Sushi wo tabetai desu!!

Yes, for quite sometime now, I grew fond of sushi. I don’t know, perhaps this is just the side effect of being an anime freak, but nowadays, I find it hard to resist my urge to eat sushi. But of course, since the price is quite expensive, I already considered lucky to be able to eat it once a month.

As far as my knowledge go, Sushi has different kind of shape and name. Of course it also has different toppings. My favourite shape is ‘nigiri’ or litterally meant ‘balled rice’, and ‘maki’ or could be translated as ‘rolled with bamboo roller’. I’m not quite fond of nori, thus I prefer nigiri over maki. And I know from a magazine, that we have to eat this type of sushi in one gulp. Because that’s the way to sent our gratitude to the cheff. Funny isn’t it?? And sushi cheff is an honourable job in Japan too. ^^ So remember to eat it in one gulp, or you will be concidered rude, when you eat sushi in Japan.

Now, I noticed that different sushi shop can make different sushi taste, eventhough they use the same ingridients. E.g. my favourite menu of all time: Salmon Nigiri. Of course it only consist of sliced raw salmon, and balled rice. But each shop’s can be differ in taste. Thus my conclusion is: they have special recipe for the rice.

As we know, sushi rice is a special-a bit sticky-rice mixed with certain amount of vinegar. So, different shop will have different amount of vinegar mixed in their rice. Second, the way they prepare the fish and of course the quality of the fish itself. If the quality is not that good, or the way of preparation is not that good, the fish will be sooo smelly that the nigiri can’t be eaten >_<

 I’ve been trying different sushi shop in Bandung: Shinmen, Sushi-Tei, Izakaya, and Setiabudhi supermarket.

Shinmen is famous for the ramen and udon, but the shop also sells sushi, and a nice one too! I must say, I really love the taste of the rice in this shop, and the amount of salmon on top of it is also satisfactory (not too thin). The size is okay too, so we can have it in one gulp as it’s supposed to. But the price is a bit more expensive than in other places. I often go to this shop, if I want to eat udon, with sushi as an extra. ^^

Sushi Tei is a branch sushi shop from Jakarta. At first glance, you’ll know that this is an expensive place. But surprisingly, for the basic sushi, you can have it at cheapper price! And that’s okay for me XD The rice taste is not as sour as Shinmen’s, but the ginger pickle here is very sour, it really could add the taste of the rice. The place also has sushi bar so we can choose sushi more freely. The variety of toppings are so many that you can have trouble choosing XD So, up untill now, this has been my favorite place to eat sushi, if I have extra money to afford it of course ^^;



(the sushi I had at one time)



(they have taiyaki ice!! of course it's also sold in Japanese supermarket ^^)

Izakaya is a new small sushi stand, located near my house. The price is the cheapest up untill now. But the rice has so thin taste of vinegar. And they don’t have too many variety of toppings. I don’t recall they have any ginger pickle too. They have salmon nigiri, and it taste not bad at all, but the size is a bit too small ^^; But since it’s the closest and the cheapest, when I just want to have a taste, but too lazy to go far away and thight on budget, I’ll visit this place.



(the small shop)



(the unique sushi ball they offered. Noticed that they use chese instead of fish floss. A quite unique combination)



(this sushi has soft crab as the topping. Unfortunatelly, I didn't taste the crab at all. Perhaps they've fixed this problem now ^^)

Setiabudhi supermarket is a supermarket famous for foreign stuff, including, sushi. The cheff’ll make one fresh for you. The price is of course a supermarket prize. The rice has thin vinegar taste, but the salmon preparation and thickness is satisfactory. A place to buy sushi, if I just want to have small bite, or as a side thing to buy, when I visit the place for buying other needs. ^^

So, that places are my fav spot for sushi. Of course I’ve tried several other places, but I didn’t write them ,cause the taste is not satisfactory at all. >_< And I loved to try other places too. Several of my friend already suggest Torigen and Japanese restaurant in Horison. When the time is right (and the money isn’t thight) I’ll try these places, and give my opinion later ^^

Christmas trip: Visiting ChengDu, China.

After more or less 2 years of working without proper holiday, finally this time (at the end of year 2009) I took 2 week off. And this time, I went to visit ChengDu, China.

