Pizza Night

By Crivenica

Since I’ve been back to Jakarta, I’ve been eating like crazy! It shows on the scale and the tighter fit of my pants. I told myself that if I kept up with my exercise, I could eat whatever I wanted without gaining any weight. It was true up to a point, but not with the way I’ve been eating all the fried food, dishes drenched in coconut milk, rich creamy french food, and all the desserts!

I know I should get myself back into eating healthy and low calorie food or I would be back where I was 16 kilos ago, but sometimes I can’t help myself! One of my weaknesses is pizza. When I was in Kathmandu, I actually always allowed myself a couple of slices of the Road House Cafe’s roasted vegetable pizza a week during my weight loss program. But surprisingly, I can’t find a pizza I like here in Jakarta. 

There are more restaurants that offer pizza here from the big-chain ones to the more pricy italian restaurants, but none of their pizzas is really great. In fact, I don’t get this trend of cracker thin pizzas that some of these italian restaurants serve. I like my thin crust pizza, but not when it’s as thin as paper! So we stopped ordering pizza in restaurants and started a new tradition of home-made pizza night at home. Making a pizza is actually pretty easy. It’s just about putting all the elements together once you get those elements ready. Sure, it takes longer than calling for a pizza, but now I can get a pizza ready from scratch in under two hours. 

Since David just left for a business trip to Canberra, Australia, I invited my parents for a pizza night tonight so I wouldn’t get too lonely. I made two-sided pizza of pepperoni-tomatoes and the works with home-made italian sausage. Below is the recipe if you’d like to try making your own pizza at home.

L-R: yeast mix, flour mix, kneaded dough, dough to rise

Pizza Dough 

Makes two cookie-sheet sized pizzas or 3-4 medium-size round pizzas

400 gr     good bread flour (3-1/3 cups)

100 gr     semolina flour (1/2 + 1/3 cups)

1/2 tbs     salt

325 ml     tepid water

2 tbs        extra virgin olive oil

1/2 tbs     sugar

7 gr         dry yeast

Mix the olive oil, sugar and yeast into the water and leave it aside for a few minutes. Sieve together the bread flour, semolina flour and salt. You can do this directly on a clean smooth surface, or I just do it in a large bowl. Make a well in the flour mix and pour the liquid mix into the well. Using a fork, start mixing the flour with the liquid little by little until it was hard to use the fork, then start using your hands. If you have a bread maker or a stand mixer, you can do the mixing with that. Mix it until all the liquid and flour are incorporated and knead the dough for a few minutes until the dough is smooth. Form it into a ball and place it in a bowl greased with a bit of olive oil, cover with a damp cloth and leave it in a warm area for about an hour to rise. 

As you wait for the dough to rise, prepare the italian sausage below.

The making of Italian sausage

Italian Sausage

1/2 lb minced pork

2 tsp   fennel seeds

1 tsp   chili flakes

1 tsp   salt

a small handful of chopped parsley

Dry saute the fennel seeds for five minutes until they’re golden brown- keep moving the pan to prevent the seeds from burning. With a pestle and mortar or spice grinder, grind the fennel seeds and mix it well into the pork with the salt, chili flakes and chopped parsley. Leave it aside and prepare the tomato sauce.

The Easiest tomato sauce

5-6 cloves of garlic, chopped

2 cans of good quality plum tomatoes 

fresh basil

chopped parsley

salt to taste

Saute the garlic with olive oil until the aroma comes out, dump in the tomatoes with their juices. Crush them if they are whole. Bring to a boil and add fresh basil, season with salt. If it’s too acidic, you can add a pinch of sugar to balance the taste. Let it cook for 10 minutes in medium to low heat. At the last minutes, add the chopped parsley and cook for another few minutes. Set it aside. 

