Saturday, September 23, 2017

Curug Song menjadikan Surga tersembunyi di Banyumas


Sejenak melipir ke daerah Pegunungan di Banyumas kebetulan dekat dengan rumah.  Dalam rencana awal menengok Taman Angkasa yang berada di Binangun tak jauh dari Alun-Alun Banyumas. Tapi hasilnya zonk. Taman angkasa yang menjadikan lokasi spot sunrisenya di sisi Banyumas Selatan ini yang dapat melihat view pantai di cilacap ternyata sedang direnovasi kembali dari tatanan selfie deck yang mulai rapuh.


Banyumas ora mung Baturraden, Banyumas ora mung gethuk goreng
Banyumas ora mung soto ne.

Galang with the coffee and cigarettes

Galang (17th) sebagai partner adventure kali ini yang kebetulan warga Banyumas asli mengarahkan saya ke tempat bermainnya bersama kawannya dikala waktu umur 15 tahun.  Curug Song namanya, sedikit asing memang ditelinga.
“Mas, aku pernah dus-dusan karo batire nang curug song. Ra adoh sekang kene”  ajakan Galang kepadaku.
“Curug Song? Adoh ra lang?” jawabku sambil terheran.
“Ora, ngeneh tak ngarepi” jawab Galang sambil menyalakan korek untuk rokoknya

Banyumas; small city with 1001 waterfall.

Curug Song dapat diakses melaluI Desa Binangun, Banyumas. Dari Alun-Alun Banyumas menuju ke Barat arah Pasinggangan, menanjak terus sampai akhirnya berada di Desa Binangun. Untuk rute menuju curug song tidak ada papan petunjuk sama sekali di binangun, dikarenakan Curug Song yang secara administratif berlokasi di Desa Kalisalak, Kec. Kebasen, Banyumas.

Kalisalak sebagai potensi desa wisata yang memanfaatkan hutan pinus dan air terjun sebagai daya tarik masyarakat terutama kalangan muda-mudi yang sedang haus bagaimana dirinya meng-selfie-kan dirinya. Antusias warganya dalam mengelola curug song ini memang terbukti dengan berbagai fasilitas wisatanya. Biaya yang murah, hanya membayar parkir sebesar Rp 2.000 dan HTM Rp 3.000 kalian bisa menikmati indahnya alam di sisi Banyumas ini. 

Kami sengaja parkir di rumah warga yang tak jauh dari gerbang pintu utama ticketing. Bukan bermaksut tak ingin bayar tiket, karena ketidaktahuan ada gerbang pintu masuknya haha. Kondisi aspalan yang masih 60% membuat susahnya akses menggunakan kendaraan, harus ekstra hati-hati dalam mengegas motor.

dari atas bukit

Allahu Akbar

Menuju curug song kami harus menuruni bukit terlebih dahulu, but it worth! Disuguhi dengan pemandangan alam terbuka yang cantik, dan curug songnya terlihat dari atas. Tak jauh menuruni bukit sekitar 5-10 menit terdapat selfie deck yang dibuat menyerupai perahu berlatar belakang curug song.

those smile from local kiddos

Anak-anak kecil sebagai warga lokal tampak ceria sekali pagi itu, sambil membawa layangan yang tak tahu akan diterbangkan kemana. Mereka turun menuju curug song, mungkin akan membasahi dirinya sambil terjun dari atas batu. BYUR!

natural pool

seger parah!


Sepanjang perjalanan kalian akan melihat berbagai papan petunjuk atau semaca papan yang bertuliskan semacam ini.

weird sign?

warn

Airnya asli seger banget! Sambil menikmati kopi yang sengaja kami bawa dari rumah emang cocok banget menyesapi kopi dengan aroma alam yang sejuk. Tak sempat mandi, air yang segar itu rupanya merayu-rayuku untuk bergegas menyelami kolam renang alami ini.

