Asinan Bogor (Pickles), Indonesian Pickles

This is Asinan Bogor (pickles) famously known in Jakarta, Bandung, and Bogor. If usually pickles is drowned in salty water or vinegar for few days but this one is different because it's freshly make before our eyes. This pickles content pineapple, cucumber, turnip, sweet potato, etc all are raw. After all the fruits are cut then pour some sweet sour liquid, top with fried peanut. It tasted sweet and sour and most importantly it's healthy and my mom likes it a lot she already consumed it since she was teenager so she introduced me to this food too. I enjoy this pickles but it has to be consumed immediately don't keep it in fridge for too long or it will be damaged.

"Red Mango" Frozen Yogurt

I really like frozen yogurt. Frozen yogurt is low fat ice cream and very good as a light meal for people on diet but of course try not to consume it when you are having cold. If in Singapore my favorite yogurt is Yami Yogurt in Surabaya my favorite yogurt is Red mango located in Tunjungan Plasa 4, LG floor (the lowest floor) just opposite the atrium

Me and my friend went to red mango to order the plain frozen yogurt the large one, the price is only IDR38,000 or SG$5.4 or US$4.5 because it's under promotion so we paid under "medium size" prize, the usual price for large is about IDR43,000 already inclusive tax. It's all about tax in Indonesia, if you go to Indonesia the price that displayed usually before 10% food tax, so be careful and ask to the waiter /waitress whether the price of the food is before or after tax charge.

Both, me and my friend like plain frozen yogurt, the other flavor including strawberry and blackberry which are very sour not to into my tongue. the plain yogurt is quite sweet but it's melt quite fast.

This is what I ordered the large size plain frozen yogurt, the topping: longan, mango (Indonesian mango Arumanis, a sweet natural sour taste of firm mango but not too soft and has a fragrant mango smell), and crunchy almond. What I like about red mango is they also give more toping compare to other frozen yogurt shop.

This is what my friend ordered plain frozen yogurt like mine with the toping: green kiwi fruit, can mandarin orange, and lychee. I don't really like kiwi because it my tongue not feeling well after finish it.

The shop keepers were servicing nicely if they made a mistake by giving the customer wrong toping they'll give your original toping for free while for additional toping is about IDR5,000 (SG$1 or US$0.5), very seldom to meet this kind of service in another shop. A pleasant yogurt that I have there and I often visit Red Mango nowadays, it's one of my favorite yogurt shop.

Hachi-Hachi Bistro in Surabaya

Hachi-hachi bistro is a Japanase style restaurant located in Tunjungan Plasa (TP) 4 at 5th floor, Surabaya, Indonesia. I longed for this meal when I was in Singapore, I've been there for a few times and I like the choices of the menu its usually served on a big plate. They also serve sushi but I didn't order sushi at that time. Both me and my friend went to Hachi-hachi and we only ordered 1 meal only since I know the size is more than enough for one person.

This is my order Yakimono club, its a complete serving of a meal with (I start read the picture from the left) chicken breast, white fish, beef steak (local beef which I much prefer compare to Australian or Japanese steak because the fat is not much and it's chewy) all topped with teriyaki sauce, the teppanyaki veggie fried style, plain rice, onion ring, shrimp deep fried with flour topped with mayonnaise and seaweed, last is the veggie for garnish. The portion is big and enough for 2 persons look how long is the plate. The price of the meal is IDR48,000 or SGD$7 less than US$5, very cheap quality meal compare to food in Singapore with same quality.

We divided all the food into half so we shared equally. The chicken tasted good and the fish didn't have a fishy smell and it tasted good too. The beef is common beside that the sauce made the taste become too sweet. Onion ring is ordinary however the shrimps were not fresh so I just like chewing some tasteless meat.

But still the vegetables was good and I like the taste of it full of Japanese sauce. The plain rice was fragrant and chewy. After all it's still as good as I remember.

To freshen up ourselves me and my friend ordered green tea ocha the price is only IDR8,000 or SGD$1.5 or US$90. The tea enough for 2 persons with such a cheap price and we like to eat in Hachi-hachi bistro.

Dapur Coklat (Chocolate Kitchen)

There is a new cake shop open in Surabaya "Dapur Cokelar" or Chocolate Kitchen in Jl. Biliton (Biliton street), the shop is very easy to be found and I forgot to write down the number so I cannot write it here. Anyway just drive along the way at Biliton street and you'll see Dapur Cokelat because sometimes the cars which park at Dapur Cokelat is the cause of the traffic there. Btw Dapur Cokelat is a branch and the owner is from Jakarta(the capital city of Indonesia).

Me and my friend went to Dapur Cokelat finally out of my curiosity. Inside we found that Dapur Cokelat is not that amazing the cake varieties are not many and the varieties of the chocolates just ordinary and not amazing. Instead of putting the chocolates inside glass display its displayed outside and I didn't feel to buy it since it looked like not interesting at all. I bought a few cakes with my friend to go because the atmosphere of eating there was really not into my liking, the shop is an old house from ancient period.

This special cake was a recommendation from the waitress there. The price is IDR17,500 or SGD$2.50 or US$2. I turned out to be not a good cake it's too sweet while I said that I don't want too sweet cake. It's ok when I heat it up (picture on the left) with microwave, the chocolate melted it and it's more edible to eat than before.

The yellow one in "Mango Cassata Indonesia" a nice mango flavour cool cake, the price is IDR13,500 (SGD$2 or US$1.5). The mango mouse is not too sweet with a bit of sour taste and it has the smell of mango. I just didn't feel like to eat the chocolate cake layer of the cake since as I said before their chocolate cake is not that great and usually it's too sweet. After all this cake is good.

The red cake is "Raspberry Truffle Slice", not so awesome raspberry cake but still ok to try for once. The price is IDR13,500 (SGD$2 or US$1.5). The raspberry mouse is not full raspberry flavor but it still ok.

On the right side is "Java Chcocolate cake Indonesia" price is IDR13,500 (SGD$2 or US$1.5), not so good cake. The chocolate layer is too sweet and overall it's not so good cake. The left side is "Dapur Cokelat's choco Indonesia", not my favorite either, the price is IDR12,500 (SGD$1.9 or US$1.4). The chocolate mouse is too sweet unlike the taste of the chocolate at all.

My best choice is Mango cassata Indonesia since it tasted well and better than other cakes that I've tried, too bad that almost all the cakes are too sweet.