The pizza before topped with more cheese
and going into the oven

Prepare your other toppings. My favorites are sliced mushrooms, black olives and onions. By the time you’re done with those, your dough will be ready to check. It should have doubled in size. Punch the air out of the dough and knead the dough on a flour-dusted surface for a minute or two. Just before you roll out the dough, heat up your oven to its highest temperature. Roll the dough out about 15 to 20 minutes before you’re ready to use them. I use a 12” x 14.5” pan and with this dough I can make two pans of regular thin (but not paper thin) crust pizza. I would roll a half of the dough about a half of cm thin to fit the pan, and the crust will bake into about 1cm thick crust, just the way I like my pizza.

Before putting on the tomato sauce and toppings, pre-bake the roll-out dough for 3-5 minutes. Take it out and spread the tomato sauce on the surface, sprinkle some shredded good quality mozzarella cheese, then add your favorite toppings. I would put mushrooms, onion, black olives with chunks of italian sausage on one pizza and perhaps put some pepperoni and fresh tomatoes on the other. But since it’s your pizza, you can put whatever you want on it!

The pizza eaters

Pizza night is always fun when it is only David and myself, but it’s even more fun when we have other people over. Last weekend, we had our friends Ari and Shilla to join pizza night and last night my parents brought their friends to help me devour the pizza. Nothing feels better than to see friends enjoying the results of my work in the kitchen. So who’s coming next weekend?

Comet Cafe/Diner

By Lu

The Comet Cafe

I'm super tired as I'm writing this. I didn't even know if I'm writing this using the right tenses. However, I know some of you have forgiven me for any grammatical errors you may have found in any of my posts. I never claimed to be the expert in English grammar. I just like to write. I try my best to proof it, but I have warned you to not expect so much of me when it comes to grammatical perfection. Tonight in particular, please excuse me for anything in that fashion. Yet, I really want to write this post before I forget of how good the food was.

Last Sunday, I went to Milwaukee, Wisconsin, to visit my friend, Heather. We went to see her son, Parker, performed with his high school in the musical, "Grease." How fun that was! I was quite shocked because I didn't expect a high school musical to be that professionally done! It was fantastic and I thoroughly enjoyed it. I was proud of Parker who shook his booty and sang in front of so many people. Bravo, Parker!

It reminded me of my old love of singing. I was in choir my whole life until high school. In my senior year here, I was in a musical, "Anything Goes." It was a lot of fun too. I remember thinking when I saw "Miss Saigon," how cool would that be if my high school would have done that. I thought to myself..."I could be Kim." LOL - yeah, right. Yeah right for the fact I didn't have the voice for it; and, another yeah right that a high school would do a musical about a prostitute in Vietnam who fell in love with a GI.

Anyway, it was fun watching the musical and being at Parker's high school. It brought me back to my high school days when things were less complicated and life was just all about fun and new things. Coming back to reality, I was glad that the day didn't end there.

Heather had been wanting to take me to try Comet Cafe. This cafe is quite famous in Milwaukee because it was featured at "Diners, Drive-ins, and Dives." Guy Fieri was there and since then, the place is so popular. We tried a couple of times to go there, but there was always a long line out the door. This time, we were lucky. Well, also it was rather early for dinner. I didn't care since I'd rather not wait in line outside in the month of February in Wisconsin. Mild winter or not - it was still cold that day!

The place definitely had that diner look and feel to it; yet, it was super trendy. The diners' employees all had that artsy quarky look (hopefully that made sense). Heather and I chose to sit by the diner counter to get the full diner experience.

It took me awhile to ponder on the menu. It wasn't a big menu but I couldn't decide what I wanted. Parker was going out with his friends for some chicken wings; and, I had that thought in my head. They didn't have any wings in the menu. The menu consisted of mostly sandwiches. They had about 4 dinner items which were their famous meatloaf, turkey dinner, fish-fry, and mac and cheese. The lady that sat next to me got the mac and cheese and it looked wonderful. Yet, it was so big and I couldn't imagine just eating carb and cheese for a whole meal. I was torn between the Comet's Meatloaf, the Buffalo Chicken Sandwich (for the obvious wing obsession), and the Comet's Cuban Sandwich. After several minutes of flakiness, I settled on the meatloaf though I didn't really want it. I'm not really a meatloaf girl; but, I  thought I needed to try their specialty. I had a sense of obligation to report that to my readers here. See, I put you all first over my own desire.

