Ever listen to a song so good it makes u realize that heaven isn't a place but simply a state of mind where it takes your head off the ground?
The newest joint from Ta-ku, JMSN & Sango (dreamy collabs indeed) feels like a short pilgrimage for the souls, and if the music alone isn't a gift then let me crawl deep into the lyrics which sound more like a subtle greeting for better days ahead.
Give it time, give it time
Cause this ain't no race no
You'll be fine, you'll be fine
Do whatever it takes
/
I don't mean to hurt you
But we all know that I might
Nobody's perfect baby
I know I don't deserve you
But you saved my life.
Monday, April 27, 2015
Friday, April 24, 2015
E&O: Eastern & Oriental Restaurant
E&O is a charming collaboration between Chef Will Meyrick (Sarong and Mama San restaurants in Bali) and the same company that handles Loewy and Union. Initially the restaurant planned to highlight a unique blend of Thai and Vietnamese cuisines as their main concept but as time goes by E&O expanded their kitchen creations to cater to everyone's diverse tastes. Therefore prepare yourself to face a wide variety of Asian cuisines with some interesting twists coming from the West!
I like how the mixture of rustic and vintage atmosphere in this restaurant is wrapped nicely in elegance. As you can see, most visitors in E&O fall into executives or businessmen/businesswomen category during weekdays but on weekends there are also crowds of families and teenagers filling the seats. Fancy enough but still pretty casual after all. Also the food portions here are made to share so it would be very fitting if you tag along some friends or relatives on your visit.
E&O's menu selections are divided into starters, mains, and desserts. One of the hallmark of their fusion creations can be found in Thai-styled Caesar Salad and Vietnamese Cheong Fan for starters, which consist of shredded pork, Shiso leaf, and Thai basil. Meanwhile Crispy Pork Belly would be a top notch option for main course. After landing my first try on this menu I understood why this is simply (almost) everyone's favorite every time they visit E&O. The pork is served in fair cuts, with incredibly crispy skin and tasty seasonings that soaked in perfectly into their juicy texture. Wonderful! I find it interesting that they pair this menu with double sauces, Tamarind and Tamarillo. Both have distinct characteristics though there's a certain blend of flavors that connect them that are derived from sour, sweet, and spicy. It is also served with a handful of sticky rice. Gotta say it's quite an impressive result from Thai and Western styles crossover!
The next prima donna is called Country Style Roast Chicken served with Spicy Thai Sauce. Instead of french fries, it's paired with fried cassava! Such an unforgettable fusion experience, indeed. For other selections in the book just take a look at Jungle Chicken Curry, "Choo Chee" Crispy Barramundi, or Caramelised Duck. The humble and skillful waiters/waitresses will be pleased to elaborate more about the menus to every guest so no need to worry if most of them don't sound familiar to you.
Now that our happy tummies are satisfied, it's time to spend the rest of the night by moving on to the bars and pick up some nice drinks to lift up the mood. Cocktails, mocktails, even wine selections, all is complete all is good. If you still have some space for desserts (WELL WHO DOESN'T?) please give a try for E&O's super smooth and glazy Coconut Crème Brulee. It is topped with crunchy almonds and some fruits that blend perfectly with the creamy texture. I'm definitely in love with this dessert!
E&O is undoubtedly a must visit restaurant for it will not only enhance your culinary experience but also a decent pick for your afterwork or weekend getaway.
(photos by: Hardiman Widjaseno)
E&O
Menara Rajawali Lt.1
Jln. Dr. Ide Anak Agung Gde Agung Lot#5.1
Kawasan Mega Kuningan, Jakarta 12950
Ph: 021 5761645
Average spending: Rp 200.000,00 — Rp 300.000,00 for each person
Twitter: @eandojakarta
I like how the mixture of rustic and vintage atmosphere in this restaurant is wrapped nicely in elegance. As you can see, most visitors in E&O fall into executives or businessmen/businesswomen category during weekdays but on weekends there are also crowds of families and teenagers filling the seats. Fancy enough but still pretty casual after all. Also the food portions here are made to share so it would be very fitting if you tag along some friends or relatives on your visit.
