BANAINAI TAIWANESE DESSERT - PANTAI INDAH KAPUK (PIK)

Taiwanese dessert trend had its peak of glory 4-5 years ago and I was there living and witnessing the growth and vividly remember how Hong Tang dominated the market and how everywhere it opened, waiting list were common thing, ah nostalgia. Even though recently the trend has moved on but I think Taiwanese dessert will always have a special place in my heart and I am still a regular at Hong Tang too (only my visit might not be as intense as it was a couple of years ago) and as much as I love dessert, some days I wanted something that's lighter and less guilty, and this place that I am about to introduce you might be somewhere you can consider if you're looking for the less guilty dessert.

Ba Nai Nai is a Taiwanese dessert specialist and just recently opened at Pantai Indah Kapuk (align with Cabe Ijo Seafood) and from what I notice, they aim to introduce their healthy dessert to the people of Jakarta and they're trying to send this message that healthy food doesn't mean yucky food and we all can still have dessert that's good with less calorie. I'm not trying to be the face of the brand but I did interview the waitress there a bit (and actually they were attentive in explaning the menus which was something that I appreciate) and she told me that the desserts here are made with low fat milk base, imported ingredients and all homemade. The supervisor here is a Taiwanese who doesn't speak Indonesian and he approached my table towards me finishing the dessert to ask me how was everything going, to have the waitress interpreted (and the fact that the waitresses here speak good Mandarin) was refreshing I guess?

I didn't have much to comment about the venue, it was very simple yet homey, just proper. The range of the menus here was simple yet limited, they mainly serve snow ice desserts, homemade fruit based popsicles, sweet and savory light bites with reasonable pricing and ranging from IDR 30-70k.

Forgive me for forgetting to capture the menu hence I couldn't provide you with details of certain menus, but from the drinks below I was super fond of the left one called Triple Dribble (IDR 36k) which was the mixture of three ingredients with mainly passionfruit, strawberry that dominated my palate, it was seriously good, refreshing and beautifully sweet. The right one was their Lemon Blast which was the mixture of lemon and Clitoria or butterfly pea flower which gave the pretty purple color, unfortunately because they blended the lemon and its skin together, this drink was very sour adn bitter at the same time, therefore not my favorite.

Sweet Potato
This might look like a simple boring fried sweet potato but DO BELIEVE ME when I say that this might be one of the best sweet potato creations that I've experienced in town. They perfectly cooked the sweet potato and coated it with sugar that when you pull it like what I did on the picture below you'll get this beautiful sugar string (but do it right away when it's still hot), the sugar did give an extra crunchiness on each bite and I don't know, just something about the sweetness that's spot on. This is seriously super good, MUST TRY.

SNOW ICE
Left: Matcha Dessert Complete - IDR 70k
Right: Mango Snow Ice - IDR 37k

For only IDR 70k you're getting the complete set of their Matcha dessert which consist of large Matcha snow ice, Matcha parfait and Ogura condiment. The snow ice was just how I expected it to be: rich matcha flavor but not sweet, the dango balls were beautifully firm and chewy, I wasn't really digging the parfait because I thought the matcha layer was ice cream but it was something creamy almost custard like or thick matcha cream and I just didn't see a lot of texture in it, but I was already sold by the snow ice so I really didn't have a lot to complain. Recommended.

Mango Snow Ice - IDR 37k

The base for this mango snow ice was milk but they managed to make it light which was good in my case (not the craziest fan of milk) but to be completely frank, this bitch is bias and and the fact that I had the matcha first so yeah scoozy, but as you can see the mango was generously given and they were chunky, fresh, sweet with a hint of sour just refreshing. I wish they would put more strawberry sauce for that hint of different flavor but it was acceptable, if you fancy mango then opt for this one.

Simple, healthy and yummy, just hard to go wrong. A refreshing touch to PIK's lack of healthy dessert options. In the future I really expect them to come with soy/almond based desserts in order to put more emphasize to their concept, but from my first visit, I didn't have a lot of negatives to say, simple desserts are just my thing I guess. Good luck Ba Nai Nai!

