L’aventure culinaire ( part 1 )

Not sure whether the title means anything ( ohh I’ll be smacked by my french lecturer!! )

As a living example of I LIVE TO EAT, and simultaneously obey the law of I EAT TO LIVE, which was derived by whoever, My side mission in this foreign capital is to indulge, taste and immerse myself with the lengthy spread of culinary delicacies. Jakarta is basically the meet up point for all of the immigrants who left their hometown for better tomorrow. They dragged along their cultures, and mostly food. There’s soo much to be offered, since there’re thousands of islands around. It seriously makes Malaysia look like the tip of a needle in the map. OK shut it up.

 

He’s always sweet, nice and humble. Not until the snack boxes arrive. He’s a monster. hahaha

Just cut to the chase, food is prepared and served in a different manner here. Yeah, it’s still served on a plate, cutleries are not to be left out too. But I hardly encounter any polystrine box. I looked through the garbage bin myself and I can’t find any. Ok seriously I don’t gross stuff. They prefer to pack things up in boxes like below. Cute, I know.

 

So cute it resembles Sarawak layer cake. WTF. Food is delivered in this kinda fashion, tight up by a string and voila, It’s time to dig in. The lid of the box is printed with the name of the caterer and on the butt of the box comes the name of the box supplier. Killing to chickens with a box. AHAHAHA. And the food is DELISHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH. As a food critic I’m known for my fiery remarks and my bias perception on food. So far throughout my stay here, it never fail to make me happy and satisfied.

The content of the box:

• rice ( Asians and rice are super inseperable, or is it just me? )
• A protein source ( chicken, beef, fish )
• Roughage ( veggies obviously )
• Some fried stuff ( soy bean cake or tempe, potatoes )
• Keropok ( never fail to make its appearance in the box on daily basis )
• fruit ( whatever kind that they serve )
• and a small plastic containing a plastic spoon, a hard one instead of the cheapo brand, serviette and a toothpick. So cool rite??

 

It was the scariest day of my life yet, I saw a ghost. Ok wrong. As usual, lunch break. Enjoying the content of my lunch box. Everyday is like a surprise, not knowing what to expect with the food in it. There’s this dish, cubed potatoes with this gooey I don’t really know how to describe the feeling of eating it. Imagine yourself having jelly covered with gravy, eaten together with rice. Sounds yucky but it taste good actually, surprisingly indeed. After few bites I decided to give a microscopic look at the gooey thing itself. THE SCARIEST DAY OF MY LIFE YET. I saw tiny miny hair, covering the surface on that gooey thingy. First thing that registered in mind, “ oh shoot is this pig skin??” I was freaking out like never ever before. Within seconds the ghost appeared and laughed “ ahaha you ate the forbidden meat” OK SHUT  UP. I ran, and ran and ran to the nearest person around, which was the office boy. He later explained it’s the skin of the cow. OK will never ever try it ever again. Though it tasted kinda good.

 

A+ for hospitality

How sweet of them. They provided us with snacks. Twice actually, pre-lunch and tea time. Always come in 3 different varieties. Some are similar to those in Malaysia and some are just unique. Most importantly they taste great. Not sure because I’m basically starving every second of my life. I am now THE eating machine. The Horse. AHAHAHA.

Call me the horse or cow, I’ve made friends with buffalos and hippos instead ahaha. After lunch, like right after lunch, like 5 minutes after finishing their lunch, they will without fail proceed to KFC for some additional munching, of a plate of rice and southern style fried chicken WTF. They left me amazed and amused.

 

KFC and the desserts!

The photo above has proved that the adventurous hormone in me has just kicked in, it’s my first shot on indulging local delicacies. Ikan Nila with sayur asam. Was looking for a roasted gurame but was nowhere to be found that night. My friends they settled down with fried rice blah blah blah and fried noodles blah blah blah. I can get that in my home country. Lame. Take the golden opportunity to try something new right??

OK THIS POST IS TOOOOOOO LONG, WILL BE BROKEN UP INTO PART 2. ACTUALLY I’M GETTING LAZY. SLEEPY AS HELL.

Wongga wongga!

What the hell am I doing in Jakarta

 

I’m in Jakarta to be a fool

 

OK that’s an understatement. ahaha. Alright then, it’s about time for me to break the ice, the scrape off the misconceptions that were thrown towards this humble person, which is me. Ahaha. I’m in Jakarta:

1. not for shopping
2. not to be a fool ( as potrayed by the photo above, btw it’s not me )
3. Not to be a player ( trust me, girls here are HOOOOOOOOOOOT )

I’m basically here for an initial endorsement program to convert my flying license to Indonesian license. Yes, books have to be reopened AGAIN. Pilots do read books. Not just all autopilot from point to point.

