Food Review : Kinara

This is our second time visit at Kinara, one of the famous Indian restaurants in Jakarta which located in Kemang. To be honest, both of us really love their food and their decorations are so Indians; you could really feel like you were eating in Indian's restaurants in India itself. This time we came for no specific reason though, all of us were going to see our friend's, Josh, printing T-shirt's store at Plaza Kemang and accidentally, Mr. Grumpy said "Kinara"on our way. So you know, since the girls were craving for Indian's food for decade, then we decided to satisfy our super hungry big tummy with Indian cuisine.

I was too hungry and too lazy to capture the decorations, so I just captured what I could from nearby our table. And neither I captured the food photos one by one. I was really starving, stuck in the jammed for like an hour and got lost in the street, but thank GOD I stopped to buy a bread. 

The food we ordered are : Butter Naan, Tikka Bemisal (Butter Chicken), Murgh Badami (Almond sauce Chicken), Dal Tadka, Paneer Makhani, Gosht Biryani and Kashmiri Pulao. All of us love the food except the Murgh Badami. And their Butter Chicken, Pulao and Panner is highly recommended. And for the desert, we ordered Kesar Kulfi and Rasmalai. I don't like Kulfi though except it's Anmul's so I have no comment about it. But their Rasmalai is a big no-no, it tastes so not like Rasmali I tasted in India, it's rather soggy. And don't be surprised the amount of money you have to pay if you ordered the food like ours, it's a way beyond your expectations ha-ha-ha! So make sure you choose your "most favorable" ones :) So far, Kinara is the most expensive Indian restaurant we tried but their tastes is better than the others.

Birthday Part ii : Love & Food Fiesta

After a while, finally, we have our "own" special days, celebrating my late birthday & late anniversary. It was surely sweet, very relaxing and moments you would cherished for the next one year. We had our favorite foods for two continuos days with yummy desert and simple chit-chats and yes, we miss these kinds of simple moments for a decade. Thank you for the sweet two-days re-run late celebration and knowing I had only "limited energy due to Typhus and got tired easily", these two days date are awesome. Thank you for taking care of me, Mr. Grumpy and being there at each phase in my life from happy to sorrow days, from seeing me laughing until crying, from getting through moments to cherish until dark moments. Thank you for being there, thank you for the hugs and the pat for so many times when I seemed so lost in my own thoughts and sorrows. Thank you for letting me learnt, for teaching me every little things and thank you for not losing faith and reminding me of HIS awesome power :)

First day : Go Curry at Pacific Place

Go Curry is the second most favorite Indian restaurants in Jakarta. We love their Rogan Josh and don't be shocked by the small size of rice in your plate. For a person like me who eat a lot, at first I thought, I would wanted to order an extra rice, but at the end, my tummy is full. Mr. Grumpy ordered Mixed Vegetables with Cilantro butter rice and Rogan Josh sauce and it's surely yum! While I ordered Chicken Tikka with the same rice and sauce. Usually, I would ordered their chicken zest and that's also yummy! Basically, the curry in here tastes quite authentic and for both of us, we really enjoyed eating here and their wallpapers too :D! One of our favorites and looking forward to come again and again!

As for desert then we had Rainbow Cake from The Good Dept and don't be shocked when you see the price for this cake. Yes, a way too expensive but the cake itself isn't that bad, quite good but not awesome. We still love the ones from Island Creamery! The place is good for hang out although it's a bit small. 

Second day : The Canteen

One word to describe this place "addictive" and we are fully got hooked with their food! We reordered the food we had when the first time we came - Caesar Salad & Chicken Cajun Wrap. Both of us totally in love with the freshness of their Caesar Salad and the taste is just really good, with a beer will make it such a perfect combination, no issue! 

Then their Penne with Bolognese sauce and once you try, you won't stop digging, eating until you left none in your plate! And lastly their Chicken Cajun Wrap is just healthy and fresh. I just can't wait to try another menus from there 

Both of us were craving for Macaroon and decided to have one big macaroon from the Kitchenette! They only have two options Chocolate Nuts and Raspberry and Macaroon with Vanilla Ice-cream with  Caramel & chocolate Sauce is just too delicious. Kitchenette's Macaroon isn't the best ones but it's worth it. 

Happy Tummy means Happy me and apparently Mr. Grumpy is also super happy because his tummy also happy! Totally two days of food fiesta that we cherished and enjoyed the moments. The moments where you didn't think of work nor talk about it much, just being us with light talk, stupid things and falling in love once again! Thank you for the beautiful moments although I know both of us wished we could celebrated on my birthday & Eid. Love you tons! 

Birthday Part 1 : 29 & Eid

My birthday is exactly the same as the first day of Eid, so I'm pretty much lucky to be celebrated locally & internationally. I was kind of scared that I won't be having fun on my birthday nor be able to just have slight enjoyment but I was wrong. It was actually kind of like "light and simple celebration". The truth, I'm still weak but I just pretend I'm somehow super healthy and almost fully recovered although I got exhausted a lot even by just walking for 5 minutes. Every hour which I passed had been such a blessing right after the midnight. I started with my night prayer with so many wishes in it then went to my mom's room for a blessing and then Mr. Grumpy wished me and spent an hour or so of chatting. I knew how my birthday will be as my heart told me things which myself already forgot. But one thing for sure, heart never tells you lies, those deepest inner voice of yours that you had no idea where it came from, LISTEN to them! I tried to ignore but heart proven me wrong :)

Thank you so much for my two besties who came to my house for bringing me presents, thank you a ton! and of course, I woke up early because it was my birthday ha-ha-ha! I may didn't look that weak because happiness covers it all. Thank you so much and I'm blessed :) 

