Bandung Day 3: Tangkuban Perahu + Natural Strawberry Farm & Resto

My last post about Bandung, Indonesia was on Ciwalk and the vicinity. Do read!

It was Saturday and Gaya, my enthusiastic host and tour guide had a whole day off to bring me around! I hired a driver to bring us around because Gaya told me that it was more convenient and economical that way. So the driver was hired for 12 hours (8.30am- 8.30pm) for RM150. He would bring you to wherever you want and may even suggest places of interest to visit.

My driver wasn't the talkative and very friendly type. He's more introvert but that's okay because he drives safe. Probably he was fasting so he wanted to conserve energy by not talking much:S

First destination,

Tangkuban Perahu

Volcanic crater at Tangkuban Perahu

Tangkuban Perahu is an uphill cooling sightseeing place. It took us about 45 minutes to reach (I was staying near Paris Van Jawa). I reached at about 9.30am and it coooold! Very much like Cameron Highlands. Very very clean and cooling air, it was great!

I love places with cool temperature because obviously the place that I come from is hot and humid all year long. Bandung town's temperature (about 23 degree Celsius) is my favourite optimum temperature! You wouldn't have to wear a jacket around, just plain t- shirt to enjoy the cooling weather. It's like natural air con! (Except when it rains then I'll have to snuggle under my blankets)

The temperature at Tangkuban Perahu is much colder than the town's so I had my jacket on. However, in an hour's time there suddenly the sun came out of no where and it became warm LOL I had to take off my jacket. So grateful that I could experience the coolness of Tangkuban Perahu!

Tourist picture at Tangkuban Perahu

I find the story behind Tangkuban Perahu very fascinating and a little disturbing. So the story goes like this: Once upon a time, there was this lady who sent her son away because he did something wrong. This of which made her very sad. I mean who wouldn't feel sad especially since her husband wasn't in the picture.

So the Gods (I think) took pity on her and grant her eternal youth i.e. she never grows old and soggy. One day many years later, she met this charming man and they both fell in love. Both were about to get married till she found out that her prince charming is... .... ... HER SON!

OMG.

I told you the story was disturbing.

So she had to stop the wedding! She told her prince charming aka her son that he had to build a dam on the river and a boat that can cross that river before sunrise. When her son was almost completing her request, she managed to fool him by thinking that he had run out of time.

The guy aka son was so pissed off that he kicked the dam and flipped his boat resulting in the creation of Tangkuban Perahu which literally means "Overturned boat".

Spot the boat. I couldn't LOL

Around Tangkuban Perahu, there are many sellers trying to sell you stuffs like key chains, fan etc. If you are interested in getting a souvenir from that place, fret not because they have a row of shops that offers variety of souvenirs. I'd rather buy them from Pasar Baru but I did get two keychains for my sisters and a wooden duck for myself here.

Carving my sisters' name onto the keychain using hot stone- tipped pen, I think it cost about RM4 per keychain.

Creative clocks for sale 

More shops

Stalls selling wooden handicraft

Wooden animals

I find the wooden crafted animals really interesting because their patterns and prints are naturally from a wood called "Kayu Batik". As you can see in the picture below, the man removed the outer layer of the wood and you can see patterns appearing inside!

Slicing Kayu Batik

The guy was very nice because he have me the bits and pieces that fell off for free! Tada, patterned wood!

Flakes of Kayu Batik

It was also at Tangkuban Perahu that I had my first (and only) street snack!! As mentioned in my previous blog post, I really fancy the vendors selling various types of food along the roadside but you would need a local stomach to withstand the consequence of eating those food.

I wasn't allowed to have any street food throughout my stay, for my own good of course lol, but I keep pestering Gaya to allow me to try the fried tahu at Tangkuban Perahu!

And she agreed! Hesitantly. HAHA.

Piping hot tahu (beancurd), 3 for RM1

LOVE LOVE LOVE the tahu in Indonesia!!!! 

So fresh and natural tasting!

My first street snack!

