Midnight Croissants

I don't mind staying up all night baking 360 croissants. It might sound like a nightmare to some, but that heart-pumping night was what I've been looking for these past few months, and I'd do that again in a blink of an eye.

Last Sunday, was truly magical. This is a reminder to myself to let go of the mundanity and embrace change and challenge. If you never challenge yourself, you will never know what you're capable of doing. Every day is an opportunity to stretch your potential!

Let's start baking again!

Eat Art Loud: Jakarta Bazaar!

It's pretty cool how there's pop up events here and there in Jakarta. I don't know if it's a regular thing or not but I'd say let's just keep them coming. 

Eat Art Loud by I Love Bazaar Jakarta is the 2nd food bazaar event I visited in the last month or so, and this time round, I went with my little foodie cousin - just because he understands how important it is to taste every single thing that looks good.

Well, not every single thing, but we went through most of it, and here's the top 5 that made it on my list... There were others worth mentioning, but these 5 caught my tummy's attention the most.

Let's cut the chase, here's the ramen burger from Geram. I got nostalgic when I saw this because it reminded me of the one I had at the Brooklyn Smorgasburg last Summer... But this one from Geram was perfectly seasoned and it tasted twice as good. Awesome job right there! :)

Ichitori is by far the best thing just because it's fried chicken and you get to choose your sauce. We especially loved it with honey mustard and tonkatsu sauce... 

Deep down, I think they should make curry sauce!!! Strange? Maybe it's just me but I can totally imagine myself dipping these into the curry sauce from Singapore's McD...

We went all green with MAMAGO! This is half Pandan with Nutella and half Green Tea with Cheese! The Nutella makes it messy to eat since we're tearing them piece by piece but you can always take a big bite instead...

And if you're thinking that green tea with cheese sounds weird, it's really not! The cheese actually gave me something to contrast the green tea with... and yes... THE GREEN TEA WAS SUPER STRONG! And it came through like a punch in my face.

YAY!

We bought this little cup of french fries with bbq seasoning from Potato Land because we used to ice skate in Mall Taman Anggrek back in the days and this was our to-go snack in between breaks. I don't ice skate there anymore, but maybe my little cousin still does? I don't know.

However the case, it's another nostalgic purchase for me.

The first time I had watermelon and mint juice was at Food For Thought in Singapore, and since that day, I still couldn't erase that taste from my memory... so of course I was super super super super happy when I found out that Euphoric Juice makes this magic red juice!! I think I kinda squealed in my head for a moment...

Super thumbs up! I came back to buy another bottle to take home after I finished my first bottle!

We also bought a cookies & cream pudding from Milky Way, bubble tea from The Lab, panna cotta, Coconut ice cream from Ke La Si, marie regal, and milo eclairs...

Went home with a happy tummy and hope there's more pop ups / food bazaars coming up soon!

Flavorful Fridays

So many things have been happening in such a short period of time these few weeks, but I can finally see the light at the end of tunnel. Here's what's up...

1. Have you met this little miss fluffy? She's Coco and I recently created an Instagram account for her. It's @misshoneydecoco and you can browse #honeydecoco to see more pictures of coco since she was 3 months old. She can be quite a bossy little princess sometimes, but nonetheless she's great to have around when I'm watching TV or baking at night.

Coco is going to attend her first public appearance this Sunday! She'll be attending a corgi gathering/party hosted by her breeder, Zephyr Kennel! This will be her first social get together with other Pembroke Welsh Corgis and I can't wait to see her make some new friends!

2. My shipment (boxes and furniture) have finally arrived from Providence, Rhode Island! And I'm super exited to see my red couch again after almost 3 months! I've started to unpack my boxes... so many... 10 of them in total... I've gone through 5 of them, so 5 more to go!

3. I've been feeding local mosquitoes since  I came back to Jakarta, and it's rather frustrating that I got bitten 3 times in less than an hour. (7 bites on me now and I look feel like the itch is going to take over my self control and tempt me into scratching full force!) I'm carrying a tube of insect bite cream in my bag everywhere I go now, and I don't think it's gonna go back to the medicine cabinet any time soon. Any tips on how to avoid bites?

4. By the way, It's Friday~ so TGIF! Lots of food places to visit and cross off my list! Yummy adventure awaits!

Princess Aurora, Sleeping Beauty..

Hello there! It's been a while since my last post here and I'm super excited to finally find some time to share about this cake. So last week (or maybe almost 2 weeks) I made a cake for my aunt's little daughter. She's 5, she loves princesses, and she wants a Princess Aurora cake.

I wouldn't say it's a complicated cake so I took up the order and I made a round strawberry cake topped with a Princess Aurora doll cake! It's my first time (in such a long time) baking in my Jakarta home kitchen so it was pretty awesome working alone in such a huge space.

I bought a Disney Princess Doll for the cake which made her look more familiar rather than using a normal Barbie doll because they all tend to look the same. Her facial feature, and tiara, and her iconic long curly blond hair completes her signature look which we remember from Disney Classic.

Anyway, I started decorating after dinner (not a good idea) and end up finishing around 2am. It would've been really boring without my sister and this little fluff, Coco! She was so chill and just sat in the corner patiently waiting. 

You can follow her on Instagram, @MissHoneydeCoco. We all call her Coco. ^^

And here is a picture of the final product! I can't imagine the little girl's face when she saw this cake. My aunt said that she was super happy that she played her "princess" role throughout the celebration in school... and that's my goal, to spread a sense of happiness and blessing through the things that I do. Happy Wednesday, Everyone!

Wine Tastings in Napa Valley

I've been doing a lot of fun and happy things here in sunny San Francisco. Let's see, I don't even know where to begin. Basically I've been eating my way through the city since I got here a month ago, but since we're in wine country, let's check out some wineries!

My dear friend Sandy came to visit me last week and I am so happy she did - because that means I've got a buddy to go wine tasting in Napa Valley! We went to Robert Mondavi (my favorite) and did the tour + a guided 3-wines tasting.

Robert Mondavi uses a gravitational system to move their wines from the fermentation room to the barreling room so they don't have to use any pumping system. If you're lucky, you get to see their wine bottling process in the basement. Oh, and they'll show you their barrel room!

They say in Napa, Cabernet Sauvignon is the King, Chardonnay is the Queen, Pinot Noir is the Prince, and Sauvignon Blanc is the Princess.

There's a lot of interesting wine tasting tours in Napa, but I really enjoyed Castillo di Amorosa (a castle winery in Napa Valley). Yes, it's a castle winery! They have a moat, goats in the garden, and a fluffy chicken running around. I'm not kidding you, it's looks like a chicken-dog! What is this thing!?

We had a very entertaining experience touring the castle and had a chance to barrel taste. but the best part was that you get to choose which wines you want to taste for the 5-wines tasting. I like white wines, so my tasting flight was a mix of 3 whites and 2 rose. Sandy did the reserve flight tasting for an additional $10, and she said the guide was kinda cute! He's very entertaining and knowledgeable, well I guess you have to be... What do you think?

Oh yes, and I found my favorite wine that evening. It's the 2013 La Fantasia, a sparkling rose wine. When i took a sip, I'm sold. I bought 6 bottles and shipped them back home. They'll be waiting for me when I travel home next week!