Coffee Culture Hits Local Neighborhoods

I've been seeing cafes mushrooming around my neighborhood, and as a recent coffee convert, I decided to give some of them a visit.

DP House Premium Coffee
This two-floor cafe is located on Jl. Bintara Jaya Raya. I often pass it on the way to the market or when I need to go to a nearby convenience store. But it was only a few months ago that I decided to enter its front door. And boy, what I found behind the door was a pleasant surprise.

Facade view

The cafe usually has monthly promo 

The cafe has its own brand of coffee bean, and you can buy it in various size. The barista can brew the coffee in various methods: mokapot, french press, vietnam drip, and even v60. The cafe often holds discount for their in-house coffee. Normal price for a cup of java in this cafe is between Rp 30.000-40.000, but if it is on discount usually between Rp 20.000-25.000, sometimes Rp 15.000. They also serve tea and chocolate drinks for the non-coffee drinking customers. Unfortunately the snacks available is so far only french fries and cassava fries. 

The cafe has a terrace area (for smoking patrons) and air-conditioned area (for non smokers), but my olfactory sense also detected residue of cigarette smoke from the second floor (I hope they can make improvement on this). It also has a stack of newspapers  and magazines for public reading, a nice playlist from local radio and a Fashion TV running mute on an LCD TV.

Bar area

You can also head to the second floor

You can enjoy the coffee with either the magazine or the TV. Or just bring a laptop and turn on the WiFi, which is sometime slow and hiccuping, but I've been going to this place to finish my report, so I don't need a fast Internet connection. The interior has been experiencing changes from time to time, it's either the owner has yet to find a concept for the cafe or he likes to experiment with interior design.

Iced coffee

The house blend, brewed with a V60 method.

Being a tried and true introvert, I also like that the barista never tries to open a conversation with me. He simply lets me enjoy the coffee and my laptop.

Sringopi
This cafe is located on Jl. Taman Malaka Selatan, in front of Darma Persada University. I've come here several times to have a quick meeting with my friends. Since its location is nearby an education institution, the cafe's main patrons are students, who can be pretty loud sometimes.

Interior

Besides serving coffee, Sringopi also offers tea, chocolate and foods, such as fried rice, french fries, rawon (dark meat soup) and other quick bites. For a group of eaters, this place has more to offer (hey, it rhymes). And the prices are student-friendly, between Rp 10.000 and Rp 35.000. Usually if I come to this place I go for the tea. However, once I ordered a pot of tea there, I ended up staying up until 2 a.m. Damn, is that some strong tea or what?

Hot chocolate

There is wi-fi in the cafe. Second floor is for smoking area, and this makes cigarette smokes a prevalent condition. Everytime I went here, I always came home with my clothes smelling like I just dipped in a barrel of tobacco liquid.

Isn't funny how little we sometimes know about our own neighborhood? Now I'm trying to look closer around my neighborhood and find other gems I could have missed all this time.

Stir-fry Tatsoi

Ahoy, Tatsoi!

One of the reasons I buy something is curiosity. The first string that tugs my interest to this bundle of cute green leaves is the name: Tatsoi (Brassica narinosa). It sounds Japanese, so I googled it up. Et voila, I was correct. 

I ordered tatsoi via kecipir.com, and when the order arrived, I was a bit disappointed to see them. The color was too dark that I thought they were wilting. So I put them in the refrigerator, and one week later when I did a weekly refrigerator clean up to see if M forgot to cook something, I found them still in the same color and shape.

That's when I realized I've found an amazing vegetable. They are stronger than caisim (bok choy/Brassica rapa) or kailan (Brassica oleracea), and other Brassica varieties which can wilt when put in the fridge for a week.

They look great in flat lay composition.

They look even cuter when photographed from the side. Those are the ingredients I use for any vegetable stir-fry: shallot, garlic, sesame oil, oyster sauce and the green leaves.

A true challenge in cooking green leaves, especially organic produce, is the cutting and cleaning process, because you may find some residents on them (bugs, caterpillars, spiders, you name it).

Cutting and cleaning tatsoi. I dip them in a bowl of water with a pinch of salt.

The easiest way to cook green leaves is stir frying them. Just heat up sesame oil and chopped garlic, put in the leaves and oyster sauce, and a few minutes later, you have it.

The taste is similar to caisim and kailan, they are families after all. I will definitely repurchase if they are available in the market.

A Visit To An Organic Farm And An Attempt At Organic Produce Trade

Happy Hijriyah New Year, if you're celebrating, that is.

One of the New Year's resolutions that has been returning in my list then and now is eating healthy. Let's see if I can do better on this in the current year.

