I decided to take up my culinary experience up a notch. If I usually make delicious difficult-to-prepare food (such as Indonesian food) with the help of some ready made spice mixture, this time I decided to make things from scratch. Or sort of. The menu for today: lamb curry.
Remember in my review of 2009 I mentioned that I have this thing where I prefer my recipe books to have pictures? Well in that post I also promised myself that I would try more recipes from the books I have collected over the years.
And the first time I fulfilled this promise was by trying out a recipe from Rachael Ray 365: No Repeats
which I will print and staple on the recipe page 
Today I woke up with a bad flu, so my hubby and I took it easy. After breakfast we just hung out at our villa where I updated my blog. When the time came for lunch, we all went out together to a place nearby, just at the corner of Jln. Kayu Jati called GG (Grocer and Grind).
The restaurant was quite posh, it had an indoor and outdoor dining area. But even the indoor dining area felt a bit outdoor-ish since they opened all of its full size windows which was very nice for a sunny day. We took a place in the corner and ordered our light meal. (more…)
It’s vacation time! We arrived today a little bit delayed; although our airline had previously informed us that the schedule was moved up by 20 minutes, we ended up leaving Jakarta 20 minutes after the original schedule. Talk about irony. (more…)
I don’t really know what is the big deal about turning older. Lots of my friends dread their birthdays, saying, “Oh I am sooo old!”. For me, it’s a day to remember I have been blessed yet another year. 
And that day is today. This day I turned 33 years old. Or maybe I should say. this day I will turn 33 years old, because I was actually born at 23.15 so I am not 33 years old yet. But anyway… today was quite special.
It started with my colleague arriving in the office, carrying a birthday cake for me, which we cut and shared with other colleagues later in the afternoon. Then I went out for lunch with my boss, as we had a lunch meeting to discuss my work and the future. The day ended with dinner with my hubby at Brasserie in Kemang.
The chocolate cake was really good. If I remember correctly, my colleague got it from Dapur Coklat, but let me check with her again and I will update this post. In the afternoon she actually put on a candle on the cake and forced me to make a wish and blow the candles. Good thing she only put one candle on, otherwise the cake would have been on fire.
The lunch with my boss was at Loewy’s went pretty well. We talked about the possibility of an earlier departure since my hubby and I didn’t know when and where his next posting will start. We also talked about many other things, but most importantly (at least in relevance to this blog), the food we (or at least I) ordered was good. Actually from a posh restaurant like that, I expected more but I guess I probably also chose a more down to earth menu: chicken pot pie. So although this time the food was not so impressive, I would give it another shot. Since the dish came covered with puff pastry I took a picture after I have gotten through some of the pastry.
In the evening, as I mentioned before, my hubby took me out to Brasserie, a restaurant we used to frequent quite often when we first met. There was something about this restaurant though, that made us stay away for quite a while (according to the floor manager, we haven’t been seen there for over two years). And come to think of it, the last time we came here I think was on 10 March 2007 which was the first day that I introduced my then boyfriend (my current hubby) to my parents. So yes it has been two years, even more. The reason is, there is always something about the food. Although it won’t ever taste bad, but then the meat would either be not so tender, or there will always be small hiccups that drags them down a notch from being perfect. We must admit though, that they are very good in making chocolate mousse, and so far we have never found any other restaurant serving anything that could beat them in this category.
Since we knew the floor manager a little, she came and chatted a while to us. Somehow our conversation led to my hubby’s birthday and then led to the question on when my birthday was. Being caught in the spot (and I have actually lost the ability to lie), I had to tell her it was today. She congratulated me, and then took our orders and left us in peace. Or so I thought for a while. My hubby ordered fillet mignon, which he said was ok but not special, and I had the lamb chops, which tasted ok but was not so tender. But we enjoyed it nevertheless, and of course we could not leave the place without ordering their delicious chocolate mousse.
Just in the middle of enjoying our dessert, the floor manager came out with the whole staff (even the kitchen and the parking staff) to sing ‘happy birthday’ to me and presented me with a small chocolate cake. Since we were already very full, they were more than happy to put the cake in the box for me to bring home. It was a very nice surprise and quite heart warming.
So that was how my birthday this year went, and I am quite happy with how it turned out to be. And to top it all off, my hubby presented me with a very nice present: a Canon EOS 450D, which I have been eyeing for a while. I will certainly now start to learn more about photography, and put an end to the miserable photos on this website.
Oh and in case you wanted to visit any of the restaurants mentioned here, here are their addresses:
Loewy Oakwood Premier Cozmo Jl. Lingkar Mega Kuningan E4.2 No.1 Jakarta, Indonesia, 12950 Phone: +6221 25542378 Brasserie Jalan Kemang Utara 2,
