Tokio Kitchen

Last Friday, me and my family were having our late lunch at Tokio Kitchen, Central Park Mall. Tokio Kitchen is kinda like a Japanese foodcourt, located beside the Urban Kitchen at 2nd floor of the Mall. I've been there several times before, but for the others, it was their first time.

Btw, I forgot to keep the bill, so I won't write the price here. 

On my last visit, I tried their okonomiyaki and fell in love with it. So that's exactly what I ordered again, Salmon Okonomiyaki. The portion was big, I think it's too much for one person, but it was delicious. I love the thick dough and crunchy fresh vegetables inside. Unfortunately, I also recommend this to my sister, but she didn't like it. She said that the vegetable taste was too strong.

My dad ordered a Salmon Teriyaki Onigiri. He always ordered salmon or gindara teriyaki in every Japanese restaurant, but the onigiri here brought a whole new taste in the teriyaki, since they mix the rice with carrot and parsley. It also looks delicious, but I didn't try it.

Since my sister didn't like the okonomiyaki, she ordered something else, Salmon Nigiri. I can't eat raw foods, so I didn't taste it either, but the salmon on the top looks fresh and tempting, rite?

Overall, I like this restaurant. The food fits my tastebud and the price's worth it. Even though I forgot the exact price, but I think it's 30-50k for each portion. Come and try yourself :)

Tokio Kitchen
Central Park Mall, 2nd floor
Jakarta, Indonesia
http://www.facebook.com/TokioKitchen?sk=info 

[Manado] Rumah Kopi Gembira

After the great meal we had in Tondano, we still had one more food destination: Rumah Kopi Gembira at Kawangkoan. Kawangkoan is another sub-district, it's about 30 minutes more ride from Tondano. On the way to Kawangkoan, we passed by the famous Tondano Lake. It is the second biggest lake in Indonesia, after the Toba Lake.

Then we arrived at Rumah Kopi Gembira. It is crowded, as usual. It's always crowded, especially on weekends. Manado's citizen just love to ride 2,5 hours to this coffeehouse, having coffee/tea, some breads, and nuts, and go straight home. Yeah, that's how this coffeeshop worth it, 2,5 hours ride. Amazing, isn't it?

So these are what we ordered there:

Bakpao Babi (Biapong Ba in Manadonese, Pork Bun(?) in English)

I am a big fan of Manado's Pork Bun. There are a lot of Pork Bun makers and sellers in Manado, but for me, this is the best pork bun ever. This is the reason I always asked my parents to go here everytime we go to Manado. The bun is soft and the pork inside had the best taste. I've tasted numbers of various pork buns in Manado, but nothing can be compared with this one. By the way, Manado's pork bun is different with chasiu pao. It used not the red meat, and it always had a piece of egg inside. Some use lard inside, some don't. I prefer no lard.

Kaya Toast

My mom doesn't like pork, so she ordered this. I think their kaya toast is very traditional. They made the bread and the kaya jam themself. The bread was rough, like the old time bread, and the kaya jam feels pure. Personally, I don't like rough bread, but my mom likes it.

Coffee Milk 

This is a nice company. It warmth our body in the middle of the cold weather in Kawangkoan. (Yes, Tondano and Kawangkoan is located in the mountain, so it's cold)

After satisfying our belly with such a nice snack, we went home. On our way home, we passed Tondano again, and my grandma would like to buy some flowers. Tondano's cold weather makes it a perfect place to grow flowers, so there are some flower kiosk just on the side of the road. Here are the pictures. Enjoy :)

[Manado] Tondano Boulevard

From Ananas Cafe, we picked up my grandma and uncle at my grandma's house and went straight to Tondano. What we seek is not fancy lakefront restaurant, but the small restaurants in Tondano Boulevard.

Tondano Boulevard Street

The ricefield view from the restaurants

Tondano Boulevard is a small and long street splitting a huge ricefield into two parts. The street is filled with lots of small restaurants in both sides. But all the restaurants have the same signature dish: Sate Kolombi.