The Chipotle Chili Soup

The meatloaf dinner came with a cup of soup. I had their soup of the day which was the chipotle chili. I really enjoyed the soup. At first, I was expecting just a cup of chili. However, I was pleasantly surprised. It wasn't like a regular chili. It wasn't thick and filled with meats and beans. It was rather watery - like a broth base soup. The broth was super flavorful of beef stock that has been nicely spiced. It had a pronounced tomato taste for the acidity. Then, the heat from the chipotle pepper hit me. It was spicy! I didn't think I have ever tasted a chili that was actually really spicy like this! Oh, if you don't know what chipotle is, it is basically a Jalapeno pepper that has been smoked. I thought the soup was really good and I didn't think I could finish the cup due to the heat; but, I did!

While we were waiting for our entrees to arrive, the girl who sat next to Heather was welcoming her food. She ordered the meatloaf sandwich. When I saw that, I thought I made the right choice for ordering the meatloaf. The sandwich looked fantastic. It was a tower of goodness as I saw from where I sat. On the bottom, there were two slices of bread. Then, the bacon wrapped meatloaf was sitting on top of it. Then it was topped by a ball of bacon chive mashed potatoes. Then, two strips of crispy bacon were placed criss cross on top. Then, some grilled onions. Then, it was doused by their beer gravy! Amazing! I couldn't wait at that point for my meatloaf to grace my countertop.

Meatloaf Sandwich...

Finally, our entrees arrived! Heather is a vegetarian, and she ordered the artichoke melt. One thing about Comet, they really cater to the vegans and vegetarians. Many of the menu items can be made into a vegan and/or vegetarian option. Heather tried the vegetarian version of the meatloaf sandwich in the past and she loved it. 

The Artichoke Melt

Heather's artichoke melt looked phenomenal. It was a good size sandwich and it was served with ample of fries. My meatloaf also looked delish! It was neatly wrapped in bacon to keep the meatloaf moist and at the same time flavoring it with the yummy bacon taste. I took a bite of the meatloaf and it was moist and tasty. They mixed the meat with a little bit of veggies and of course some ketchup. The beer gravy tasted perfect paired with the bacon chive mashed. Oh, they also served my arch enemy: Brussels Sprout. Well, one of the reasons I didn't really want the meatloaf was because of the Brussels Sprout. Yet, I also realized as I grew older, things that I didn't like in the past all of a sudden became okay to me. I didn't like mustard before. Now, I don't mind it a bit. Turned out, Brussels Sprout wasn't so bad after all. Maybe because they were cooked in bacon fat! That was a guess but I wouldn't be surprised if they did. They really love their bacon in this diner. According to their website, they serve homemade bacon!

The Meatloaf Dinner

Overall, I enjoyed my meal at Comet Cafe. I can always appreciate made from scratch food anytime. They claimed to be a cafe that serves slow food - all homemade foods cooked in their little kitchen. At times, when a restaurant was featured on a TV show, the hypes were bigger than what it is actually. I couldn't say the same about Comet Cafe. It was quite good. Plus, their logo is a rabbit. I love rabbit. It's my Chinese Zodiac sign. Perfect.

We have to come back and try their homemade desserts. We opted for Kopps Custard that night. If you're in Milwaukee area, stop by! They won so many awards not for nothing. They got some coveted titles like best brunch, best diner, best restaurant for vegetarian, and best hangover breakfast!However, be prepared to wait in line. If it's winter time, dress warm!

The Comet Cafe
1947 N FARWELL AVE
MILWAUKEE, WI 53202
(414) 273-7677

Road Tripping in the Middle America

By Lu

Sausage Gravy and Biscuits at Bob Evans. I didn't order this!

