perfect balance. Will order it again for myself next time. The breast chicken was just another chicken. Nothing’s really special about it, except the super size. Actually it’s a bit tasteless without the blackpepper sauce, and it’s originally came without sauce.

Beside the dinner menu, they also have a breakfast and lunch menu! So great right? They also have a great service. Just don’t forget to do the advance booking, specially in the primetime.

Untitled-5-15-3  5-2  ootd : tanktop | F21, short | Zara, blazer | Zara (similar), shoes | Bershka


Le Quartier : Jalan Gunawarman No. 34, Kebayoran Baru, Jakarta Selatan ||

Ph. 021-72788001

 

asn

Sunday, October 20, 2013

Trip to Thailand–Bangkok

Boarding to Bangkok in the afternoon…. My hotel in Bangkok was Siam Swana (book through Agoda, again). I saw the rating in Agoda and it was fantastic. It was a modern room but really small, specially when there were 4 people inside the room. They don’t have an elevator either, I know it’s only a 3 floor building, but still, we had heavy suitcases! Andddd they didn’t provide breakfast. Luckily, there were lot of streed food near the hotel, and also 7-11. You can always have your breakfast there. Haha.. There’s a sushi restaurant in front of the hotel and it was good. Open at 11 am. What I love about the hotel that it was super close with the BTS station (Ratchathewi) so I could go everywhere easily. And the BTS system in Bangkok is really easy to read, I didn’t lost at all. But before, I googled all of the places I visited detail, how did we go there, which station we went up, which one to down. You must arrange it. 

I met my old friend, Denis, and he took us to Asiatique Mall. Kinda ruined my itinerary because I planned to go there the next day after temple visit, haha. We went by taxi, however he said when you go with group of friend it’s better to take taxi than BTS because it still cost cheaper. But I tell you, sometimes the taxi in Bangkok are mafia, they didn’t want to use the taxi-meter! Well maybe if you can speak thai they will treat you differently. Asiatique is an open air mall which have lot of stores from clothing, snack, home decoration, gadget accessories, and of course lots of restaurant. I went there really late so I didn’t see all of the stores, but I tried the best curry crab here at Kodang Talay! well, maybe the 2nd best because the most famous one is Somboon Seafood but Denis told me that it’s super expensive. But it was damn delicious, the sour and spicy fish was also good, loveeee it! Aaahh, it makes me wanna go back there again, just to eat the curry crab. But I just found out that there’s Somboon Seafood in Jakarta, haven’t tried it yet though. There’s also a giant wheel there and we took it, just tried everything.

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Went to Madame Tussaud Bangkok to open the 2nd day! It was literally a camwhoring time, haha.. Nah, we had chicken rice for breakfast near the hotel. Taste good enough, enough for breakfast time. After Madame Tussaud we went to Chatuchak Weekend Market, which is pretty far from the city. Very very big market with lot of stuff sold here, it was tiring and killing my feet! I only bought scarf and case for my iphone, and some souvenirs for my friends back home. What we did there were eat and eat, because foods were cheap and taste good! We went for shopping again at night, went to Platinum for some cheap fashion and Siam Paragon for the expensive one! Haha. I actually don’t really like going to over crowded store like Platinum or Chatuchak because it will only make me confuse on picking the clothes but I did buy 3 skirts here! Hahaha.. I just suddenly found the store where the uncle sold only skirt there. 170 THB each! Dumb me, I forgot the name of the store, I think it’s on 3rd or 4th floor. I also found the store where they sold replicas with cheaper price. I couldn’t bargain anything there, too lazy to do it, and they already marked the price. Different price when you buy retail and wholesale.

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3rd day was temple day! it was crazy hot and a crazy long journey. Went there by BTS and then took the Chao Phraya boat and hopped off to Wat Po. Then walked to Grand Palace, which was actually quite far! I recommend you to take tuktuk, even when they say it’s only behind Wat Po. I could barely walk. Wat Po was big, and Grand Palace is much bigger. I only went there for quick sightseeing and camwhoring. The hot weather was killing me. Bring an umbrella with you everywhere. It’s a must on travelling! After a long walk in the palace we took taxi to Khao San Road, I heard that it’s the tourist place, lot of restaurants and bars. And suddenly it’s raining! A blessing in disguise again, because I need a really long nap for my legs. lol. We went back to the harbour to take a boat across the river and went to Wat Arun after and enjoyed a lil sunset there. We went to MBK at night, had dinner there, and again bought some thai snacks to be brought home. It was a crazy long day but very lovely. We closed the day with a thai massage!

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The last day in Bangkok we went to Jim Thompson House. It was a museum of Jim’s family, the house was built with a nice architecture and the collection were from all over the world. Beside visiting the house itself, they also have the silk store inside, there are bag, clothes, scarf, pouch, and so many more. The silk are pretty with of course an expensive price. Last, we visited Terminal 21, which actually has more stuff than the other mall I visited, there are also local designer collection there, so many styles to choose. Too bad we only had very limited time. 4

My overall trip to Bangkok was awesome, I missed visiting the Ancient City and maybe a lil hiding attraction and place to eat in Bangkok. I planned to go to Cabbage & Condom, Patpong, Erawan Shrine and Lumpini Park, but didn’t have enough time to go to those places. Maybe at the next visit. I will exactly back to Terminal 21 and Platinum for clothing search, but not Chatuchak. And maybe do some party at my next visit. Haha.. Nah I didn’t go to Pattaya because I didn’t think any interesting attraction there beside the floating market and the ladyboy show. I already had that experience in Phuket before. Beside, an Australian couple told us that there are lot of mafias there. Not safe and not that good. Anyway, I saw lot of people there who are changing their gender, woman dresses up like a man, and vice versa. Thailand is crazy wild and free! Well Thailand is unique in its own way, you have the culture to see, the shopping, and also the beaches. Love it!

