Wednesday, November 12, 2014

food review: monopole coffee lab

yep.. i'm in the mood of trying new cafes. since i'm not that attracted to full main dish, and more attracted to various blended beverage in a cup, so i decided to drag my husband to try another cafe again. this time it's monopole coffee lab. unfortunately it didn't open early in the morning, so i had difficulty to find the right time to go there. but thankfully, i got afternoon shift and my husband picked me up, and the place wasn't full, so we ended up there.

the place had very limited parking space. fortunately, the restaurant across the street was closed, and they had plenty of parking space, so i guess some of the visitor parked there. and the seating arrangement was pretty crampy. i don't know if they had their second floor open for public, but we were seated in the first floor and it was crowded. and the space between each table was not that spacey.

monopole is quite famous for their coffee. but being pregnant and not a coffee lover at all, i can't say anything about it. thankfully, they have non cafein beverages, so my husband ordered the red velvet (which was not similar to red velvet cake) and i ordered cookies and cream blend. there were also not so many food in the menu. i tried their egg benedict, but this one was not using hollandaise sauce, but mornay sauce. i read nothing in the menu that would indicate the egg benedict would be spicy, but when it came out, it has chili flakes on top of the poached egg. at first i thought the chili flakes wouldn't be that spicy, but turned out it was very spicy for me.. since i don't like spicy food. and it was pretty weird for my taste. i prefer the hollandaise sauce better i guess. both the beverages were sweet, mine was sweeter than my husband's.

the food was okay, but will i come back there? i don't think so...
cookies and cream blend. it's very sweet

red velvet blend. it's not as sweet as the cookies and cream

Monday, November 10, 2014

food review: libby cafe

i know.. i supposed to finish my new zealand trip review, but somehow i lost my interest in writing about them. so i guess i will stop pushing myself to write about it and try to write something else. okay.. so if i haven't mentioned it before, right now i'm pregnant with my second child. and somehow this pregnancy is different. in my first trimester i didn't feel that nausea, but i lost my appetite. even the smell of some food made me want to vomit. plus when i realized i was pregnant, i was preparing for my thesis exam, so i was pretty stress at that moment. no wonder i couldn't gain any weight, even lost a kilo. but after that, it wasn't much difference. but now, almost a month now, i could feel my appetite is back. but strangely, i wasn't that attracted to rice, but i was drooling over snacks and sweets and lately beverages in plastic or paper cup with big straws. yepp.. that kind that you will find in starbucks or coffee shop. soooo.. i've been drooling to try some new cafes around my house, and i managed to persuade my husband. so the first one we tried was libby cafe.

i've been there before, but not dine there. it was a small cafe and limited parking space too. luckily it was open quite early, so after dropping my kid at school, we can go there and eat and then back to school to pick him up again. when we went there, they had this breakfast package promotion, and i tried their egg benedict breakfast package. it was egg benedict plus ice/hot chocolate. while my husband strangely still ordered the chicken wing plus tried the new brownies blended or something like that. after he saw other bloggers recommended the beef stew toast, he ordered that one.

the cafe was small, and half of the cafe was a showroom for the cookies (yep.. libby used to sell brownies and cookies). but it was comfortable. we chose to sit at the back so we can observe the whole cafe. hahaha.. oh, and you have to order at the cashier, and the menu is up on the wall. i guess this becomes new habit of new popping cafes in surabaya. okay, for my ice chocolate, it was standard. but the brownies blend it was okay. a bit sweet but i prefer it than mine. for my egg benedict, usually they used english muffin, but here in libby they used brioche. i had no complain about the egg benedict, maybe more sauce and not too acid on the poached egg. but other than that, it was a satisfying second breakfast (yep, we've already eaten our breakfast before, hahaha..). i didn't try the chicken wing, so i have no saying about that. but i guess it wasn't that good since my husband took it home and never touched it again. the beef stew toast was okay, but not enough sauce for my husband. the beef stew was pretty much to cover the brioche toast, probably more than the other bloggers have eaten. maybe they added the portion lately. the taste according to my husband it was okay, but he prefer the beef to be cut bigger, not chopped like in stew or semur. hahahaa...

overall, i was happy to visit this cafe and hopefully i can persuade my husband to be back there again. i wanted to try the pasta, but since they said the portion is big enough, probably not as second breakfast. hehehe..
egg benedict

beef stew toast (i forgot the exact name)

brownies blended

Monday, November 3, 2014

the hermitage hotel

i'm sorry for the very..very late post. i've been busy with school and my pregnancy, and then graduation plus managing my other blog, so somehow this blog is a little bit neglected.

the hermitage hotel is the only hotel in mount cook area. the other one is just motel, so we didn't have so much choices. last time i was there with my husband we were just staying for one night, but this time we stayed for two nights. the first night we slept at the old wing, the room was old and it showed it the bedding and tiles of the room. the other night we slept at the lodge which had living room and kitchen in the room.

the ordinary room, it was quite big. it's enough for 4 people per room. the bed was large enough, and it had magnificent view. we got the room that had a big window to a balcony facing the mt.cook. so it was lucky we could see mt cook early in the morning, and it was a magnificent view for my son, so we could feed him at the balcony without any fuss. the only let down was the heater. last time i was there, there were 2 heaters. one in the bedroom and one in the bathroom. since the room was smaller than the one we were having, the heater was enough. but the old wing room's heater was not enough to make the room warm. moreover, the bathroom had tiles on them, so it was freezing cold when my feet touched them in the morning. and the heater in the bathroom was set at 15 minutes, so after 15 minutes or so, it would automatically shut down. i supposed it was for energy saving, but it wasn't friendly for us, asian people who lived in tropical country. we're not used to the cold, so a 30 minutes window for the heater was the minimum time to keep us warm in the bathroom.

okay.. so the old room was spacious, comfy bed but not too comfy heater. i could make breakfast for my son using minimum space and utensils there. but moving to the lodge, it was heaven. still the warmer became problem. but at least the bathroom floor was covered in something else, i forgot the name of the material, it was similar to the one used in the operating room, so it wasn't that freezing cold in the morning. the heater in the room was not enough too, but fortunately, the bed was equipped with heater too. the kitchen was perfect to cook lunch and breakfast. but don't forget to open the window when you cooked since it was one room for all.

the letdown being in the old room was the breakfast arrangement. though the room was supposed for 4 people, we only got breakfast for one person per room. sucks. and the additional fee for the breakfast was quite expensive. but when we moved to the lodge, breakfast were free for all. unfortunately, my son didn't have the appetite to chew anything beside the honey cereal, and i didn't either, so the free breakfast almost went useless.

so, if you didn't travel with family or kids, probably the motel will be enough. since there were not so many attractions at mount cook. but if you had the money and opted for comfort for the whole family, your choice is limited to hermitage. it was okay, but a bit pricey for me.
this is the room in the old wing 

my son was in front of the heater since it was late at night and it was freezing cold