I've been a busy girl. Other than starting to write my first novel, writing for this blog, cooking and baking, I also have been working a lot and doing a lot of business trips road-tripping to many of the neighboring states. This week alone I was in three different states: Illinois, Indiana, and Ohio. There were a lot of hours of staring at the windshield for sure. This is part of my professional world - traveling by car to visit my customers. I think it's fun to drive places. At times it is faster than flying. At least I wouldn't have to deal with airport security and delays. I usually just get in the driving mood, wear something comfortable, get the coffee ready at hand, and jam with my ipod and rock on for the next five hours. By the time I would get to my destination, my voice would be so hoarse and raspy from singing out loud like if I were Adele.

The best part about going to the field was other than servicing the customers, I also get to hang out with our field team members who live locally. I love these guys. We've known each other for years by now that we're like families, if not good friends. Some I see more often than others. Some are very familiar with me and my interests while some didn't really know. Yet, I have discovered some great places to eat along the way thanks to my colleagues.

I was in Cincinnati, Ohio for the first time two days ago. I didn't get to see Mike very often at all, and definitely not in his local domain. He asked me to meet at Panera Bread before we went to the customer location so that we could have lunch and talked about our plan at the customer site. Mh, obviously, Mike wasn't familiar with my demand. He was waiting for me inside the restaurant. When he saw me, he smiled and asked me, "Now, have you ever eaten here at Panera?" I wanted to laugh out loud. Instead, I was being nice and just nodded. Yeah, I have.

I always tell my colleagues in the field to take me somewhere memorable and preferably a local favorite. I just want something unique. If I were in Louisville, Kentucky I wouldn't want to eat at Subway, Chipotle, or Panera that I could also easily go to in Chicago. It's an opportunity for me to just try what the local people have to offer. My colleague, O'Brien, had suggested Panera in the past. So had Jerry except that Scott was smart to know that I wouldn't go for it. If I did, it would be very reluctantly. What is it with Panera? Everybody seems to love the place.

Since then, I have trained O'Brien, Scott, Jerry, Joe, and Jeff pretty well in this lunching business. No cookie cutter generic restaurants, no national chains, and no fast foods. My old boss, Paulie, is also like me. When he came back from a trip, he would tell me local places that he had dined in. Some made me jealous, and some I just laughed at. Paulie at times pronounces things funny when he's not familiar with it. When he said he ate at McCrud or Mr. Crunch Chicken Shack it would be hard for me to feel envious about.

Anyway, here are some of the highlights of my lunches with the guys:

Jerry/Scott
Jerry loves the typical American food establishments like Cracker Barrel, Bob Evans, and Tim Horton's. I've never had Tim Horton's, or Timmy Ho we call it, before Jerry introduced me to it five years ago in Toledo, Ohio. It's just like a Dunkin Donut but Jerry swore it has the best coffee. My sister and I also love Cracker Barrel. We're road warriors on our own. In the past, we played a game in every road trip counting how many Cracker Barrel we saw along the highway and we screamed obnoxiously, "Cracker Barrrreeellllll!!" At times, when I drove alone, I would stop and text my sister "Cracker Barrelll." She would reply - "you must be bored."

After several trips, Jerry varied it up a bit from the Cracker Barrels and Coney Dog places he would usually take me. Last couple of trips, Scott and Jerry took me to a pie place called Rykse's in Kalamazoo, Michigan. The place was quite quaint and they served the regular menu items like in a family restaurant. When you came in, you're welcomed with a big bakery case filled with pies and it smelled home made. I enjoyed my sandwich and soup. The pie, I think I make better. The crust was hard as a rock. However, I think both Scott and I enjoyed the pecan pie filling.  Anyway - the bottom line is: it's not Cracker Barrel (though we had it the night before).

Scott took me to a good breakfast place in Grand Rapids, Michigan called Real Food Cafe. The place was small and very homey. We had breakfast obviously and it was fine. It was more of the ambiance that I liked. I was so relaxed there drinking my coffee and chatting with Scott about things in life. It was very very pleasant and a great way to start our day.

