food review : la rucola

yeyy.. finally i got to eat here! this was supposed to be our 2nd anniversary, but since our schedule were unpredictable, my husband suddenly asked me out this afternoon! well.. without no further ado, let's talked about it!

from the parking lot, you could see what kind of people eating here. my car was the cheapest one (compared to others..). even the parking officer wasn't sure when i gave sign, whether i was going to eat there or taking left turn. well, inside it was quite hot, giving they had air conditioner inside. i was wondering how they separated the non smoking with smoking room since everywhere was the same, no different air circulation. blah. but luckily, no one was smoking, well, there was one, but we've already finished by the time he was smoking.

menu. everything was italian cuisine. no other dishes, not like cafe pisa which still gave other option. so, if you planned to bring you nanny or other helper, you have to make sure that they could eat pizza at least. the menu was differentiated into 4 groups, like italian tradition. the appetizer (oh, and there were carpaccio too.. ), first course, second course and dessert. the main courses were pastas, steaks, and pizzas. i've read online that their pizza was good, so i had to try them.

my husband arrived late so i got the chance to look at the menu quite long enough to make up my mind. we would order one pizza, and then if he was having a steak, then i'll order a pasta. and we had it that way. we ordered a ham and mushroom pizza, my husband ordered a beef steak with mushroom sauce, and i ordered fetuccini but i forgot how they cooked the meat, but i remembered it was beef, rosemary, parsley and creamy sauce.

the pizza was okay, it was thin and crusty, unlike pizza hut's pizza. but the tomato sauce was refreshing. overall, it was a nice pizza, but not too satisfying so we could still eat our main courses. the steak was juicy and tender. the sauce was a little bit salty, but i liked it. very similar to beef gourmet's and stevan's. but the salad was blah. we agreed that twitzel's was way better than that. and my pasta, the fetuccini was cooked al dente, but i forgot to tell the waitress that i didn't like too much pepper, and the meat was too hot for me. and it wasn't creamy enough for me. and i thought it was pretty weird, since they didn't have alfredo pasta in their menu. did they worth the money? i thought cafe pisa was a better choice for me. but if the liquor that made you eat there, then probably la rucola won, since they had so many choices of liquor, from beer to wine.

ham & mushroom pizza

beef steak with mushroom sauce and salad

beef fetuccini, with rosemary in creamy sauce

food review : sushi hana/ sushi mori

warning: this is just for sushi lover. they had dishes other than sushi, but i loved their sushi, so i didn't know about the other dish.

first, why i put sushi hana and sushi mori on the title because at first, they were the same, and then probably the owner separated and decided to change the name a little bit. so far, i knew sushi hana was on ruko darmo permai (near papaya), sutos, east cost food festival, while sushi mori was on ruko at dr soetomo. i've tried them all, and i could say they tasted nearly the same.

they had appetizer, sushi and sashimi, ramen and soba, and bento or dinner. my husband once tried their beef teriyaki dinner, and he liked it. he said it was sweet like he wanted it to be. but my mum once tried their ramen and she didn't like it. she liked tong-tong's better. and the appetizer, we've tried the fried soft shell crab, tempura, and i forgot what else, but we liked them.

about the sushi.. there were many choices to pick. from raw to cooked sushi. but i liked them all. all time favorit? probably spider roll, rock n roll, and caterpillar roll. oh, and i loved their baked salmon, but i didn't like the baked scallop. check out for yourself..!

for moms to be

i just found out that one of my good friends is expecting! yay! but turned out that she had a lot to think, even though she had 2 sisters to talk to. i remembered when i was expecting myself, i got only me and my husband, and he let me decide almost everything. and i had no sister to talk to since they were in singapore and had no idea about motherhood. and my mom gave up too.. she said, today was way much different from her old days. so i guess, i wanted to share something to help moms to be out there..

how to pick an OG doctor:
personally, i was not picky about the doctor. as long as i knew he/she was okay (referring to my med school days), i had no problem. i didn't pick a female doctor, because some of them were quite new and people said female og usually more strict than males og. but if you didn't comfortable being examined by male doctor, then you should find female one. i guessed these days female og's were getting bigger in number, so i wouldn't be difficult to find them.
other factor that i considered in choosing the doctor : could he/she practiced in the hospital that i chose to give birth at. since i picked RKZ the place to give birth, i had to make sure that my doctor could practice there. and last factor: did he/she practice in hospital? this was pretty important for me, since i didn't want to wait a hell long time just to get my antenatal care. for your information, practice time in hospital were limited so there won't be a long line like in private practice. i would bored my husband to death if he had to accompany me to the private practice.
based on that criteria, i picked doctor pudjo, first since i knew him back in my med school days (he was my teacher), and he practiced in RS Premier which was close to my husband's office so we could eat outside after the check up, hehehe.. and since dr pudjo was a consultant, he could practice in RKZ too.. oh and the way to give birth. i chose natural delivery, so if dr pudjo couldn't make it, the midwives could help, but if you had to do a caesarean, you would probably pick more than one doctor, in case your doctor couldn't make it on the day you were supposed to give birth.