I was ecstatic when the seller was packing my tahu. Gaya made sure that it was the tahu that came out immediately from the hot oil just to decrease the probability of it being contaminated LOL 

Enjoyyy

Gaya said I looked so happy finally getting my tahu from the street :D

FYI, Tangkuban Perahu is a must go for tourist but the entrance fee was slightly pricey. It was all worth it though for the scenery and the tahu hehehe. Following was the breakdown of the cost per entry:

• Foreign visitors: IDR 75,000 (RM22.70)
• Local visitors: IDR 17,000 (RM5.60) | If you are a foreign student in Indonesia, that counts too.
• Vehicle: IDR 10,000 (RM3)

On the way up to Tangkuban Perahu, the driver, I think we call him "Pak Supir" around here suggested for us to go to the Strawberry Farm. So we did on the way down from Tangkuban Perahu. I'm not a big strawberry fan so visiting the farm was optional but since we had so much time and we were to passby anyway, I decided to go ahead.

Natural Strawberry Farm & Resto

For more info

The entrance fee was IDR 10,000 (RM3) per person. You will be given a basket to store the strawberries that you had plucked and a free strawberry drink voucher to be redeemed on the way out later.

The strawberries that you plucked will be charged according to weight. I think for every 100g it cost RM8. Not too sure though because I knew I wouldn't be picking any.

Me and strawberries, a bit disappointed to only see four of them

Super red strawberries

I thought most of  the plants didn't had fruits...

... till I turned to the other side and... wala! Whole row of fruitful strawberry plants

Borrowed someone's basket of strawberries LOL

How sweet to look at!

How sour it tasted LOL 

Yup, I kinda took a piece of strawberry to try without... paying HAHA Gaya encouraged me to do so, and I did, Opps. Then on the way out, I redeemed my free strawberry juice! The strawberry in the juice tasted better than the strawberry that I 'took' from the farm.

Slurping up

Instagram-ing

I think they sell Kopi Luwak too, a very expensive coffee. Coffee beans collected from a racoon looking animal's poop.

Ending my post with a picture with a smelly horse! They have horse rides outside the strawberry farm too. I wasn't interested in a horse ride but the guy was so nice and told us that a picture with his horse is free! So Gaya quickly help me snap a pic or two. 

The horse felt so warm and velvety, I like! But so smelly, like he haven't had a shower for a long time.

Gaya, the very caring host was worried if the horse gets violent so she quickly escorted me back to the car later. That's because she witness (in hospital) a case of this boy being bitten by a horse! :O

Smelly horse shivered (or wriggled) suddenly, I got shocked!

Of course, I did go to many other places with the hired driver so do keep a lookout for more updates! Too many places to blog about, I'm splitting up the posts:)

SS2 Pisang Goreng

I'm a big fan of pisang goreng (banana fritters) so whenever I google for famous pisang goreng, one of the pisang goreng stall that comes up is Pisang Goreng SS2.

Pisang Goreng SS2

Jalan SS2/64

This stall, more like truck, is situated right in front of Pelita Nasi Kandar shop. So the other day when I was packing Nasi Kandar for dinner, I managed to buy some pisang goreng from this stall. Been wanting to try it out but since it's a Chinese seller, I assumed that their batter wouldn't be as nice as the Malay sellers, so I procrastinated till that day.

SS2 Pisang Goreng Truck

Variety of fried food such as banana, yam, carrot cake etc

Pisang Goreng, 1 for RM1

So I bought two pieces of pisang goreng just in case it doesn't taste as good. As you can see in the picture above, they dipped one whole banana in batter and deep fry them. Unlike the ones that we usually eat which has been halved. 

I myself prefer the banana to be halved before being dipped into batter and then fried because I'll get a crunchier unit of banana.

SS2 banana is kinda huge though, it's no wonder they charge you one for RM1. Usually at pisang goreng stalls, you can get about 3- 4 pieces of bananas for RM1 (but of course they halved the bananas)

One big banana, the with is about three times my finger 

SS2 Pisang Goreng was okay. It has a flakier batter texture on the outside. The banana itself was really sweet unlike some other stalls who sells tasteless bananas. Soft and sweet inside, rather nice but I still prefer those Malay aunties pisang goreng lol

Flaky batter on the outside

Soft and sweet banana on the inside

It ain't too bad. Could be my fix if I was desperate for pisang goreng. They have an outlet at One Utama too- LG at the Food Street area.

p.s. I noticed a new truck next to this SS2 Pisang Goreng truck that sells desserts, as in dessert soups such as red bean soup, green bean soup and my favourite bubur pulut hitam etc. The truck looks very clean and new. One bowl cost about RM2.50. Might have a try the next time I see it.

Picture of Bubur pulut hitam from Google.

Wafflemeister, KLCC

Its been a long time since I went to KLCC for shopping. Actually I've never shopped at KLCC, lol. The parking is rather expensive (if compared to One Utama/ Sunway Pyramid) and there are more of my kinds shops elsewhere so I've never bothered to travel to KLCC even if for window shopping.

