Wandering Fel

"When life gives you shit, it times to eat something sweet." ~ me

The thing is life often gives me shit I really can't stand it. However, apparently I am not the only one who feel that way. A lot of my good friends feel that way too and I suppose that's why everytime we meet up, something sweet is always involved. Tonight's venue for the sweet stuff is The Fctry Bistro and Bar, a restaurant situated at Lippo Mal Puri, the latest shopping mall around my neighbourhood in my hometown, Jakarta.

Good morning peeps! Hope all of us have a great beginning of this lovely Sunday. I love Sunday morning because there are still half a day left before the Monday blues come haunting me again. I just need to go up pretty early to catch the earliest Sunday service today because the rest of the day is pretty much filled. And do you know what's the best thing to do after you have fed your soul from the Sunday sermon? It's to fill your body (after all, your body is a temple) with yummy food. When I was in Jakarta, my mother and I have a habit of immediately hunting for good food after church service because after all, the church is inside a shopping mall named Central Park. This particular Sunday, we went to Paradise Dynasty to have our brunch, Shanghainese style.

Say hello to the lovely xiao long baos. Paradise Dynasty's xiao long bao are quite yummy, and I have to say on-par with Din Tai Fung's version.  

10 minutes to 10PM on a weekday night and here I am, munching chips which I brought from my hometown happily. I really love this chips named Chitato which I bought in supermarket in my hometown, Jakarta. You should give it a try if you see one.

Oh wait, but that's not what this post is talking about. I wanna shared about my experience eating green noodle which turns out not made from green tea after all. It was 8PM on a Saturday evening (yeah, my brother loves to go dining out at this timing because everywhere is crowded at 7PM) ad we did not know where to eat so our mum suggested to eat at Depot 369 Shanghai Dumpling and Noodle, which has a branch near where we reside. The restaurant have red and green dumpling and that kinda amazes me so I ordered the green one which colouring supposedly comes from spinach. Aesthetically, the green noodle looks so pretty.

If you are often sent to Jakarta for business, chances are you would have passed this busy area in Jakarta known as Senayan. Plaza Senayan is one of the mall/ office building located in the busy area of Senayan. I actually seldom visit Plaza Senayan myself because most of the high street fashion shops are located at the mall across it, Senayan City. But well, going out with my brother who is not really a shopper himself, he'd rather go to Plaza Senayan. And that's when we saw Eric Kayser Artisan Boulanger, which if I'm not wrong is originated in Paris, has a branch here. 

Paradise Dynasty is a famous chain restaurants originated in China. It has now been brought into Jakarta by Paradise Group together with its sister chain restaurant called Paradise Inn. If you are confused how to differentiate them, Paradise Dynasty is the one where you can eat the colorful Xiao Long Bao. You can see the different flavor of xiao long bao on the chopstick cover.  

Everytime I go home, there is another shopping mall in Jakarta. I guess the city is turning into one huge capital of consumerism. But that cannot be helped, anything to help the country's economy should be deemed good, no? Okay, back to the shopping mall. The newest addition of what I can consider my neighborhood mall will be Lippo Mall Puri. My mum refused to bring me there though because she claimed that not many shops opened yet. However, my brother often hanged out there and he finally agreed to bring me there for once upon a lunch time. Time for some sibling love over a a Japanese rice bowl at Donburi Ichiya. 

Whenever I come back home to Jakarta, my mother and I went for our usual mall-hopping adventure. Thanks to the power of currency, sometimes I able to snatch some good deals for clothes and my favourite Fit-Flop. After we were done shopping (or window shopping), we usually look for a place to relax for a while before going back home. Rather than spending our time at the usual Starbucks (which can be found anywhere), we decided to try out something new. We looked up and we realized that there is a restaurant called Remboelan up there and we never tried it before. Although, what lies between you and the restaurant is...a set of stairs. XD

If you happen to be in Jakarta and wondering what kind of food you can show off to your friends who are not staying in Jakarta, you can come to Sumoboo. Sumoboo is serving dessert items which are worthy to be uploaded into instagram. In other words, fancy desserts. Sumoboo has a lot of franchises in Jakarta so you just need to make your way to one of the major shopping malls in Jakarta and chances are, Sumoboo is there. I visited Sumoboo at Mal Taman Anggrek though, one of the big shopping malls in West Jakarta.

Penang Bistro is a restaurant specializing in Malaysian food fare in one of the busiest shopping mall in West Jakarta called Central Park. It was so popular up to the point that the restaurant is always crowded especially during weekends. My mum and I, we love to come to Penang Bistro right before lunch time on a Saturday because that's the only way to secure the nice table which is facing the road view. As Jakarta is always hot, it feels really refreshing to enjoy a cold drink like Iced Lemon Tea while waiting for our food to be served. 

More and more concept cafe are popping up in my hometown, Jakarta. This is good news for mall-hopper like me because well, I really don't know what else to do in Jakarta other than go from one mall to another. It is simply too hot to spend any time outdoor in Jakarta. #foreversummer

My mum, which adopts the same lifestyle with me, brought me to Hans & Belle at Puri Indah Mall to have a cake and cold drinks. 

There is a branch of cheese cake factory near my house in Jakarta. So I figured when I came back home, I was gonna testing the truth to this quote saying...



And as usual, it's considered a holiday, so holiday calorie does not count. Hello, my blueberry cheesecake. Let's have some private time together.

The aftertaste? Cheesecake never disappoints.

Other than blueberry cheesecake, Cheese Cake Factory also has other type of cheesecakes to offer like brownie cheese cake, triple chocolate cheesecake or strawberry cheese. It also sells a lot of cookies and biscuits. Yummy!

Arriving at Soekarno Hatta airport on a Friday evening is very tricky. The thing is, our public transportation is lousy to the max and hence, your only option to get out of the airport is by either taking a "trusted" cab (i.e. only selected cabs qualify for this) or ask your relatives to pick you up. Both options...are not quick due to (a) queue and (b) bad traffic.

So it was kinda expected that my mum had not arrived yet at the airport when I came out from the arrival hall. Oh well, in times like this, a cafe is deeply appreciated. So, I made my way to the nearest cafe in terminal 3 of Soekarno Hatta airport, J-Co Donut.

It's not everyday you can meet your high school buddy especially when you are living in two different countries. So during this rare occasion (either I come back home or she comes to Singapore for work, we always try to meet up with each other. This time round, our meet-up is held at Djournal, a cafe located at the new extension of Mall Puri Indah.