This last trip, Jerry had to make his mandatory stops at Timmy Ho and Bob Evans. He warned me that these two were nearby the hotel. I told him Timmy and Bob could fight it out. However, we went to both places. For dinner, it was so funny that he was yelping finding ethnic food places for me. I did tell his boss, Scott, for review feedback, that Jerry's one of the best in his field. The only thing he could improve would be his taste in food and he's definitely trying! I was so tickled watching him suggesting Mediterranean food to me and he wasn't afraid of words like Baba Ganoush! We ended up eating Chinese Food. Anyway - the bottom line is: It's not Cracker Barrel!

Hot Roast Beef Sandwich at Tony Packo's

He also took me to a local Toledonian favorite called Tony Packo's. I was a little worried at first because I thought it would be a fusion place. I remember a restaurant in Schaumburg, Illinois from a long time ago called Carlos Murphy which was a Mexican Irish place. Mh...yeaaaaaah, I didn't (and still don't) believe in such places. Neither did the masses as the place is out of business. But Jerry assured me that Tony Packo's would be great and right up my alley if I wanted to try something local. So I did. The place was a fusion alright. It wasn't a sit down, and wasn't fast food. They served coney dogs, German/Hungarian food, and just a definitely eclectic menu. I ordered the hot roast beef sandwich. Jerry got the stuffed cabbage and German Potato Salad. It was great! My meat was so tender and I loved the rye bread soaked in gravy. I din't even have to chew. If I grew old and lost all my teeth, I would move to Toledo to retire so I could eat this sandwich daily. Thanks, Jerry. Now, this is what I'm talking about. This one is definitely blog worthy.

We would be eating at  a Cracker Barrel and Jerry would ask me - are you going to blog about it? No, Jerry. However, now he has given me something worth writing!

Mike
Well, Mike took me to Panera. It wasn't all that bad considering he would want to eat lunch. I have a couple colleagues who are so preoccupied with work they would skip lunch. If Mike's boss was there, we would probably be hungry as the guy only eats once a day. However, when I was in Cincinnati, I took the opportunity to try Skyline Chili. Jerry was the one who reminded me about it. I have never tried it though I knew of it. Lo and behold there's one by the hotel. I went and got carry-out of the three way Skyline Chili which was Spaghetti, Chili, and Cheese. You can also do it four way which would be those three, plus beans. Five way would be those four plus onion. I'm glad I tried it but frankly it really required an acquired taste and I didn't acquire the taste.

Cincinnati's Skyline Chili 3 way

I love the regular Chili con Carne or the Texas style Chili with no beans. I like Wendy's Chili as well so I'm not a snob when it comes to Chili. I also make my own which I think is pretty damn good. This Chili was not a regular Chili I knew for sure. It was a cross between a ragout of Bolognese Sauce and Chili Con Carne with addition of a LOT of Cinnamon. I also thought I tasted Star Annis and Clove but this Chili was definitely very aromatic with those flavorings. I couldn't get pass the Cinnamon taste in this super savory dish. They also gave me two plastic bags that have been blown with air and they were filled with finely shredded cheddar cheese. I couldn't get pass the idea that somebody blowing air onto those bags to make them puffy like that. Germs! But I didn't really know the method they used to inject air into the bags. I also didn't know the reasoning. However, now I can say I've tried it!

O'Brien
I yelped about the sandwich place O'Brien took me in Minnetonka, Minneapolis called, "Ham Sandwich Shop." It was such a small place and I usually am not too fond of sandwiches. However, he had me at "Hole in the wall." I yelped it right away because it was so good. Here's the link to my yelp review. I don't feel like writing about the place twice. It's really good and I can't wait to go back!!
 

Jeff

I got Jeff trained pretty well too by now. He took me to a super wonderful place in Louisville. Another pie shop called "Pie Kitchen." It was super super yummy. The pie blew  the pie shop in Kalamazoo. I had another Pecan Pie which is one of my favorite pies of all time. This one was made with Kentucky Bourbon, like a Derby Pie with chocolate chips. OMG - it was just superb. Scott also loves Pecan Pie and wish he could taste this one. To die for. I had some pictures taken with my little Lumix camera. However, I recently lost that camera. I just couldn't find it and I have searched high and low. I had been switching to taking pictures with iphone lately because it's easy and I always have it with me. The 4s takes unbelievable pics and I am not ashamed to tell people now that I'm an iphonographer. My nice Leica is collecting dust and I didn't even know what happened to my pocket Lumix. In the Lumix, I had some nice pictures of the pie shop. Too bad. When I find it, I will post some pictures. For now, please go to their website by clicking on the name of the restaurant above (in bold) and take a look at their super wonderful pies as depicted in their copyrighted pictures.