 

xoxo,

asn

Trip to Thailand–Phuket

Been a long time since my last time blogged about something here, and yes, I’m kinda moved into another blog. Haha.. But it’s only for my personal satisfaction to write what’s on my mind freely, without worried of getting caught talking about things I shouldn’t write here. But for now, let’s just focus on what I want to write here! So my last post was in August which was about the celebration of my 25 years living on earth. Life has been good to me so far, I’ve moved on completely from my last ex (yay!) and things got crazy at work. But my best moment was the trip to Thailand last September. I’m kinda make a good planner after all, and we weren’t really lost there. Haha.. It’s gonna be a long post :)

So I did make my itinerary long before my departure to Thailand, I was searching for some cheap flights, hotels, anything that wouldn’t make me bankrupt. Haha. I looked for a nice but cheap tours in Phuket and got one that turned out to be really nice. His name was Chai, I got his information from tripadvisor, and I can give you his email to reach : yok_ktb@hotmail.com. I did every conversation through email and finally ended up on whatsapp. I ended up booking every tours and attraction through Chai because I knew it would give me the best price, much discounts, just don’t forget to bargain. Lol.

Me and my 3 other friends arrived at night on Phuket and we were picked up by Chai himself with a 10 seats car, he provided us his hotspot before we could buy simcard there, so it was a lil help for all of us who are a soc-med junkie. We checked in into our hotel, 88 Hotel (booked thru Agoda). It’s a super cheap hotel with a large room and pretty clean. I think it’s worth the price. But the breakfast was standard, don’t expect too much. We got some local dinner near the hotel, it’s a noodle soup with that special thai’s herbs. That pic below was the view outside my window room, and yeah we had a balcony.Untitled-5

My 2nd day in Phuket was a trip to Phiphi island, which was not real good because it was raining and the sea water was high so we couldn’t hopped into some islands. And our boat was in full packed! Way too crowded and people wanted to puke because the wave were crazy. We then stopped to had some snorkeling before we went to lunch. The snorkeling spot was pretty good, except the gear wasn’t that good, couldn’t see the water clearly. The buffet menu was standard, I don’t really enjoyed my phiphi trip. I preferred a more private trip. Well, we finally landed at Khai island, where we could do swimming or just sunbathing, but it was the best island, the water is crystal clear and it’s really pretty. I wish I could stay longer there. It felt like heaven. We finished the trip around 4 and then got back to the hotel. We bought some snacks at the traditional market near the Jungceylon mall before we had our dinner there. Lots of food there! Pork everywhere, with very cheap price. Yum yum! We went to Simon Cabaret at night, to watched the ladyboy show, which was pretty interesting and also entertaining. Just beware when you want to take picture with those ladyboy, make sure there’s no other ladyboy around you orelse s(he) will ask for money too. We took a tuktuk and walked around Bangla Road after, crazy night life out there.

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My 3rd day was another sea tour, this time we went to Phang Nga Bay area, which is famous for the James Bond island. Another tour picked by Chai, but this time it’s really different. It was private, there were only 11 people in the boat, and we went to more destinations than yesterday. We hopped in and off to some islands, and then went to an ice cream cave, went for canoeing, and had a much better lunch at Panyee Island. Except the beach that we went for some swim wasn’t as pretty as in Phiphi. The tour operator name is Rattanachol. And it was really good and not as expensive as the number 1 travel in tripadvisor, thanks to Chai. We had dinner beside our hotel tonight, and it was good enough too. Basically I’m fitted into almost all of thai food because it’s spicy, so I had no problem with it. We went to Phuket Fantasea this night, it’s kinda unique show because it combined the traditional wayang, circus, magic show, drama, and all. It’s just too expensive I think for a show like that. It is even more expensive than our sea tour! Crazy!

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Our schedule in Phuket before heading to Bangkok was pratically doing the city tour. We rented the car from Chai for half day, and it already included the driver too. Beach to another beach, went to couple view points to see Phuket beaches, before finally headed to Big Buddha and ended up in gem factory. Yeah, you really had to go there because our driver insisted to go there, it’s kinda a tourist gift shop. You know, the jewelry were pretty, specially the earring I saw, it’s a square earring with ruby and diamond inside. But yeah it’s damn expensive. But don’t worry they also had cheaper version of everything, silver, pearl, souvenirs. Anyway, don’t forget to go to cashew nut factory! It’s famous in Phuket! We got a lil problem with the car, so we should stop for a while in a car workshop. But because of that we managed to have a brunch at Pizza Company, the famous pizza in Thailand. Hihi, blessing in disguise.

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Once again, I booked every tours and attractions from Chai, also the car rent, that’s why I got cheaper price. And I will definitely use his service again when I go back there. I love my trip to Phiphi because there is Khai Island. But I recommend you to go with private trip (ask this to Chai, but I think it will be more expensive) and maybe go to Phuket in sunny season. It is too bad that we couldn’t enjoy Phiphi since it’s super pretty. If you have more time in Phuket, you can try the elephant trekking, ATV, or maybe shooting. And maybe you can visit more islands beside Phiphi and Phang Nga. My friend said she had amazing time when she stayed in Phiphi (I’m interested!). But maybe I will go there again with my spouse! haha.. See you real soon in Bangkok trip! :)

xoxo,

asn