Jani Journey Journal

I probably already joined every single quizzes or competition that existed but none of them turned out the way that I want. One time I joined Aline Chandra from Foolosophy giveaway. I expect nothing since I'm not good at these kind of things but somehow, I won. She gave me a 'Buy One Get One' brunch voucher from Huize Van Wely. Excited? Definitely! Thank you Aline for the voucher!

Huize Van Wely is a famous Dutch patisserie that offers hand-made chocolates, bonbons, truffles and other delightful sweets and also some savory biscuits. I always knew Huize Van Wely sells cakes and sweets (because that is the reason they are so famous, obviously) but never knew that they have dining menu too. Without any hesitation, I asked Citra (my friend) to accompany me to have a lovely buffet brunch there. How was it? It was way better than I expected.

Living in Indonesia with so much diversity in every life aspect means you can learn something new every day. Starting from the languages, cultures, plants, religions, spiritual habit but most of all is foods. One day will never be enough to look or try all of it. I mean you cannot possibly explore all of them since the diversity is literally spread all over the country. So when I heard about an event in one restaurant, saying that you can try some of Indonesian food in one place, you know exactly what I’m going to say.

Sepanjang hidup ini, yang saya tahu adalah 'Ayah, jemput aku di x dong!', 'bantuin aku, please?', 'ini gimana sih? ajarin dong, yah', 'temenin aku pergi yuk, yah' dan masih banyak hal lainnya.

Youtube has play a huge part in music industry these past few years. People use it to promote their music, so people from across the globe could see, like and eventually buy their music. And for that, I personally thank you to whoever invented Youtube in the first place. Not because I use it for promoting my work (well ... probably not yet for now). But thanks to Youtube, I have found so many good musicians from all around the world. And among those great musicians that I have found, there is this cute little woman named Kina Grannis.

Back then, no one knows her. I told my friend to listen to her music but none of them like it. Her songs was too upbeat, was too cheerful or simply because it was different from the rest of love song that exist. I don't care. As long as she make good music, I will listen to it. I've been listening to her ever since and last Wednesday I was lucky enough to see her live in Salihara Theater.

Admit it, you won't survive a day without a snack in your hands. I personally think, a person who never snacking in their spare time (well for me, every time), is not enjoying their life. Like seriously! For me, snacking is an easiest and quickest way to lift up your mood in just a second. Either it's a chocolate bar, cookies, cupcake or even a whole cake. Either it's a heartbreak, stress or even just because you need one. Snacking is definitely something that I can't live without.

But with all those wide selection of snacks, I always end up so confused. Here in Indonesia, I feel like there is always a new snack around every single day (hyperbolic detect) and I always curious about them. Starting with the taste, the price, the ingredients but most of all the 'is it wort to buy?'. Thankfully there is a website that specializing in snack review, so I don't need to worry anymore.

Hi everyone! *waving*

It's been a while, two months to be exact. Sorry for the lack of post for these past few months. I really am sorry about this. I've been busy as hell with my university thingy and also I have a permanent job right now. Not to mention Jani's Kitchen order and a couple of projects that I've been working on with some of my friends. Not to worry, not to worry. Starting from today, I promise that I will keep you updated with the food trend here in Jakarta particularly. And somewhere along the way, I will post about my traveling story too. Keep in mind that the post will not coming as regular as it used to be. I will try my best to keep it updated at least once in a week.

And one more thing. Please note that I ONLY use my email (anjanidisti@gmail.com) for any communication.inquiries around work/business/invitation etc. If there is anyone out there contacting you using other than the email mentioned above, PLEASE IGNORE.

Thank you and see you in the next post :)

I always love the concept of one stop service. In terms of food, it is more like a food court. Where you can get many food choices and try it just in one place. How precious is that? Especially when you come with your friends. You can share and explore food as much as you want. Same thing goes with this Garden Kuliner at Kalimalang.

Garden Kuliner is a huge outdoor area with a bunch of street food stalls. Well ... who doesn't fell into the mysterious appeal of street food stalls? I mean it. For some reasons street food always capture my heart and I always fall in love with the food they offer. Not to mention the cheap price (this is very important for a student like me). So gathering a bunch of street food stalls in one place? Damn! I'm in heaven! You can find lots of foods here starting from snacks, noodle, desserts even some of them offer sushi menu. My friends and I didn't try all of the food there but what we had that they was pretty nice.

