Irene Kartika's Site

I went to Bandung with my family two weeks ago. It was a very short trip, leaving for Bandung on Saturday morning, and going back to Jakarta early Sunday morning. As this was quite spontaneous trip, I didn’t have the chance to grab information from Jalansutra - an Indonesian food community, which I trusted to find information about places to eat. Instead I brought Bandung food guide book from Intisari with me. On the way I flipped though the book and later we all decided to try Mie Kocok, as along the journey rain start pouring down heavily and we thought a bowl of hot broth will do our tummy good.

Upon arriving in Bandung, we headed to Mie Kocok SKM directly. It was still empty, even though it’s 12:00 already. We order 4 mie kocok, and it was served in moderate speed. They apparently give us unhurried service. The bowl brimming with hot clear broth and consist of thin yet wide egg noodle, bean sprout, flakes of parsley, fried onion slices and generous chunks of very tender kikil (calf feet?). The broth bore simple taste, a bit bland to my palate (despite its too much saltiness). Maybe a dash of lime juice, sambal and sweet soy sauce will make it better. Too bad they don’t provide lime juice, and a bottle of vinegar was the closest thing available. Even though the broth was quite bland, yet it was rich, which I suspect coming from the melting kikil fat. The kikil itself was very tender and yummy, and the vegetables was cooked just enough to retain its crispiness. Well, I think this food is just ok, but it warmed my tummy alright.

Feeling only moderately full, we went to Bandung Milk Centre (BMC) for a light snack (What? Oh, well, haven’t I declared that my stomach is made from a very stretch material?). We tried chocolate milk, strawberry milk, zuppa soup and chocolate cake. The chocolate milk is just ok, but the strawberry milk taste good, fresh, the flavour not overpowering, with just right level of sweetness. Both have the fresh cow milk taste, unlike what we usually tasted from UHT treatment milk. Zuppa soup is nice, delicious but I can’t say anything special for this one. The chocolate cake just an ordinary one, it’s not worth to buy (it’s just that my baby girl loves the decoration – cute little turtle).

Next destination is Bagelen Abadi in Purnawarman Street. It was closed when we arrived there. But I insist to get my share of bun, so I called them to just prepare a few plastics of standard bagelen and then I got the bread and paid through their gates. As usual, the Bagelen maintain the taste of deliciously nostalgic bun with their unmistakably sweet and smooth butter spread. Yummm…

I had Kopi Aroma / Kopi Purnama to visit in my mind, yet nobody I asked know the place, so we went to Dakken Coffee & Steak instead. The place was a very nice old house turn into beautiful coffee shop. Even though the presentation of the snack and the drink were beautiful, yet the prices were very reasonable. The coffee was rather strong bodied, with a hint of acidity and bitterness. But it was okay. The peach tea is fragrant and refreshing. For the snacks I ordered crispy potatoes with some fresh tomato sauce, and banana fritter. The crispy potato was really crispy (they said they made it themselves although it has a resemblance to mass product potato chip in my opinion) and the sauce is tangy and tasty. The banana fritter was scrumptious and perfect to eat along a good cup of tea. My hubby bought the 250g pack of coffee powder to brew at home, which surprisingly is quite cheap. We went home satiated from a nice relaxing evening in Dakken.

Dinner was Sushi Groove, a hip place in Jakarta and Bandung, with customer queuing like, ummm… a kilometer long? No, I’m just exaggerating from waiting too long in the line.

A lot more places to visit, yet only one miserable tummy available. So, that’s all I can digest for the meantime, I guess.


Mie Kocok SKM
Jln. Sunda No. 38 Bandung
022-4201582
Mie Kocok : Rp. 10.000
Hot tea : Free

Bandoengsche Melk Centrale
Jl. Aceh No. 30 Bandung 40117
Telp. (022) 4204595 Fax. (022) 4215442
Chocolate Milk : Rp. 6.000
Strawberry Milk : Rp. 6.000
Zuppa Soup : Rp. I forgot already
Choc Cake : Rp. ditto

Bagelen Abadi
Jl. Purnawarman (from jl. Wastukencana turn to the left)
Bagelen – standard : Rp. 12.500 / pack (5 pieces)

Dakken Coffee & Steak
Jl. LL RE Martadinata 67, Bandung
022-4209507
Coffee : +/- Rp. 15.000
Tea : +/- Rp. 10.000
Banana Fritters : Rp. Forgot completely
Potato : Rp. ditto
250g coffee : +/- Rp. 25.000