“bar ngopi cuss mlaku maning, lang” ajakanku ke galang

“sssspppppt… iya mas sebatang dulu” jawab galang sambil menyesap kopinya.

black coffee needed


Sambil berjalan kembali ke hutan pinus, tak hanya curug song. Ternyata ada lagi spot yang ditemukan yaitu ‘Batu Bengkah’
Sempat kami bertemu dengan Bapak-bapak tua yang rupanya memang warga lokal asli. Bercakap-cakap dan berbagi makanan ringan ke bapak tua itu. Rupanya bapak itu saya lihat-lihat merasa kebingungan dengan hape yang ia pegang.

“mas, niki sih kepripun hapene? Sinyale modus pesawat terus” bapak tua itu bingung

“jajal ngampil pak…”

“yo pantes pak, hapene mboten wonten kartu sim me” jawabku ke bapak tua itu sambil menunjukan hape

Lucu bapak satu ini. tapi lupakan tentang tadi. Setelah berpamitan dengan bapak tua itu, kami lanjut berjalan dan bertemu batu bengkah.


Why is Batu Bengkah? Ya, karena batu itu besar dan terbelah menjadi dua. Setelah bertemu batu bengkah, ternyata terdapat curug lagi yang bernama “Curug Dipacandra” tak kalah keren dengan Curug Song. Sama-sama berbentuk tatanan batu yang terdapat gemericik air yang mengalir dari atas. Hanya ada satu-dua rombongan yang mengunjungi tempat ini. sering kali bertemu warga lokal yang mencari rumput untuk ternak mereka.

hutan pinus dengan kearifan lokalnya

hanoman jadi jadian

curug dipacandra

Sebelum kembali ke parkiran, saya nemu lagi nih spot untuk kalian yang pengen membasahi diri lagi untuk renang di bawah pohon bambu. Tapi sepertinya agak dalam juga dan airnya tenang yang berasal dari air terjun.

keliatannya sih dangkal, tapi dalem woy!

Perjalanan pulangpun harus menaiki bukit dulu, ditambah matahari yang sudah mulai diatas kepala. Tetap jaga kelestarian alamnya ya lur, Curug Song ini masih bersih dan terkelola dengan baik. Tetap dukung pariwisata lokal daerah Banyumas. Salam lestari!

#AYOWISATAKEBANYUMAS 

Friday, September 22, 2017

ALMOND TREE CAKES

Hello my beloved blog readers, so several weeks ago I paid a visit to Almond Tree, a cake store with a new concept from the Mount Scopus Group, which I believe previously known as Cheese Cake Factory. I grew up with this brand, their cakes were so close to the heart of my friends and families as they were there for the celebrations and I thought I wanna blog about my experience to their store as well as giving you ideas on how they're doing now.
Location: Almond Tree Cakes Gandaria City
They did major rebranding to the company and I must say that the "Cheese Cake Factory" trace is almost gone and it's now with a little more 'pop' compared to the simple and neat CCF branding in the past, maybe they're trying to catch the younger crowd? Not sure, but gotta admit it was a little culture shock for me, I was super familiar with the brand CCF and intermezzo to those past moments and now I have to be familiar with the new brand, but anyway, loving the new face!

For the menu, they don't really do that much revamping, pastries and cakes are still the main focus of the brand and they also have hot kitchens at several outlets (I went to the one in Ampera and more of that later!)

Freshly baked pastries - almond croissant and mix peal croissants, the average pricing for the croissants is IDR 18k-ish
Raisin Roll - IDR 15k
Tuna Ciabatta - IDR 32k, savory bites for you and perfect for the go, just ask the staff to heat them for you.
Upping their coffee game and they are trusting Tanamera to back up the coffees are their selected outlets, unfortunately I didn't have their coffee on my visit that day.
...BUT I did try their Red Velvet Latte which seems to be highly promoted here and honestly I found it decent enough for my palate, creamy without being overly milky or 'artificial" (even after the colorings), enjoyable enough for the day.
Aside from the Red Velvet Latte, one of the highlighted drinks here has got to be their Screaming Mango, which if you notice from the ingredient used here, not the kind of drink that people would commonly like, but somehow I kinda dig this one due to its unique value and funky yet enjoyable taste! It's basically mango juice with tabasco and chili, it was indeed spicy with this sensation in the throat at sips but hey I honestly did like this one!
 Smoothies for safer options: Green Hulk (left), Red Velvet Blended (right)
Green Hulk is one of their best selling matcha drink here which consist of milk, green tea powder, green tea pocky, whipped cream and mint leaf.
Red Velvet Galore
Red Velvet Cakes - available in whole cake and personal (sliced) portion
Almond sponge cake soaked in strawberry syrup, cold cream cheese filling, red crumbs and dough sugar to finish the presentation as well as dressing the cake!
Red Velvet Blended, all things red-pink topped with whipped cream, soft red powder sugar and macaron!

