News to share: "I Love Taimei" is officially opening in Jakarta!

I noticed this brand on my last trip to Singapore a few months ago around Bugis area, by the time, I wasn't really keen on trying it in the first place because of the long queue! But now it's finally opening its first outlet in Jakarta, to be exact in the Tribeca at Central Park Jakarta *smize*. If you don't have any idea about "I Love Taimei", here's a little story to tell... "I Love Taimei" is a joint that sells Taiwanese food, the products are ranging from the famous Taiwanese street food (comfort food) to casual dining like rice or bento. Here, the menu was divided into three: main courses (chicken cutlet creations, side dish and beverages). Was honored to be the first people to try out some of their menus just today and I couldn't wait to blog it so here I go!

Picture below (left) is the owners: the left one is Mr. Kurniawan and the right one is Mr. Darius. Both of them are still young (around 25) and now running a business. It's always fascinating to see so many young people with money passion opening entrepreneur work fields, I definitely wish the best of luck for "I Love Taimei". The event started with the Q&A with Mr. Darius and he seemed like a very passionate business person and I don't mean it in a strictly serious way, but he seemed smart from the way he answered questions and explaining everything about the brand.


Super Milk Caramel
IDR 22k
"I Love Taimei" claimed that they are the first to have this kind of drink which I also believed I have never found one before. Technically it's a simple beverage from the idea and the execution, and as you guys probably know, I am not a big milk person, more like "dislike" actually, but this one was whole milk with caramel sauce and grass jelly as additional topping, but I pretty much found it decent. The milk wasn't really overpowering my taste bud and the grass jelly was soft and smooth just how I liked it. This one I would recommend you guys trying.


I Love Taimei Wintermelon
IDR 18k
Don't misjudge the appearance, this is NOT a tea beverage and no tea was actually added so it's pure wintermelon essence. I honestly still found a hint of tea flavor, maybe it came from the wintermelon itself. It was good, but I didn't find it out-of-the-world good.


Mango Popz
IDR 22k
This beverage's called "Mango Popz" because there were popping bubbles (ones that pop in your mouth and burst of syrup popping off the bubbles). This beverage was another decent one, I was fond of how they pretty much concocted the drink just how I expected it to be (50% sugar). It was pretty refreshing and I got like double mango shots from the drink and the popping bubbles!


Selina Chicken
IDR 32k
The main menu that they're selling here are the chicken cutlets and the inspiration of the naming came from the Taiwanese girl band S.H.E (Selina, Hebe and Ella). This one is the "Selina", it had a pretty unique and revolutionary cooking method: firstly, it's being marinated in the BBQ sauce for some time, after that it got a light deep fried, remarinated with the BBQ sauce and then grilled on a low fire for around 15 minutes. The chicken was ultimately tender and juicy the skin was semi-crispy which I found lovely. Eating this with rice was probably just dreamy! Another thing I love about this is that the cuts were slightly thicker than some other brands I've tried before.

Mr. Darius also told us that the highlight of the chicken cutlets sold here were not the dry, deep-fried ones, even though they still have it on the E (Ella), their cutlets would be a little more moist, juicy and rich in ingredients and sauce marination.


Chicken Skin
IDR 18k
The chicken skin was actually included in their "Side Dish Menu" and there were around 8 side dishes to choose from depending on your preference. They were crispy but I found it to be a little too crispy, I would love that to be a little juicy and chewy, but that doesn't mean they were bad, only I probably would like it better that way.



Sweet Potato
IDR 18k
Another menu from the "Side Dish" categories is this very lovely Sweet Potato. The cooking method was "deep-fried" and they were coated in the frying dough before. Aside from how simple this dish was, it actually was one of the impressive ones of the day. I love how the sweet potatoes were not too soft and too hard in consistency and they were appropriately seasoned. They were just lovely and I couldn't keep my hands away from picking them.



Shan Cai Bento
IDR 32k (bento only), 50k (with one medium drink), 58k (with one medium drink and side dish)
Just what I have mentioned to you earlier, besides the comfort food, "I Love Taimei" is also offering you a "heavier" but still casual dining like this bento. If you're wondering if the Shan Cai I'm talking about is the one from Meteor Garden, then you're right! To be pleased or not, Shan Cai Bento is only available in Indonesia outlet only, so there's none in Singapore.

Technically, the bento consists of (again) chicken cutlet, which you could choose either S, H or E. I went with the H (Hebe) which applied the same cooking method as Selina, only the sauce was lemon butter, while the E (Ella) was the good-old deep fried one (didn't try that because I found it way too often from some other brands). The chicken was tender and well-seasoned, having this with rice was just great! To complete the bento, there were also one egg and french beans. French beans were delicious while the egg was just okay.