I don’t even remember when was actually the last time I went abroad outside ASEAN for holiday. For several time my holiday destination for several time was KL, and the last time I visited KL was 2 years ago. That’s why I was very exited. Even from 2 weeks before.

My journey started at 18th December 2009, when I drove 120km from Bandung to Jakarta. I spent 1 day at Jakarta, while my parents and aunt would took a flight to spent a day at Kuala Lumpur at 19th December 2009.

19th December 2009

After sending my parents and aunt to Cengkareng Airport, my cousin and I spent the whole day roaming around Jakarta. First, we accompanied my other cousin’s newborn son a.k.a my nephew to the health center. Then we went to Cempaka Mas to buy my sis’ birthday present. After that we went to Church, and then had our dinner at Grand Indonesia. I wanted to have Kenny Roger roaster, since we don’t have that in Bandung.

It was really delicious!! Especially the macaroni cheese side dish.... yumm... And the quarter roasted chicken leg was uuummm.... YUMMY!!!

Contended, we took a walk, and watched the famous ‘dancing fountain’. It was indeed very pretty!!

Then we went to have dessert at ‘Cream n Fudge’, a place that’s famous for its fresh mixed ice cream on top of their frozen table, depends on your choice. And look what we have here:

3 flavours of ice cream (vanilla, chocolate, mocha) with a mix of Farero Rocher and chocolate wafer!! GOODNESS!! It tasted DELICOUS!!! I was in chocolate heaven!! Really it’s a must try item when you found an outlet in your hometown. ^^

20th December 2009

Since our flight is very early, we had to took off from the house at least at 3.30am. After packing up, these were my bagages:



At 3.45am the taxi came, and we (my sister and I) started our longed journey.... first, went to the Cengkareng/Soekarno-Hatta Airport. Seriously, It’s been a long time since last time I set my foot at this international airport. And I was surprised to see that the airport is now looks very beautifull, clean, and organized ^^ There’re even vending machine!! Just like in movies and TV shows!! (Yeah, I rarely seen a real one, pardon me... =P). I even found this one cute restaurant inside:

Then we took 2 hours flight to KL with AirAsia. After arrived, we went to have some snack at the famous Old Town coffee shop. Been several years I haven’t had a taste of this famous white coffee. Yum....



Then not for long, my parents and aunt arrived at LCCT airport. And we took 5 hours flight to ChengDu, again with AirAsia. This time, we rode a new airbus (a really big one!!) with LCD in each seat!! Awesome.... was what I thought. Turned out that you need to pay extra to use those facility ^^; Should’ve known that.... ^^; And, my old move-sickness-when-riding-a-transportation had to came at the time. I really hate it. >_<

After those 5 not-so-exiting hours, finally we arrived at ChengDu. It was winter time!! The air coolness already greeted me when I walk down from the airport. And I immidiatelly use the only jacket I brought at my backpack.



Next thing I saw when I exited the airport was the hazy and foggy wheather. I didn’t give too much tought on that since I thought the cause was because it was already nightime. I was greeted with our tour leader Kevin and the driver (I can’t believe I didn’t ask his name!). We drove using a minibus to the first restaurant to have our first Sechuan style dishes (but not the hot spicy one :P)

And yup, 7 type of dishes.... eventough I already told Kevin that we’re not big eater ^^; It was really delicious, as expected!!

Then we continued our trip to our hotel for the night. Along the way, Kevin told us a little bit about ChengDu. It turned out that ChengDu is one of the 4 biggest town in China. No wonder I could see many tall buildings, wide roads, many cars-motorcycles-bycycles, and the city was still lively despite night time, and not to forget... cold wheather ^^. Several minutes later, we arrived at Dinasty hotel, which has Panda icon!! Then we crashed for the night.



21st December 2009

After eating our breakfast, we pack our belonging, and goes to other town which located 120 km from ChengDu.

