shapby

LJ has a thing on me. Every time I write an entry, either the page takes too long to load that I lose interest in typing anything, or my connection dies halfway. Anyways, I've been busy with business so I haven't caught up with other stuff going on in life.

I really feel like I need to finish that SasuHina fanfic of mine of FF.net 'coz it's been ages. It's a record-breaking half-a-decade so far.

I applied for the master's program back at my old college. I dunno. (In my head I'm like, "WTF am I doing?!", but yeah.) I applied for a scholarship abroad too, but I don't have much hopes in that one.

I need a moment to breathe. *inhales* *exhales*

I started this little series of fiction, gibberish lines, really. It's my usual romance genre. I was inspired by the Sasak tribe of Lombok. They say, according to the Sasak tradition, when a couple gets married, the groom must kidnap the bride for a night from the bride's family house. Yeah, that sounds perverted somehow. But it's true! So I made a series about a nomad tribe that had a similar tradition. So far, I have around five outlines done; the characters from each story intertwine every now and then. I find it rather oddly cute.

So what have you guys been up to lately?

No, not in a perverse way.

I've always dreamt of being a designer for my own brand. It started way back in elementary school when I started drawing clothes. Eventually, I enrolled in a design major in college. And graduated. I even worked as a designer at a corporate company for a year. But still, I wanted to run my own brand.

So I quit my job. It was a steady job.

I've been making clothes for half a year now. I took up a couple of projects from a friend. The pay, not so good. And it really didn't do much from the design point of view. But at least I did it on my own name.

I've had several joint projects before. But they never pulled through. I think it was because the secondary party was unfocused and didn't share the same vision as I had.

Now, I'm starting a new joint. I really, really, REALLY want this one to pull through. We're planning on opening a store at a nearby trade centre. Hopefully, it'll be open by next year. But these people I'll be working with... I just hope they're as serious with this project as I am. This is really what I want to be living off.

OH COME ON. PLEASE. SUCCESS. COME TO MAMA.

And those spam comments are so annoying, LJ.

I went out today, alone as I prefer to do so, and went on a smooth cruise to BSM only to find out that it's undergoing a heavy renovation process. Lots of stores were closed, including the stores in the front lobby, such as Solaria and A&W, stores beside J.Co which include Crocs (though the J.Co store itself is still open), and plus the not-yet-open Bakerzin and Sushitei area. Not to mention, the still-renovating Giant and UG floor. What a mess. Really. If this keeps up for another three months, that mall is so going to go bankrupt. Just look at what happened to Ciwalk--they took too long to renovate, and now it's, like, deserted.

In my mind, BSM had an interesting food court, but when I got there, it turned out to be quite limited actually. In the end, I chose to eat at Takigawa (Takizawa? Sorry, I forgot.) and I think I chose the wrong menu coz, well, what I ate tasted like Nasi Goreng Teri Medan instead of Kamameshi. With a LOT of ikan asin. (The picture had these huge prawns, the reality had none.)

I'm ordering lurik. Hopefully the fabric comes in before mid-October, coz by then I'll be busy with ITCC--the International Textile and Costume Congress, which will be held by, jreng jreng jreng, Kriya Tekstil ITB. Apparently, I'm in charge of the, jreng jreng jreng, food. If any of y'all are attending, leave a message and I'll ensure to get you an extra dessert at the welcoming dinner. Ha.

Everyone's freaking out on Oh In-Hye's orange dress during the red carpet of BIFF. Lol. That dress is so faux pas.

 A while ago, my sister discovered the brand Yummy, which is a dairy brand that produces all sorts of dairy products, from cheese to cream to yoghurt. And ever since, she's been experimenting all kinds of cakes, you name it, tiramisu, cheesecake, brownies, puff pastries, whatever. We once had cream cheese, mascarpone, single, cheddar, double whip cream, and milk at once in our fridge. We must be some hi-calcium family.

Anyways, when she makes those cakes of hers, she never cuts back on the recipes. So when the recipe says half of a friggin' block of mascarpone with a whole jar of whip cream, she goes bankrupt to buy those stuff and actually makes the cake out of it.

So, just yesterday, she bought some cheesecake from the famed Cizz bakery. This used to be my standard of cheesecakes, the texture is so soft, so fluffy, and the taste is just so sublime.

BUT!

It turns out we've been pampered by my sister's cake for too long. Cizz ended up tasting bland. We figured, of course, commercial-wise, it wouldn't be wise to use as much cream cheese in the cake as my sister would, but then the taste and flavor and texture had to be sacrificed. This is Cizz, peeps, the ultimate cheesecake cakery in town! I can't believe my tongue just went numb.

MY APPETITE FOR CHEESECAKES HAS BEEN RUINED. 

I CAN'T BELIEVE IT.

(mTT_TT)m

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A day before the beginning of the fasting month, my sister had to complete a survey for her college class reunion, which to my luck included test plates. The reunion was to take place at Lisung, located near Selasar Sunaryo, northern Dago, Bandung. And so, I tagged along, and Kak Riyadhi, a fellow friend of my sister's, drove us there.

Well, first of all, we had a short discussion with the manager of the resto, and when everything was settled, she ordered the kitchen to send out a few sample plates for us: beef teriyaki, grilled chicken, chicken salad, and kakap fillet. (What's the English word for kakap?)

The beef teriyaki was nice, the meat was very soft and juicy, but oddly this dish doesn't really resemble teriyaki. It's more similar to a blackpepper dish. The peppers were overflowing, though the flavor wasn't that strong.

