Rumoh Makan - Raja Melayu @ Bandung

It is a cozy place in Bandung with minimalist architecture in black and white color, mixed with light modern wooden table with nice liquid candle in a small bowl sitting on top of each table and nice and unique water pool and ornament in the middle, very romantic indeed.

There will be a warm welcome from several nice Malay style stewardess, it remind me to Malaysian Diva “Siti Nurhaliza”, they will ask you to choose the table and take your time to take a look on the “life-menu” display on a long serving table but it is not a buffet. They will help you to take that dishes and warm it up before serve to your table. Most of every Sumatra traditional dishes is serving on that table except from tapanuli off-course. This is the wrong place if you are looking for “Sak Sang”, “lomok-lomok” or “Panggang” here, since the restaurant is a halal restaurant.



There also a cook corner serving well known “murtabak”, “roti prata”, “mie goreng kepiting – aceh” and some other traditional Malay style made on order food, and a small table display for dessert such as “Pulut Durian”, “Serikaya”, “Roti Jala” and “Roti Cane tabur gula”, very mouthwatering food.

After taking some time to choose what to eat, then we decided to select “Ketam Lado Hitam”, “Daun ubi Tumbuk”, “Gulai Patin”, “Gulai Jengkol” (yumy …….), “burung dara goreng” and some dish from Jambi I can not remember the name, made from local smoked fish and cooked with various ingredient such as chili, petai and more, plus several kind of sambal like “Sambal Hijau” and “Sambal Ganja Aceh” that is very sour and very spicy (don’t know why It called Ganja, even though definitely it is not made from “Ganja” leave off course) and “Pulut Durian” as dessert.

Once you sit on the dine table, they will provide you with a tiny bowl of “Rojak Aceh” which is very spicy for me ……… oh my! My tongue is burn, and the spice feel goes trough your nose and your head and makes you sweating, but very delicious ……….
It is a very delicious meal, server with very nice warm white rice.

Tt’s worth place to visit, since it has a strategic place in Jl. Citarum Bandung, still within walking distance of Outlets Store in Jl .Riau area.

If you want to see more about it, just click this URL link.

Situ Patenggang - When Love is Eternity

Once upon a time there's couple named "Ki Santang" and "Dewi Rengganis" whom love each other and swear that their love is Eternity, someday this couple was separated for a certain time and they are desperately seeking each other until they finally meet up on the place called "Batu Cinta" and "Dewi rengganis" mentioned that she wish she can sail together with her beloved lover, so that her lover fulfill her wish with creating a lagoon and a boat to sail on it. The boat then somehow become this "Batu Cinta" a small island form like a heart if it being see from the air and called "Pulau Asmara" in Indonesia, or "Pulau Sasaka" in local Sundanese or Love Island.



The local tribes believed that we sail to the island with our beloved couple, and then we will have an Eternity Love like "Ki Satang and Dewi Rengganis"



"Oh boy ........., how romantic it is!"

Anyway, from my Point of View, this lagoon is very beautiful indeed, regardless of the superstitious story on it, it is very........ Very beautiful lagoon, very quiet, calm, hidden in the edge of the road, across very wide Tea Plantation, just perfect.

Kawah Putih, The Spill Heaven ......

“God is smiling when He creates Bandung”

For me it just a words that may shows Bandung people are very bigheaded, even though in my heart I admitted that Bandung has always have ‘magical’ appeal to me. Old style City, Fresh Air, The environment, big trees ….. Quiet and Calm Neighborhood ..... Oh My!

Now I know what the say that, once we arrive in Kawah putih Ciwidey, the words has meaning thousands …………. “God Forgive me, that’s only you who able to create such a beautiful place!”

Some other people says “It is a Spill Heaven” some others say “It is a lost Heaven” and I say “this is ……..wooowww!!”

Stunning ... Very exotic and also …………. Mystique.

It’s like you are in the middle of nowhere, stunning, speechless don’t know what to say, then after you wake up …………..you’ll be realize that your body is freezing (hehehe ….), it is very cold out there. It’s about 10” Celsius degree daytime and about 5” Celsius degree nighttime. But you wont get such beautiful view in other places.