(this is inside the bus, Kevin was telling us about something here)

ong the way, I noticed that the foggy wheather still there. I commented how the wheather was bad at the day (foggy and gloomy):

But to my surprise, Kevin told us that it was actually a really good ‘sunny’ wheather. EH??? ^^; Then he explained that throughout the year, the foggy wheather will always be there. They’ll only have bright (not so foggy) day perhaps 10 days a year. A very precious days for the residents. I was agape. Oh my.... and here I always took the sun that shine brightly 12 hours a day, 365 days a year, in my hometown for granted. And even sometime grumbled for ‘the blessing’ I got ^^;

Back to the journey, we went to LeShan city, famous for the Sleeping Budha mountain and the Sitting Budha statue. After we arrived at LeShan city, first we had our lunch. LeShan is famous for their tofu variety food. So we had this beautifully made tofu soup (just like a picture!!), lemon sauced tofu, and spicy tofu. And it was very nice!!

After lunch, we went to ride a boat to see the Sitting Budha from a distance, so that we could see the Budha at a good distance. Apparently the Sitting Budha was carved at the heart of the Sleeping Budha. It was carved by hand for 90 years at around year 1500, by hand of the monks. The river also special, as it is formed by 3 different river, and you could differ them by the colour.

There’s a legend that back then at year 1962, the Budha’s eyes were closed, because China was suffer from poverty and many other difficulties. But at year 1963, the eyes suddenly opened! And at that time, those difficulties were being handled.

And this is the pic of the Sleeping Budha. You could noticed the head, the body, the leg, and the feet. And there is a pagoda, where the body of the monk who designed the Sitting Budha is burried.

After that, we droved again to the next city at the foot of Mt. Emei. The hotel is very big and very famous for the hot spring. But apparently, you need to pay extra to enjoy the hot spring ^^; Then we had a quick rest. To my surprise, the matres is hard!! But, since I have the ability to sleep anywhere inherited from my father, I have no problem sleeping. Not for my mom, sis, and aunt though XD

After dinner, we took a quick walk around the small city. The lights were beautifully arranged, though the city is quite quiet. We came to a place where the artificiall waterfall and the story of Mt. Emei is shown/engraved. The waterfall was already turned off. So we took our attention to the carved Legend story of Mt. Emei, where people pray to Puxian Budha:

Once upon a time, when Puxian was still in her mother womb, she dreamt about an elephant with 6 tusks. It was said that the dream meant that the child was going the be the Budha’s pupil. After Puxian was borned, he did followed Budha, and become a very great apprentice. Then Budha gave him the 6 tusked elephant as his riding animal to spread Buddism, untill he reached Mt.Emei, and spreading Budism untill he was very well known. One day, an Indian came to him for advice, and Puxian gave him 6 advices, which is engraved at the bronze lotus at the middle. Several years later, Puxian was then honored as Budha, and known as the first son of Budha.

After that we returned to the hotel, and had a sleep.

22nd Dececember 2009

After breakfast we went to the bus station, and took a 40 minutes drive to the cable car station, to go halway to the top. Actually there’re 66.000 steps from the foot of the mountain to the top. But we cheated and will took the bus and cable car instead :P

(this is the stairs entrance, halfway through the top)



(the cable car station)



After 5 minutes cable car driving, we had to walk a little bit (which already very exhausting for us >_< uurhg... need more exercise!!) through small forest, and a little bit stairs. The foggy wheather become even thicker here:

After sometime, we finally arrived at the Puxian temple, where the gold statue of Puxian Budha is placed:

Then went to the souvenir shop. Ops!! Look what we found!! A real living Garfield!! This cat is very fat, heavy, and has thick fur. ^^ Very cute....

After that, we went down. Actually we were supposed to walk a little bit, but mom refused, thus we use the same cable car. The bus haven’t arrived yet, thus we had to wait. After some time shivering (and eating snacks) in the cold wheather, the bus finally arrived, and we drove down.

Then we had our lunch before we drove to Yaan city. A quite long journey this time, as we have to return to near ChengDu, before taking a turn to Yaan. Finally we arrived. But unfortunatelly, there were nothing special to see in this small city. So we just spent the night sleeping at the, again, hard matres ^^;


23rd December 2009


Morning came, and we had breakfast. Kevin already told us, that along our trip, the best food would be found only in ChengDu. Well... apparently, the ‘warning’ can be applied for the variety in breakfast only ^^; The food in Yaan, isn’t that bad, but the only thing that I could eat was mantau (plain pan), some stirred veggie, and boiled egg. Not bad actually, but since the other food was too strange for us, that was what we had to be save. Then off we went to see snow!! XD YAY!! Tropical people never seen snow in their whole life, so, when other people avoid it, we want to see it XD

