[Bandung] Strawberry Farm and Saung Gawir Restaurant

First visit to a strawberry farm. Yay to easy peasy activities! It was a peaceful bus ride to the farm. Weather was good and hopefully, there'll be enough strawberries for us bus load of people to pick!

scenery on the way to strawberry farm 

The strawberries are planted onto its own container and these containers are arranged in neat rows. So many of these sections all over the farm. Some are newly planted hence, either they are still green or very small in size. Walk around to scout for those ripe and bigger ones. Some say those nearer to the huts has bigger strawberries.

a section

select wisely

There are those straw hats that one could wear when picking the strawberries because you'd likely be spending about half hour bending over and selecting those that you like. A small scissor and a small basket will also be provided. Once done, just head over to the weighing counter to see how much it'll cost. Mine came up to about SGD4.80.

my pickings

There is a cafe next to the farm and one could get strawberry juice or strawberry milkshake from there as well. It has clean washroom plus resting area.

working hard for the next harvest

Nearby (about 5 to 10 minutes bus ride away), there is a restaurant called Saung Gawir so one could have lunch there.

interior of the Saung Gawir

Before lunch, one could take a stroll as this place has nice surroundings. It overlooks the hill and there are many interesting plants around it.

hill top dining

otak otak

Our lunch at Saung Gawir was Nasi Liwet. The rice was served in a separate steel pot and in it, there are some chilies. Our guide said that there are some coconut milk cooked in the rice as well. Oh, then it is similar to nasi lemak except that it doesn't have a strong coconut milk taste in it.

Nasi Liwet Set (to feed 4 pax)

The dishes for the rice was served altogether on a tray with banana leave. It has grilled chicken, lalapan (fresh lettuce, cucumber, tomatoes), fried beancurd skin, tofu and crackers. Its center was a dish of sambal.

On the side, there was an extra plate of fried indomie and one small whole fish ikan asin (salted fish).

fried noodles

salted fish

Communal dining with delicious dishes at Saung Gawir. This was our second most delicious meal after the one at Boemi Mitoha.

my plate

Saung Gawir Restaurant

Address: Jl. Raya Ciwidey - Rancabali KM.6, Alamendah, Rancabali, Bandung, Jawa Barat 40973, Indonesia
Contact: +62 22 85920675
Business Hours:
Daily: 9am to 5pm, Sat and Sun closes at 7pm

[Bandung] Kawah Ratu and Wilujeng Sumping Balibu RM. Khas Sunda

It rained in the morning and just before our excursion to Kawah Ratu. Kawah Ratu or also known as 'Queen's Crater' is located at Tangkuban Perahu. A trip to the volcano!

Our tour guide described it as an easy trek. It was quite tedious actually. Slippery paths due to the early rainfall, made it all harder.

interesting looking cooking cyclinder, so cute

It was quite a long bus ride to the mountain top.

a hotel in the middle of nowhere

going higher and higher

ok, this was where we left our comfy bus seats

ticket for shuttle bus to bring us up somemore

on higher grounds

anyone wants a pony ride?

he's so gentle

The pony was really gentle. Such soft silky fur on its body too. It only cost Rp50,000 to ride one. The handler will hold the reins and lead the pony around the area and for the last lap, the pony will break into a faster trot. Final burst for the finale! Hahaha!

mountain view

time to get down there

bubbling hot

The whole trip was us trekking down on a jungle trail with a guide, and towards the crater. Just need to watch where you're stepping otherwise, it was easy to fall on one's butt. Probably an hour to get down and once you're down there, it was basically relaxing and soaking the feet into one of those hot spring. The temperature of the hot springs in Kawah Domas varies. Some hot, and some not so hot. Mine was the not so hot ones, and hence, lesser people was at that area. Egg is sold and your guide will likely ask if you want some. If yes, he can help you to get some from the vendor and put it to boil in one of the boiling hot springs. The guide would also offer his service to help you massage your tired calves with mud.

After resting for about 30 minutes, it was time to trek back up again. Yes, what goes down must come up again. If you are too tired, there are people who would fetch you back to the bus parking lot area on a motorcycle/scooter. Yes, the transport service is available for a fee. It'll cost about Rp10,000 for a short trip.

saw this guy on the way back

The trek downwards started around 10.30am and we were back up on our bus at 1.30pm. All, in all, we walked for about 2.5 hours.

It was then time for lunch and we were hungry after all the strenuous exercise. The sulfur hard boiled egg did help to stave of some of the hunger pangs.

restaurant

lunch time

The food at Balibu consist of mostly fried items. By this time, I realized that for every meal, there will be lalapan which is essentially a plate of Sundanese raw vegetable salad served with sambal. Usually there'd be lettuce, sliced tomatoes and cucumber. The sambal chili is usually pretty powerful. Loved the vegetables in Bandung as they are so fresh!

The fried chicken and fish at Balibu were dryer than the first meal that we had. I liked the beancurd skin item. Satay was eaten with a bit of fear as on the way to the restaurant, our tour guide said that the people in that area loved to eat monitor lizard satay. Eeek..