 

It was the first day of the program. None of us have the clue about the schedule. So for a buffer we decided to get ourselves ready by 8.00 am and was notified later by the management that we have to leave the dormitory at 10.00 am wtf.  The photo above proves how entertainment and show biz drives the blood of all Indonesian. There’s a daily morning concert in the TV which I don’t even bother to know the name of the channel coz there are like 16 FREE TV CHANNELS available!! One day Julia Perez performed in the morning concert. She’s a freak. Like totally singing in a leopard suit. Goosebumps.

 Camwhoring do boost your self esteem

 

 

The composition of the classroom. Malaysians, 2 Indonesians, a Brit and a Francais.

 

Never to be fooled. We’re uncontrollable most of the time. Again, Camwhoring is a healthy lifestyle that I lead. ahahaha. The program is quite relaxing. Really. Every half an hour there’s a 15 minutes break. With snacks. Really super cool. It was a sad affair to later find out that such flexible method is only applied by the first instructor ahaha.

 

The true highlight of the day. The babe. The beauty. The b***h. ahahaha. The fixed base Boeing 737 NG simulator. I know, I don’t own the privilege to fly here. Yet.

 

 

The faces of enthusiasm and concentration as the aircraft is about to land in whatever airport it was. Thanks Mr. Supriatna or Pak Pri for initiating the visit to the simulator. He’s a retired Garuda Indonesia flight engineer. He had this nasty jokes about aircraft with propellers. He asked us all why passengers are waiting outside the aircraft before take off. We were left puzzled by his question. He further explained that all of the pax are so hot they have to go outside for some fresh air coz the fan is located outside not in the interior of the cabin. Like WTFFFF.

 

THE – CANT – WAIT – TO – GO -  BACK – TO – ROOM – TO – SLEEP – FACES

 

 

Hope to see you guys when I fly soon! OK I’m loving the trolley bag.

The Farewell

 

 

 

Good food, awesome company, memorable moment…… OK enough babbling.

 

If there’s a word to describe how I feel everyday of my life, it’ll definitely be Alhamdulillah. Thank God. Opportunity comes by and you’ll be carried on a bandwagon to the next dream destination, leaving your current life behind in pursuit of a better future. Seriously I should be a preacher blorgger if I had a chance ahaha.

Alhamdulillah, again, as I managed to score a job in the foreign land, I deserved to have an over the top farewell. Demanded as it seems but the person organizing the farewell himself generously enough providing me the liberty to choose the menu of the dinner. Living the life of the future riche and currently already famous. OK SHUT UP.

 

I’ve to cancel soooo many farewell invitations by close friends due to the unavoidable reason. Among all of the invitations, this particular one can’t be declined. Or else I’ll be hunted down by 3 pre-invited patrons who enjoys good food provided to them for free ( seriously they’ll kill me if they read this ahahaha ). It was the day. Football match of Malaysia against Bahrain or Syria if not mistaken. To be expected that the road riding up to the stadium will be jam packed with cars rushing to the stadium. And why does my friend has to rent so close to the venue??? ahaha. The usual 20 minutes drive ended up to a dreadful 1 hour and 15 minutes crawl on the freeway. But as i approached to the stadium, there's not much car, not even a crowd of enthusiastic Malaysian supporters to be in sight. HUH??? What’s the jam all for?? Are they having a flash mob or something??

 

As promised, GOOOOOOD food will be served. The guests were kept grounded by the humble weighing scale waiting at the front door. WTF i gained 4 Kg, before the feast!!

 

 

My friend is basically owns the Langkawi Island in his room. A fridge full of alcoholic drinks. A fridge full of those sinful things. I love to have drunken people as company. They’re cute and will never gonna stop talking. JEZZ was soo overwhelmed by the selection of beverages, she ended up squating in order to choose which is to be boozed ahaha. By the way I only drank coke the whole night. Saint isn’t it ahaha.

 

 

AUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUW the lovely candles to light up the mood. 10 scores for the fine details, which ended up isolated on the ironing board.

 

 

I was skeptical to have the dinner at his place as there’ll be no assurance of the cutleries and utensils used to be Halal. Seriously he bought everything brand new!!! The plates, the fork and spoon ( the spoon he stoled from the Singapore Airlines flight ahaha ). Even the pans and pots are all brand new to ensure that he meets the requirement. Notice the white plate? White resembles holiness which resembles me ok shut up.