After a long winding road, hiking the mountains, at some point, we could already see snow at top of mountains. And surprisingly, the hazy foggy wheather started to cleared out. The best possible explanation is that we already hiked high enough, that the clouds were already below us. ^^ amazing isn’t it?? We stopped at a gas station, and I took several pics:



(the view from the other end of the gas station)



Then we met a tunnel. This 4 km long tunnel is very important for Tibetan people, as it connects the only road from ChengDu to Lhasa, for transporting everything. Before the tunnel was made, it takek longer time to travel to Lhasa, going around the mountain. Now it (only) take 1 week driving.



After that, finally we arrived at HaiLouGou. Finally!! Clear blue sky with warm sunshine!! XD Kevin told us that the city is include as poor remote city. But I didn’t think so, because, the picture of a ‘remote-poor city’ in my head is totally different. But it does didn’t look at all like ChengDu of course ^^ We had lunch at the local restaurant, where we had our favourite food: ‘fried egg’ XD

Yeah... Indonesians just can’t live without fried egg, and our tour guide understand it really well XD

After that, we went to the hotel which has Tibetan style gate, old kind tipe of mansion’s cottages, and a very beautifull park, with snowy mountain at the back for the view. WOW!!

But, at this place... surprisingly I had to sleep on a plank of bamboo board, which covered with a thin layer of bedsheet, as extra bed. ^^; But... luckily, not a problem for me ^^ It was the not-working-very-well heater that was a problem. It was sooo cooolllddd!!!!!

At the front of the hotel, there’re souvenir shops, where we bought several souvenirs for our friends. We still didn’t understand a single thing they said, and vice versa, but amazingly we could bargain!! XD They also offered us to rent their boots and pikes, but we refused. Yeah, tropical people didn’t afraid of snow!! We even searched for it!! NYAHAHAHA!!! (à said a person who shivered under a thick blanket XD)

24th December 2009

After the breakfast (mantau, stirred veggie, and boiled egg again), we went to the bus station, which is located next the hotel. We need to ride the bus to the cable car station to be able to see the glacier. It was quite a long journey, but after sometime, we started to see snow, and getting more thicker as we went up. The bus needed to stop to aplly a chain to the wheels. And when the bus stopped, when other people used the time to went to the toilet, we were already playing with the snow, despite the frozing temperature. ^^; Oh, please... we never had one in our country, that’s why XD

Then we continue our journey to the cable car station. Along the way, you could see glacier at the bottom of the cable car.

And far way, you could also see the sea cloud way below. WOW!!

Finally arrived at the top. The snow was thick here. And this place has eternal snow, no mather what the season is. Amazing. We immidiatelly played with the snow: snow war, trying to make a snowman (and failed misserably ^^;), and I even ate the snow (suddenly I realized the habit of local people to... ukh... >_< (took a pose, eventhough we were shivering XD)

(snowwar!!)



At a closer look, the snow here is different than the snow at say... europe. It’s not soft, rather it is rough, looks more like crushed ice sold in our common ice stall, which we use to have with syrup or condesed milk on top. Yumm... ^^ After the sun shone, we could even chopped the upper layer of the snow, and hold it like a trophy... well... as if I was a winner of certain winter-olympic game XD

(people can dream can't they..... XD)


Unfortunatelly, we couldn’t stay there much longer, cause we need to catch up to the Christmas eve mass, back at ChengDu. So we took our return trip, and along the way down, we met these monkey, who were enjoying the sun heat.

After took a lunch and shopped a little bit more, we took our long journey back to ChengDu.

It took more or less 6 hours to return, and our driver already going at high speed, so that we could attend the 8pm mass on time. His driving skill is really great, that we could sleep all the way ^^; and managed to get to the church exactly at 7.55pm!! But unfortunatelly, the church was too packed, and even guarded by police, who didn’t allow us to went in. Apparently, the people who’re not Christian, were really curious at what actually being celebrate at the church that it was packed with so many people. Kevin tried to negotiate with the police, but they still didn’t allow us to in. We gave up, and after learned that there’re still Christmass mass at the next morning, we took our leave and had dinner instead. Ah... poor Mr.Driver... he already tried his best, but we didn’t attend the mass at the end >_<

(the-supposed-to-be-after-mass dinner)


After dinner, we went to Dinasty Hotel again, and this time....... the matres was soft.... aaah..... very nice....