Who doesn't have a thing with books and coffee? Even though I'm not a much coffee lover myself, I do love to hang out at a coffee shop, sipping my coffee while reading books for hours. Yes, not just an hour or two. I could sit alone in the coffee shop for 5 hours minimum. For what? Anything! Starting from doing my paperwork, blogging, editing pictures, meeting but my favorite activity there is reading. So can you imagined the moment I came into this coffee shop? Yes. I fall in love, instantly.

Bookopi is like a hidden gems since it is located at one of the Kalibata City Square Apartment. It wasn't easy for me and my friends to find this place since none of us were familiar with this particular area. But all of those sweat paid off when we found this place.

Banyak bungaaa bungaaa .......

I feel free .......

Mau tiduran disini dulu deh .......

Okay, enough with those Syahrini jokes about flowers. Move on to the second stop for that day, Clea Tea Bar & Lounge which filled with flowers and by flowers I means lots of flowers. Banyak bunga-bunga ....... Bunga-bunga .......

Located at the busy Kemang Raya, Clea Tea Bar & Lounge was probably the one who started the florist and cafe trend in Jakarta. We kinda have a hard time finding this restaurant. Probably because the sign board was a little bit small to be recognized when you were focus on driving your car or maybe the placement of the sign board was just not in the right place. From the outside you can tell that this cafe is spacious and made for girls because of the beautiful flowers display on the window.

As you all can see, I can never say no to food. Whoever ask me to come along, wherever they took me, whatever I'm going to eat, there's a 99% I will say yes to it. So when the Pergi Kuliner team asked me to go on a culinary trip (again) with them, you definitely know what I'm about to say.

We had another culinary trip on Sunday 17th of May 2015. This time we went to 9 different places to eat eat and eat. Yep! That's why I love food hunting with another foodie(s), they take food seriously and they really really LOVE food! Well ... the other foodies went to 10 places actually. I had to work on Sunday morning so I missed the first place they went. But no need to worry! Nine places in a day with them was amazing too. Now let's start with my first stop, Goni Coffee at Kemang.

Exploring Jakarta is so useless. You'll get stuck in a bad traffic that can cause you a major stress, you have to prepare some extra cash for your fuel since it's already wasted a lot in the traffic and don't forget the pain through your whole body after a long day in a narrow car. It's just useless. Is there any way to prove that exploring Jakarta (visiting some great place of interest) in one day is possible and not a waste of time?

If you followed my twitter account, you must be know that I won the weekly "Toyota My Agya My Style" competition. Happy? Super! I was never lucky if it comes about competition but this time I won. Well ... I was aiming for the bigger prize actually but I think this one was way much better than the main prize. What did I won exactly? A day off with fellow kind but crazy food bloggers accompanied by the awesome Toyota Agya. Once again thanks to Toyota, I met another food bloggers and we really really had so much fun that day.

Black House is located at Cililin Raya, Senopati. Actually it was a house later turned into a spectacular restaurant. I really do mean it when I said spectacular. Why? Because turns out every storey has a different theme with a special menu too. Unique isn't it? Before I begin to tell you about it, please mind the dark and blurry pictures as I was too lazy too edit the pictures. So let's begin ...

I feel so lucky to be invited to IPPUDO's exclusive tasting event for their 1st ever Chicken Ramen Menu. I mean, seriously! From all IPPUDO's flagship store all across the globe, they chose IPPUDO Indonesia to launch their new menu and I can be the first to try it. In addition to that, this chicken ramen menu isn't available for public until 1st of June 2015. Come on, man! How cool is that?

IPPUDO was found in 1985 at Hakata (Fukuoka) by the famous ramen king, Shigemi Kawahara. It has more than 80 stores in Japan and more than 45 stores all across the globe, including the one at Pacific Place Jakarta. Kawahara's Philosophy, to continously innovate to remain true, has inspired IPPUDO to create the first ever chicken ramen menu that specially made for their customers in Indonesia. And let's keep in mind that they're not just making one chicken ramen menu but two. And again, how amazing is that?