 

2 hungry monsters can’t wait to be fed. Seriously they were starving.

 

 

The aroma, the blast of colours. The food was just extraordinary. Home cooked. By a guy so obssessed with quality ingredients, even the onions used by him were bought from cold storage wtf. They were 4 roasted full size birds for 5 people ( is he insane ?? ), to die for mashed potatoessssss, Lasagnaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa ( pre ordered by me huhu ), greens which I believed only I ate it. ahahhaa. It was good. No, it was excellent. Orgasm in the mouth times 5 people.

 

“ guys, be natural, I wanna snap a candid shot”. This was the result ahahaha

 

 

Let the professional show you how to act natural in front of a dinner table full of heavenly feast ahahaha

 

 

The – photo – taking – session – using – smart – phone – which – to – be – uploaded – to – make – those – uninvited – envious – wtf

 

 

Though I’m in no position to complain, but the atmosphere was soo stuffy even the guests rushed to the window for a grasp of air. Noted that Mell was soo hungry, she refused to remove herself from her seat ahahaha

 

 

OOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO Chicken breast for me, a helpful of lasagna, 2 helpfuls of mashed potatoes and greens to provide contrast of colours to the palate and to show that I do lead a healthy lifestyle ahaha.

 

 

Within minutes I was running low on lasagna, handed over the plate for the 2nd helping. Mike why do you look soo kinky in this shot? ahahaha

 

 

The singing pilot : HEYYY

The patrons : WHAT?????

The singing pilot : I WANNA PROPOSED A TOAST

The patrons : URGHHHH…… ok

 

 

Jezz was soo into her Bold 4, she has neglected the lot for the rest of the night. ahahahaha.

 

 

OMG she looked like the wife of the yakuza clan leader. ahahaha

 

 

Decided to go against herself WTF ahaha

 

 

The highlight of the night:

 

MUAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA

 

 

The dessert was surprisingly great!! Additional 500K cal to the night. It was a combo of chocolate twiggies smothered with La Cremeria ice cream. Talk about that ice cream, I managed to seduce this woman to purchase it as i was working at a call centre for a pizza delivery. I didn’t get the paycheck as I quit after 5 days ahahaha.

Honestly, for a person to commit his effort and time to pay a tribute for a departing friend, it means a lot to me. Seriously. And to have such a good friends to enjoy the time with, It’s beyond priceless. OK I’M NOT ALL THAT MEAN MOST OF THE TIME.  AHAHAHA

Sadly, the clock striked to 10 pm, and  I need to rush. Damn I really gonna miss  you guys. You guys will definitely miss me ahahaha

 

The singing pilot and MIKE, the chef host guitarist extraordinaire.

 

 

The singing pilot misbehaving with JEZZ, ended up looking like a stick insect hanging on her shoulder ahaha.

 

 

The singing pilot with STEVE, the chocolate monster, an opposite to my chocolate allergy. Seriously I’m allergic to chocolate and nearly fainted because of it.

 

 

And last but not least, The singing pilot with MELL, so cute we dressed up of the same colour tone. We looked like freshly blended pink guava juice. ahaha

 

 

Group picture!!!! I know y’all love me to death. Miss me ok! AHAHAHA

Conquering Jakarta

 

The evitable adventure to stroll along the roads and wonderful places of Jakarta began shortly as my batchmates and I arrived at the “mess”, the word for dormitory used in this country. The reason why we chose to be adventurous even on our first day here, because we basically got nothing to do ahahaha. Well it’s a Libur day here in Jakarta, or to be rephrase, weekend, we might as well grap the golden opportunity to hang out about town and shop for necessities. How can i express it as necessities, we were overlimit in terms of luggage weight when we reach here. OK I’m hungry and let’s go………….

 

 

The compulsory photo to commemorate our arrival  here at the mess. Is it a malaysian culture or it’s just us? ahahaha. By the way I’m the one snapping the photo and not in it, therefore no embarrassment of such manner will be thrown to me ahahahaha. Yeah I do things with reasons.

 

My aunt was really inquisitive and curious to find out how my accomodation will look like. Well Chu, this is it, I may not able to show you the picture of the room in my blorg. Will personally get to you once I’m back to KL.

