clad2sip

For such a mid-upper class hotel, their lounge looks very artistic and unique. Most of the visitors are expatriates and stay here for job reasons or business trip. 

Outside, the ambiance was even cooler. There was a giant tent installed connected to the edge of the cafe. And what calming me was the small lights decoration attached to alongside the beautiful plants. 

There were many Italian foods here, but what attracted me was their drink. So I headed directly to the bar and ordered a cocktail which is quite familiar for me, Sage and Cucumber Sling. I said familiar because of the Sage leaves I found there. 

If we are talking about benefits, Sage leaves has so many of them, but what impress me was that this plant is often used for healing purpose. From antibiotic, curing muscle aches, rheumatism, to treating depression. 

I like refreshing drink. I like it a lot. I don't know why this kind of fondness I found since I was a kid. What irony is that I don't like eating vegetables. 

When I was a little, my mom told me that it was really hard to make me eat vegetables and beans, but she had her own way to make me consume it. She created a blended drink consist of vegetables and beans. And guess what? It becomes my favorite till now. 

I like vegetables and beans now only if they're blended. That's why I think that everything is blended is fine for me :)

When it comes to refreshing drink consist of fruit, beans, or vegetables, I like them all. Mojito, squash, juice, mocktail, smoothies, you name it. Oh yes, and I like some sparkling water added to it. 

Yesterday I went to a small cafe in the afternoon, The Cortado. 

The cafe was quite hidden from in front so it was hard for me to look for the signage, Turned out, the cafe was placed in the 2nd floor, and the front door was almost invincible . 

The interior was quite artistic while the theme of the cafe was good. Felt like I was enjoying the theme of underground. 

After taking some pictures of the interiors, I got my drink served. I ordered a refreshing Marquisa Squash. 

What I found inside were some lychee chops, marquisa syrup, some soda, and a cherry. I was told that this drink is their specialty here. 

It was fun drinking this. That's only thing I can say.

I also wanted to try the other cafe's specialty. It was their coffee, Cortado Coffee. 

The coffee was mix of espresso and milk.

Honestly, the drinks here are fine, not the best squash I've ever tasted, and not the best coffee I've sipped. but after all, the ambience of the cafe was pretty good.

Author, 

@faithignatius

Price:

Marquisa Squash: IDR 30,000

Cortado Coffee : IDR 23,000

The Cortado, 

Last night, I visited Olivier Cafe for the second time. 

I used to go there back in the day there was no murder case as it just happened recently in this very place. 

I was surprised because the place is getting better, the ambience is getting more lovely, and the crowd (oh gosh) is getting crowded.

I really liked the ambience. It was precious. 

As for the drink I ordered, as anybody knows I like fruits, I started the evening enjoying what is called here:" A fizzy apple".

It was a refreshing drink, mixed of green apple, honey, mint leaves and bit of sparkling water. 

The taste was sweet and bold. One thing about mocktail is that a secret of a nice mocktail is lied on the measure of each ingredients, and this cafe really knows how to create a precise mocktail. 

It was nice.

And the fact that it has a nice interior design and cool lighting. 

Got carried away with the tranquil ambiance, I ordered a cappuccino.
Honestly, I almost forgot what coffee tasted like. When I took a sip, I had a blast and it recalled the essence what good coffee should taste like. 

Sometimes, personally I can be super excited to do random and unusual things. For example, last night when it was cold and windy where most people tend to look for hot drinks to be enjoyed under a warm blanket, I accidentally wanted ice cream, Yes, I wanted a shaved ice drink. 

One of my favorite dessert is Patbingsu. For anyone who doesn't know what it is, Patbingsu is Korean shaved ice dessert with sweet toppings such as chopped fruit, condensed milk and fruit syrup.

Luckily there is a small dessert house near my residence in Jakarta. It was so close that I could get there by walking. 

It is Chef's Bakery & Cafe. 

As far as I know, in this town, this cafe serves several Korean breads and desserts. That evening, I didn't really care about others but Patbingsu, what I truly wanted in a cold weather :)

Here is the front door of the cafe. 

Second floor was the cafe. I have to say Wow. In quite a small space, it was a nice place to sit for hours, so calming and silent. 

While enjoying the place, my Patbingsu was served. Oh Yes, what more random was that I ordered a Tropical Patbingsu :D

Ok, first of all, the appearance was colorful and appetizing. There were shaved ice (of course) at the bottom, some rose syrup, some fruit chops (kiwi, apple and strawberries) and finally ice cream at the very top. 