I feel so lucky to be invited to another Zomato Meet Up at Macaroni House back at March. I know I know ... it's been far too long but I just got the chance to write it up and post it here. I've been busy as hell and really haven't got time to open my blog and write a proper review. Not that I neglect this blog, but I rather not to write some review under my standard. Yeah. I'm that perfectionist.

Macaroni House is located at Pesanggrahan street around Puri Indah. It was a small 'ruko' right at the side of the main street. No need to worry about finding this place because they have this red 'Macaroni House' sign in front of them. I feel like a lost people in this particular Puri Indah area as I never went there before. As I look around, there are so many restaurant that I never heard before at Pesanggrahan street, and I'm curious about it. Hmm .. I think I have to come back and have a little walk around there.

Sunday has always been my favorite day. Why? Because every Sunday I could escape my never ending worker life and also my frustrating dentistry co-assistant life. Yes, I'm living a double life as a part-time 6 days a week worker and a full-time 5 days a week student, and it's exhausting. That's why I've been waiting for Sunday all week. It was my kind of stress release day. But most importantly it was the day that I can go out with my family and friends.

My friends and I decided to go to Wu Jang Gun at Wolter Monginsidi. My friend said that the food was pretty good and with a reasonable price also. Reasonable price has always been our number one reason to choose a restaurant. Well ... what more can I say? We are still new to "working world" and we still trying to save some money. Oh! They also one of the halal Korean restaurant. I forgot to ask how halal is their food but I'm pretty sure it was reliable since I saw some MUI (Majelis Ulama Indonesia) Halal's Certificate plaque near the cashier if I'm not mistaken.

Aku mencintaimu karena kamu adalah kamu. Bukan karena apa yang selama ini kamu miliki, bukan karena apa yang telah kamu lalui dan bukan karena apa yang tidak sengaja terjadi. Aku menyayangi kamu apa adanya. Dengan segala sorot mata yang menyimpan pilu, dengan segala perbandingan yang berseru dan dengan segala sakit yang aku tidak tahu. Aku menerima kamu apa adanya. Atas hati yang membeku, atas jiwa yang menyendiri dan pikiran yang kalut. Karena kamu memanglah kamu yang apa adanya aku cinta, aku sayang dan aku terima.

Tapi semuanya tidak pernah semudah itu

Shit.

I know I've been a bad blogger for not writing as often as I should and I really am sorry, hereby I want to ask all of you for some apologies. I skipped the whole April without writing/posting any new post(s) even though I have so many things in my mind to share with. I really really am sorry.

Last month was busy as hell and full of shit in every moments that passed. As long as I remember, April was a month full of tears for me. No, it wasn't tears of joy. Yes, it was tears of sadness, depressions and heart-broken. Even though some great things happened and filled my days with joy and happiness, I still hate April for many unexplainable reasons.

Let's just say the 'Chapter : April' in my life book is closed and it was something that I never want to open or read again. For now let's just pray that May will be much more better in every single aspect.

I always wonder, why something sinful is always tempting? Even though you get worried when you did it, the adrenaline somehow made you smile after (no, I'm not proud of myself about it). Yeah, you name it. Starting from violating the rules to eating in the middle of the night. Oh yes! Especially eating in the middle of the night. This thing always made me end up with a sinful layers of fat.

Well who can resist the Legendary Nasi Uduk Kebon Kacang? Just by hearing it's name, I already drool all over the place just like I did when I wrote this post on my blog. Kidding. But seriously if you never heard of this legendary street food in Jakarta, WHERE HAVE YOU BEEN, MAN???

Well after two big meals in a row, I think we need another coffee break. After a long discussion we decided to go to Goni Coffee at Kemang. Unfortunately the moment we arrived there, it was the moment when the barista turned off the coffee machine. Sad. Still figuring out where else to go, one of my fellow foodies suggested to go to Honey & Me. The still-considered new and apparently hip place for youngsters in Wijaya. So there we are heading straight to Honey and Me at Wijaya.

Confused. We don't know where else to go since all of us were more like go-with-the-flow person. As one of our fellow foodies suggest us to go to a sushi restaurant, we asked the driver to drive us there. Where? We went to Umaku Sushi Resto in Mampang this time. If you have a hard time looking for this place, just remember the entrance to this restaurant is located right behind the Indomaret building. Like literally behind it.