It seems that you are on another sub-tropical country

Ciwidey is located in the south part of Bandung about 46km and roughly 2 hours drive from the City. The road condition is good, but not to wide enough to handle medium size bus that quiet lot running around on it and the traffic is getting worse since you will find lot of wet market in the both side of the road. They really … really slow you down. But then once you pass Ciwidey then you’ll have very nice driving. But remember, before you get there you have to make sure that you have your meal properly, since there’s not to much proper food-stall on the locations, especially if you bring your family with you. I suggest you drop by to Sindang Reret Restaurant on the way there since as long as I can recall theirs is only nice restaurant with guest house facility around.

After Sindang Reret you will find lot of Self Service Strawberry Farm or “Kebun Strawberry Petik Sendiri” along the way to Kawah Putih. The Rates is around Rp. 30.000/kg and if you have it below that they will count it prorate. They are selling lot of strawberry stuff such as “Strawberry juice”, “Strawbberry Syrop”, “Dodol Strawberry” and even “Sambal Strawberry” can you imagine that? Sambal Strawberry?

Once you reach Kawah Putih Complex there’s a ticket box run by local authority or whatever, and you have to buy your ticket here. I can’t remember how much is it, but reasonable enough. Then you’ll be driving up to the mountain trough the woods. I suggest you to take it slowly and take an short drop if necessary just to play around in the forest. It’s about several km drive before you reach the Crate complex.

Road in the Forest up to Kawah Putih Complex

The Kawah Putih it self is on Gunung Patuha or Gunung Sepuh, about 2.434m high from sea level, it has two crates: “Kawah Saat” in the west side and “Kawah Putih” next before it on 2.194m above sea level. Kawah Putih it self is no longer active, is more like a dead lake with in the middle of ……….desert! Very exotic and also …………. Mystique.

But then, we do not have to much time to enjoy the view since the weather is not cooperating enough. We got myst very and even rain, so it force us back to the cars. First because we do not want to be wet, secondly because it is very cold. But at least we have been there, and we intend to go back there someday.

I found several blogs that may describe what Kawah Putih looks like with very nice photos on it, some of them have Professional photo result; just have a short visit there.

Archiaston Musamma Family
Kawah Putih on Vibiznews.com
Kawah Putih by Irsan Photography

Makan Ditengah Sawah

One thing that may interest before we reach Garut is about “Makan Ditengah Sawah”, there is a Traditional Sundanese nasi liwet restaurant near Garut. We found this place by accident when we have site survey visit to Garut few weeks before Nathan Birthday occasion.

It’s about 1 km after the Junction, I can’t describe exactly the place since I’m not familiar on that areas, but I as long as I can recall, if you drive from Bandung to Garut, you will find a junction with a Police Post in the middle, if you go straight it will goes to Tasikmalaya, if you turn right there where is Garut is. If you want to go there, take the Tasikmalaya destination, the place is on the left side of the road about 1km from the junction.



Build like a traditional bamboo house with lot of traditional gazebos build from bamboo with “rumbia” roof – made from coconut leaves, called “Saung” with “lesehan” inside each of them. This traditional restaurant is manage by “Rumah Strawberry” a big famous garden Restaurant in Bandung, I believe anybody form Bandung or Jakarta will know this place very well since it is located next to the Famous “The Peak” Café.



The restourant complex is facing the valley, that has a nice terasering view. It's realy nice .... you do not have to go to Ubud Bali to have such nice view.



What is very interesting is about their “Nasi Liwet”, a way of traditional sundanese people cook the rice in a bowl mixed with “Belimbing wuluh” (Averhoa carambola), who can produce sour and nice aroma, a bit whole red Chiles and several traditional ingredients, serve with a set of (again) traditional “Friend Chicken”, tempe, tahu, and marinated fish plus (a must) fresh Vegetables called “Lalap” with “Sambal”, yummy …..