The next prima donna is called Country Style Roast Chicken served with Spicy Thai Sauce. Instead of french fries, it's paired with fried cassava! Such an unforgettable fusion experience, indeed. For other selections in the book just take a look at Jungle Chicken Curry, "Choo Chee" Crispy Barramundi, or Caramelised Duck. The humble and skillful waiters/waitresses will be pleased to elaborate more about the menus to every guest so no need to worry if most of them don't sound familiar to you.
E&O is undoubtedly a must visit restaurant for it will not only enhance your culinary experience but also a decent pick for your afterwork or weekend getaway.
(photos by: Hardiman Widjaseno)
E&O
Menara Rajawali Lt.1
Jln. Dr. Ide Anak Agung Gde Agung Lot#5.1
Kawasan Mega Kuningan, Jakarta 12950
Ph: 021 5761645
Average spending: Rp 200.000,00 — Rp 300.000,00 for each person
Twitter: @eandojakarta
Sunday, April 19, 2015
Love Live! School Idol Festival
I was hesitating for a while as whether or not I should pour it here but the fact that this freaking game had gotten me hooked for over 3 months now surely left me with no choice. Since I’m pretty much a late bandwagon jumper (as always) bet most of you are already familiar with the title, or maybe avid players of it as well.
Yeah it’s called *drum rolls* LOVE LIVE! School Idol Festival (LLSIF), a mobile rhythm game for IOS/Android developed by KLab and Bushiroad. It’s completely free to download along with tons of content in it; however there will be items like love gems that can be bought with real cash too.
On a brief note, the game itself is based on Love Live franchise which has been expanding in forms of anime, manga series, and music CDs. I haven’t managed to binge watch it yet but the main plot in general revolves around a group of school girls who become idols in order to prevent their school from shutting down. These lovelies consist of Honoka, Rin, Kotori, Umi, Maki, Nico, Nozomi, Eli, and Hanayo. They later declare themselves as μ’s (read: muse).
WHY IS IT SO ADDICTIVE? Okay, again, this comes from someone who barely even follows the series whatsoever but for me LLSIF aced in excellent choice of songs equipped with simple gameplay and cumulative goals to achieve just like the generic system of most rhythm games out there. Not to mention the characters look adorable and engaging, even other rando girls outside μ’s circle, that I personally favor even more. The gameplay requires you to train these girls through practice mode with numerous song collections that can be unlocked whenever you raise a rank or complete the goals given. For every new cluster of rank there will also be a main story about μ’s and their path to stardom. It is indeed THAT simple that you want to play more and more, unlocking new songs you haven’t listened to, new stories, new members to scout, and the list goes on. Especially during events where you gotta keep playing to maintain your rank otherwise other players might snatch up the position you've been working hard to reach while you're off.
When you already get used to playing it then it’s time to step up your skill by clearing the goals for every song, mainly full score and full combo goals. This is also where the interesting part lies because instead of giving up when you fail one you will become more curious and passionate in overcoming it (that thrilling feels when your fingers are dancing carefully for the sake of tapping the correct notes though!). It has come to the point where my phone screen literally reflects a row of finger print marks forming circle notes when it is placed under the sunlight *soulless laughs*
LLSIF's events are held periodically to provide newly released cards with certain level of rarities. In Japan LLSIF app, there are 3 event variations so far: Token event (collecting as many points as possible until maximum goal is reached), Scorematch (competing with other random players on randomly selected songs), and Medley Festival (playing three songs in a row with selectable difficulties). Since I’m a newbird in LLSIF Japan I’m really looking forward for the next Medley Festival event! It will be my first time joining it, also so far it’s still only available in the original Japanese version of the app. Well, everyone sounds excited about new events but when the actual thing starts, it will be another Hunger Games kinda world; sleepless nights and super tight competition until the event is over lol (usually it lasted around 10 days). But the satisfaction of getting special rewards like SR cards of your favorite Love Live! Character and many other prizes are just irreplaceable.