Being the fourth stop of the day, I was planning to have something light. I was looking for something new too from Umaku since I eat at Umaku's another branch (the one in Tebet, read the review here) almost everyweek. My eyes stopped at Hana Roll with a new sign on the side. While my friends order the Sake (salmon) Aburi, Sake (salmon) Salad, Volcano Roll and some maki platter.

Third pit stop of the day! After a few hours of coffee break, we were ready for another big meals. Bring it on, baby! We don't even feel full at all. This time we decided to go middle eastern all the way, thus we decided to go to Al-Jazeerah restaurant at Cikini. This is the first time I visit the restaurant. I usually order their food via telephone and have them deliver it to my house. Since my foodies friends and I want to explore the whole Cikini/Pecenongan/ Menteng area, so why not?

You won't have a hard time finding this particular restaurant as they have this huge signboard in front of their restaurant. The interior brings up a middle eastern feeling in every corner. They even have a separated room for man and woman. Oh by the way we also heard that they provide camel meat. When we ask about it to their manager, he said the meat came about twice a month and you have to preorder it way before the day.

Then after those big feast, we were looking for some sweets and probably some cup of coffee for our palate. So we headed to Menteng area, Loteng Cikini to be exact. Located right above the Tjikini Cafe, it was kinda hard to find this place when you're not familiar with this place. Just remember the tiny blue door with a gold writing on the glass. You'll probably thought that this place was tiny from the outside but on the inside it was rather huge, I must say.

The cafe brings an old vintage feeling to me somehow. I'm not sure why but it feels cool and scary at the same time. We ordered their Pannacotta, Baba au Rum, Strawberry Punch, Nutella Iced Coffee, Milkshake Oreo, Ice Caffe Latte, Sunset, Ice Coffee and Cappucino to accompany us talking all afternoon.

I'm not familiar with Cikini/Pecenongan and the surrounding area. To be honest I never been there at all, neither for some food nor just strolling around. I don't know if there is any good food around there, I don't know if there is any sightseeing around there, I don't even know where exactly on map is that area. No, not at all. So when I got invited by PergiKuliner.com for a casual meet up/culinary trip to this particular area (based on our group agreements), I raised my hand in full of excitements. And I'm not disappointed at all.

The culinary journey was on Sunday, 8th of February 2015. I know it's been a month since we went to these places but I've been very busy with my life lately, so here is the stories about my journey with them. Oh since we came to several restaurants (six restaurants to be exact plus three which unfortunately closed when we arrived there. Super freakin' sad), I will post my stories in a several entry, based on each restaurant we visited that day. So let's start with the first restaurant, Sulaiman Resto at Batu Ceper.

I know I know. I haven't write anything on February and this only means that I've been a really bad blogger for these past months. Therefore I really am sorry.

I've been very busy with my life, especially with everything that just happened last February. The requirements in my dentistry co-assistant program are killing me. I really need to finish this whole thing soon. Working part time at my aunt's clinic was exhausting too. I've been constantly going back home around 10PM everyday. Even I passed out one day. Seriously. Then there is scuba diving lesson that I took and somehow addicting and I can't stop myself for not practicing every Saturday. Will let you know about it soon. And there are still lots of things going on last February that made me hard to spare some time and write a new post.

But what matter the most was I managed to escape my busy life a while by going on a quick trip to Pulau Pramuka. Well ... it was some sort of a mandatory exam trip for the scuba license though. However I'm uberly happy for escaping my busy life even for just a couple days. Oh! I will have a special post about this trip, soon.

Well I guess that's it. A quick little update about my hectic life. And hereby I promise to write more often even when I'm extra busy with my life.

I never knew that there are lots of restaurants right behind The Promenade (Ace Hardware, Pasar Minggu). All these time I just passed it by because from the outside it doesn't look appealing to me. If so I would stop by and try every single restaurant there. Thanks to Zomato Indonesia for inviting me to their Meet Up event, now I know there are lots of new places to discover right behind The Promenade. Me is happy, very happy.

The event was held on Saturday, 24th of January 2015. What's better than meeting up with a bunch of new people? Meet a bunch of new people with the same interest and passion as you are. Yes! This private Zomato Foodies Meet Up event is filled with people with the same passion as I do. Photography and food. Two most incredible things that brings people together. Well even though almost everyone like food, nothing can beat the love of food passion from these people. They don't love food, they fond of it.