In my previous workplace, I had colleagues who were into organic vegetable and other hipster foods. They sort of influenced me to join the eating healthy movement. But organic vegetables cost a lot, so we would scour Lotte supermarket to find discounted produces and set a weekly meal plan. 

One day, one of them posted a photo in Instagram about an online marketplace for organic produce called kecipir.com. I was intrigued so I placed an order to see how it went. The shopping procedure is pretty easy: (1) log in to the web, (2) choose the agent's location to pick up the produce, (3) start shopping, (4) check out and choose payment method, either greencash (a kind of virtual account) or bank transfer (only for BCA or Bank Mandiri, at the moment), (5) then a few days later, a driver will deliver those produces to the chosen agents and customers can choose to pick up the produces themselves or requested the produces to be sent by GrabExpress.

On the first order experience, the driver delivered the produces to my house because the agent I chose had moved out of the area. The driver then suggested that I became an agent because they still need more agents. I thought: why not? So I registered at the web and received the invitation to their farm for agent induction. The visit took place last month, I've just got the time to wrap things up.

The farm is located in Bogor area. The new agent candidates met up with the driver in Cilandak Town Square (Citos) at 7.30 a.m. and we headed together to the farm. As a Bekasi resident, I had to leave home at 5.30 a.m. to reach Citos. 

In the farm, the guys told us how they started the business that started as a way to help local organic farmers getting a fair price and how we could help contribute to the cause. They also explained the benefit of consuming organic produces for your health. Then we had a tour around to see how they worked in the farm.

A partial aerial view of the farm. 

First stop: the nursery

They wrap the seedlings in banana leaves to reduce the usage of plastic polybags. They just bury the whole package into the soil because the leaves will disintegrate with nature.

A variety of seeds.

They told us how they got the seeds from the plants and the fruits. It sounded easy that I made a mental note to try the tips at home.

They explained that to reduce pest problems, they planted the plants that produce fruit and spices side by side. Also, they don't use chemical fertilizer, they make it themselves.

The bio slurry area

They feed the goats with the organic produce, then use the poo for biogas.

They also showed the farm-scale biogas plant, made from the goats' poo. They invested Rp 20 million to build the system, but once it has run, they no longer need to buy gas for the kitchen activity. Oh dear, I really can't run away from all these renewable energy and climate change thingy.

Then they allowed us to harvest cherry tomatoes and eggplants. They also encouraged us to eat the tomatoes directly because organic fruits are safe to consume, just a little dirt and dust won't give you stomachache.

Kecipir, or winged bean, or Psophocarpus tetragonolobus

Eggplant

Cherry tomatoes

Oyong, or angled gourd, or Luffa acutangula

I'm the girl with the biggest smile and holding the biggest eggplant (ha!).

If you're living in West Bekasi and need organic produces, just look up for an agent in the Bintara Jaya area, that person will be me hehehe. I will most likely post my attempts at cooking organic vegetables in the future, so stay tune :).

All photos with me in the frames are from kecipir.com, the rest are mine. Please credit accordingly.

Legendary Noodle Joints In Tebet

When discussing about food in Tebet, a friend who resided in the area during her childhood commented that most, if not all, newly established eateries in Tebet have the standard taste. She thought that it was because the market in Tebet mostly are students, which have low budget, resulting in low quality food. However, she added, there are old eateries that maintain good quality, such as the following noodle joints.

Bakmi Berdikari

Location: Jl. Tebet Timur Dalam Raya No. 41

Established since 1978, this place is the most expensive of all noodle eateries mentioned in this post. I had to mention about the price in the beginning, because it's what struck me in the first place upon opening the menu book.

This place has social media accounts in FaceBook, Twitter and Instagram. It even has a website at www.bakmiberdikari.com, which features photos of the dishes and the prices.

I went here when I was feeling a bit of cold. So I ordered Mie Tom Yum (Rp 50.000). It came with udon as the noodle. Oh no, I'm not a fan of udon. The tom yum soup was good, though. Will probably try another dish from this restaurant, after the pay day, that is...

Mie Sanjaya

Location: Jl. Tebet Timur Dalam 2 No. 51B

My friend said this place has been around for around 20 years as she remembered visiting this place with her childhood friends. She said that her father used to always order the same dish: bakmi pangsit kuah (noodle with wonton soup). I decided to try a different dish when I came to this place.

Mie ayam bakso jamur (chicken noodle with meatballs and mushroom) and a glass of coconut water. It's all homemade, because the shape of the noodle, the taste of meatball and fried wonton are one of the kind.

The man behind the glass cupboard is the cook. He is quite talkative and friendly.

The menu on one of the walls.