Chocolate Mint
I notice how they are upping their presentation game to this more modern yet artsy presentation, and below is their pretty Chocolate Mint cake which consist of whole chocolate sponge cake (with chocolate buttercream and dark crispy balls then coated in chocolate mint buttercream, dressed in ganache, macarons and chocolate art!
Vanilla Peach Mango
In my opinion, this cake is a pop-art cake, very pretty, captivating to see, asthetically beautiful (thanks to the colorful chocolate) and artsy! The base in Vanilla sponge cake with peach-mango filling and almond. This one was more to the lighter side, yes creamy with beautiful sweetness.
Spike Gang
One of the cakes that I am familiar with as me and my friends (vice versa) bought this for our birthdays but this time they come with different presentation that's more modern. This cake is basically a four layer chocolate sponge cake bith butterscotch ganache, chocolate balls, chocolate layers, chocolate and vanilla crumbles to finish!
Take this as the first part of my Almond Tree blog posts as I am going to blog about the second part of this post which will be my experience joining their Hopping Kitchen activity! Stay tuned and thank you for reading!

Teasers of the second part of the blog post, can you guess what we made that day?
Almond Tree

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Thursday, September 14, 2017

BRIEF THOUGHTS OF: KOPI KENANGAN

I think it was after this blog post that I haven't paid that much attention to the rapidly growing Kopi Susu trend in Jakarta and boy I might need to update the list now, this entry will be a brief thought about this newcomer called Kopi Kenangan which I just had earlier today. I found it interesting because they claim to be using the 8-years Arabica Aged Coffee (which got me like 'hmm...'). They have a little shop in Menara Standard Chartered but because I know that normally Kopi Susu shop will be incredibly petite and almost impossible for you to sit around so I really recommend to just have it Gojek-ed to your place.

The product? They only have two menus here which basically the same product: Es Kopi Susu Kenangan Mantan (normal) and the "Less Sugar" version, both priced at IDR 18k. Honestly just go straight to the "Less Sugar" version of this Es Kopi Susu Kenangan Mantan as I've tried both and I feel like the normal one was way too sweet for my liking and they're using palm sugar as the sweetener. I was honestly fond of their Es Kopi Susu, I found it to be creamy while not being overly milky and most importantly, as an avid fan of coffee, the character of the coffee is still pretty dominant. It has this fresh smooth aftertaste and I didn't get this burnt beans character that I found in Tuku, and oh FYI it doesn't taste like Tuku.

Anyway, your call to decide which one in town is your favorite, but this new comer is not disappointing. Approved? Yes!
Kopi Kenangan
Menara Standard Chartered
Jl. Prof. DR Satrio
Karet, Kuningan
Jakarta Selatan 12930

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Map for Menara Standard Chartered

SIN CIN RESTAURANT - THE LINQ KEMAYORAN

You can take me out of Indonesia, but you can't take the Indonesia out of me, or should I say, the Chinese blood out of me. Despite the rapidly changing food trend, the classic always stays and I am talking about good Chinese cuisine, if you ask me to name one of my favorite Chinese restaurants in town then Sin Cin is one of the top ones that flashed in my mind just like that, and I have a lot of good things to say about this restaurant.

