Chapter One Coffee & Cafe Medan

Located at Jl. Teuku Umar / Jl. Airlangga, this double-storey cafe looks amazing from the outside.. It makes you wanna go in and try.. I did, and were not disappointed..

For a start, Avocado Jelly, which costs around Rp 23 000 (if I remember correctly..). It’s a nice blend of avocado and chocolate, topped with jelly, chocolate bits and wafer. Yum!

We also had the new Apple Strudel: sweet pastry topped with cream, cooked apple pieces and strawberries.. So good..!

Seafood Crispy Noodle: Crispy Egg-Noodle (I think they fried it) with sweet-ish sauce.. Not necessarily healthy, but good for a change..

District 10 Restaurant & Bar, Medan

District 10 Restaurant & Bar is probably one of the most popular hangout place in Medan, especially for ‘modern’ adults.. They serve a variety of Western as well as Indonesian food to suit your taste and also cocktails, wine, beers to choose from. The prices are of the higher-end range but the atmosphere makes it worth the money I suppose.. Here are some food we ordered on the night:

Traditional Chicken Satay with Rice Cube served with slightly spicy peanut sauce. I would have this all by myself.. For the mains, we had: Chicken katsu with Rice  – good but personally the crumble were to thick, so all you can taste were the “crumble” part instead of the chicken.

Nasi Goreng Kampung: didn’t have this but it looks nice, and well presented.Grilled Scottish Salmon Fillet: Generous portion of salmon steak, cooked to well-done (next time I’ll ask for medium..), served with vegetables and grain mustard sauce. The dish was good but the sauce was a let down unfortunately – it was pretty much a buttery based sauce with some grain mustard..

Liberica Coffee Medan – Focal Point Mall

After several successful establishments in Jakarta, Liberica Coffee finally opens its first store in Medan, located in the new Focal Point Mall. Specializing in coffee (of course!), you can get various coffee-based beverages here: from typical espresso-based drinks, manual brew coffee, to coffee cocktails. In addition, they also serve quite a variety of food and snacks.

Crème Brulee latte: Latte flavored with crème brulee syrup. For me, the crème brulee was overpowering and thus you can’t taste the coffee.

Americano: nice cup of Americano, I like it..

Let’s move on to their food..

Spaghetti Bolognese: Minced beef cooked in sweet-ish and tomato-ey sauce. And let me just say that the garlic bread was just amazing!

Fettuccine Alfredo: Sliced chicken breast and capsicum cooked with creamy and cheesy alfredo sauce.

Homemade dinner – Fresh Seafood Fettucine

I must say, that I don’t cook often.. But when I do, one thing I love to cook is pasta dishes. Why? Coz it’s simple, elegant yet tastes just so good! Pair that with some grilled fresh seafood? Yeah, that made my night! Oh, and for dessert? Avocado juice with chocolate ice cream! Recipes below..

So.. we have:

A simple, light and healthy salad with Japanese sesame dressing (store-bought)

Recipe & Ingredients: Mix 1 cup of iceberg lettuce, 1 cup of purple lettuce, 1/2 cup of grated carrot, 1/2 cup of sweet corn kernels, 1/2 cup of cherry tomatoes, 1 tsp of sesame seed and 1/2 cup of Japanese sesame dressing (or suit to taste..)

Easy right? Now let’s move on to the main dish: Seafood fettucine. For this dish, you can use other types of pasta, depends which you prefer.. Since I didn’t have time to prepare fresh pasta sauce, I used what’s available in my fridge: store-bought pesto sauce, which goes with the dish nicely.

Recipes & Ingredients:

Pasta: Cook pasta of preference to al dente, stir in pesto sauce, seasoned with black pepper and chilli flakes to taste.

Salmon: Seasoned Salmon fillet with black pepper, salt & a dash of lemon juice. Let it sit for 5 minutes (prepare and pre-heat pan in the meantime). Pan-fry salmon fillet for 5 minutes each side (or more if you’d like your salmon all cooked through).

Cafe a la mode Taipei

Within a few minutes walk from Shida Night Market 師大夜市, you will find this cozy cafe on Yunhe Street 雲和街. On the menu are various pasta, risotto, salads as well as classic brunch dishes. Nice interior..
Kiwi juice: Brunch dishes come with a glass of juice and a choice of either coffee or tea.
Spinach and Smoked Chicken Omelette with Mashed Potatoes. I don’t have any complain, they are just as good as I like it!

Focus Kitchen 肯恩廚房, Da’an, Taipei

Stumbled upon this cafe one Sunday morning and managed to secure myself a table to try out their food.. Approximately 5 minutes walk from Dongmen MRT Station (Orange Line), this cafe focuses upon their food and service quality, which can be seen by their “open kitchen” concept. When you enter the cafe, you are welcomed by their friendly staff, and you can watch the skilfully-trained chefs preparing orders. Their seats are mostly on “lower ground”..

Bambi Bambi Brunch 斑比咖啡, Shida 師大, Taipei

Cute is the word to describe this cafe.. A short walk from Shida Uni you’ll find yourself in this nice, cozy cafe, and pair it with excellent food and service, this is a cafe to go again and again… 

Panos Cafe漢方堡店, Yongkang St 永康街, Taipei

Panos is a Belgian Cafe, serving various Belgian beers, as well as sandwiches, pasta and other light meals. For me personally, the food are reasonably priced and also quite nice. And the best thing about Panos is that they are open early! Sometimes I’m just so frustrated to find early lunch shop as restaurants and cafes here mostly open after 11 or even 11.30, but Panos opens at 7am, great! Here are some food I’ve tried..

Saizeriya Italian Cafe Taipei – 義大利料理薩莉亞

With several locations across Taipei, Saizeriya is one of the cheapest Italian Cafe I’ve encountered. Shida branch is my usual hang-around place and since it is located just a short walk from the university, it is jam-packed with students during peak lunch and dinner hours..

The food itself are.. well, you get what you paid for. Taste-wise they are ok, but some taste like out-of-the-can food. Having said that, the portion are generous and they have all-you-can-drink bar for only TWD39, how good is that?

Pizza and pasta are less than TWD100, grill menu cost slightly more but that is expected.. 

Dinner at Hannibal Robertson Quay, Singapore

A night out with an old mate, we decided to had a stroll at Robertson Quay. It was my first time here, didn’t even know this place exist (only knew about Clarke Quay), so I’m glad my mate introduced it to me..

Robertson Quay had a different vibe from Clarke Quay, thats for sure.. Compared to Clarke Quay, Robertson Quay is more relaxing, quiet, more like a place to enjoy a glass of wine with nice dinner with some good old friends.. So that’s exactly what we did!

We went to Hannibal Grill & Bar for dinner. Ambience was great, service was prompt, price was reasonable and food was of generous portion!