It's nice to see another Taiwanese gastronomy joint making its mark to Indonesia. In a nutshell, I think "I Love Taimei" serves decent food, not all spectacular but they were decent. Would really love you guys to have the S.H.E chicken cutlets and the side-dishes. They also have "Tofu Fries", "Chicken Tails" and "Sotong Balls" but unfortunately they were not ready that day. What about the service? Improvement needed. No matter how great the food is if the service doesn't support it, it could be unfortunate, but since it was the grand opening and it was damn crowded, I kinda took it as fine.

They're having an ongoing promotion, IDR 8k OFF for every purchase until January 2014, just make sure you have the flyer or simply ask the staff to hand it out to you.

I Love Taimei
Tribeca at Central Park Mall Level UG-06
Jl. Letjen S. Parman Kav. 28
Jakarta Barat 11470
FACEBOOK | TWITTER


It was Sunday, I had a meeting with my client at Gandaria City and I remember vividly that I only had around 5 hours to sleep on the previous day and I was super sleepy and all that I could think of was coffee...coffee and coffee... Somehow my memory brought me back to the old conversation with my blogger partner-in-crime, Aline about this hip coffee shop called One Fifteenth Coffee in Gandaria neighborhood so I wasted no time contacting her and went there together to kill the sleepiness.

My first impression stepping in to One Fifteenth: MY DREAM COFFEE SHOP! If I have the chance to build my own coffee shop, One Fifteenth was maybe 80% of what I have always had in mind! White color majority, earthy materials like woods and cement and the perfect lighting for the day because they're using the window glass everywhere! Loving the light here during the day... fabulous one!





I noticed a lot of coffee utilities and suddenly assuming that this is a one serious coffee shop! The branding itself was also strong.
I didn't manage to try out their food (yes they also had food here), despite from its sophisticated look, One Fifteenth actually offered you a more traditional food selections like Mie Celor, Pempek Palembang and I heard from some people that they're also serious with the food *curious alert*, going to really try that on the next visit.

I was happy to find out that One Fifteenth also offered a few coffee brewing methods depending on your liking like the good old French Press, V60, Chemex (ones with filter papers), Syphon and Kalita Wave, so whenever your curiosity and adventurous side is popping, you could custom your own coffee brewing!

Hot Mocha
IDR 40k
There are times when I desperately need coffee, my suffering doesn't stop there, sometimes it's a little more suffering to choose if you want to have the hot (for the sake of the Latte art) or the iced version (for the pleasure), never knew choosing coffee would be this stressful! Anyway, the latte art was decent and neat and I personally pretty fond of this one, it had a decent balance of the chocolate and coffee flavor, appropriate sweetness. A good enjoyable coffee for the day.





Iced Cappuccino with Caramel Syrup
IDR 38k
Since I am more of an iced coffee person (especially Cappuccino), I stuck with my good old choice of Iced Cappuccino, but this time with a little kick from the caramel syrup! The coffee was just beautiful, I love the perfect balanced of the coffee intensity (not overpowering but not extremely mild either). Another fascinating coffee for the day!


In a nutshell, One Fifteenth is just the perfect place for coffee lovers who are looking for a venue to work, meetings, a pleasure me-time and even group study (seriously?). Gotta give it to One Fifteenth for separating the smoking and non-smoking area because I truly deeply have issues with smokes from the cigarette called "hatred".

I happily recommend everyone to go here and sip on their fabulous coffees. Thanks to the venue and the coffees, this place rocketed to my list of Jakarta's Best Coffee Shops in a snap!

One Fifteenth (1/15) Coffee
Jalan Gandaria 1 No. 63
Jakarta Selatan 12130
Opening Hours: 8AM - 10PM Daily
WEBSITE | FACEBOOK | TWITTER | INSTAGRAM


I don't normally do this for any brands because this kind of post will go as advertorial post, but the kindness that these people gave to me simply blew me away, and besides, it's freaking Christmas! I have to do something kind (not an excuse because we have to act kind anytime we possibly can), seriously, I made this post because I want to show off my love!

Anyway, how's your Christmas going so far? I don't know what's it with this year's Christmas but I guess it's literally slightly colder than the last year and therefore a little more mellow and romantic. Kind of fond of this year's Christmas to be honest. Have you planned any Christmas dinner yet? Well I have written a post regarding to that as you can check here!

Special thanks to the following "saints" for giving me such memorable Christmas treats! Thanks for regaining my faith back in humanity.

InterContinental Jakarta Midplaza Hotel
Special thanks for the lovely peeps from InterContinental Jakarta MidPlaza Hotel (Catrina, Prissilia and Ayleen) for this adorable Christmas cake! The Santa was uber cute!



