Jason Pirelli Tandean (IG: @jasontandean)

Coffee. The eternal drinks, the drinks of the gods (and goddesses). Have it black or white (with fresh milk, ofcourse. Sugar is optional, but when you have palm sugar syrup/gula aren handy, use it. Always) to boosten your day(s) up. 

I like it black with no additional substances apart from water and ice cubes. Bitter and refreshing. Straight kick to your core. I also like it white with milk both straight and with sugar syrup/palm sugar syrup. Bottom line? Yeah sure I'll have both. Problem solved. Life is too short to think which one you gonna have. When in doubt, have both. 

And it's a perfect excuse to use to ask your crush out. Thanks, coffee 

#coffee #espresso #coldbrew #latte #americano #icecubes #sugar #sugarsyrup #palmsugar #brownsugar #gulaaren #aren #icedcoffee #localcoffee #localcoffeeshop #localrestaurant #localbusiness #surabaya #visitsurabaya #visitjatim #visitindonesia

A short stroll to the other part of the city enabled me to finally try this hyped up (currently) Bakso Solo place. Bakso is a form of meatballs loved by locals here, compared to your classic meatballs that consists of minced meat and breadcrumbs, our version (Indonesian version woohoo 🇮🇩) consists mainly of minced meat, chunks of tendons (for Bakso Urat like shown on these slides), and a bit of binding agents (usually tapioca starch). 

I ordered 2 of their popular items, this one is Mi Ayam Bakso Urat Besar. Basically it's chicken noodle soup/ramen with jumbo balls on top (hmmm... 🤔) 

Noodle is springy, broth tastes light and savoury, pickles add a bit of freshness, stir-fried soy chicken elevates the dish by giving it the sweetness it needed and blanched greens gave it an extra crunch apart from those fried crackers thingy. 

For the balls (hmmm... 🤔), have a look by yourself how pretty it looks and believe me, it tastes awesome (for you who love chewy chunky textures like me). 

I finished the bowl, and before wondering why the empty bowl looks blurry, yeah i made it that way. To remind us that memories can be blurry but it lasts for a lifetime 😚 

Worth my effort to surf on the traffic and sunny + hot weather of Surabaya. 

PS: friendly staff here and the admin of @baksopaksarjuk.surabaya immediately reposted my igstory the second i put it online 😂 sukses terus ya mas2 ibu2 baksonya laku diserbu netijen 

#ramen #soup #noodles #meatballs #pickles #surabaya #bakso #visitjatim #visitindonesia #visitsurabaya

The first debut of this camera phone. Me and my big man (aka Dad) went for a quick lunch at one of the local's favourite spot. Simple dish, as it seems, yet packed with flavour and just enough to fill your tummy up for lunch. 

It's a plate of white steamed rice topped with a piece of curried tofu, beef, half of a hard-boiled egg, and soy sauce stir-fried glass noodle. We finished it in no time, so good that I forgot to snip the post-meal picture. 

I heard plenty of corporate folks, private functions of University students and those alikes ordered their lunch box for their functions. Surely with those massive, regular orders, it can't be wrong if we assume that this place is worth our visit, isn't it?

Second day of the week, usually the most hectic day of the week. Since the nature of our work is interdimensional and international (put it simply: online-based), we decided to meet up somewhere and work together for a new atmosphere instead of sitting in the office, and The Library @thelibrary.sby was our pick of the day. 

The coffee was alright, black coffee with condensed milk and palm sugar. Kinda tastes like Vietnamese Coffee, and the cup it was served in made me reminisce my childhood days. Good coffee and good ambient. 

The pizza, on the other hand, was disappointing. Frozen ready to use dough, with the size of.... small. Small and not impressive. Will definitely go back for the coffee and ambient but not for the pizza. 

PS: The owner or Manager, reached me out humbly to explain regarding the pizza and is taking my input very well. I love non pretentious owners/managers like her who are open for constructive criticism. I sincerely hope this place could draw more and more patrons to dine and chill instead of giving its business up =)

#coffeeoftheday #chill #localcoffee #localcafe #localrestaurant #palmsugar #condensedmilk #plating #coldbrew #cuppa #icedcoffee #plating #foodie #foodiesofinstagram #surabayafoodie

Sunday is an off day for the most of us, and it's a great excuse to go out and try some of great dishes your local restaurants, cafes, or FnB outlets might offer.