It's official that I'm in love with Pancious for not just bringing a delicious pancakes and crepe cakes but also a marvelous savory dish. Yes, marvelous. In this post I will talk about one of their pasta. Please keep in mind that I almost never ordered a pasta in a restaurant unless the waiter/waitress really really recommend it since I always cook pasta for most of the time at my house. And I found that restaurant's pasta was way below my pasta standard (snob). This post might seems over rated, but the food that I'm going to review is really really yumm to me.

I would like to say thank you to whoever invented the famous Nasi Goreng. It's an easy dish and ultimate comfort food for me (after martabak, of course). The perfect balance from their seasoning and topped with a fried egg, there is nothing can go wrong with this dish. Anyone can make this beautiful sexy messy food from anything that you find in your house. Starting from chicken, beef, lamb, tuna, salmon, smoked beef, bacon or just a simple scrambled egg and butter.

Most of the time you'll find a Nasi Goreng with a western influences such as smoked beef, tuna and much more. But how about we mixed it up a little bit? Instead of having an ordinary Nasi Goreng what if we put an eastern influences in this dish and make it a Nasi Goreng Kebuli?

I always doubt every food that put a 'HEALTHY' words on their menu. Since most of the time I find a healthy food always taste ... well, you know. And for most of the time, they put an unreasonably high price for their food. I'm pissed. Paying that much for something that taste doesn't really good, promising that you're going to be healthier after you eat their food. That's rubbish. Healthy meal won't give any effect to your body unless you consume it daily. And by daily, not just a week or two but a whole month or even a whole year. Maybe that's the reason why I don't really care about my food consumption all these time. To me, as long as it taste good with a reasonable price, I'm happy and I'm okay with that.

But that was until I lost some people due to their unhealthy eating habit and also when my medical check up results comes. Doctor said I have to watch my food since my test results was pretty bad than the last time I did it. I begin to worried. So now I'm on a quest to eat a little more healthy (but still with a reasonably price). And talking about healthy, I was lucky enough to be invited last Sunday on a Blogger Gathering held by Colby's Farm and Gorry Gourmet in collaboration with Foodisme.

I've been here a thousand times but somehow always forgot to took a decent pictures of their interior and cakes. So when I was here yesterday, the first thing I did is taking a lots of pictures of their interior and of course their cakes. But somehow those pictures turned out blurry and weird and I don't want to share it with you guys. This means I have to go here again soon so I can take a great pics and share it with you. This goes on top of my to do list.

Cake-A-Boo has become a hipster place for the youngsters and foodies. Ask everyone about this place, most of them must have been there or at least heard about it. Providing a cute desserts with also a cute place, just in a few months after their grand opening, Cake-A-Boo easily has become a must visit place in Pantai Indah Kapuk.

It's always good to have a snack while you are wandering around. Sadly not all food stand/outlet have a cool and easy container bowl for their food. Most of the time I ended up with a too-big-for-one-hand food container and I have to sit down to eat it. In reality I like a small and nice food container bowl to carry around. As I'm writing this now, I think Chippy is the only one provides that necessity.

To me, every dish in Pancious never can go wrong. I mean it. I've tried both their sweet and savory dishes and they never fails me. But I personally loving Pancious for their great pancakes, and now crepe cake. I'm madly in love with their crepe cake since the first time I tried it back at Pancious Grand Indonesia. I managed to persuade my friends to try their crepe cake and now they are definitely in love with it. MWAHAHAHAHHH!

Jakarta has been so hot these past few days and I can't stop wondering what could possibly make it much cooler? Suddenly I remember about this cute little space in Gandaria City called Kiwami (right next to Jeans Chilli Chicken and across Bebek Bengil). I heard they have a nice kakigori (shaved ice) to enjoy in a hot sunny day like this. So my cousin and I went there hoping that their kakigori will make us cooler eventhough we know we're already cool :p

Describe my 2014 in three words?

Sh*t.

Sh*t.

Sh*t.

And sh*t was not even close to what I experienced in 2014.

Well yeah you read it right. My 2014 was pain in the *ss, filled with the worst possible thing that could happen to someone in a single year. I'm not joking, I'm not over reacting it, I mean it. It was something that I'm not proud to share with you guys.