how to pick a pediatrician:
fyi, i separated my pediatrician in two, one for checking the baby after being delivered, and one for permanent check up, vaccination, and stuff. since i didn't know RKZ pediatrician and i forgot which mitra pediatrician who also practiced there, so i decided to just pick a RKZ pediatrician. since i believed there wouldn't be any problem with my baby. then i would pick another pediatrician, closer to my home for check up, vaccination, and stuff. i picked mitra doctors since i knew them well, and i also believed that my baby would be just fine. and turned out, so far he only needed his vaccination. he only got flu twice so far. so, if you wanted to pick only one doctor, you had to find out, where did he practice, could he also help in the hospital when you were giving birth (especially for those who had to do caesarean), and how he dealt with baby illnesses (did he give antibiotics so easily? did he believe in breastfeeding exclusively? and most importantly could you have a comfortable communication with him?).

about the hospital:
my criteria for hospital was the baby room's nurse quality. i believed the RKZ nurses were more capable in handling babies than mitra's. and i needed them to teach me how to take care of my baby. fyi, i was alone after giving birth. my mom had some business in the church, my mom in law was away, and i didn't have babysitter yet. so i had to understand how to take care of my baby from the very first day. and i doubted that mitra's nurses would dare to teach me. another criteria was whether the hospital offered "rawat gabung" or not. it was pretty important, especially if you wanted to breastfed exclusively. and also location. even though i picked a hospital farther than RKZ, i wouldn't give birth en route, but i had to think about my husband and family and friend who wanted to visit me. that's why RKZ was an ideal choice. it wasn't that far from my house, and my family, but it was also not far from our friends. and the price was okay for us.

another thing to think for now: breastfeeding.
i only prepared myself for breastfeeding just only for the first few month, and i just read from the internet, and it wasn't enough. i freaked out when i found out that my breastmilk didn't come out at the first day, but the nurse assured me that it was okay. if only i knew about those organization that helped new moms who were clueless about breastfeeding, i would be more relaxed than i were. for you who wonder about breastfeeding, just find AIMI in twitter. they even had private consultation at your home!

hopefully, this post will help you..

food review : hakkata ikkousha

we have tried this one before, but since i liked tong-tong better, we never went back again. but yesterday, my husband was craving for warm and soupy noodles, so we went there again since tong-tong hasn't opened yet. here in hakkata ikkousha you had to wait for them to seat you. on our first visit, matthew was still a newborn, maybe just a month or two, and we had no babysitter at that time, so they let us wait inside. and even we got the bigger table. and the owner arranged for our food to come out one by one, since one must took care of the baby while the other ate. that's a pretty considerate owner! we were impressed. but the food didn't impress us much. it was too salty for our taste.

yesterday, since the ramen selection was more than our first visit, we had more option to choose. my husband tried their pork tam-tam ramen, and i tried their pork light ramen. i now noticed the difference between tong-tong and hakkata. in tong-tong, the soup was clear and only seasoned with salt or shoyu. but in hakkata, the soup was a stock of pork, that's why it was salty. my husband also ordered pork ribs. the ramen was still salty, but it was okay. i still prefer tong-tong though. the ribs was okay, but nuri's was way better. hahaha.. probably because i was too accustomed to western's ribs.

the menu was mostly consisted with ramen, and other noodles, and ribs and fried food like tempura. the don choice was limited also. and there was no sashimi or other raw food, which was weird for japanese restaurant. ah well, my husband said that they were real. back in japanese, he saw some ramen like ones from hakkata, so probably if they said we're the 3rd branch from japan, it'd probably true.

sooo.. if you wanted to try cooked japanese food, hakkata was a good place to go. but for me, stil tong-tong numero uno for ramen!

That's my pork ramen light.

That's the pork tam-tam ramen.