Kolombi is a snail that lives in the ricefields. It's maybe kinda like escargot. lol. You know, our family usually don't like to eat unusual animals, but it's different with kolombi. Even my lil sis, who doesn't like most of Manado's food, likes this.

So meet the famous Sate Kolombi Bakar Rica (Kolombi Satay). It's hot, it's chewy, and it's addictive. A must try food when you come to Manado.

Beside Sate Kolombi, there are other dishes too. These are what we ordered that day. The Grilled Tilapia Fish (Mujair Bakar Rica) is my second favourite dish.

Grilled Corn

Again, Perkedel Nike

Kolombi Woku, not as delicious as the satay

Grilled Tilapia Fish (Mujair Bakar Rica) 

[Manado] Ananas Cafe

It was our second day in Manado and we planned to go to Tondano. Tondano is a small town located in the south of Manado. It's famous for the huge tondano lake and of course, the food! 

It's two hours ride from Manado to Tondano, so we decided to grab some breakfast in Manado. There was a new popular cafe in town, called Ananas, so we went to try their food. It's not that new actually. It was already there when I went to Manado last year, but it's not that popular back then. 

When you talk about Cafe in Manado, you won't find coffee or tea or muffins or croissant. What you'll find is a huge selections of Manado's traditional cakes, like panada, lalampa, cucur, klapertaart, and a lot more. For the beverages, they usually have Es Kacang.

That morning, my father had tinutuan for breakfast, and my mom picked lalampa and lumpia, while I chose banana fritters and nike, and my sister, who doesn't really like Manado's food, chose fried noodles. Yeah, I know you guys doesn't get any ideas about what I talk about other than banana fritters and fried noodles, so here are the picture.

Tinutuan

Tinutuan is a vegetable porridge, in simple words. It is a combination of corn, sweet potato, pumpkin, spinach and water spinach, and a lot more ingredients that I don't know, but it's all vegetables. Yeah it looks scary, but I think it tasted quite delicious. It is a very healthy Manado's traditional breakfast. Usually people eat it with Cakalang Fish (I think it's kinda like tuna), Nike, and Manado's traditional chilli sauce, Bakasang.

Lumpia and Lalampa

The lumpia was filled with carrots and beans, eggs, and peanuts. And the lalampa is a sticky ricecake filled with spicy cakalang. I personally doesn't like lalampa, but lumpia is okay for me.

Perkedel Nike

Perkedel Nike is somehow like anchovy fritters, but it's not anchovies, it's nike. This is one of my favourite Manado's food, and Ananas' nike was delicious. Behind the nike is the bakasang sauce, which I can't handle the spiciness.

Banana Fritters

What's the different between Manado's banana fritters with the others? The different is, you eat it with bakasang. My friend once said that Manado people are so wierd to eat banana fritters with chilli, but after she tasted it, she's addicted to it and asked me to bring it to Jakarta the next time I went to Manado. lol. But because I don't like bakasang, I just ate the fritters.

Fried Noodles

What should I said about this? It's just ordinary fried noodles. You don't have to go to Manado for this. Haha

That's a little information about Manado's breakfast, but I think Ananas' food was just ordinary, the Nike is the only above average food in my opinion. I don't understand why it's so popular. Maybe because their various selections, or their classic modern interior (which is not really good imo, but Manado doesn't have many fancy restaurants or cafe, so maybe that works).

Ananas Cafe and Resto

Jl. B.W. Lapian no. 34, Manado

[Manado] City Extra

I haven't finished my manado food adventure since January, so here it is!

City Extra is our favourite seafood restaurant in Manado. Manado is a seafront city, so there are tons of seafood restaurants, but everytime we go to Manado, we just have to have dinner at City Extra, at least once. (We went twice this time)

The restaurant's located just on the edge of the sea, so we could see the Celebes Sea and The Manado Tua island from right where we eat, if we go there in the afternoon. But we were having dinner that time, so the view is the city lights across the bay.

So me and my sister's favourite is the Sweet and Sour Crab (Kepiting Asam Manis). Their sweet and sour sauce is the best I've ever tasted, just thinking about it right now making me droll.

