At Jakarta, I had all my meals in air-conditioned restaurants. No no.. don’t get it wrong. Not that I’m so well-paid to only spend my meals at air-conditioned places, but I wasn’t too comfortable with the road-side food stalls served in mobile carts.
Anyway, even in the restaurants found in shopping malls, I was still paying less than what I’m paying in KL and PJ. So, why take the risk :p
On the first day of arrival (arrived in evening), I didn’t travel out for dinner. Instead, walked out 5 minutes from Aston Rasuna, and came to Pasar Festival. There were a few common fast food names spotted, but none of my interest. Then, I decided to give Bakmi Top 17 a try. In Indonesia, Bakmi means “noodles with meat”. It is brought into their culture by Chinese merchants.
Ordered a plate of seafood bakmi and a cup of Vietnamese coffee. Looks good, but taste was normal. Not bad, but I consider it an average one.
Breakfast? Of course I had it in hotel lo hehe… Aston Rasuna was quite generous in the breakfast servings. Considering drinks, there were choices ranging from coffee, tea, fresh milk, plain water to 4 types of fruit juice (orange juice was served every morning). Besides cooked dishes, a wide variety of breads and cakes were served too.
My workplace was Menara Duta. There were 2 air-conditioned restaurants at the basement serving lunch. One selling beef satay, and another selling cooked dishes. For all 3 lunches there, I was at the restaurant selling cooked dishes. The portion of serving and pricing of food were good. For about RM5, I had a decent meal with a cup of fruit juice. I simply just love the fruit juices there - very very thick.
They served quite a variety of set meals. This, laksa ayam (chicken laksa) and a plate of rice, came in a set. Portion was quite big, as the bowl of laksa actually came with beehoon too!
The second evening after work, I went to Bundaran HI (Hotel Indonesia) area, which is surrounded by classy hotels and shopping malls, such as Plaza Indonesia, Grand Hyatt, Grand Indonesia and Mandarin Oriental.
Security of the malls at this area were very tight! All vehicles were checked, all visitors and bags were scanned too. But good, at least I felt safer :p I went to Grand Indonesia mall to hunt for my dinner. For that dinner, I had made up my mind to take Indonesian menu.
And I found Warung Kita, ordered Nasi Ayam Penyet and Gado-gado. I love the chili given, simply too goooooooood! Ayam penyet literally means flatten chicken, it was well-marinated and aromatically delicious.
I loved the Grand Indonesia supermarket, which is named Food Hall. There was a huge variety of imported biscuits, chocolates, snacks and drinks for indulgance. Most of them were priced cheaper than Malaysia too. Each bottle (small) of Heineken was only tagged at 9900Rp (about RM3). Undoubtedly, I stocked up my fridge with Heineken and enjoyed them every night.
On the 3rd evening, I went to Blok M by Transjakarta. I was shocked to see a huge crowd lining up at the Transjakarta Dukuh Atas station, one of the most important transit interchange. My estimation was, there were easily 800 people lining up for the Kuningan/Ragunan and Pulo Gadung transits. The rain had added a more chaotic mood to the massive traffic.
From the Blok M terminal, I walked pass a market, crossed a road by pedestrian bridge, and ended in Plaza Blok M. After scouting around, I finally decided to visit Noodle Cafe. As the name suggests, this restaurant is serving all sorts of noodles, from Indonesian style bakmi, to Thai, Cantonese, Japanese and Korean style noodles, to Italian spaghetti. However, I didn’t order noodles :p
Instead, I had a claypot of Saigon Hot Pot Rice and a plate of fish cakes. The Saigon Hot Pot Rice was very good; rice didn’t end up as porridge despites being served in gravy.
Now, it comes to my last night in Jakarta. I had decided to take my dinner at the Chinatown of Jakarta - Glodok. So, boarding to Transjakarta corridor 1, and headed towards Kota. The second last station, before Kota, is Glodok.
Ya, I managed to easily spot a number of eateries with Chinese words. Without any goal in mind, I simply walked around, and ended up at Jalan Mangga Besar 1. This is a small lane behind the main road. Here, many makan places were readily available within sight. I saw quite a number of restaurants selling frog porridge.
I went to this restaurant called Kamseng Restaurant. My objective of the night, was to eat pork in Jakarta 
So, ordered a claypot pork porridge with century egg and gohiong (lobak). Even though there were some Indonesian Chinese eating there, but none was speaking Chinese languge; all of them were communicating with each other in Indonesian language.
Next time if I want to look for food at this area, I wouldn’t stop at Glodok anymore. Olimo station is nearer to most makan places.
Opposite the Olimo station, there’s a bakery called Holland Bakery. Just a bakery, but the building is 4 floors high, impressive! Bought a few Dutch crockets for supper.
That’s not all. On the way back, I stopped at Sarinah station, and had a cup of coffee at Miko Cafe.
On the last day, before checking out from hotel, I went to Grand Indonesia again, to hunt for lunch A restaurant called Hanoi House caught my attention. So, had a warm-up a week before my Hanoi trip hahahaha.
At Hanoi House, I had Nem Ran Rau (fried spring roll with vegetables at 16000Rp) and Cha Ca (grilled marinated fish at 36500Rp). How can I not order Vietnamese coffee at Vietnamese restaurant? Yes, I had a cup of traditional drip coffee too. Excellent meal, all dishes I ordered were satisfying. In fact, so much better than the Vietnamese Kitchen in 1Utama hehe.
Well, this is not something that I actually consumed in Jakarta though :p But I was told that the ABC sauces are very famous. So, bought ABC Manis Pedas (hot & sweet chili sauce), Extra Pedas (extra hot chili sauce), and Kecap Manis (sweet soy sauce).
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Wah liao eh… so enticing!!!