Kawah Ratu

Address: Jl. Gn. Tangkuban Perahu, Cicadas, Sagalaherang, Kabupaten Subang, Jawa Barat 41282, Indonesia
Business Hours: Daily 8am to 5pm

Wilujeng Sumping Balibu RM. Khas Sunda

Address: Jalan Raya Tangkuban Perahu 423A, Lembang Bandung – 40391 Jawa Barat
Website: http://www.rmbalibu.com/
Contact: (022) 2789582

[Bandung] Boemi Mitoha

Boemi Mitoha serves up Sundanese cuisine (makanan Sunda) in Bandung city center. This restaurant was part of the tour package lunch stop on our arrival in Bandung. First meal, and yes, I was pretty excited to have a taste!

The place was spacious with clean washroom. Within the restaurant, there are taps to wash hands.

prospective son-in-law should buy (treat) food for the prospective in-laws

interior

food on display

variety of foods

As it was a packaged tour, we were served up with a set meal. It consist of soup, meats of grilled chicken and fried whole fish, crackers, salad, fried snacks made of corn, fried egg, rice and a hot tea drink.

lunch time

The cold soup "Sayur Asem ala Mitohas" was sourish and appetizing. Their version of grilled chicken was the most tender (relatively) that I've encountered while in Bandung. The fried fish was enjoyable with some sweet spicy sauce drizzled on it. The bakwan sayur (fried corn snack) was the item that I least liked. Lovely greens and powerful chili to accompany it.

Boemi Mitoha

Address: Jl. Ciliwung No.15, Cihapit, Bandung Wetan, Kota Bandung, Jawa Barat 40114, Indonesia
Website: http://boemi-mitoha.com/
Contact: +62 22 7279176
Business Hours: Daily 10am to 10pm

Sari Ratu Indonesian Food, Authententic Nasi Padang @ 20 Pahang Street

Pahang Street is somewhere near Sultan Street and Baghdad Street. Recommended by Indonesian colleagues and hence, we trooped down for lunch. The place was rather small and packed during lunch hour. Found out that reservations can be made in advance.

Left it in the good hands of my colleagues to order. Waiting time for a table took up to 15 minutes. To order, just go right up to the food counter and pick your choices. You'll be given a paper slip with the items ordered. Payment can be made later, after you have had your meal.

teh botol

For drinks, had the Teh Botol Sosro which is a popular Indonesian drink of sweetened jasmine tea in a bottle. It was a huge bottle at 450ml.

rice is served

The mound of rice is of a smaller portion, which is alright considering we ordered up a storm of side dishes.

chicken in gravy (gulai ayam)

The chicken used at Sari Ratu is kampung chicken, so the meat is slightly tougher. The gravy was smooth and nice to eat with the rice.

sambal telor

potato chips

The red and green sambal were rather spicy but so shiok to eat with the rice. The other stuffs that we ordered included telur dadar (omelette), terung balado (spiced egg-plant), ayam pop (steamed and fried chicken) and sayur pucuk ubi (cassava leaves in gravy). All were nice except for the cassava leaves which was quite rough and old. My colleague was also dissappointed in his ayam pop as it didn't taste as good as usual.

little bit of everything, jemput makan~

Our meal costs about $15 per pax. My Indonesian colleagues like this place quite a bit.

Bali Thai @ Velocity Novena Square

Last visited a year ago in April 2014. Here's the link to previous visit. This time round to try the set lunch.

it's been a year

table setting

There was just about four choices for set lunch. Priced at $11.80++ for one noodle or rice dish and a drink.

seafood phad thai with dracula? hmm...!

Had a pot of tom yum seafood soup to share amongst 3 pax.

seafood tom yum soup @$14++ (good for 3 pax)

The tom yum soup was good. Not the most authentic, but nice. Sourish with a bite, spicy with a slight kick. Plenty of soup left for one more bowl to whet the appetite.

mussel, squid, prawn and mushroom

The basil leaves minced chicken came out pretty fast. The phad thai only arrived about 10 to 15 minutes later.

basil leaves minced chicen

The minced chicken had a good interesting bouncy bite, with sweetish savoury sauce and plenty of chopped crunchy french beans. Goes well with the rice. Felt really stuffed after eating this. Pretty filling.

The drink that was suppoed to come with this set was the Thai Iced Tea. Unfortunately, they ran out of it, so had it replaced with salty plum which was basically soda water with a mixture of salty plum to be stirred into the soda. Interesting drink, but hadn't figure out why the rim of the glass has salt when one was drinking from the straw...

salty plum

You & Mee Noodle Place @ United Square

Located at B1 of United Square Shopping Mall. Place is smallish, and service was forgetful. The staff literally forgotten about our drinks, and the free crackers. Yes, one could get a pack of crackers (worth 80cents) when the bill exceeds $15.

cashier / drinks counter

80cents crackers

The number shall be flashed near the kitchen's service window, and it's self-service to get the noodles.

mee kikil @$5.50

Ordered a beef tendon noodles, which has some beef balls in it. The soup was clear as compared to the mee kangkung which looked darker and perhaps, more flavourful.

dark sweet sauce, vinegar and various chilies

Beware that both the red and green chilies on the table, are quite strong. The tummy felt hot after just a couple of dabs of those chili paste.

beef tendon

The tendons would probably be better if it was softer. The kicap goes well with the noodles.