Enjoying the Mountain's Breeze - Melrimba Garden

Melrimba Garden

Address : 

Jl. Raya Puncak KM 87, Tugu Utara, Cisarua, Tugu Utara, Cisarua, Bogor, Jawa Barat 16750

Indonesia

How to get there : 

Private car, approx 2 hours from JKT 

Phone : 

(0263) 523205

Open for restaurant : 

08.00 am - 09.00 pm 

for garden, bike rental, trampoline , etc : 

08.00am- 05.00pm 

Dress code : 

casual , just bring outer with you

Menu that I bought : 

Fried Banana with caramel and palm sugar and butter

 So, basically this fried banana is my favorite, my family favorite and I suggested it to my friends and they love it too.
Most of you must be wondering, whats special about this banana, you can find it everywhere. Well, I must say this is the best fried banana that I have ever tasted in my life so far.
The banana always sweet, I cannot find undesirable taste of it (in Indonesia we call it sepet). The texture is crispy on the outside but moist in the inside. The sweet mixture from the caramel and palm sugar are not over taste either. It gave me the precise desirable sweet taste that brought calmness and relaxation. <3


 the price approx 40 per portion (2 pcs as seen in the picture)

Poffertjes

 This is a wonderful round profferjes. It looks tempting with the snowy sugar on top and a little chocolate sauce at the corner.
For your information, the taste of this sweet is not the best in puncak, but still okay and nice to have it after a journey full of traffic and polution :P
 price : approx. 30k+ per portion

 Fried Kwetiaw

Well,  I must say, all the food and drinks here are not cheap. But it adequate  with the cozy environment and the taste that we get.

That time I also ordered fried kwetiaw. Unlike the normal kwetiaw that I know, this one had wider piece. You can order the one with chicken meat or with the seafood. It is all up to you.

In the picture : seafood ( I prefer not to use squid actually)
the taste of the kwetiau was nice. I was able to taste the savory and sweetness of the kwetiau without unnecessary burning sensation taste. The portion was not too much but still okay for my portion.

Drink : 
Traditional poci tea with rock sugar ( refillable)
It was served with 2 glass of made of clay, the same with the tea pot.
Some people said, the more you used the tea pot set, the better is the taste of the tea.
When I ordered this tea, the clay was already dark brown and the taste of the tea was nice with the rock sugar, it refreshed me after a long sitting in the car.
Let say it energized me and matched with the food

a cup of coffee : 

Oh well, to be honest I only took a sip. 

I didn't drink the coffee tho, it was belong to my dad. 

however don't expect a latte art from this restaurant

it is not a coffee shop so let say the coffee was so so and they will give you a lot of sugar pack to use o_0

What I did ?

There is an orchid shop inside the area, I usually go there to look around and take several pictures. 

Some other flowers and plants also available and you can have a sneak peak inside the melrimba garden (you must pay the entrance ticket for melrimba garden approx 15k per person - if I am not mistaken :p , excluding the bike rental and camping and fishing)

Pony are also available for rent

If you bring little kid with you, this is one of interesting and fun attraction. 

They also have atv, trampoline, mini outbound 

My companion : 

My beloved parents who loves to go to Puncak at least once a month :D

and I love it too

TGIFoodLovers
ig : @caca_ietcha / @blackholeduet
web : www.cacaietcha.wix.com/TGIFoodLovers

The Beauty of Nature - The Banyan Restaurant

THE BANYAN RESTAURANT

Address : 

Pesona Alam Resort & Spa

Jl. Taman Safari No. 101, Kampung Baru Tegal, Cibeureum, Cisarua, Bogor, Jawa Barat 16750

Phone : 

(0251) 8217111

Dress code : 
casual with outer outfit

Type : Lunch Buffet

Price : approx. IDR 150k / person

Time : 11.00am - 03.00pm

My Story : 

Hello, have you heard The Banyan Restaurant ?
It was located inside the Pesona Alam Resort & Spa, this is the only place for you to have heavy meal during the day in the resort area.
In my previous story, I told you about Club Huis. Both located in the same area but different building and type of food.

This time, I ate at this restaurant with my whole family (mom, dad, big bro, sis in law, and my niece). We arrived a little bit late that day. Around 02.00pm , so it was a rush for us to finish our meal.
The restaurant itself located beneath the lobby area and facing the beautiful mountain and pool.
As you can imagine, this place doesn't have air conditioner , for me the cold breeze was enough.