The grilled chicken was interesting. Thin slices of chicken fillet were grilled dry, and garnished with mushroom sauce. The sauce was a bit too thick and salty for my taste, but the others enjoyed it without any complaint.

Chicken salad is apparently a bunch of pepper and lettuce, sprinkled with bits of chicken, and topped with honey mustard. The contents were fresh and refreshing, but it was rather unsubstantial. We were expecting more greens, tomatoes, carrots, corn.

Kakap fillet was good. The fillet was immersed in batter, covered with bread crumbs, then deep-fried. It came with honey mustard and a dash of lemon juice.

The dishes above were dishes that were not on their menu, since they were prepared specially for buffet events. Oddly, they taste better than the regular dishes on the menu. Aside from the taste plates, we also ordered some dishes from the menu, such as spaghetti bolognaise.

Spaghetti bolognaise was among the popular dishes on the menu. It had that little chef hat right beside the title on the menu. So we had our expectations. I think that was what blew it actually. The sauce was runny, bland, the ground beef was scarce, and the cheese was such a turn off.

I ordered a steak, Gusto Italiano, sirloin. I normally don't order sirloin, I hate fat. But I was curious! Oddly, the beef wasn't as soft and juicy as the teriyaki. That was sort of a let down. The steak came with mushroom sauce. You can request for barbeque sauce also. The win was actually the fettucine that came as a garnish, marinated in a mixture of cream and cream cheese. The dish is also adorned with fried hot dogs and fried mushrooms.

For the beverages, my sister ordered Green Day, which is a tall glass of ice blended vegetables and lemon, decorated with mint leaves and a slice of starfruit. This was very nice, very refreshing. Kak Riyadhi had Semi Sonic, which was labeled as a mix of espresso and Oreo cookies. He said it was okay, though it didn't taste like espresso at all. I blame the Oreos for that. I had something of the blended coffee variety, but I forgot that name. It's basically capuccino mixed with chocolate, topped with whip cream. For a blended variety, I thought it was quite strong, despite the sweet tinge.

While waiting for everything to come out, we also ordered fried bananas and calamari. The fried bananas come out hot, which was good since it was getting late. I think they used a cottonish variety of bananas, since the texture of the fruit wasn't firm. Personally, I like my bananas fried firm, not cushion-y. The calamari was cut ring-like, batter-and-bread-crumb deep fried. It came with the same sauce they used for the kakap fillet, lemon-honey mustard.

I just noticed that we tend to eat a lot in one go...

I've finally stepped down from reviewing at Onmel, but I do wish the community good fortune, better reviewers in the future. (Please, don't be like me! >O<) Haha, anyway, I'll be posting these culinary reviews I've had stored up in my laptop for a while now.

I actually visited this place, like, eons ago. And the pictures have been stored in my hard disk for, like, years. But, yeah, well.

90 Gourmet is placed on Jl LLRE Martadinata, Bandung, or more commonly known as Jl Riau. The place is nice, it has that nice ambience, with a lot of wooden furniture and low lights. It also has a skylight, so it's quite bright during the day time. The problem is the parking space. They have several spots up in front, but when we got there, they were all full. We assumed that there were lots of customers inside, but it turned out to be empty. In the end, we were herded into the underground parking area. So to whom do those cars belong to?! If they're the managers/owners' cars, sheesh, park underground! Such a shame to force customers to park underground for your own leisure!

Kimchi Jjigae: Nice, served in hot pot. The kimchi was good, but I think they added a tad too much salt into the stew, because I ended up with a headache afterwards. (Note: high-blood pressure effect, due to high sodium levels.) Love the variety of mushrooms.Mojito: The serving size was oddly small, and the rim of the cup was wide, so it ran out of soda pretty quick. It's more on the sweet side. And the wide straw made it hard to sip.Ebi sushi: Big no-no. The ebi was dry, the rice was glutinous. The only good thing about it was the wasabi.Asparagus rolls: I forgot what these were actually called, but they're thin slices of meat filled with asparagus, grilled and served with soy-sauce. The meat was a tad dry, and I'd prefer the asparagi to be a bit more cooked, but nonetheless, an interesting side-dish.Caramel Tea: T.W.G! This Singaporean brand is a reminiscent of Bakerzin's gourmet tea. (Which reminds me that Bakerzin is a Singaporean franchise, which might mean that Bakerzin uses T.W.G as well? Hm...) Anyway, this tea is rather more red tea (I call it red, for high-end tea, with light texture, low residue, and heavy aroma), than black tea (cheap-common tea, thick texture, high residue, and bland aroma--usually tampered with jasmine or rose scents), with an aroma, according to each flavor. The caramel tea had this light caramel aroma along with a slight hint of vanilla. It comes in a pitcher. They serve it un-sugared, and hand out Gulaku sugar sachets instead. Smart. (Btw, I like Gulaku sugar sachets, the colorful wrapping is so attractive.) Oh! And the cups! (Made out of light, translucent white bone!) Are so cute. Heart-shaped.

The price was pretty standard for places like these, the sushi was priced a tad below Sushitei's. It's the type of place to go when you've just received your monthly pay, not a place to eat everyday.

A friend of my sister's got back from Sweden and gave us a bunch of souvenirs. This cute key chain included. Love the glitter.


This was a birthday present from a friend. It takes the idiom the wolf in sheep's clothing (serigala berbulu domba) to a more literal level.