Meanwhile, my mom and dad's favourite is the Grilled Snapper Fish Head (Kepala Kakap Bakar Rica). The fish head was huge, the fish meat was perfectly grilled, and the Rica (chilli) seasoning is what made Manado famous for. I kinda like it, although I usually don't like spicy food.

The Grouper Fish Salad (It's Goropa Saladu in Manadonese, and Salad Ikan Kerapu in Indonesian) is another Manado's specialty. Almost every seafood restaurant in Manado have this in their menu. But in my opinion, City Extra's saladu is just average. The appearance is too pale, not appealing. But the taste was just okay.

Woku Fish is Manado's, again, specialty. The grouper saladu is a modern fusion, while the woku is a traditional seasoning since a long long ago, so not only the modern seafood restaurant have it on their menu, almost all manadonese restaurant do. But for me, it's too spicy, I can't handle it.

That was what we had for our first dinner. Several days after, we got back there for dinner, again, and ordered the Sweet and Sour Crab and the Grilled Snapper Head, again. But we also ordered some different things.

This is Fried Calamari. Not  my favourite. The squid were too thick and it's not crunchy. Unfortunately, the portion was so BIG that we have to take it home.

Chicken Satay. This one was great, we ordered it several times before, and everybody likes it.

And the last, Grilled Prawn. This was also delicious. As a seafront seafood restaurant, of course the prawns were fresh and juicy. But it comes in small portion, only four prawns in a plate. To compare it with the calamari, it's just not fair!

So if you ever go to Manado someday, don't forget to try the seafood. This one is my recommendation! :)

Note: One thing I have to remind you, these seafood restaurants in Manado took so long for their cooking time, so it's better if you order by phone first

City Extra
Jl. Raya Tanawangko, Desa Kalasey
Manado, Indonesia
0431-826017/826018

Ten Ten Tempura House

I am a big fan of tempura. I've heard of this Ten Ten Tempura restaurant before, and always wanted to try it ever since. So last month, when I saw this appealing Ten Ten deals from disdus.com, I bought it immediately.

Last week, me and David went to redeem the voucher. It was late lunch time, so only several seats were occupied. I handed the voucher to the waitress, and she showed me the choice for the deals. The deal was 1 Tendon/ Tempura Udon + 1 Tempura Set + 1 Parfait for 63k. Pretty favorable, isn't it?

While waiting for our meal, they gave us a bowl of fried seaweed tempura as a compliment. It was nice, although not as good as tao kae noi's. David usually doesn't like seaweed, but he said this one is not so fishy, so he could eat it.

Tempura Udon

This was my meal. They have 3 choices of tempura seasoning: original, spicy, and blackpepper. I chose the blackpepper, and it was beyond my expectation. It was so delicious that David regretted he chose the spicy seasoning. And the udon was also nice.

Chicken Teriyaki with Tempura Set

This was David's. As I said before, he chose the spicy seasoning, and it was just an ordinary chilli powder, nothing special. But his chicken teriyaki was delicious. Actually, I think the two of us are addicted to chicken teriyaki. Whenever we go to japanese restaurant, we just have to try their chicken teriyaki. And we think all the chicken teriyaki are delicious. haha

Choco Vanilla Parfait

I looove this, sharing one is not enough for me! But I think the glass was too narrow, that its hard to mix the ice cream on the top with the topping on the bottom.

Apple Mint Freeze

This is also David's. Mine was just a glass of cold ocha. I'm not a fan of apple drinks, and David said it tasted kinda like toothpaste. lol.

Oh and one more thing. In their a la carte menu, you can choose your own selection of tempura (from prawn tempura to a various selections of veggie tempura) and mix it as much or as little as you want. They count it per piece, and I think the price is not expensive. Maybe I'll try that for my next visit. Of course with the blackpepper seasoning! :9

Ten Ten Plaza Indonesia
Level Basement, Unit 16-17
Jl MH Thamrin no. 1, Jakarta Pusat
T. 021-29923730
F. 021-29923731

http://www.facebook.com/tentenjakarta