It was
a fortunate moment for me to be a part of this creative event launched by the Dua
Belibis group. They recently came up with this idea of collaborating with the
tenants in Pasar Santa to create their new signature dishes by using Dua
Belibis’s products.
On the
same day as I went to IHOP, I had my big dinner at PF Chang’s
at The Beach branch. PF Chang’s is another restaurant brand chain that’s quite
popular in Dubai and already had several branches spread around Dubai, and
obviously quite a number of following there. The name PF Chang’s itself is
curated from the name of the two owners: Paul Fleming and Philip Chiang (so
it’s PF and a tiwst of Chiang’s). I went there like around 5 PM and the
restaurant was already quite packed, and
as I finished my dinner, the restaurant was almost full house.
I just
had my dinner with blogger friends at this newly opened establishment in Plaza
Indonesia called Socieaty, YUP FINALLY another new restaurant opening in the
middle of this bullshit economy, which is a pretty brave move of them. Socieaty
is a new venture by the Les Amis group from the Singapore. The group itself has
been involved in the F&B business for more than 2 decades (21 years to be
exact), and not until 2015 that they opened Socieaty, an establishment which is
strongly related to the group itself, Les Amis itself actually means “by
friends” in English, and they’re creating this “Socieaty” where it’s all about
friends to friends, by friends and for friends.
I have
been hearing a lot of good things about this particular steak house hence I
think it should be amazing to have dinner here and actually experience
everything for myself. Still connected to my Shack Shake post, Texas Road House
is where I went to have dinner, and it’s also located in Dubai Mall. TRH is
HUGE in Dubai, and as I arrived, the queue quite long and I had to be on the
waiting list to wait for my table. Even before I am actually inside, I got the
feeling that I would love this place, when I hear “Texas”, this was something
that I really expected when it comes to the design, just this cowboy-ish pubs
and very American (seriously I don’t know how to explain it properly), but you
know when you watch cowboy movies and there are scenes where they come to a
certain old-school looking pub to save the world, and the pub consist of mostly
wood material layering all the design, crowded, rugged and in a way, dirty, but
dirty pretty and just something so Texas about it. This is what a casual
steakhouse should look like, when I don’t need to dress up and all that shit, I
just wanna have some good time, good food and good conversation.
The
old saying “an apple falls not far from the tree” metaphorically describes how
I see the F&B scene in Jakarta in the most fashionable way (of wording). As
an Indonesian, I think there’s this urge for us to keep missing Indonesian
food, face it, Indonesian food is our jam! I do love other food genres, but
Indonesian food will always have that irreplaceable space in my heart. Sari
Rasa Group is undoubtedly one of the most successful F&B groups in
Indonesia, along with their culinary brands such as Sate Khas Senayan, Sate
Khas Senayan Express, Tamani Cafe and Tesate that are spread all around Jakarta
and doing very-very well, especially Sate Khas Senayan, I don’t see I’ve ever
seen an empty Sate Khas Senayan, it’s almost always packed, which should be a
good thing for them!
I know it's pretty strange of
me that I didn't really "tell" anyone about my last trip to Dubai before I actually going, just like how I used to, normally I would ask for
recommendations from you! Truth
is, I have been extremely busy lately, as you probably know how I work on
everything about the blog all by myself, and it's honestly quite a hardwork to juggle
everything at the same time together, so I only made a little announcement a
day before my departure! But fast forward, I had a blissful short trip to Dubai, and I am so
freaking happy to have the chance to go there! That city is too gorgeous, very clean & organized!
A
visit to this popular burger chain is mandatory once I know I’m going to Dubai,
hey, at least for the moment, I don’t need to travel to the Big Apple to have
this. Any
first experience should be interesting, not to mention I have been obsessed in
trying Shake Shack my whole life, and this has been happening since my friend
couldn’t stop raving about their burger. Shake Shack has several outlets spread
in Dubai, I could easily visited the one in Mall of The Emirates since it’s
literally just a walking distance from where I was staying (Sheraton Dubai), but my schedule that day allowed me
to surf the AMAZING Dubai Mall.
Dearly
beloved Jesus the mall was FREAKING HUGE!!! It’s probably like 5 times bigger
than the already gigantic Grand Indonesia, and I literally felt like I walked
so much, my feet hurt, well, at least that could be a good excuse to sit down have
a round of lunch filled with BURGERS!
Singapore
has always been one of my favorite destinations for quick escape, and for me,
it’s a total bliss to actually live 1, 5 hours away from the Merlion country,
when I am in need of another city therapy, Singapore is just the perfect
option. It has E V E R Y T H I N G.
On my
latest Singapore trip, I stayed at this boutique hotel located in Telok Ayer
St. in Singapore that I am reviewing in this post called AMOY. AMOY hotel is
one of the ventures from the property giant, FarEast. The hotel is located strategically around the Far East Square in the Chinatown area, if
you’re a first timer in Singapore, staying in AMOY would be such advantage in
bonding with the locals and sample what they have in store: the people, the
food and the culture, and the authenticity, for example, the access to visit
the oldest temple in Singapore: Thian Hock Keng that's located nearby, or have some scrumptious meals
in Chinatown Food Streetwidth or Maxwell Hawker Center (one of the most popular
hawker centre in the entire Singapore).
The
past one year, The Cup Pantai Indah Kapuk has been my go-to restaurant when I wanted
to fulfil my craving for good and easy authentic Korean food. Don’t be fooled
by its eye-catching pastel pop appearance as some of you might mistaken it as a
desssert cafe (or probably underrate it).