First of all, do note this particular outlet, aka Sin Cin LINQ Kemayoran has no correlation with the other Sin Cin outlets so they're absolutely independent somehow the fact that it's located at LINQ makes it easy to find. This restaurant is considered pretty spacious as they occupy three floors and there's actually a small elevator inside (this honestly wow-ed me a bit), interior was neat and clean, just proper for a Chinese restaurant, the kind of space that's simple and comfy to dine.
Not sure whether you can book the space (aka the whole floor) for private events but I am guessing you can, just contact them for inquiry I guess.
Various Juices - IDR 25k
in frame: Avocado, Orange, Watermelon, Soursop
Not gonna hold you back from acknowledging what I had for lunch that day, quick scan of their menu and I am so glad of how they're still keeping the price tag pretty affordable, especially for today's standard. 
Talas Goreng Madu - IDR 48k
For those who fancy an interesting combo of sweet and savory on each bite, opt for this Talas Goreng Madu, crunchy on the outside and moist on the inside. Don't take too long on the pictures as it's best served warm.
Hotplate Tahu - IDR 68k
Hands down, A MUST ORDER! They homemade the tofu themselves and honestly it's silky, velvety smooth and melt in your mouth, and again don't take too long on the pictures as anything 'hotplate' should be enjoyed right away, and not to mention since it's also very saucy you need to make sure it's still hot as the tofu, pork and the sauce work together, the sauce was more to the savory side and not spicy as how red it is on the picture.
Sapo Kacang Panjang - IDR 58k
This dish was simple and I don't know, but in Chinese restaurant I take vegetable dishes more like a complement to the rice and proteins on the table, this was beautifully cooked (and seasoned beautifully): the beans were still firm and not soft-overcooked, inside you'll find mushrooms and pork meat too.
Udang Tim Bawang Putih - IDR 98k
The prawns here were uber fresh and naturally sweet and paired with light soy based sauce and garlic dressing for flavor and aroma. It's the freshness of the prawn that did most of the talking here, beause when it's accomplished, what's really there to dislike? (unless you really can't have prawns lol).
Sapo Urat Kaki Babi - IDR 98k
Another top recommendation here has got to be the Sapo Urat Kaki Babi (unfortunately non-halal stuff). Even tho this was more to the sweeter side, but I found the overall flavor to be altogether well-balance, in a bite you should find the tender pork slices wrapped in sweet and savory seasoning, saucy but dry and aromatic, and again don't be fooled by the appearance as this was not spicy. Seriously nothing better than pairing this one with warm rice. Dayum!
Lomie ala Hokkian - IDR 68k
Aside from the ala-carte dishes they also have delicious noodle dishes if you fancy one, if fried noodle feels a little too common for you then go for their Lomie ala Hokkian which I found very tasty and generous in the same time! One big portion can be shared with four people, the noodle was not too soft and soggy, and inside you'll find generous mushroom and meat to complete this lomie, the soup was really tasty and not overly thick for my liking, just spot on to my liking.

Ikan Sayur Asin - market price
You know I've actually dined here three times before actually writing this blog post and my mom's such a huge fan of their Ikan Sayur Asin, can't really spoil you the price as it depends on the market pricing and you can choose the amount of grams you want, but for the fish you can choose to have ikan kerapu or ikan gurame! The soup was so fresh, salty, savory rich and gingery in the same time, and even more comforting during rainy days (technically too we don't have winter here), the fish was perfectly cooked: again silky, soft and tender. DO HAVE THIS WHILE IT'S SEARING HOT and best for sharing too.
I really don't know what to hate about Sin Cin, truthfully I found their food pretty good and the pricing's also pretty competitive too! It's a proper Chinese restaurant with main emphasize on food without any other bullshit details and that's how a restaurant should be I guess. I just hope they can continuously keep up with the awesome performance!

Sin Cin
Ruko The LINQ No. G2 #852
Central Kemayoran, Sunter
Jakarta Utara 14410
Opening hours: 11 AM-10 PM
Average spending for two: IDR 300k
Dresscode: none

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Map for LINQ Kemayoran