It’s nice place to visit, very convenience so that our kidz can have R&R. Since the restaurant concept is “pedestrian meal” there’s also a traditional fishpond, and vegetable garden what I called “Touch Garden” when we can have a closer look to lot of Vegetable varieties in “real”. I mean ….. well, not every City Kidz can have opportunities to see what is Tomatoes or Strawberries to be plant. Well, it might not as big as little farmer, but is a nice place to visit.

hhmmm ........ I think I will write about Little Farmer later.

Kampung Sumber Alam

Picture taken from www.kampungsumberalam.com

Kampung Sumber Alam has become a hot arguing topic between me and my wife before we decided to go there. It’s a nice place after all, located in a place called Cipanas, if you drive from Bandung, just after you enter the Garut City border, right side of the main road. The way to the place is giving a quiet unique scenery, since you’ll see a mountain but without to much Trees on it. Seems it’s like a Sabena view but on the mountain.

Picture taken from www.kampungsumberalam.com

The Resorts Complex it self is quiet big, with lot of traditional “rumah panggung” bungalows, restaurant, meeting room and hot water swimming pool, the uniqueness is all of them build on top of very large freshwater fish pond which have unlimited water supply from Gunung Gede hot spring water. It gives us very unique experience, sitting on top of the pond when you can see lot of “Nila”, “Tawes” and “Carper or Ikan Mas” swimming around below, and even you may fishing or “mancing” and ask the hotel butler to cook your fish.


We went there on Nathan birthday event on 25 June 2006, it’s not exactly on his birthday but we manage to go there during celebrating his 8 years old birthday, and seems he’s quiet enjoy it, especialy for fishing part when he manage to get his own catch.

“Papi …. Papi …. Look, I got one ….. I got one” he yell to me!


Very nice place for family to have a little escape. But I'm not recomed this place for honeymoon place, Maybe Kampung Sampireun is more suitable for that.

For you who wants to find out more information, Garut authority has very comprehensive website that provide everything about Garut dan the suroundings. It's very usefull information.

Pusat Produksi Susu Laktasari @ Padalarang

It’s one years ago since we went to Laktasari “Farmhouse” in Padalarang, 25 of June 2006, but I think it’s a worth thing to put the report here.

We found this place from milis “ibu-ibu” I can’t remember what is it; my wife got it from one of several milist she joined. So, we went there in conjunction with our vacation to Kampung Sumber Alam Garut (I will put in a separate report).



We drive from Jakarta to Bandung through “TOL Cipularang” and exit in Padalarang TOL Gate, I can’t remember where exactly the locations, but roughly before Ultra Milk Factory around there if you drive from TOL Gate, in the right side of the road.

Just ask the locals and they will give you the right direction to it.

As long as I Can remember, the farmhouse itself is a big house, but changed into a what I called “workshop” that include a guest sitting room that is not well threatened, a kitchen, a Shop that related to what they produced such as Fresh Milk, Ice Cream mixed with small drinks and snacks, you can have their Fresh Milk here with several flavour such as Cocholate, Strawbery, mocca and etc.

The house is facing a big farmland, this is the interesting part, there’s a lot of Cattle placing in their Shelters, hundreds of them, combined with several cages of (I thought they are Siberian Husky Dogs) .... Alaskan Malamute (Thanks for the correction Marsel!), Deer and few others animals. And there’s also lot of Farmer shelters around it. It seems that they keep their workers in that land too with their Cattle.




We can go down there to take a look in the close distance to the Cows, and really nice cows, well treated … I think is Friesian Holstein that very popular in Indonesia, I don’t know exactly what kind of Cow it is, I’m not a Cow expert, just a Milk Consumer .. ;-)

Anyway, here is a URL link realted to Cow that you may visit.

Well its nice place to visit, especially if you want to bring your kidz to show them what Cow really is ………………..

Warung "Riris" Kampung Sundanese Dish

This is one of out favourite place to have lunch, a Typical Sundanese “lesehan” small restaurant in west of Jakarta, if you drive from Jakarta to Tangerang via Tol Road, exit on Serpong Gate, drive straight through BSD City you will reach BSD Junction, go straight to Belatinos and The Green Cluster, go any further you’ll reach outer section of BSD City, until you reach Pertamina Gass station on your left side, you’ll find a small “Warung” called “Kedai Riris” or “Riris Café” next few houses from it.