Then, I was surprised my other best friends come along too and since I was so starving, so we decided to just go for lunch. Me & Mr. Grumpy;s first plan was to bring them to Lebanese Food at Sabang, which we found really good although the place is just too old. But since, they were closed and tons of restaurants and cafe were closed, we decided to go for another option, Komala's Restaurant at Sarinah. Komala's is a vegetarian's Indian cuisine restaurant but they served each of the dishes well enough. The truth, it's kind of hard to find Indian's authentic tastes similar to the ones in India because they need to modify the taste but this one is exceptional. This is our second visit but Mr. Grumpy said that the Paratha's platter isn't that good as the first time (must be the chef is different). I really love their Halva and it's highly recommended to have when you eat there! Halva and Ice-cream is just awesome but it'll be perfect if the Ice-Cream is Amul's ha-ha-ha! And Overall, We love the other food too, it's really good even the Vegetarian Chinese Fried Rice has the similar like the ones you eat in india! I mean, that's not how the real chinese fried rice supposed to taste but that's the taste you'll be getting when you eat them in India which truly I missed.

 

I love the dress Mr. Grumpy wears, he looks really dashing if you see it in real. Well in between looking dashing and cute! And this year is the first time he tested the rice cake (Ketupat) with boiled chicken with coconut (Opor Ayam) and Rendang too. I hope he enjoyed the food though because me and mom really loves the food that DD's mom made - thank you super much :) . The truth, I was planning to do something for him on Eid but thanks to Typhus, all planned got ruined and After lunch, straightaway, we went to Blitz's Grand Indonesia to catch 4pm show of Chennai Express! We were planning to watch since ages ago and all of us really enjoyed the movie; it's really entertaining, fun loving and I was smiling throughout the whole movie! Very enjoyable :)

Overall, my 29th birthday is surrounded by the best people around me; the ones who always be with me and us at the hardest time in our life too. Thank you so much, your presences and wishes meant a lot more than the rests. To my mom and my dad, thank you extra much especially dad, thank you! And thank you mom for the late birthday for me and my babies, thank you for every little things. Thank you Mr. Grumpy, who never failed himself to protect, to love and to cherish me. And of course, life is really tough with me nowadays and i wanted to just surrender but THANK YOU LORD for giving me so much strength, so much lessons to absorb and learn to make me (and us ) to be better and responsible. Thank YOU LORD and I know my wishes will be granted #AMEN :)

I'm looking forward for the great moments, achievements and memories to be cherished in my journey of being 29. I'm excited for the wishes to be granted and for the great things to happen everyday. Thank you for the miracles, for the gifts, for the beautiful memories and now, I am READY for the great things to happen with greater responsibilities and living more in YOUR GLORY :)

And I pray for you my better-half, my grumpy man, that HE grants all your wishes and make you live in the lifestyle, you have always been dreaming off. GOD Bless you Abundantly :)

Food Review : De Mingle

We saw this Indo-Dutch Bistro restaurant at west Jakarta next to Food Hall's building. Their Address is at : Jl. Raya Pejuangan Kav.12A Unit C and I'm pretty sure I'll be coming back to this restaurant again. As their name is bistro and I like their Interior as well, really make you feel comfortable but personally, a little to small for birthday party(unless they are resetting everything). However, once you landed your feet inside of this restaurant, you could feel the homey environment. Their staff is also very friendly, helpful and fast too. They are quite fast in responding which is rare to find lately! Good hospitality and environment I must say. 

As for the food, me and mom was sharing everything though and our main menu was this Beef Gelatin as one of their specializations too. The truth, I don't remember the name at all as mom was ordering the whole things. Yes, mom really loves Dutch food a lot and she brought me to couple of Dutch restaurants, but I must say, this one is surely my most favorite ones. It fits my taste though. The salad she ordered is nothing wow, but somehow, it taste good - combination of eggs, apples, etcs with Thousand Island's dressing. I'm not sure what's so wow about it but we like it. It's really good for appetizer though. Then another appetizer we ordered is (if I'm not mistaken) called " De Mingle's platter". I'm not exactly remember the name but the word platter is surely there in the menu. It consists of fish & chips , fries, bitterballen and rissoles. My mom likes the fish & chips while I go for bitterballen but for me, their Rissoles is too oily. Overall, for the price of 49,000 IDR, the platter is surely worth it though. 

For the Main menu as I said earlier, I chose their Beef Gelatin and it's yummy! Do ask for more sauce and enjoy your beef and mashed potatoes. Not lots of restaurants can make a good mashed potatoes in Jakarta. I shared this two stack of beef with mom and we couldn't get stop eating them so yes, for 69,000 IDR, there's nothing to be complained about. Definitely RECOMMENDED for this one.

Oh yeah mom also ordered the bourbon (red bean) soup with beef at the last minute. She said it wasn't that good but not that bad too, average taste but yet she still finished all of them with happy face LOL. Then, the famous dutch desert, Porfejes and of course I'm not going to miss this one. It's just made you feel like you have been in "dutch restaurant" :p! The only thing I don't like is the cinnamon. If only they hadn't put it, I would just really love this a lot ha-ha-ha-ha! Yeah, I don't like Cinammon but ignore that comment, this one is well made too and If I'm not mistaken it costs around 35,000 IDR.

Well oh well, at the end of the day, we were really satisfied and totally would be coming back here again. The food is really good , the place is really cosy (good for hang out / meeting), and the value also reasonable enough. For the total 5 food, we spent about 300,000 - 320,000 IDR with 2 mineral water and 1 ice-tea as for the drinks. So it does worth it and we are truly will be recommending this restaurant. Quite looking forward on the 2nd visit and going to try different menu, quite curious on how other taste but we are satisfied with what we ordered. Go and try it everyone , totally recommended to you :)