@onnihouse.sby is one of the popular, recommended spot by my fellow foodie and artsy folks. We ordered their umami potato and fries to share, apart from their signature house-brewed coffee. Food n bev apart, the interior of this place is so artsy, everyone wants to take some snips of it. I'm not one of them, so feel free to check what I'm talking about on Onni's official IG page. 

Umami potato was, well, umami. Thin n crispy pieces of crispy-fried shredded potato tossed in their special glaze, sprinkled with nori pieces and toasted sesame seeds. The fries was awesome, fried to perfection with its crispy crust and not soggy. Have it with the house-made dip, mandatory. 

The coffee for me, the classic all the time trusty iced Americano. Its bitterness was refreshing to me, and a glass of it was enough to give me the caffeine hit I like and need. Sugar syrup was served on the side, for you who might need it. I don't, I love it and everything as it is, be it bitter or sweet.

A brekkie session to start a beautiful day at @soto_podjokcitraland . Been a while since we had this session, there was a time where we had brekkie at this place on almost every day. 

We had the soto and lots of side dishes, as you can see on the 2nd pic. Soto is basically a traditional Indonesian chicken soup dish, clear broth and tastes comforting. Have it with a squeeze of fresh lime juice and a dollop of chilli sauce, give it a good stir, let the rice soak up those broth and off you go for a treat. 

The reason why I ordered so many side dishes is because, well I can. Seriously, have a visit by yourself and you'll understand why you could never simply come here and just have a bowl of Soto. You gotta have those skewers (beef tendon and braised quail eggs. Yum), freshly fried crunchy stuffed tofu (stuffed with veggies and glass noodle, dipped in batter then deep fried), apem pisang (local banana pastry), and a pack of pork and shrimp shiumai/dimsim. They still have the chunkiness of pork in it, love it. 

Yeah we (mostly I) finished all of those food, what a good start of a beautiful morning.

The second menu item I ordered: Bakso Urat Iga Gibah Gulung. Se pedes gibahan tetangga. Basically it's a chilli-infused meatball wrapped rib of beef served on bed of veggies and a pinch of noodles. Kudos to the team of @baksopaksarjuk.surabaya for the name. 

I have told you guys how I love the meatballs here. This dish just elevates it to another level. Chunky chilli-hot tendon meatball? Good. Beef ribs? Good. Both of them in one go? Divine. Enuf said. I don't even need to add any sauce to season the dish. And the Flinstones-like feeling when you try to have a bite of it while holding the bone? Will definitely make you smile while reminiscing your childhood. 

Oh, pricing wise. Have a look on the last slide and decide by yourself if the menus are overpriced, underpriced, or just right. 

#bakso #baksourat #igasapi #baksoiga #surabaya #visitsurabaya #visitjatim #visitindonesia #cabai #chilli #pedas #hotday

Coffee and some quite time alone are sometimes what you need to accomplish your tasks or simply to refresh your mind. Well that's what most people believe. To me, sometimes that's not always the case. 

Again guys, I couldn't manage to find the proper geotag for this place. It's Cafe Ludic in Surabaya, Jl. Raya Kendangsari No.97. @ludic.sub maybe you guys can work on it so everyone can start tagging your geotag on IG, for the sake of your business' exposure. 

Now back to the main topic. Having a powerful laptop (Gaming, preferably) means you have the freedom to work anytime and anywhere. Okay, heavy tasks that require massive computing power that no standard laptops or ultrabooks have. I was sitting there with my coffee (B1G1 promo at that time, I saved my second cup for later bcs I didn't want to bloat myself up before my late lunch with these folks), doing some work and refreshing. Slide 2 will get you what I meant. Of course, work for 1 hour and refresh myself for 2 hours. Hello college times, I missed you. 