Yesterday, Jeff took me to a local chain Mexican place in Columbus called "El Vaquero". The place was pretty good. I have never seen bigger chips served in their chips and salsa basket. Those chips were like half of a regular hard shell tortilla. They were humongous. They served the smallest chimichanga for lunch. It was so cute but it was plenty enough for lunch.

That's all for now. I'm sure I will come across new and better places to dine in through my business trips. It's always fun to try the local casual and quick service restaurants at times. Nobody can always eat at fine dining without appreciating the regular food people eat. I still enjoy my occasional Panera stops or Wendy's Chili. However, how great it is for me to have opportunities to try places like Tony Packo's and Real Food Cafe. There are several in the horizon already that I can't wait to come back to town and try. I heard all kinds of crazy thing about the Electric Cheetah in Grand Rapids. With that type of name - I'll go just to say I have been. Another place that I can't wait and hopefully my colleagues, Jim and Bill, will take me there next is Pappy's BBQ in St. Louis and Oklahoma Joe in Kansas City. Greatness! Yum!

I heard people making fun of the Midwest Cuisine all the time. I know food and there's nothing to poke fun of about Midwest Cuisine. It's not just fat, meat and potatoes all the time. Considering the best restaurant in the US is located in Chicago, you can bet your bottom dollar that there are plenty of good eating to be had in Middle America. I've experienced it firsthand and I wasn't disappointed in the least.

Intelligentsia Coffee

By Lu

My Latte from Intelligentsia

What a lazy Sunday afternoon today was. Driving down to the city with my friends for Vietnamese noodle breakfast, my friend CK kept on asking me "Lu, why you're so tired?" I wasn't. But you may have guessed that CK asked me because I kept on yawning. It wasn't because of the companies and the plan we were about to do. It was because I needed a cup of coffee.

I couldn't say I'm a coffee addict. I actually don't need caffeine every day. However, when I need one, I really need one. I have been shying away from mainstream establishment like Starbucks for a cup of coffee. I feel it is a shame paying that much money for coffee, and for about the same amount, you could get remarkable coffee like Intelligentsia or LavAzza. It's just too bad that there isn't any of these coffee shops by me. There's one bakery cafe, Labriola, by me that serves Intelligentsia coffee; yet, too bad they didn't make the coffee like the folks at Intelligentsia shop.

I remember my ex boyfriend, Jason, was so crazy about Dunkin Donut Coffee. I used to send him bags of Dunkin Donut Coffee when he was deployed in Iraq. I was in love back then and I played along. You know, when you're in love, you tend to ignore the not so good stuff and just use your inside voice to go euww. You try to be positive and find the good in the person. I couldn't stand Dunkin Donut coffee. It sucked. But I know a lot of people think that it's great. I guess, people have their own preference and there's nothing wrong with it. It didn't bother me that he liked it as long as I didn't have to like it too. I just happened to not favor it.

Well, you can tell that I don't really favor cheap coffee blend. They tend to be very acidic and bitter. I like single origin coffee or at the very least a really good quality bag of espresso beans from brands I trust. Some really good coffee won't be bitter and sour. Uh, who wants to drink sour coffee? If I wanted something sour - I'd go for lime juice based drinks like Margarita or Caipirinha. Not coffee...