Here's a look into the gameplay. It's one of my favorite songs in the game, called 'Loneliest Baby', and this is the Hard mode with full combo:
While below is a sneak peak of my current LLSIF account. I used to go with the English version since it was easier to grasp the game's details of course, but somehow I find better luck in JP version. It's way more generous in handing out love gems, and most importantly better songs and characters variations for it is the first version to ever release.
That’s all for the bigger picture of the rhythm game. I still barely even recovered from the last SR Umi scorematch event which I was quite butthurt with because my rank flew away at the very last minutes. Those hours spent seemed so far away because people were competing like there's no tomorrow!
Afterall LLSIF is a well-made game though there are still rooms for improvement in the future. Simply prepare yourself before freefalling into this hole because once you’re sucked in escaping wouldn’t be an easy story.
Download Love Live! School Idol Festival Game (Japan/English ver.) Here
Yeah it’s called *drum rolls* LOVE LIVE! School Idol Festival (LLSIF), a mobile rhythm game for IOS/Android developed by KLab and Bushiroad. It’s completely free to download along with tons of content in it; however there will be items like love gems that can be bought with real cash too.
On a brief note, the game itself is based on Love Live franchise which has been expanding in forms of anime, manga series, and music CDs. I haven’t managed to binge watch it yet but the main plot in general revolves around a group of school girls who become idols in order to prevent their school from shutting down. These lovelies consist of Honoka, Rin, Kotori, Umi, Maki, Nico, Nozomi, Eli, and Hanayo. They later declare themselves as μ’s (read: muse).
WHY IS IT SO ADDICTIVE? Okay, again, this comes from someone who barely even follows the series whatsoever but for me LLSIF aced in excellent choice of songs equipped with simple gameplay and cumulative goals to achieve just like the generic system of most rhythm games out there. Not to mention the characters look adorable and engaging, even other rando girls outside μ’s circle, that I personally favor even more. The gameplay requires you to train these girls through practice mode with numerous song collections that can be unlocked whenever you raise a rank or complete the goals given. For every new cluster of rank there will also be a main story about μ’s and their path to stardom. It is indeed THAT simple that you want to play more and more, unlocking new songs you haven’t listened to, new stories, new members to scout, and the list goes on. Especially during events where you gotta keep playing to maintain your rank otherwise other players might snatch up the position you've been working hard to reach while you're off.
LLSIF's events are held periodically to provide newly released cards with certain level of rarities. In Japan LLSIF app, there are 3 event variations so far: Token event (collecting as many points as possible until maximum goal is reached), Scorematch (competing with other random players on randomly selected songs), and Medley Festival (playing three songs in a row with selectable difficulties). Since I’m a newbird in LLSIF Japan I’m really looking forward for the next Medley Festival event! It will be my first time joining it, also so far it’s still only available in the original Japanese version of the app. Well, everyone sounds excited about new events but when the actual thing starts, it will be another Hunger Games kinda world; sleepless nights and super tight competition until the event is over lol (usually it lasted around 10 days). But the satisfaction of getting special rewards like SR cards of your favorite Love Live! Character and many other prizes are just irreplaceable.
Here's a look into the gameplay. It's one of my favorite songs in the game, called 'Loneliest Baby', and this is the Hard mode with full combo:
While below is a sneak peak of my current LLSIF account. I used to go with the English version since it was easier to grasp the game's details of course, but somehow I find better luck in JP version. It's way more generous in handing out love gems, and most importantly better songs and characters variations for it is the first version to ever release.
That’s all for the bigger picture of the rhythm game. I still barely even recovered from the last SR Umi scorematch event which I was quite butthurt with because my rank flew away at the very last minutes. Those hours spent seemed so far away because people were competing like there's no tomorrow!
Afterall LLSIF is a well-made game though there are still rooms for improvement in the future. Simply prepare yourself before freefalling into this hole because once you’re sucked in escaping wouldn’t be an easy story.
Download Love Live! School Idol Festival Game (Japan/English ver.) Here
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