Frankly speaking, the food was a contradictory with the view. If the view was very pleasant to see, the food was not that enjoyable. The variant was too little and the taste itself was not at it best. However, If you do not want to take the buffet package, you are able to order the ala carte menu. But, considering the price, 2 menu with drink will have almost the same amount with the buffet package.
It was more economical for me to take the buffet package. (consider my big appetite too :p)

the buffet menu : 
drinks : hot tea, sweet ice tea
fruit    : melon, snake fruit, oranges, sugar palm fruit, bengkoang and sweet potato for Rujak
Main course : white rice, fried rice, fried noodles, black pepper beef, saute vegetables, fried tempeh, and soto (Indonesian soup)
dessert : chocolate cake, pandan cake, and some pastries, waffle

A. Drinks
     for the buffet, we didn't have any option rather than to drink tea. The tea itself was ordinary    
     without any special taste
B. Fruit
     I didn't eat much fruit that day because I ate too much soto T_T (I consider the soto as their best
     menu in the buffet) but the fruit were not sweet and sorry to say, it were just ordinary

C. Main Course
     Well, I ate the appetizer first. The salad bar didn't have too much ingredients but sliced cheese
     still available along with several dressings. Quite fresh :)

 
 The rice were a little bit dry, the vegetables color were not fresh, it was dark green like being

     cooked to long.
     The meat were okay but not too special

   





For the meat, there were kungpao chicken and beef with cauliflowers.
The kungpao chicken didn't taste like one but it was better than the beef.

The fried rice should had meat based on the name , however I could not find any :( only some pieces of egg as seen in the picture

The fish : 
errrr.. the smell was very fishy. I didn't take any. YUCK







Fried noodle : this one was better than the fried rice. Even though I still could not find the meat T_T the texture was nicer and not too dry












 




    The best was the SOTO * mention it again and again LOL
     The soto contain of meat, tomato, green onion, fried red onion and I requested to exclude the
     white cabbage , it was quite perfect while I was added the lime water.
   

D. Dessert
     the dessert and pastry were quite many in amount. The cakes were in small slices but the pastry

     were in big sizes (normal sizes). I was a little interested with  the pudding but kinda hate the vla.

     The pastry was okay and also some of the cakes.
     For cold dessert they served es campur that we could prepare by our-self.

     Just for suggestion, you don't need to spare your stomach's space for the waffle. The waffle was
     quite horrible, it was hard and tasted bad

After enjoyed our meal, we were free to play in the resort area esp. for the trampoline and mini outbound. And of course we took several pictures around the pool too.
 My companion : 

As you all know, the traffic usually sucks, so we took some selfie in the car

Here is my cute niece :

and me near the pool 

happy jumping!

Good spot for family bonding

my favorite pic taken by me :D

 Have a nice holiday for all of you
and
Almost happy new year


TGIFoodLovers

Ig : @caca_ietcha / @blackholeduet
Www.cacaietcha.wix.com/TGIFoodLovers

TGIFoodLovers Website

Well I guess I have plenty of free time to create a TGIFoodLovers website
actually it is inline with this blog but come in different appearance

The content, for some of it are exactly the same with this blog but some are not.
Actually I am pretty much confuse and trying to convince myself which one that I am gonna develop.
This blog however is so much easier to be found through google by typing TGIFoodLovers in the search engine and in the other hand the website is not showing up.

Errrr
Okay until I figure it out which one that gonna be my focus, let me introduce you to my website officially (after delay it for a year and hopefully will always update with stories)

web address :

http://cacaietcha.wix.com/tgifoodlovers

top front page

first second page

well I only want to give a sneak peak

for full content, please visit my website 

http://cacaietcha.wix.com/tgifoodlovers

The only Pho Restaurant in Tangerang ! PHO 24

Pho 24

Address : 
Flavour Bliss
Alam Sutera Boulevard Street, Alam Sutera, Tangerang
near Sushi Tei

Phone : 
+62 21 29005046
Operational Hours : 
Monday - Sunday 10.00am - 10.00 pm
special on Saturday open at 11.00am - 11.00pm
Language spoken : 
Indonesian language
Dress code : 
casual to semi formal to formal (working attire)
Exterior : 
warm woody exterior
Interior : 
warm woody, colorful cushions, comfy
AC available
there was fly flying around that time :(

Menu : 
pho
Vietnamese appetizers
dessert (es campur jelly)
coffee
tea
mineral water
fried rice
etc

My visit : 
Wohoo I got a treat from a very good friend,, let say that was my happy lunch. I got a permit to go outside my work place in the middle of the day. That was really a rare occasion. I am not able to go out during working hours from 8am to 5 pm and need special permit to go out.

Personally the best pho I have ever tasted was PHO 2*** but it is not available in Tangerang area. Pho 24 is the only pho restaurant nearby so there is no other choice to enjoy pho here.
I must say the interior was really nice and comfortable to eat there in the middle of hot and sunny weather.