My dad told me about why some coffee can be sour and bitter. He used to work in many coffee plantations when he was young growing up in Lampung, Sumatra. I'm sure some of you have paid big bucks for a bag of Sumatran or Mandailing coffee. He told me that the type of beans that are grown in big part of Asia especially in Vietnam is the sub saharan type called Robusta. It's the cheaper and more mainstream beans that are usually used as a filler or for instant coffee. The Arabica is the better more superior kind, but so expensive. Thus why, some coffee plantations will mix them just a touch to lower their cost and increase  profit margin. Thus why, when it is blended kind, mh...you can't guarantee the quality.

Anyway, by the time we got to Intelligentsia shop today, I was really happy. I haven't had a cup in awhile. I just had been craving a good cup that's not Starbucks or Panera or the Dunkin Donut coffee at work. I was so happy to be able to stand there and order my cup of latte.

Intelligentsia has shops in Chicago, Los Angeles, and New York. If you see one, do go in and try it. It's just simply wonderful. I don't know how  to describe it but their coffee is so smooth, so wonderfully made and just fuckin awesome. Pardon my french. I don't know much about their history other than a couple from San Francisco just decided to start serving great coffee in Chicago several years back. Thank God for them. I'm sure their website will have a history or about us page if you're interested. The only thing I remember from reading their mission was that they want great coffee to be revered, democratic, approachable and accessible. I love that but I'd say not accessible enough! Please open a shop by me!

Hand Brewing at Intelligentsia Shop

They have several ways to brew the coffee in their shop. They use the regular way of espresso machine, and they also have the individual cup being steeped and brewed by hand. Hand drip! Unheard of! I myself love making espresso the old fashion way using a moka pot and hand frother. They also have the beaker method like Alinea used for making the dashi broth (read my last post on Alinea) I love it when people take their time to produce something wonderful. I saw the guy that was making my latte, totally took his time. He filled my coffe cup right to the edge, and he made a little nice pattern on top on my milk foam. His movement was so slight and graceful, and it just made you sighed. Wow. Wow. Wow.

Because they do take their time, don't expect them to make your cup on the fly. It takes time to get your order done. When there's a line and you're in a hurry - forget it. Go back when you have ample of time. Last spring, a bunch of my friends did the March of Dimes Walk, and when we passed an Intelligentsia shop, we stopped for coffee. By the time we got our coffee, there was no more crowd of walkers to be seen nearby. They were also very serious about their coffee. My friend Kinzie one time asked for an Americano with some special instructions. They argued with him that if they did it that way, it wouldn't be good and meet quality though that was what he wanted. That was funny but I was actually happy that they wouldn't lower their standard without informing the customer for the possible outcome.

Mr. Johnny Kwang Kwang making coffee

When I took a sip of my latte, I tasted that non bitter, non acidic coffee that was just so smooth and creamy. It tasted like it should be a ten dollar cup of joe. I savored every gulp and I was just so happy. It's the best cup of coffee I had since Kopitiam in Indonesia and Singapore last November. Oh talking about the Kopitiam... I have been wanting to write about it. It's one of the best things I have done overseas and I loved it when my dad took me and my mom there for breakfast. We would go to this small traditional coffee shop where the guy was making the coffee in such an old fashion way with old apparatus. The coffee is strong and wonderful. He filled the glass half with condensed milk, then he added the strong coffee. It's a tad sweet for me, but with a little adjustment - it was the best thing to start  your day with. We also had soft boiled eggs, steamed buns and some toasts at times with it. I really really miss waking up early in the morning to get this coffee at Johnny Kwang Kwang Kopitiam in Kelapa Gading, Jakarta. I guess I don't only miss the coffee. I also miss my parents.

However, drinking Intelligentsia today, though it is a different type of coffee, it really satisfied my craving for great coffee. The coffee back home is 50 cent. Intelligentsia is almost ten times that. Again, I wasn't trying to be snobbish by not liking the Dunkin Donut and the sort. They're not cheap either. Buying those bags for Jay didn't break the bank, but it wasn't chump change either. All I am saying, if we have to spend the money - get the best one.

Well, we all have different preferences, likes, and dislikes. If you want a good alternative and want to try an awesome coffee by my opinion - try Intelligentsia coffee. Find location on their website by clicking this link.