It’s a humble place with several “Indoor lesehan”, but recently they build several lesehan on the backyard as extention. Seems that their business is going well, eh? They put all the dishes in a single “Indoor-foodstall” so that we may pick what we like. Our Favourite are "Oncom-leunca", "Tumis Genjer", "Pepes Ikan Peda", "Oseng teri daun pepaya", and standard poulty meat – "ayam goreng" for our kidz, and for me, I allways looking for “Daun Sintrong”, a fresh green leaves who has a bit sour aroma, but very nice to consume, my wife prefer to have "Green Terong" as her favourite "lalap".



For somebody who like traditional pedestrian food, it is a worth place to try, but remember, the place is a bit far for they who do not have their own cars.

Sundanese Food is one of my Favourite, it’s quiet surprise since I came from Semarang (Jawa) but I prefer to have Sundanese rather than Javanese dish that taste “to sweet” in my tounge, some people says because of my wife influence ……. Maybe they right, previously I do not like vegetables on my dish, but then ….. now, It’s very hard to eat without something green and fresh mix with a bit “sambal” on my plate.

NOC Team Dine-out @ "The Bandar Jakarta"

2nd of September 2007, we went to The Bandar Jakarta in Ancol area. This is the place that I want to bring my NOC team to dine-out. It is a cozy place, I quiet often to spend the night here with my beloved and lovely wife, just spending time facing the sea, have a little chit-chat! It’s the one of several ways to keep our 10 years marriage life become an always honeymoon day ……….

Its quiet romantic place after all ……………

Well, on 2nd September I got different mission, I want to bring my work-team, all of them to have rare enjoyable and fun night with treat-them a nice dines-out. Just to make them getting more involve I intended to ask them to collect some money from their own pockets, just a bit that I understand that won’t bother their financials at all, I will take care the rest. Unfortunately, Faizal the most new comer can’t come since he has to leave her family in Majalengka earlier, and It seems he’s quiet hesitate to do that. Okay, I understand, It’s tough to live alone with family leaved behind. Don’t worry, next time we’ll have another chance.


Well, this is the second time we have nice fancy Seafood together, I mean Reeeaaaally nice one ………, We got King Tiger Prawn – really big ones, Super breeding Crab that have lot ….. I mean really lot of eggs, Fresh Steam Grouper (I believe this dish is very odd for them ….. hehehehe, it’s a very expensive dish in Chinese restaurant), Bamboo Clam, Lala or known as “Kerang Tahu”, “Taoge cah Ikan Asin” and the Odd “Pakis cah Tausi” and also big BBQ cuttlefish.





But then, we got a guest ….. hehehe, a person who is not in our team, but very close to them and we remember that several months ago he mentioned that he wants to go there, but no chance since he won’t go alone, so we pick him in Kemayoran Roesgani you are such ………….…. Lucky Guy!

The Background why I have been doing this, is because I want to share with them, I want to have some casual moment that makes them easier to talk, easy to speech that I believe that going to make us bound each other. NOC environment is un easy place to work, extreme environment, 24 hours works, you have to watch the net while the others have a deep sleep, you have to work while the other has their holiday, and more over by doing this They may understand why I can’t be with them most of the time, even though I am their Manager until now. It’s a tough job, for me and for them. And I am very highly praise them for that.

Well …… that is it, Next few months I intend to bring them to Bumbu Desa in Sukabumi, just to get different environment, They can have meal in the middle of Rice-Padi-field and have some light outing games such as flying fox ……….. well, we’ll see …………!

Nasi Kapau Jl. Kramat

Because of heavy traffic jam last Friday we decided to drop by to these most talked foodstalls, moreover they just be in "Kompas" news, so here we are, we pick"Warung nasi kapau Sabhana Bana" as mentioned in the papers, choosing itik lado ijo and Rajungan goreng mixed with common padang style veggy and gravies, excep their rendang baby potatoes that look special. Conclution : not bad for the first try, but if we reffering to pak Bondan idiom, still a bit further from his magic word "mak nyoossh!".