25th December 2009

Breakfast time! We immidiatelly eat bread pieces of bacon ^^; well... we’re not used to have rice as breakfast so... XD
After that, we went to the church, to attend Chirstmas mass. Obviously we didn’t understand a single thing said, but not a problem. The church itself is an old church, with great design. And when we took a seat and looked around, we could easily noted that the majority who attend the mass were not Christian just yet. But they attend the mass nonetheless and the anthusiasm was very great. Ah, if only I could help to explain to them about what the mass was actually ^^;

After the mass, we went to visit a place which hold ChengDu’s ‘National Treasure’. The place was actually a palace of Sichuan’s emperor and a very wise and honoured Prime Minister used to stay, long time ago.

It has a very beautifull garden, and the way those tress were arranged is very Chinese. The foggy wheather was obviously thicker.

(the emperor, and the prime minister)


And look!! A bridge that’s usually seen at kungfu movie!!



After visiting the place, we went to have our lunch at an old restaurant in ChengDu.
Then... we went to see.... Pandas!! Along the way, we were told by Kevin, the history of Panda. Who would’ve guessed that Panda is a living ancient creature?? Panda has lived since the dinosaur time, and at that time, they ate meat instead of bamboo. No wonder the Chinese government took extra care of these Pandas, but I would say, they spoiled them too much ^^; They give Pandas special type of bamboo, and if the bamboo isn’t enough, they make a special treat (bamboo cookies), apples, and even bamboo shoots with honey. When it is summer time, the Pandas have their own airconditioned places, when it is too cold, they have their heater. ^^; too spoiled.... No wonder people in ChengDu said that, when they’re reincarnated, they’ll choose to become a Panda instead of human XD

And so we arrived at the Panda base. It is located at the city, but the landscape is totally different. We need to walk around 20 minutes to the centre, before we could see the Pandas. The bamboo-forest-like is arranged so that Pandas won’t get disturbed.

(the icon)

(the forest like walking path)

Finally!! There they were!! Aww.... so cuteeeeeeeeee <3 Look at these Panda cubs:

Adolesecent:

And the adult Panda (who were sleeping):
Adult Panda lives alone, so that they have separated stables.

We also watched the Panda life in a Panda theater. We learned about Panda there. The newly borned baby panda is only 100grams, while the adult one is 200kgs!! Wow! And since the newly born cubs is so small and red, the mother Panda usually didn’t recognize them, and killed them accidentally.

After that, we went to buy some Panda souvenirs before returned to the hotel, for quick rest, and having our dinner at the local food stalls. Ooh... a very nice dumplings and wontons were sold here. It is Kevin’s favourite place. No wonder.... ^^

Then my sis and I went to watch local traditional performance. It contains local traditional music plays, Chinese opera (my sis was delighted to be able to seen one, live XD), Puppet show, Shadow’s performance, traditional funny show, and the most famous of all The Face Changing!! The face changing was indeed very amazing!! The actor just need split second, before changing their masks. They even did it in front of our very eyes!! It’s like magic!! We were so awed that none of us remeber to take a pic when the face changing was performed ^^;

(the classic Chinese opera)

After that we roam around the place only to found the packed downtown. Wow... It’s like Dago street in Bandung!

Then we returned to hotel, and sleep.

26th December 2009

Our last day in ChengDu. Aww... we were so sad... No special program were arranged for the day, other than packing (the baggage had expand, as always ^^;).
Then it was time for us to checkout, and leaving to the airport.

(took one memorial photo of our tour trip team ^^)

At the last time, we went to have our last Sichuan style lunch at the most grand, fancy, and famous restaurant in ChengDu.



After that... we went to the airport, and flew another 5 hours to KL (this time, I didn’t get sick, cause I’ve drank the prevention medicine ^^v). Arrived at KL, the tropical hot and moist wheather greet us, eventough it was at night. And we had quick dinner at.... McD!! Mind you, after 1 week eating Chinese food three times a day, we did got bored XD.

We spent one night at KL, before returned to Jakarta the next day. And that conclude my abroad holiday for the Christmas. ^^