Bandung Day 2: Jl. Cihampelas, CiWalk, The Kiosk & Pasar Baru

This is the continuation of my Day 2 in Bandung. Previous blogs on Bandung can be found here: Day 1 Bandung and Day 2 Bandung: Anata Saloon. 

Before leaving for Bandung I did my research mainly by reading people's blog about the shopping places. One of the places that seemed really interesting is Jl. Cihampelas because of the shops that are decorated with superheros!

Jl. Cihampelas

People were saying that they bought a lot of cheap t- shirts here at Jl. Cihampelas and maybe jeans. For jeans, as in original jeans, they would usually head to Toko Tiga to get cheaper Levis jeans and a few other brand but I decided not to go all the way there because I've basically found the stuffs that I wanted along the shops here and at Pasar Baru. So yeah, I just wasn't really bothered by 'cheaper' Levis jeans which would at least cost RM100+.

I took a few pictures, no actually two pictures with the superheros HAHA Not a very big fan of them and since the shops along this very long road are all almost similar (same tshirt, same pants) I felt that it was pointless for me to walk all the way from the starting point to the ending point.

Spidey!

Superman

For me Jl. Cihampelas is probably the most boring place among the many places I've been to because the clothes there looks very much like what you can get from the pasar malam back here in Malaysia. I mean I don't mind fake goods but they were just too cheap looking.

Here are a few pictures of clothes that you could find there. I got my dad a pair of jeans for RM40. Though it's a replica but RM40 for jeans (even if it's brandless) is a rather good deal.

Jeans 

Tshirts

Superhero tshirts

Super dry tshirts

I really enjoyed Pasar Baru though! Opps. I just realised that I only have one picture of Pasar Baru because it was really crowded and stuffy there. Tonnes of people were strolling through the small lanes, like the ones at Bugis Street, Singapore. 

Pasar Baru

I went to Pasar Baru on the 4th day in Bandung but I'm just fitting it here in my Day 2 post since I only have 3 pictures.

Angkut dropped us Pasar Baru (yellow building) so had to walk through the wet market

Bikers riding through the wet market

So the condition of Pasar Baru is obviously be stuffy, humid, sweaty and sardine-y. I quickly whip out my cam for a quick shot when the lane at this part of Pasar Baru was still clear, then I immediately stash it in my bag fearing for my cam's safety LOL. 

 Pasar Baru (area with less people)

 Despite the uncondusive environment, Pasar Baru was the BEST and my utmost FAVOURITE place for shopping!! I think I spend most of my shopping money there- for my sisters. Can't mention what I bought yet because I haven't hand them their souvenirs and I want to keep it a surprise:)

Coming back to the Jl. Cihampelas part of the blog, I think the best place to hang out there would only be the mall. It's called Cihampelas Walk but commonly known as CiWalk for the locals. I like it there because Gaya brought me to this restaurant there that serves yummy street food!

CiWalk

Talking about street food, Bandung had a lot of street food! I'm thinking that it's an Asian thing because we can find lots of cheap street food here in Malaysia. You can easily find them in Thailand and yes, we have them in Indonesia as well!

The thing about street food is that it's a risk eating it because of hygiene reasons. In Malaysia, I can 90% guarantee you that the street food is safe for consumption (unless you see the stall which looks really disgusting). Popping by a pisang goreng (banana fritters) stall here in Malaysia and getting a bag of RM2 bananas would be the cheapest, yummiest and most therapeutic thing to do!

In Indonesia, however, I was not encourage (more like forbidden) to buy food from food stalls by the street because apparently it's not suitable for foreigner's tummy (90% chance of getting diarrhea), which is one of my regrets LOL

But Gaya brought me to this restaurant in CiWalk that models after street food! So I got a chance to sample street food- the cleaner and safer version.

Before I proceed to the restaurant review, I have a few pictures of the mall:

Cihampelas Walk aka CiWalk

Shops that you can find at CiWalk

Interior of CiWalk

CiWalk Interior 2 

Inner interior, LOL

The restaurant that I dined in for street food is called The Kiosk. I realised that restaurants in Bandung mostly look very posh but their menu price is very reasonable, actually much cheaper than what we find here in Malaysia. In Malaysia, I wouldn't dare to go into a restaurant as pretty as this because I'd estimate the food price starting from RM25 at least, judging from the posh restaurant:(

BUT! In Bandung, I had all my meals in such restaurants spending an average of RM20- RM25 only! Mind you, this is inclusive of a shared appetizer, my main course and a really fresh and concentrated fruit juice!

