Last month, we had buka puasa with several friends at a place called Masakan Rumah Bu Endang that serves traditional homemade Javanese dishes. The place is an old house turned into restaurant. Decorated in white & green, air conditioned with no smoking signs placed everywhere :) it feels homy & cozy. The owner, Bu Endang, is a very friendly person. She always talked to the customers & even handing us the cutlery herself.

We had dinner with several friends at Sate Khas Senayan Express in Artha Gading Mall. I like the design that still uses traditional elements mixed with comtemporary lighting, making the restaurant looks fresh, while still retaining traditional style. The menu is simplified from Satay House Senayan with several additional rice menus. We ordered nasi pepes combo 41K, tongseng sate combo 60K, tahu telur sate combo 41K, sate ayam bumbu pedas combo 37K, nasi gudeg combo 29K, nasi begana combo 32K, es coklat kacang merah 15K, es campur 15K. The dishes' presentation was very nice. My nasi pepes tasted ok, although not as good as nasi pepes tante liana. My friend complained the her sate ayam blora was cold instead of hot. Other than these issues, the dishes were decent. Maybe next time we'll stick to their best dishes: satays and Tahu Telor. :)

On our way home, we stopped by Bendungan Hillir area to buy some Lumpia Semarang from Bamboo ID. I've tasted this lumpia before, but didn't have time to take a picture, since it vanished quickly right after I put it in front of my colleagues. So this time, I decided to take a picture first before eating it. Since both of us feel very full, we only bought 5 pcs (30K) home. At first I thought I can only eat 1 or 2 pcs, but I ended up eating 3 pcs (SC got 2). It was simply delicious. There were no hint of the smell normally associated with bamboo shoots that usually makes me hesitant to eat Lumpia Semarang. We definitely will be back. Hopefully, they will open a cafe soon, so we can eat the lumpia on the spot instead of taking it home first. :)

Several months ago, on our way home, we stopped by a place located at Jl. Panjang called "Kafe Star" for dinner. The place look quite spartan but clean compared to the cafe2 tempat nongkrong we always found in the mall. They served a various selection of Javanese cuisine such as : rawon dengkul, rawon daging, garang asem ayam, timlo solo, tahu pong, tahu telur, racikan selat, garang asem, lontong opor, nasi opor, nasi langi, nasi bakmoy, nasi bakpuy, nasi lodeh empal, nasi pecel tumpang, pecel tumpang, nasi pecel, pecel telur, gado-gado, tahu acar, sosis kecap, rambak petis, and unique drink list such as : es lengkeng sarang burung, es dawet, es beras kencur, es asem off course they also got a normal drink list like es jeruk & friends. on weekend they also served : nasi liwet, bistik lidah sapi, botok teri, gadon daging sapi.

On the table there was a plate of traditional snacks like : sosis solo, and several kue basah/jajan pasar. we ordered : nasi bakmoy & nasi lodeh empal, 2 types of Lumpia Semarang and I ordered es beras kencur turned out I can't stand the Jamuish taste, so I swapped mine with SC's hot tea . The bakmoy and lodeh tasted good, but I don't really like the Lumpia Semarang's taste. it had a very strong 'bamboo shoot smell'. I had lumpia semarang before, but I don't remember that it has such a trong smell. What do you think?

Last week, after visiting some friends at the hospital, we decided to have dinner at Pesanggrahan. Since its already late, I only want something light for dinner, so we didn't looking for some fancy looking restaurant and just look for street food instead. We stopped by a small warung called "Rumah Makan Nasi Gandul, masakan khas Pati Jateng". my first experience with "Nasi Gandul" was at "spice garden" Sogo foodcourt which was quite expensive & tasted so so. So we ordered 1 portion of "Nasi Gandul Campur" & 1 portion of "Nasi Ayam khas Semarang". On the table there's a display of various "jerohan", perkedel, bakwan jagung, tahu, tempe, tempe bacem etc to choose to accompanied our meal. Overall our ordered tonight taste much much more delicious than the one we had at Spice Garden & very reasonable price too. We will be back there soon to try another menu like : "Nasi Pindang", "Tahu Telor", "Soto Ayam Kemiri", Mangut etc.. (nyam nyam bgt deh pokoknya) :)

Last weekend we had lunch at "Sari Asih" (CMIWW not really notice the restaurant name). The restaurant was located next to "ToKem" (Toko Kemanggisan) , its just a simple restaurant, didn't got any fancy interior :) the served Indonesian meal especially from Central Java. We ordered "Nasi Langi" (9K) and "Nasi Opor" (9K) with 2 glass of tea ( they used teh Tjap Botol ). In my opinion the taste was not bad, but I don't really like central java food because it taste too sweet. but if you are a Javanese & missed your home town then you should try this place :)After lunch we went to "Tokem", this is my first time here :P (quite embarassing since its very near to my place) and the items they sold was amazing, bought a pack of tea "Tjap Botol", Luo Han Kuo, some canned food (its much much cheaper here) hehehe :)