Dog Friendly Carrot Cake

I actually wrote this post before my holiday to China and scheduled for it to be posted a while back but things did not go as planned! Anyway, here it is...

This one is for all the doggy lovers out there! So our dogs, two super adorbs malshis, will be celebrating their birthdays on the 26th of March, but as some of the family will be away then, we decided to push forward the partay! They don't actually share the same birthday, but we have chosen a date in between both their birthdays to celebrate (if they were human we'd be horrible parents). I digress, the point is, we baked them a dog friendly carrot cake! We have used a recipe which we found on allrecipes.com.

Ingredients:

• 1/4 cup peanut butter
• 1/4 cup vegetable oil
• 1 egg
• 1 tsp vanilla essence
• 1 tsp cinnamon powder
• 1/3 cup honey
• 1 carrot (shredded)
• 1 cup flour
• 1 tsp baking soda

Pat Bing Soo - Serpong

Jakarta's hot and humid weather makes it perfect for icey desserts. So when a new icey dessert place opened, we (my sister and I) just couldn't wait to try it out.

It's Pat Bing Soo in Serpong, Alam Sutera. The brand is a play on words of the Korean word, patbingsu which means shaved ice with red beans. Anyway, this is going to be a short review as I literally only have  12 hours until I have to fly off to China and my luggage is still in a disarray! But, don't worry, I only have positive things to say about this place, so even if you get confused by my mumble jumble review, just know that I would totally recommend you check this place out!

Dongdaemun Patbingsoo (Rp. 35,000)

Pun of the Day

Tai-Parfait - Gandaria City

Tai-parfait seems like it will be the next dessert craze in Jakarta as I've heard a lot of buzz about it. I can understand why, it's very visually appealing and fun to eat. The first stall to open is in Gandaria City, South Jakarta. I really like their display of sample taiyakis with the different options of flavours and toppings.They all look so delicious I just want them to swim into my mouth! I also really like how they bake right in front of you, not only is it fun to watch, I also have more confidence in knowing what goes into my food!

Let's get cooking

Takarajima - Puri Indah

I love Japanese food! Due to its great variety, it's definitely a cuisine I wouldn't mind having everyday. So, when I heard Takarajima has opened a branch only a stone's throw away from home, I planned a lunch date with my sister and off we go! We arrived exactly at 12pm and found the restaurant was still empty. The restaurant was smaller than I expected, but well decorated and clean. When we were handed the menu and we flicked through it, we found there was so many dishes to choose from. So we narrowed it to two main courses and two sushi dishes.

Gyutan Don (Rp. 38,000)

Pun of the Day

Restaurant Hopping - Pantai Indah Kapuk

This is about three friends and three restaurants in 90 minutes. Pantai Indah Kapuk (PIK) is an ultra hip hang out place and there are so many new restaurants and dessert cafes opening every week! When you visit PIK, visiting only one restaurant feels like such a waste, because there are so many things to try. So to cram everything in my two friends and I visited three restaurants in 90 minutes.

The first place we visited for dinner was Abura Soba Yamatoten. This place serves nothing but abura soba and a small selection of side dishes. Both my friends ordered the original Abura Soba and I ordered the Jya Jya Abura soba. Before we dug in to the soba, we were informed to add the vinegar and chilli oil, which were in bottles on the table, to the noodles and stir well, then enjoy while hot. So being good listeners, we followed their instructions. To be honest, before coming here I did not know what abura soba was, so I expected a bowl of buckwheat noodles and cold sauce to dip in to.

Abura Soba (Rp. 59,000)

Pun of the day

Contributed by my good friend Mrs. M

Bakmi Asiong - Puri Indah

This is going to be a very short  review about a very yummy noodle place I tried recently. I've been wanting to try bakmi Asiong for a while simply because it shares a name with a very special person in my life. Originally I wanted to try bakmi Asiong in Kelapa Gading, but when we went there, they had closed 10 minutes before we arrived and even though they haven't closed the shop, they refused to take any more orders. Then (I'm sure by fate) my sister passed another bakmi Asiong, which is in no way associated with the Kelapa Gading one, whilst driving in Puri, so she bought some for the family to try.

Mie Lebar Campur Special (Rp. 32,000)

Bottega Ristorante - Kuningan

My friend invited me to lunch last week, when she told me we're going to Bottega I just knew this place was going to be fancier than Iggy Azalea and Charli XCX put together. So I dressed my best and made sure my wallet was full.

We arrived and was greeted very politely. As we sat down I was very excited to have a look at their menu. Just then my friend uttered the words no hungry person would ever want to hear, "I heard the food is bad here." My heart sank, but I tried to keep an open mind and ordered dishes that sounded appealing.

.

Roasted Bone Marrow (Rp. 89,000)

Pasar Santa Part 2 - Desserts

The Pasar Santa craze continues... 

Walking around Pasar Santa for the first time was a bit daunting, there were so many stalls and booths and everything looked delicious. I personally went to try places that looked busy, with the mindset that if a place is busy, it's busy for a good reason. After we finished all the savoury dishes, then desserts is a must! And, there's plenty of that at Pasar Santa.

The first place that caught my attention was Labruletory, for the simple reason they had set up an attractive display of dry ice in conical flasks and there was fog everywhere, I thought they served cold beverages, but I was very wrong. They exclusively sell creme brulee in three flavours, original, green tea and chocolate. They also offer some toppings such as Nutella or Toblerone or Milo. I opted for the original with no toppings. After ordering they make a show of caramelizing the top with a torch gun.