Anyway, the other day since Naomi had to redeem some stuff there at KLCC and I wanted to check out some stuff we decided to drop by KLCC. 

Took the opportunity to try out the rather new (opened September 2013, if not mistaken) Belgium waffles!

Wafflemeister, KLCC

Level 3

Wafflemeister

I think there are only a handful of outlets around the world so it's great that we actually have an outlet here in Malaysia. Wafflemesister sells waffles (obviously), gelato, coffee and milkshake.

They have this super beautiful display of waffles at the counter. Not sure if they are real or fake because they really did look so real! 

They look too good to be eaten, so I just gawked at them for a long while while the cashier was awaiting my order and had this urge to order many types of waffles, milkshake and gelato all in one sitting! Luckily, my craziness was halted by Naomi LOL

A variety of Belgium waffle

So in the end, we had Go Bananas waffles + Hazelnut seasonal ice- cream and a strawberry milkshake. Total was RM40.

Go Bananas- Waffles, bananas, whip cream and nuts

Waffles alone was sooooo good!! Probably the best waffle I've had before! Slight crisp on the outside, sweet and fluffy too! Having the waffles alone would cost you about RM7. It's really worth the RM7 for their Belgium waffle with a drizzle of chocolate of your choice (dark, milk or white chocolate).

The whipcream on the waffles wasn't very good. I thought Starbucks has better whipcream. Whipcream on my waffle was good to see but not good to eat. So it's better if you just forget the whipcream next time ordering. 

I added on ice- cream on my waffle because the cashier recommended it. I think a scoop of ice- cream cost about RM7 too. For me, there was nothing to shout about so it was a let down as well:( Not to say it has horrible, but it was only mediocre. 

So moral of the story: JUST GET THE WAFFLES BY ITS OWN!

Strawberry milkshake, RM16

I paid RM16 for milkshake. It was okaaaay but with the price I was paying, I was expecting the milkshake to taste close to the ones served at Johnny Rockets. Probably next time when I have milkshake cravings, I'll just head over to Johnny Rockets- their milkshake are bang for buck!

Oh, Wafflemeister has a fancier range of milkshake for RM20 but I doubt I'll ever buy them- too expensive.

Side counter- get your own straws/ sugar/ stirrer etc

Serviette & pretty high quality disposable cutleries 

Conclusion! Go get their waffles because it is really good! A bit pricey but really really worth every cent! Just get the normal ones with chocolate drizzle. It's heavenly enough! You can also pack them home like this;

Take home Wafflemeister (photo from Facebook)

p.s. What we had at Wafflemeister was enough for lunch for both of us

Killer Gourmet Burgers (KGB), Bangsar

It's the first day of Raya today so Selamat Hari Raya to all who's celebrating the lovely festival! 

This means that I'm back in my hometown where I'm suppose to be able to churn out more blog posts since I'm on a holiday but since I got back all I did was laze around. Didn't had the motivation to even touch my laptop till today where I decided that I should be responsible so checked and replied some e-mails.

So this blog post is for those who really love meat! And yes! I'm one of them! I'd have meaty cravings (especially for beef) every once a month. I can't afford steak at restaurants that cost RM60 and above but I refused to settle for overcooked RM20 steak.

Solution?

Killer Gourmet Burger (KGB)!

KGB, Bangsar

It was last week during the fasting month where we were deciding what to eat for dinner. We got bored with rice from the bazaar so I suggested burger! The question was which because there are tonnes of burger shops all around town but reviews that I read mostly pointed to KGB.

So off we went to KGB, Bangsar. They have an outlet in The Gardens too! For address and phone number, please refer to the picture below:

KGB menu

KGB, the CIA of Soviet Union... ... LOL kidding! KGB the burger shop in Bangsar has a small dining space. I think it's like half a shop. The one at Midvalley seem to be very squeezy too. However, I managed to get a seat really quickly so that is all good. 

To make the shop look bigger, they placed this huge ass mirror on wall and it really works! Optically deceived.

Big mirror

It's self service, well.. half self service to be exact. You would need to queue at the counter to order your food and pay for them. Then come back to your table with the receipt and wait for the food to be delivered.

The queue for food

Serviettes, stuff into a glass with a KGB sticker pasted onto it. Simple and functional.