By doing tasks I meant editing and rendering Video for my YT Channel, and by refreshing I meant playing Dota 2 with the cafe's wifi and plugged into its wall. Yes I do that sometimes (Ok. Often times). The place is comfy and cozy BUT the acoustic is a bit too much for me. As the layout of the room is so well arranged, a little change of sound/noise can impact heavily on your experience. The table next to me was talking quite loudly and laughing around, and I can hear them loudly through my well-isolated ear canal (by my TWS earbuds). Coffee is okay, similar to those with the same price range. No waiters here, you place your order on the cashier counter and they'll call you when your order is ready. 

I like the place and experience, overall. Just some minor inputs and I hope I will be able to visit you guys again sometimes. As I said on my previous coffee post earlier, always have one. Nothing could go wrong with it. Or am I? 

#coffee #cafe #latte #aren #palmsugar #milk #gaming #predator #dota #dota2 #logitech #logitechg #jabraeliteactive65t #localbusiness #surabayafood #surabayafoodies #foodphotography #refreshing #visitsurabaya #visitjatim #visitindonesia

Another weekend well spent with my trusty lil sis @joshadeline . Remember a few posts back where we end up having some unpleasant meal of kwetiau capcay, bad service, overly sweet syrup drink? Finally today we had the chance to actually go to Depot Family, kudos to sis for pulling my lazy butt to have their special Hokkien Noodle (dry noodle with all of the house made toppings). Do check my Instagram @jasontandean to see more food posts.

A portion consists of a bowl of well cooked, springy thin noodles topped with varieties of fishballs, 2 prawns, minced beef+pork cooked in soy sauce, 2 fritters/fried balls and a bowl of soup + condiments on the side. 

Taste? Way better than what I had previously in that other place. This is a home-restaurant which means the owner literally converted a part of her house to accommodate dining customers. Home-made would be an appropriate statement to be used here, and I'm not exaggerating. Tastes like home and worth the effort to drive around in the housing complex in order to find this restaurant. 

Fishballs' textures are nice and chewy but not too chewy, prawns are fresh, fritters are crispy on the outside and chewy on the inside. Add a dash of chilli sauce and pickled chilli before taking a bite in order to get the most (flavour) out of your bowl. What about the soup, you say? Well it's optional for me, most of the time I don't have it as I prefer my noodle to be dry noodle, as gorgeous as it is.

What a feast. The place to have a meal shared with your mates and/or family. We are here to celebrate the new beginning of mr. @leonyaphar (career, guys) altho a bit sad since from around 10 invitees, only 4 of us can make it :( 

Fried sauteed Spam/luncheon meat, la ci ci (i know i don't spell it right. Basically it's a fried crispy chicken pieces flash fried with chilli and sichuan pepper and whatever), tomato omelette, and sweet and sour pork. Damn they were all tasty dishes. Have the Chinese tea, hot, for your bev as nobody wants to clog your arteries aye? 

The spam meat tasted even better when cooked this way, with some crunches from the carrots and onions plus the fragrance of fried garlic chips. The chicken, altho are not boneless, tastes comforting to me thanks to its sichuan pepper and onion. Tomato omelette, @leonyaphar loves it and insisted the missus @jennifernatashaa to have some spoonful of it. The champion, for me, is the sweet and sour pork. Crispy and chewy at the same time, with its sweet and sour sauce that tastes not too sweet, perhaps they salted it a bit or even throw in some MSG. I don't mind. Tastes good. 

A bowl or two of steamed rice is mandatory since you need something to neutralize your tastebuds, forget about diet when you dine in this place. It can start tomorrow or whenever, just enjoy and savour the moment. I personally have some pleasant (and sweet, memorable) memories here, this occasion adds another one in my book. 

Good luck and have fun out there, Bang Yaphar @leonyaphar . We may not work within the same team/company anymore, but let's go out and have some meals together, on our way to our goals. 

#chinesefood #pork #chicken #eggs #egg #omelette #rice #savoury #sichuanpepper #onion #garlic #foodie #foodies #foodphotography #foodhunter #plating #tea #surabayafoodie #surabayafood #visitsurabaya #visitjatim #visitindonesia #wonderfulindonesia