Warung Nasi Ampera - Jakarta

Warung Nasi Ampera (Ampera Restaurant) is serving the authentic Sundanese food (Sundanese is the West Java ethnic).

It has opened since mid-1970s in Bandung - the capital city of West Java, Indonesia. Until today, it already has more than 50 branches around Indonesia (almost 30 branches are located in Bandung).

The way of serving food is like a buffet style where you can choose and put what you like to eat on your plate and pay exactly for the food that you are taking. Oh.. and in case, you like eating brown rice, you can ask for brown rice instead of white rice :)

The varieties of food that you can choose:

Fried Anchovy cooked with stinky beans plus red and green chilies, Stinky beans, Grilled squids in sticks (with or without sauce).

Fried intestines in sticks, Corn pancakes, Fried cow's tripe, fried cow's spleen.

Fried eel, Fried fish (Common/ European carp), Fish cooked with sweet soy sauce and tomato, Fried chicken with coconut.

Tofu (bean curd) soaked into turmeric, Potato pancakes (croquette), Shrimp pancakes, Fried shrimp in sticks.

Fried fish, Chicken boiled with turmeric.

Innards in sticks and also being soaked in turmeric.

Fried fish (2 types of fish), chicken soaked in sweet soy sauce (you can ask them to grill or fry it)

Steamed Food (i.e: chicken, tofu, fish and etc.) being wrapped in banana leaves.

Not sure whether this can be considered as salad.

The 4 authentic chili sauces. Each chili sauce has it owns special ingredients beside the chili.

Fresh vegetables - lettuce, cabbage, basil leaves, cucumber, etc. dipped and eaten with chili sauce. It's free of charges.
It might not be a fancy restaurant but with the good authentic Sundanese taste and also reasonable prices, you might would love to eat at this restaurant, in fact, the original restaurant in Bandung is one of the favorite eating places of our current President and his wife :)

Pictures were taken at:
Warung Nasi Ampera
Jl. H. Agus Salim (Sabang)
Jakarta Pusat

Disclaimer:
The review and opinion expressed here are purely according to my personal tastebuds. There's a possibility that the taste of the food might change later on, which could affect the review and opinion here.

"Picnic Day" Game

18th of June is the "International Picnic Day" (it's also my dad's birthday, what a coincidence!).

In order to celebrate the Picnic Day, Louise from Months of Edible Celebrations is inviting for an online picnic game.

Each of us need to bring food (read: recipe, picture and the post link) for the picnic according to an alphabet order. I'm joining the Picnic and the "K" and "L" are the alphabets for me :)

I'm going on a picnic and I'm bringing...

Apple Pie with Dutch Crumb Topping (Miranda)

Buttermilk Spice Cake (Mary)

Chocolate Cherry Pie (Janet)

Dilly Potato Salad (Gloria)

Election Day Cake (Erica)

Fruit Cocktail Meringue Pie! (Erica)

Gluten Free Upside Down Cake (Dia)

Hangar Steak (Stacey)

Ice Cream in a Bag (Marjie)

Jell-O a la Haute (Karen)

Kue Pukis (Selby)

Lotek Salad (Selby)

We are having a picnic... Rain or shine... :)
Hope you enjoy the food during the picnic!

PEPeNERO Cucina Italiana, Jakarta

So, it's been more than 7 years I've known this lady. She's the one who interviewed me after those many interview tests that I had to go through first before the next final interview of the user who was the Chairman of the company with more than 1,000 staff.

Yesterday, the lady invited me for a very wonderful lunch at PEPeNERO - Cucina Italiana. This lunch might become our last lunch in the relationship as of being colleagues.

PEPeNERO is an Italian restaurant opened in Indonesia since 2004 with several locations in Jakarta and Bali. A simple Italian Trattoria - an Italian style eating establishment, less formal than a ristorante (restaurant), but more formal than an osteria (simple restaurant), with very nice ambiance and a truly delicious taste of Italian dish.

The lunch was at the PEPeNERO Kuningan.
Menara Karya Building 1 Floor
Jl. H. R. Rasuna Said Kav 1-2
Mega Kuningan, Jakarta Selatan

The Bar
Outside dining
Inside dining
Our table

Ice Lemon tea Rp. 15.000

Bread (Complimentary)

Panini with tomato and olive oil (Complimentary)

Tagliolini Neri Al Salmone - Rp 47.000
Homemade tagliolini pasta in squid ink with salmon fish in cream sauce.