Deco- Route 66- Exit

KGB Logo

So this is how you order your burgers;

       #1 Select which type of patties you want- Beef or Chicken. I obviously opted for the beef. 

       #2 Choose Diner burgers or Gourmet burgers. The description of the two burgers can be found in the Menu picture above.

       #3 Choose the type of burger

       #4 Add on RM5.50 set meal? (Fries + drink)

       #5 Add on sides?

These were what we had:

1. Diner burger- KGB Spiked- Set meal (Herbed fries + Mineral water)

2. Gourmet burger- Tornado- Set meal (Spicy Cajun + Fanta Orange)

3. Side dish: Chicken Bites

Fanta Orange | Mineral Water

It would be a good option to get a set meal because it's more economical that way. Fries alone cost RM7.90 but when it comes in a set meal (fries & drink) you only pay RM5.50.

Herbed fries | Spicy Cajun fries

I loved the herbed fries so much!!! The spicy cajun was yummy too but I loved the fragrant from the herb more! Both fries went really well with the dips. I'm not too sure what dips were those? Shack sauce?

Fried were extremely crispy on the outside and fluffy on the inside! One of the best fries I've ever tasted. I'd probably vote it as #1 and Wendy's/ Carls' Jr as #2.

Chicken Bites, RM7.90

KGB Spiked, RM15.90- Crust seared grass fed beef, Sharp Cheddar, Crispy Beef Bacon. KGB Spicy Sauce

Ohhh! My burger was good! All burger patties will be cooked medium well so if you like it more rare or more cooked you would need to inform them upon ordering. I like my medium well. Patties were good. Fresh. No cheat beef!

But the first thing that I noticed about KGB is the sauce! They have really awesome burger sauce!! It makes the burger have this popping taste! Goes very well with the sweetness of the beef.

I ordered KGB Spiked because in addition to beef patties they had beef bacon!!! Holy cow! I love bacon!

All buns are scalded with their logo which makes it really cool, in my opinion. They scald it with the burning rod like what they do to cows... or bulls?

Tattooed burger bun

Tornado, RM15.90- Grilled Grass fed beef, Onion Rings, Sunny Side egg, Buffalo wing aioli

Tornado tasted like Ramli burger to me. Not because it taste cheap! LOL I think it's because of the sunny side egg that reminded me of burger Ramli. It still is tasty but I loved my KGB Spiked better:P

I really enjoyed the burger there so I went back for more burgers two days later! Had to recommend these burgers to Naomi who came up for "work".

This time we had;

1. Diner burger- Animal Style- Set meal (Spicy Cajun fries + Mineral Water)

2. Gourmet burger- Bella Bomb Tower

3. Onion rings

Bella Bomb Tower, RM21.90- Grilled grass fed beef, 2x portobello mushroom w triple melted cheese, Shack Sauce

Please believe it when they say TWO TIMES portobello mushroom AND triple melted cheese! Because it was really that! THE BOMB!

Da bomb, see?

Da bomb, bombing!

See that? That's exactly what's written in the description of the burger. I usually take descriptions lightly because I'm normally serve a burger that is not up to expectation of description. But at KGB, they mean it when they write it LOL

Naomi couldn't finish the bomb burger so I had a go at it and I couldn't finish it either because it was just too much. Too much mushrooms with too much cheese. We did a half- half but it made us muak after a while LOL 

First few bites, she looks like she's in pain LOL

Ahh, so good or Ughh, too much? 

And that is why I always stick to diner burgers! I just have this feeling that if I choose a gourmet burger it will be too much for me. I had Animal Style diner burger and it was yummy as well! I loved the caramelized onions in the burger!

But if I were to pick between Animal Style and KGB Spiked, I'd pick the latter. Bacon always wins!

(Behind) Animal Style, RM14.90- Crust seared grass fed beef, mustard grilled, sharp cheddar, caramelised onions, shack sauce

Onion Rings, RM6.90

The onion rings was very delicious!! The onion wasn't too spicy (spicy as in onion spicy taste not chilli), onions were sliced thinly and nicely coated with this yummy buttermilk batter, comes with this super yummy dips! Must try!

Fries weren't as yummy as the ones I had two days before. It wasn't as crunchy on the outside:( But it was still good. Fries based on second visit would be on par with the ones at Wendy's or Carls' Jr.

Okay, that's all for now! Enjoy your meaty Rendang since it's Raya but once you need to source for meat in the near future do hop by KGB for affordable, fresh and attentively cooked beef!