 

- Unpacking : DONE

- Shower : overly DONE

OK we are set to rule the town for the day, but how are we actually gonna proceed there? Car? taxi?. Well taxi is the only logical solution available. I just can’t put it in words on how our dormitory is located. It’s not in the city side, not even in the village setting. Hmmmm. Easy for me to conclude it that there’s aloooooooooooot of school kids strolling around every morning and the road will be filled with motorist like how malaysian will rush to the Ramadhan bazaar. And yes i LOVE the name Ramadhan ahaha. We could only managed to find a taxi near our domitory and were promised that there’ll be in abundance few kilometres ahead. This was sooo funny and sticky, we cramped all 6 of us in the taxi, feeling like living  in a can of Ayam Brand sardine, oooooooooh how i miss sardine in the can.

 

 

After the struggle for survival inside the cramped up taxi ( seriously i was struggling to even breathe and circulation nearly went to a complete stop ok shutup ), we reached the taxi hub and split into 2. Nothing to elaborate. Just a normal taxi ride along the streets you’re never been before. I was soo surprised upon looking at the gear knob!! It’s different from what I had in KL. The reverse gear is on the left ahahaha. I was sooo amazed by the finding and wanted to put it up on status. Later i was told by the driver that this is normal on all Chevy cars. I’M THE WORLD’S BIGGEST FOOL. ahaha

 

 

 

This is Mal Kelapa Gading, a family oriented mall where basically everything that you craved for a mall to have, they have it here. It’s a mall of a combination of 3 small malls, I just don’t get the significance, 3 malls into 1 equals a mall. Well it’s just one big mall. But the food court is huuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuge. Not the one infront of the Farmer’s Market.

 

The mall was having a midnight sale on that weekend. I can’t believed my eyes. Parents with kids in the stroller rushed into the mall at near midnight hours. They took the definition of shopping to a whole other level which is beyond my imagination. The picture above shows how a sale at an outlet could magnet an ocean of ladies to go and spend. Mad shoppers.

 

 

AHAH!!! my favourite song covered by Siti Nurhaliza has been the muse for a cafe here. ahahaha Bengawaaaaaaaan soloooooooooo.

 

REPEAT AFTER ME: ISI ULANG, ISI ULANG ISI ULANG

They don’t use the word “top up” here. I’ve topped up 50000 rupiah. Again, another shivering moment to buy something in Indonesia. I’m sooo overwhelmed by the number of zeros. ahahaha

 

 

Pizza hut here in Jakarta is like a fine dining restaurant. Like seriously. Once you stepped in you are at the hierarchy of those who owns Porsche Cayenne and lives in a hilltop mansion. OK that’s soo wrong. The queue is beyond long there’s a name list. Not worth my time. I was told, again, that the quality and taste of the pizza and pasta here surpassed the ones available in KL. Is it so? hmmmm next time shall we? YES they even have a counter dedicated to customers who are on the run and just wanted to get a slice instead of the whole pie. Which also has a queue WTF.

 

 

ANNOYINGLY, Chatime is here in Jakarta too. Yes Chatime, what do you want from me? Do you have to be everywhere that I go? ahahaha

 

 

It looks like a barber, but you can get your perm and hair loss treatment here. And the queue was crazyyyyyyyyyyyy. Do they have a sale too? The location of this outlet is soo stratergically vital to pull me back to that place again. Wanna know why? On the future post I’ll elaborate. If I have the courage to do so ahaha.

 

 

My first true Indonesian culinary experience!! Ikan Nila set or something. Thought it was Gurame fish, the coveted fish told by friends back in KL. Where can i get Jus Alpokat??

 

 

After done shopping in Farmer’s Market ( equivalent to Cold storage or it’s kind ), my batchmates decided to exchange their newly bought indonesian phone numbers, in the middle of the walkway!! I was like “ hey guys proceed to the side laaa”. They were like “ it’s okay, no problem”. I saw crowds giving sharp stares at us. Utter embarrassment. Will not incorporate myself into such situation ever again. ahahaha

 

 

What a wonderful first time experience at the mall, will visit you again, Mal Kelapa Gading. Wanted to snap the photo of the signage and manage to get this ahaha.

 

Woke up from my first night out from my mother’s land. We got nothing to do and went to the same mall, again ahahaha ok shutup ( at this point I’m so exhausted to finish this post …. )

 

  

 

I’ve encountered the unthinkable, the overly priced coffee. Kopi Luwak. Will never ever ever gonna try this. For those who are not sure why a cup of this coffee will cost 8.00 USD, the beans are soo produced at a minimal scale, as the coffee beans need to be indulged by the squirrel or wtv the name is, and the waste from the pass motion activity ( or else it may sound soo vulgar hahaha ) comes the beans that has been digested. Well it is cleaned before being grind into this exclusive drink. Is it halal, I don’t think so. OK hope there’ll be no group of extremist hunting down for  me due to this statement ahaha.