Ba Nai Nai

Rukan Emerald, Jl. Raya Pantai Indah Kapuk

Pantai Indah Kapuk, Jakarta Utara 14440

021 - 5011 6466

Opening Hours: 11:30 AM - 10 PM (CLOSED ON THURSDAYS)

Pricing: $

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Map for Rukan Emerald

KULINER INDONESIA KAYA WEB LAUNCHING (AND BREAKFASTING...)

Last night I was invited to the launching of Kuliner Indonesia Kaya web series along with the cooking demo and breakfasting at Almond Zucchini Prapanca, first things first special thanks to William and Edi from VosFoyer for having me! It was a rather private event and I had quite a fun there!

you can click here to watch the web series

Indonesian food is always going to be a part of me and as cliche as it sounds, you can take me out of Indonesia but you can't the Indonesia out of me! I feel like as an Indonesian myself, I have the responsibility and urge to preserve the culture and for me personally, the easiest way is to actually cook it at home, lucky for me I have an amazing mom with terrific cooking skill and I love cooking too even though I know I might not ever be as good as my mom (and the patience to cook too) and to be completely frank certain Indonesian food is seriously complicated to execute but that doesn't mean  that it's impossible to do! That's why these web series aim to help newbies like us me to prepare, cook and give us deeper knowledge about Indonesian food.

While waiting for the "breakfast" time to come they did a cooking demo with Aku Cinta Masakan Indonesia and Jordi Onsu, the awesome people from ACMI are here to help the web series with concepting, preparation, recipes and more, along with valuable tips on where to buy certain ingredient for that bang of your buck, Jordi himself is going to be the host of the web series.

Here's the first episode of their YouTube video where they will be talking (and actually cooking) Minang food. They also made a traditional Minang sweets, Sarikayo, on the cooking demo yesterday.

One of the food that's being served for breakfasting last night: SOTO BETAWI, also a cooking demo on this. I mean can you look at this thick creamy soup!!! Trivia: do you know what there are around 40 kinds of soto in Indonesia? If not then boy you have to check out the web series.

Preparing for the Sarikayo! Sarikayo is steamed kaya dessert, and commonly consist of mainly eggs.

Pandan extract, the main ingredient to get that green color (and of course the signature rich Pandan flavor and fragrance)

Finish product! Kaya's normally paired with bread or sticky rice but I had this just like that last night and depending on your preference you can either have it hot or chilled, but the chilled version's the best for me!

Prepating the Soto Betawi! Look at that hot chunky beef! Quick tip, in order to maintain the tenderness of the beef, they suggested that we don't slice the beef into tiny pieces before boiling it.

SOTO BETAWI DONE! Paired with homemade pickles and chili

Now after all the cooking it's time to break the fasting as Adzan finally arrived and it's time for the Muslim friends to indulge on all the delicacies served that night. It was nothing simple, just humble dinner with beautiful table setting tho! On the tables were some fried light bites, little mung bean desserts, rice, takjil and beverages then followed by more condiments like fried soya bean cake, beancurd and perkedel (potato cake), Soto Betawi and Sarikayo! No complaint about the food, everything was beautifully cooked and tasty! 

Es Podeng as the sweet closure to the awesome dinner!

The web series are the birthchild of Bakti Budaya Djarum Foundation in collaboration with Aku Cinta Masakan Indonesia and Kokiku TV! KUDOS to the three and their effort to preserve the life of Indonesian food! LONG LIVE INDONESIAN FOOD!

Indonesia Kaya official website - WWW.INDONESIAKAYA.COM

Don't forget to check out Kokiku TV YouTube channel too! Seriously one of the best cooking YouTube channels in Indonesia.

Thank you for having me last night! It was a bliss!!!

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email: eatandtreatsindo@gmail.com

SNAPCHAT: STANISLAUSHANS