Original Creme Brulee from Labruletory (Rp. 17,000)

Pasar Santa Part 1 - Main Course

My cousins and I finally made the trip to Pasar Santa, the totally hip and happening food market in Jakarta at the moment. This place is so hipster, if it were pants it'd be below the knees. I've made the food reviews into two parts as it would be too long in one and people would probably stop reading halfway. But, be aware the second part (Desserts) is a lot longer.

Let's begin with the location. Outside the market parking is scarce and the streets are small, so people opt to park on a park a few minutes away. Inside the market, the food booths are all on the third floor, the first floor is exclusively for fresh fruits, veggies and meats and the second floor is for various knick-knacks and some tailors and even jewellers.The market is not air conditioned so I recommend coming with very casual and comfortable clothes. I would also highly recommend bringing a good supply of wet napkins and pocket tissues because it's not the most hygienic place...

Unintentionally, we were drawn to Japanese cuisine stalls. First we went to Kicchin and bought a couple of boxes of pre-made sushi.

Spicy Salmon roll from Kicchin (Rp. 29,000)

Ikea - Indonesia

Is it weird to blog about food from Ikea? I wasn't planning on writing this review because I thought reviewing Ikea would be like reviewing a random McDonald's. But, to be honest I've only been to two Ikeas in my life (Perth and Jakarta) and everytime I go, I'm always excited to eat there, even though the menu is mostly always the same. 

I went to Ikea in Jakarta for the first (and only time, so far) last week and of course eating at the restaurant was a mandatory part of the visit. My family and I ordered the meatballs and then we saw that they also served siomay. (If you're not familiar with siomay, it's similar to shiu-mai which you may order at dim sum or yum cha, but the Indonesian version.) But, we also noticed they did not have the peanut sauce to go with it, so we hesitated, but, curiousity got the better of us and we ordered a couple of pieces. 

Swedish meatballs with Mashed Potato (Rp. 50,000)

Perkedel Bondon (Potato Fritters)

I first came across perkedel (potato fritters) Bondon in Bandung, Indonesia. They're famous for being cheap and tasty, but the catch is they're only available from midnight until 7am. Just to give you an idea of how famous it is, we arrived at the stall just before midnight, thinking we were being really clever, but we were actually the 20th or so customer there and they told us it was going to be an hour wait until our order was done. 

We ordered and we waited and when I finally tasted it, I understood why they were so famous. It was really crunchy and tasty, they were perfect on their own, but I could also imagine it going really well with rice and meat dishes. 

Well, I don't live anywhere near Bandung and I'm not nocturnal so mum and I decided we would try to recreate it at home. We did a few trials and this recipe is the best one yet. But, first I would like to apologise because I forgot to take photos as we were mixing the ingredients, please forgive my blogging newbie-ness. 

Kotaku Hikari

One of the things I love about Indonesia is the big culture of Instagram shopping. You can get almost anything on Instagram, clothes, shoes, phone cases, drinks, food and the list goes on! Everything you could possible want is at your fingertips and will be delivered to your door within a few days!

A few days ago I was craving for some sushi when my sister introduced me to an Instagram account that sells sushi! Their Insta name is kotakuhikari. I was intrigued! I've never ordered food online before and upon scrolling through their pictures, everything looked so appetizing. So we had a look at their menu and quickly chose what we wanted.

We ended up ordering the Kotaku Small box with these flavours:

• Tenpura Chizu Roll - Shrimp tempura, cheese, mayo & kyuri with Kotaku sauce
• Kane Roll - Beef teriyaki - spicy beef and cayenne pepper
• Hofu Roll - Chicken kyuri, cheese with crunchy cream cheese topping
• Akaru Roll - Salmon, kani with spicy mayo topping
• Nagare Maki Roll - Tuna, cheese, kani with spicy mayo and tobiko topping

Kotaku Small Box - 5 flavours, up to 30 pieces of sushi (Rp. 165,000)

Martabak Pecenongan 65A - Pantai Indah Kapuk

When I'm back in Jakarta, one thing that I must eat is martabak. I do have a favourite go to place that's close to my house, but in recent years there has been trendy martabak stalls and cafes popping up around Jakarta. One of the most popular one is Martabak Pecenongan 65a. They're famous due to their unusual topping combinations. If you're unfamiliar with martabak, its like a very thick and large crumpet and they usually put chocolate, cheese, crushed peanuts, sesame seed and condensed milk on top. Then it's folded into two and cut into bite size pieces. As you can imagine from the list of toppings,it is not for the faint hearted and definitely not for people with heart disease.

At Martabak Pecenongan, they don't usually use normal chocolate, instead they use Ovomaltine, Nutella or Toblerone, they've even used green tea Kit-Kat. So, a normal martabak can take up to 10 minutes to make, but, at Martabak Pecenongan, due to the massive crowds there every night, the queuing time can be anywhere up to two hours!!!

Pantara Island

I shouldn't be suffering from Monday Blues, because I'm not working at the moment. But, I am, because I just had an amazing weekend at Pantara Island, one of the Islands that make up Pulau Seribu (Thousand Islands). Despite the name, Pulau Seribu is actually made up of more than 100 islands.

Pantara Island is a two hour boat ride from Jakarta, I would call this place the Maldives of Jakarta. It's actually very surprising to find a place so serene and unpolluted so close to Jakarta.

The first thing we saw when we arrived, clear blue water and sky