For appetizer, we ordered fresh spring roll with shrimp. huft.. I got disappointed from the beginning :(.. the spring roll didn't come out like I expected. The spring roll skin were too tough to eat.. need extra effort to bite and pretty much I could hear my jaws moving and gave extra work to chew T_T... and the color of the outer look wasn't red like the one in the menu. I couldn't find the shrimp! T_T whyyy phoo 24.. whyyyy

those are the pics of my pale and tough spring roll :(

Okay, lets continue to main course.. the PHO.. jreng jreeenng

I bought Pho Tai Chin and my friend got Pho all 

Pho Tai Cin means : pho noodles with beef meat only.. and for pho all means : all beef meat, soft tendon and meat ball.. I only eat meat and dislike tendon and meat ball., so that's why I didn't choose PHo all. 

Too bad the pho broth was too plain for me. I added the sauce and others but still couldn't get the taste that I want. Actually it is healthy for us to eat less savory food.. less salt for our body and maybe less of MSG :p .. yeah but it is all about taste right? maybe I just like it savory... 

 Pho all, for 52k before tax

including meat, tendon and meatball

Pho Tai Cin 47k
The broth are all the same for all pho, the toppings make it different

for companion, they also gave us lime, chopped green chili, fresh bean sprout, chopped onion, and green vegetables. Also you can add the special vietnamese sauce into your pho to make it more rich in flavour.. hehehe. In your table they also served you salt and chili sauce. 

I can say the meat was tender and I like it :D

After appetizer and main course, here comes the dessert! 

What a great lunch it was ^_^

bye bye hot air for a while,, and here comes the breeze.. hehehe

as you can see here, it was dominated by jelly. the fruit they were using was peach and lychee. (I believe from a can) 

the taste was refreshing from the lime and the shaved ice.. arghh it was good.. and I think I need to eat something like this more often. It gave me a comfortable feeling for the brain and my body.. more full of spirit to do activities.. 

Thx u for my friends who gave me companion during lunch break and esp. the one who gave me treat. 

TGIFoodLovers

ASAGAO

ASAGAO Coffee House

instagram : @asagao.coffee

Address     : 

Graha Boulevard Shop House

Block A no 9

Boulevard Gading Serpong Street 

Gadign Serpong, Tangerang 

(near steak corner - shop house area before bridge to Bethsaida Hospital)

Phone : 

+6281284941990

Dress code : 

casual - semi formal - formal (working outfit)

Language spoken : 

Indonesian, English

Exterior : 

Big black sign " ASAGAO" 

large window with sliding door

Interior : 

the lighting is a little bit yellow but still bright, there is standing lamp for you to use if you want to take a pic of your drink or snack with brighter lighting. 

nice decoration with mini plants, wood furniture, and others like pics corner

Menu   : 

hot chocolate

cold chocolate

kori kohi

coffee lattle

green tea latte

totoro cake 

puffs

etc

My Visit : 

When the euphoria still on, I went there on the weekend with my university friends and we couldn't get a table so we decided to move other coffee shop. 

On my second visit, I chose weekdays and went there with my junior high friends. The place was not too crowded at 6pm and got more visitor above 7pm. 

At that time there was a special promo after 6pm for green tea latte or hot chocolate. I only paid for the drink 20k. I chose green tea latte with the messy latte art :( and my friend choose hot chocolate with leafs art

( I don't get it why the barista couldn't give us a proper latte art.. sighh... )

For cold drink, my other friend (Eren) tried the Kori kohi. so the coffee was served as ice cubes and we poured fresh milk and mixed it together. 

The kori kohi was horrible. We couldn't taste the coffee at all.. the taste was bland :(

the green tea latte also too sweet and the barista said they are using packed green tea so they couldn't reduce the sweetness. another SIGH.. 

the hot chocolate also gave the same too sweet taste .. but the barista said next time they can reduce the sweetness by adding more dark chocolate into it. yeah well.. until next time then (if any)

My friends said the totoro cake is very popular here and taste good but unfortunately I didn't get a chance to try because it was sold out :( 

Beside the food and beverage, I can say that the place was really nice to do chit chat and taking  pictures. 

Price : hmm a little bit overpriced because the portion of the servings are small and the taste is not as I expected :(

Note  : 50% for pastry above 9pm 

My companion : 

My 15 years + friends : Eren, Fifi and Gary.. we missed 1 personnel Anastasia who moved to Canada with her husband :(

me- eren- fifi - gary

We supposed to watch a movie that night,, Eren was craving for the movie so bad,,, unfortunately the others were too lazy to go to the cinema. Fifi went home early and Gary and me decided to go to Eren's home and lay down lazy like a puppy :p

I like to hang out with them and go crazy .. like this : 

It felt like we were back to the old time ^_^

Akh I miss you guys .. :( 

let us hang out again soon together (4 or even 5 of us before Fifi moves to other country too :( )

TGIFoodLovers