The taste was delicious and refreshing, the shaved ice was very soft, the rose syrup was ideal, and what I like the most was the fruits were fresh and it was served well. 

The price of Mix Tropical Patbingsu/portion : IDR 36,000.

This is not the best Patbingsu I've ever tasted, but was it worth the taste with that kind of price? Yes. 

Also, the ambience was nice. 

You can visit Chef's Bakery & Cafe here:

@faithignatius,

Writer

Talking about great wine, this town offers so many great choice of places to spend hours, relax, and sip liquors. But my most favorite of all is Vin+.

Vin+ is a pioneer itself when it comes to wine. Its first branch is located in Kemang, opened in 2004. 

They have 3 branches in Jakarta so far (that you can check at the bottom). 

In this post, I would like to write more about my favorit wine. Apart from the brands, as for the grapes, I like Sauvignon Blanc the most. Sauvignon blanc is a green-skinned grape variety that originates from the Bordeaux region of France. This white wine is quite easy to find, it's affordable, and it tastes good. 

Last night I visitted VIn+ in Central Park Mall, Jakarta. In its branch in Central Park Mall, Vin+ is collaborated with Mixx Grill Jakarta, and as usual, I had one glass of my favorite Sauvignon Blanc. This time the brand I tasted is Chateu Subercaseaux from Chile.

The packaging bottle is quite standard (in a good way) for a wine. Looking sumptuous as the gold color of the white wine is transparent glowing from inside. 

The wine itself tasted sumptuous, a bit sour, but very nice. It is not too heavy in one sip, that makes it good for beginners. 

It is highly recommended, since the price is affordable (around USD 22.5/bottle)

The ambience of the place is good, it has 2 floors and the upstair is smoking area. It looks luxurious since gold light is everywhere.

Next thing I tasted is their favorite mocktail, I chose Orange beauty, a standard fruit mocktail with some orange and rose apple. It has mint leaves also, basically like mojito but a bit sweet since it has orange inside.

For the side dish, I had a baked potato.

 

After all, the place and the ambience is good and the drinks especially the wine choice is vary.

Definitely will come again. 

The bill:

- Chateau Subercaseaux - Sauvignon Blanc White wine by glass : @ IDR 85,000

- Orange Beauty mocktail : @ IDR 40,000

- Baked Potato : @ IDR 40,000.

Vin+ branches:

Kemang 02171792577, 

Arcadia 02157901477, 

Central Park 02156985768, 

PIM 02129529753 and 

Seminyak, Bali 03614732377

@faithignatius, 

Writer

Today was a usual routine of me waking up not too early since it's weekend and didn't rush anything but some design works to do. Had nice lunch, took a bath, watched some movies though I skipped going to gym today (pardon me), it was all quite a lazy Saturday for me. 

Yes, usual lazy Saturday. What was not usual is that today I had a lot of thoughts regarding life and what it has impacted myself and my achievements lately. I was trying to avoid the thoughts but then again I was thinking "Hey, I don't need to avoid that, it's part of the things that have been delayed for quite a long time. Now it's time to review". 

Yes, first word came into my mind was "Review", and I asked myself : "What to review?" 

After that question, came second word :"Bold". And that's it. It was all silent and I stopped thinking.

I can describe myself a person who always thinks about future. Since I'm a perfectionist myself and God gives us choices in life, I decide to put the right amount of my mind into being bold and bolder in life.  

Is it wrong to be bold? I don't think so. but to what things I will be bold into? so many. 

I cannot say that I'm a step ahead to think about crisis or some people call it "midlife" crisis, I'm not even in midlife (yayy), but what I'm trying to say is that there are some things in life that I will put efforts to pursue and I will be BOLD on that.

Look forward to welcome Christmas this year, believe it or not I have already been thinking what will become my resolution for the next year. Yes, I have to gladly confess that for me, Christmas is the most exciting moment to celebrate through the year to reset everything.

By the way, each year, when the weather gets cold, one of my favorite thing to do is look for anything warm to dramatize the season as my routine to welcome Christmas. This Christmas, I'm obsessed with any "knitted" things. Either a sweater, hoodie, cardigan, or jumper, I would like to include them to my wish list and wish that real Santa would be knocking on my door bringing them to me.

Knitwear is ready to wear, comfortable, yet warming of course. The only problem is sometimes if you choose the wrong pair combination, you will look totally boring...

Take a look at pairs below for some suggestions...