The Kiosk

CiWalk Broadway SL- 21
Tel: 022- 2061158

The Kiosk Entrance

Walked through the entrance, greeted by water deco

Replica of food stalls by the road

As you see in the picture above, those carts are what food stalls look like by the roads in Bandung. They serve really scrumptious food for an extremely cheap price! Gaya told me that the Batagor that we had in the restaurant, which I already thought was really good, was only a fraction of the yummyness of batagor from the road side!

So roadside food is really DELICIOUS and really CHEAP but not that safe for tourist to eat la:( I was told that you would just need about RM5 to have a main course + drink at the food stalls. I wantttt!

Then I thought to myself, God you are really a fair God. I salute you for that. Despite not blessing these people financially, you blessed them with lots of good food to compensate.

Okay, back to The Kiosk have a look at the menu and their interior:

Old school looking menu cover

Page 1

Dining area (top floor)

Stairway

More street food stall replica where the kitchen is

I love juices in Bandung because for RM4 I could get authentic thick fresh juice! My favourite would be the avacado juice, they call it alpukat, and the sour sop juice, they call it Sirsak if I've not mistaken.  I drank a lot of juices in Bandung and every morning I have beautiful healthy poop LOL

In Bandung, say a RM4 cup of juice would consist of 85% fruit, 10% water and 5% ice. In Malaysia, a similar RM4 cup of juice would consist of 35% fruit, 35% water and 30% ice. Besides, one avocado fruit in Malaysia already cost about RM5 so obviously I was downing lots and lots of juices especially expensive fruit juices!

My favourite sirsak (sour sop) juice. Gaya had teh manis (Teh- O)

Tahu Gejrot

This is one of my favourite appetiser!! More so that I love the tofu in Indonesia, they all taste sooo fresh! This Tahu Gejrot is a very simple dish, I think it's soy sauce with sliced shallots but it was soooo good! 

Nasbak Kremes

I was told that Indonesians have lots of short forms. For example, "Nasbak" is Nasi Bakar. So that was what I had, grilled rice with crunchy chicken! They put sauteed anchovies on top of my rice, it was sooooo good! I could eat anchovies and rice for a meal! Sweet and salty at the same time, sufficient as a side dish by its own!

Nasi Bakar Ijo Ayam Goreng 

Nasi Bakar Ijo Ayam Goreng (Rice uncover)

The rice wrapped in banana leaf was very fragrant! Reminds me of that Pulut Panggang kuih that we have here in Malaysia. Soup was sweet, because of the corn. Yeah, lots of sweet food in Bandung.

We wrapped up our meal with Es Campur (Mixed ice). Similar to our cendol here but they have more ingredients in it. By the way,  they don't use machines to shave their ice, they actually do it the manual way! They have this huge ass ice grater (like a carrot grater, about one foot long) so they would have to grate their ice while placing a bowl below the grater.

OMG thinking about the food I had in Indonesia makes me wanna purchased an air ticket there again! Soon!

Es Campur

The cendol in the Es Campur is so fat! It's probably twice the width and the length of our cendol here! And... and... and... they have a few slices of avocado in it too!! My favourite!! Good thing Gaya didn't like avocado so I wallop everything. Teehee.

Here is the price list,

Es Campur                           IDR12,000 (RM3.60)
Nasbak Ijo Ayam Goreng    IDR31,500 (RM9.50)
Nasbak Kremes                   IDR24,000 (RM7.30)
Tahu Gejrot                          IDR 10,000 (RM3)
Teh Manis                            IDR4,500 (RM1.40)
Sirsak Juice                          IDR13,500 (RM4)

So the total cost for having this awesome dinner for two at such a lovely place was approximately RM28.90!!! I got this meal free again! HAHAHHA Thank you Gaya!! This is probably my top favourite food in Bandung besides that Pak Chi Met.

With the one who bought me dinner

Ending with a picture of Roppan, they sell sweet flavoured toast! I heard it was pretty good but then I hit my max on sweet food so decided to give it a pass.

Roppan, CiWalk