Shangri-La Hotel Jakarta

Special thanks for Mr. Joris Satyadharma and Felicia Setiawan from Shangri-La Hotel Jakarta for this exclusive hamper! Frankly speaking, this is a one heavy hamper, but aside from how heavy it was, this was for me, one of the best hampers packaging yet, just look at that elegant looking basket. For your information, this "Premium Hamper" is sold at Satoo Deli Shop at Shangri-La Hotel Jakarta for IDR 1.55 million ++/package.

The hamper consists of 10 items which were:
- Santa Clause chocolate replica
- Christmas cake
- Panetotte (Traditional Italian christmas cake)
- Cookies (Ginger flavor)
- Valrhona chocolate bar
- Candies (gummy jellies and Marshmallows)
- Two homemade biscuits
- Bali Organic honey
- Chocolate pralines





Christmas Apples from Sweet Apple Indonesia
When they asked me if I want to accept endorsements for their products, I happily answered yes, and I happened to like the products so much I put this in the blog (again, don't normally do this for endorsed products). Thank you for the kindness, the sweet and cute apple candies, the packaging came nicely, too! (the packaging probably another reason why I happily put this in the blog, appreciate when people put in a little more effort). You can place your order to: instagram.com/sweetapple_ind if you're interested!


Milky Nutty
Another products worth your love is Milky Nutty almond milk! No sugar was added to the milk creations and I could feel it from the natural sweetness of the products (bet you could feel the same way once you had this) and no preservatives added, that's why the life cycle of the milk is not long. I happened to love their products so much they deserve a little shout out here! If you happen to order the milk, I'd happily recommend the "Matcha" and "Vanilla" flavor, have tried them all actually and they're great!
They have lovely cookies as well!

Lasagna Lasagne by Virra Vinsenssa
I have once reviewed the Lasagna from Lasagna Lasagne in my previous post (link above) and I once declared this one of the best Lasagna's I've ever had in my life and guess what? Still is! This time Virra gave me Lasagna Lasagne Christmas hamper and introduced me to the new variant: Bratwurst Lasagna, and it was really really decent! I guess you should try this and gave her a call!


Just look at how rich the filling and the cheese (but not overpowering) are! Big chunks of Bratwurst sausage are spread all over too, darn it I am craving for more.

Impressive! Lasagna Lasagne's not only experts in the Lasagnas, but the Macarons as well! The form, texture (that soft meringue like texture but still chewy), and the flavor were just perfect!


Le Meridien Hotel Jakarta
So happy to receive this precious Christmas treats from Le Meridien Hotel Jakarta! Special thanks to Ms. Arie Ardianti for these guilty pleasure. The package consists of one large Christmas cake, Le Meridien signature 2014 agenda which was nicely wrapped in leather and Santa's boot chocolate replica. The fruit cake was nice, loving the macarons on top to add the prettiness!


Mandarin Oriental Jakarta
So very kind of the peeps from Mandarin Oriental Hotel Jakarta (special thanks to Mia and Malinda ;)) for the lovely kronuts (yes with a "K"), exactly six were given to me in various variants and this Christmas inspired kronut was just beautiful in both appearance and flavor. Nice!

Better CHOCOlate Than Never
One of my most favorite Christmas hamper gifts this year definitely came from Better CHOCOlate Than Never! First, I love chocolate, secondly, I love their cakes (which by the way I have reviewed here) and thirdly, they came in nice packaging! It was such a pleasant moment when Better CHOCOlate Than Never contacted me to give me some Christmas treats (thank you Rizka!), yes, they are releasing new products for the Christmas and I got the chance to rave about them!
The hamper consisted of a few lovely products:
- Baby Cakes (White Chocolate, Black Forest, Walnut, Layer Cake)
- Chocolate Espresso Brownie Cookies
- Chocolate pralines
- Homemade chocolates




This one's also decent! Such a pretty presentation.
Still remains my favorite Black Forest cake!


Just in case you're wondering if I finish them all, No, I didn't! After I took photos, I took some that I like the most and some I "donated" to my relatives who live nearby. Power of neighborhood, sharing is caring :).

So there you go, some of my most favorite Christmas hampers gifts this year. Thank you for the mentioned roles for the kindness and the heartwarming hospitality. It's nice to know you and work with you throughout the year, but working with you doesn't feel that literal at all. I hope we can still continue supporting one another!

Christmas is just two days away! I am going to have a Christmas eve dinner with my best-friends right after Church at Publico (my friend's dying to try out their Cronuts!). Whatever your plan is, I hope you're going to have a wonderful one and may love surrounds you and your loved ones always!

Happy early Christmas! Thank you for reading this goddamn blog because the blog and its writer love you all sincerely ;). *aww that's sweet*