Mie Yunus

Location: Jl. Tebet Barat Dalam VIIID, next to Pasar Tebet Barat

Its owner, Pak Yunus, started selling noodle in 1984. Singers Yuni Shara and Kris Dayanti were said to be frequent customers in the 1990s.

The facade

Mie ayam biasa (ordinary chicken noodle), only Rp 15.000

Do you have a favorite noodle place in Tebet? Do share in the comment box :).

Current Skin Care and Hair Care Routine

I did not pay enough attention on skin care or hair care in my twenties. But now that I'm in my thirties and approaching forties, I realize that I need to take a more serious attention to take care of my skin and hair. Not to get a guy's attention, but to love myself. After all, skin is the largest organ in our body. And healthy hair is always a blessing to have, even if I hide them from public eyes :).

Before buying anything, the first step is to recognize your own skin and hair type. Mine is combination of oily skin and dry skin, with the dry part more dominant. As I have curly hair, the scalp and the hair also tend to be dry. My hair can dry in about 30 minutes in room temperature without any hair drying appliance. Another unique feature about my hair is it actually looks a bit red under angled sunlight, but mostly look black indoor. I haven't found any white hair so far. But even if there are white hair, I don't have a plan on coloring though. I think white hair signifies wisdom, a trait I try to embrace.

Once you found your skin and hair type, the next steps are much easier. I usually log in to local beauty websites, such as femaledaily.com to read reviews on products most Indonesian people use. Indonesia has two seasons and in Jakarta the humidity level is quite high. So finding good local beauty brands that pay attention to local climate is a plus.

The current skin care hype in the web is the Korean skin care steps, which can go for more than 10 steps (!). I'm not that dedicated, so I choose the ones that I can apply in short notice. These are the products I've been using and so far, they work for my skin. These can change though, because I like to try new products. Everyone should find which suit their skin most.

Here they are...

1 - The Cleanser Line Up: Eye Make Up Remover/Micellar Water/Facial Foam
Sometimes I use the trio together, or separately. In the morning, I only clean my face with the facial foam. At night, I use the three of them, in that particular order. I fill in my eyebrows, and if in the mood, sometimes I wear eyeliner. Hence, the need of the eye make up remover.
Micellar water is a new addition. I apply it for other areas outside of eyes areas. I'm still checking the after effect, so far no problem.
Facial foam is the last cleaning step. I got this facial foam from a friend who resides in Australia. Since Natio has yet to enter Indonesia's beauty scene, I need to find its replacement soon.

2 - Rice Wash Mask Off
Only use this product once a week because it's expensive. Got this one during a sale. Previously I tried its Black Sugar Wash Mask Off sample. Love them both as they make my face feeling light.

3 - Olive Oil

I use non-cosmetic olive oil as the first product in the morning, and at night too after I clean my face. It works well with my dry skin and oily skin (just apply a bit on the oily area). To give you idea how dry my skin is, the dry part can absorb this oil in 15 minutes. Yes, it's that dry. Sometimes I also use this for my hair, allocating some 30 minutes to let the scalp absorb it before putting on my hijab in the morning. 

4 - Aromatherapy Oil/Essential Oil

Non-cosmetic olive oil does not have a nice smell, so I tap this product on several points along my brow line to beat the olive oil smell. One is from klen and kind, the other is from Sae. This step is optional, though.   

5 - Day Cream
I mostly use this as my day cream. Sometimes I forget applying it and jump right to...

6 - Sunscreen

Bought this one before I went to the field in Sumba (which is known for its solar energy potential). There had been breakouts, but they have since gone better. Do you have any recommendation on good quality sunscreen?

7 - Masker Sheet

This one is used on weekend nights. I usually look out for discounted sheets in G**rdian or W*tsons. Those pharmacies hold promotion on Fridays. I also follow several beauty brand official accounts in Instagram because they usually give information on sales there.

8 - Overnight Serum-in-Oil and Night Cream

I've been using these and so far they agree with the skin. Sometimes I only use the serum, sometimes only the night cream. I know, I know, I need to be more dedicated. I've come a long way, though.

9 - Candlenut Oil and Hair Serum

These ones are dedicated for the hair. As candlenut oil also smell too strong, I combine the usage with the serum. The hair serum is actually an old product, I'm not sure if I can find it again. Any recommendation for similar product?

P.S.#1 I am not paid to do this, I just thought of sharing and hopefully this list helps people who are searching for some easy skin care/hair care routine. I hope you find this useful. What are your skin care routine?

P.S.#2 The majority of my skin care regime comes from The Body Shop, because it's the only brand that takes back the empty bottles. I wish there are more cosmetic brands doing this kind of environmental activism. It's the least I can do to reduce my carbon footprint.