Spaghetti alle Basil e Pomodoro - Rp. 39.000
Spaghetti with tomato and basil leaf

Panceta Gran Pizza - Rp. 47.000
Tomato sauce, mozzarella cheese, Italian panceta (dry cured meat)

Chocolate milk with alcohol (complimentary)

Cheesecake with Raspberry sauce - Rp. 43.000

All prices are subjected to 10% tax.
Currency: 1 USD = Rp. 10.000

Thank you, Lilis... For the wonderful friendship and standing by me when no one else would. I really appreciate this priceless friendship that you have given to me. You are just like a godsend sister to me, listening to all my worries and giving me precious advices when I needed it.

Another post: Revisit PEPeNERO Cucina Italiana

Disclaimer:
The review and opinion expressed here are purely according to my personal tastebuds. There's a possibility that the taste of the food might change later on, which could affect the review and opinion here.

Tukang Keripik (Chips man)

Have nothing to munch? Need something crunchy? Just grab a plastic of our traditional chips or crackers :)

Keripik Singkong Pedas
Fried slices tapioca caramelized with sugar, garlic and red chili.

Warning, it's very hot!!!

Kerupuk Bangka

roasted crackers made from fish paste and sago.

eaten with red chili sauce mixed with shrimp paste (terasi/belacan)

Tukang Bakpao (Buns man)

This man is selling Bakpao on his bicycle.

Bakpao are buns. It's an original food from China.
I learned that Bakpao is a Hokkian word (a Chinese dialect in Fujian province). "Bak" means meat and "Pao" means wrap. So, I guess, it supposedly means a meat being wrapped.
This vendor has 3 kind of bakpaos.

There are meat (minced chicken), mug beans and chocolate filling.

The buns are being steamed.
I bought the chocolate bun.

Too bad, the chocolate filling is very little, I was expecting more :(

Kolak with Banana & Pumpkin

Last week, I saw my mom was so busy in the kitchen. Curious, I sneaked into the kitchen and took a look what she's doing :)

Ah... I could tell from the ingredients that she's making Kolak, an authentic Indonesian dessert with the basic ingredients of palm/brown sugar (gula jawa), coconut milk and pandan leaf. She was preparing it because her friends were visiting her for tea time. No cookies and tea, but instead, it's kolak and tea ;)


The rest of the ingredients of kolak is depend on each person, but usually you can find either:
- tapioca
- pumpkin
- banana
- sweet potato
or all together as a complete kolak.

It's very easy to make kolak ;)

This how my mom made the kolak:

Ingredients:
1/2 pumpkin (medium size)
4 bananas (cut about 4 cm)
600 ml coconut milk
150 gr palm sugar (gula jawa)
4 pandan leaves
1/2 tsp salt

Directions:
- Put all the ingredients together in the cooking pot.
- Cook until it boiled.
- It's ready to be served.

Banana & Pumpkin Kolak
(Kolak Pisang dan Labu)

Kolak has a wonderful fragrance from the pandan leaf. It tasted sweet and creamy. A good comfort for an afternoon tea time :)

Batagor & Siomay

This is one of my favorite street food called Batagor Siomay. It's original a dish from Bandung (the capital city of West Java). Some people will consider it as a real meal for lunch but for some other people, it might be just a snack during late afternoon.

The cart of Batagor & Siomay

Batagor being fried in hot oil.

The ingredients to make Batagor and Siomay are the same which are Spanish/spotted mackerel fish, tapioca flour, egg, spring onions, shallot, garlic, salt and pepper. In another word, it's the same ingredients as to make fish cake but the composition is a bit different because Batagor Siomay has much softer texture.

The difference between Batagor and siomay: Batagor is being fried and Siomay is being steamed.

I like Batagor for its crunchiness and Siomay for soft, tender and chewiness texture (and of course, not forgetting to mention about the less calories *wink*).

The dressing is peanut sauce with red chili and kaffir lime juice. It's always so nice to smell the wonderful fragrance from the kaffir lime. The final touch to serve the Batagor Siomay is sweet soy sauce on the top of the peanut sauce and chili sauce at the side.

Siomay
(steamed fish cake, tofu with fish cake filling, cabbage with fish cake filling, potato)

Batagor
(fried fish cake, wonton with fish cake filling, tofu with fish cake filling)

Fried Wonton

Take - out

Batagor on the plate.

It might not look really appetizing for some people, but seriously, don't let the look deceive you coz' it's so yummy! You just need to give it a try ;)