And that's the pork ribs

*update* couple days ago my husband suddenly craved for ramen, and we ate there again. this time i ate the pork shoyu ramen. according to the explanation, it was similar to tong-tong's chasiu wangtangmen. but minus the wang tang aka dumpling. the difference between those two was the soup. tong-tong's soup was clear and all was shoyu plus water. while hakkata ikkousha's was a mix between stock, probably pork, shoyu and water. no wonder it was saltier than tong-tong's. oh, and by the way, i started to like hakkata ikkousha, but tong-tong still win my heart.

food review: bentoya

okay.. it's time to review japanese food again. for those who never tried japanese food, i suggested to try at bentoya. for me, it was friendly to indonesian's taste. and they had a pretty good food variation to offer, from bento, don, fried rice and noodles (in japanese term, yakimeshi and yakiramen/udon), and sushi-sashimi. they also had snow ice! let's review on by one.

bento: this was a complete package and a subtle one to try on your first japanese food trial. it was a lunch box consisted with rice, choice of your meat fried or grilled, and some side dish like salad. since the spices only in the meat, it was a pretty good start to try japanese. and most indonesian loved fried foods, so that's why i recommended bento.

fried rice/noodles : if you wanted a little bit more, probably fried rice/ noodles was the best choice. you got to taste the spices more, and find out about japanese style-fried rice/noodles. it might look like indonesian's fried rice/noodles, but trust me, they used their own soy sauce, so it tasted different.

ramen/udon soup: if you didn't like non soupy food, probably you would like to try their ramen/udon soup. personally, i never tried them, so i couldn't say anything about them. but my mom did, and she didn't like it. she liked tong-tong's ramen more. so.. try at your own risk.

don: this was another version of rice dish. it was rice cooked together with meat, egg and onions. i liked their chicken katsu don and chicken teriyaki don. my brother often ordered their tempura don. it just a matter of meat choice. for me, their katsu don was a comfort food for me. it was warm and satisfying.. yumm.. but if you didn't like onion too much, you could ask them to spare the onion. sometimes i did that too...

sushi and sashimi : well, sashimi wouldn't differ much from any other japanese restaurant, just in cutting process. but for sushi, bentoya sushi were totally indonesian-modified sushi. and i prefer their sushi before the last one. so, right now, i disliked their sushi. but for a beginner, they would find their sushi suitable for their taste. my recommendation: tokyo dome and superball. they still tasted the same from the first. but for other sushi, they've already changed.

okay... i think that's all. the other food was fried food, so i didn't need to review them.

food review : beef gourmet

steak lovers.. prepare yourself. i have eaten in stevan meat shop for 2-3 times, so i decided to persuade my husband to try beef gourmet. as beef gourmet was already there before stevan, and so many people said that their steaks was yummy, so i wanted to make sure myself.

like stevan, the restaurant had a small supermarket inside, especially for meat, poultry, seafood, and the other food products. the minimarket was bigger and more complete than stevan's, so if you only wanted to buy some meat and didn't want to eat there, i suggested you go there instead of stevan. they had more choices to picked from. and as for the restaurant, they were side by side with the minimarket, and it was decorated with pictures mostly from musical department, not only international musicians, but also some domestic musicians.

at stevan, i didn't order anything beside steak, but at beef gourmet, i tried their pasta carbonara. sorry i didn't take any picture because my son was running around and already starving when they served the pasta. it was a decent portion of pasta, with salad on the side and a pretty big garlic bread. my son loved their garlic bread. but i hated the salad. it tasted like raw vegetables. their dressings didn't help much. my husband ordered their rib eye steak. i forgot which kind.. , again. sorry.. but the meat was juicier at stevan's. perhaps because they cooked it on hot stone back in stevan, but they didn't have that option at beef gourmet. and the meat was a little bit salty for my taste.

if i wanted some pasta and other dishes, i would like to go back to beef gourmet, but for steak, i would definitely go back to stevan.
https://foursquare.com/v/beef-gourmet/4f78549ae4b0948937489467

series review : elementary

this was another series that i found interesting to watch. since i had to wait for my ordinary series' new season to come, i decided to look for a new series. the other was person of interest, which i had blogged earlier. and this one was elementary. it was a new take for sherlock holmes.

holmes was still a british man in this series, but with previous drug addict history. that's why, he was accompanied by his famous companion, dr.watson. but here's the spin, the dr.watson was not a man, but a lady doctor. and she was a doctor, but now she worked as sober companion. hence, she could be holmes' companion due to her work as a sober companion thanks to holmes' father. together they consulted by the NYPD force, whose captain was a friend of holmes back in the scotland yard days. they solved homicide and many other mysteries with holmes ability to deduct things from surroundings. i was watching it as an ordinary detective series, that's why i was surprised they even dragged along irene adler and the notorious M aka moriarty along in this series. adler was holmes' girlfriend who was killed by moriarty. the plot didn't seem to change much from the ordinary series. but who would know? i just watched half of it. but it was a pretty interesting series to watch. especially if you like murder case and eccentric primary role like holmes. oh, i didn't recognize the main actor that played holmes, but i did know lucy liu who played joan watson.. how exciting!