.one of Bali's greatest treasure: Nammos Beach Club. by Amanda Harsono

Hey FI (Feast Indonesia) Readers!!
I’m so ecxited to be writing one of my many articles to come for FI’s blog. I too very keen on telling you all about Indonesia. Indonesia are made from many love and hate. From that contrast, were created a beautiful and lovable country (at least for me, that is). As an Indonesian I actually haven’t been to many places here. So many islands, provinces and cities to visit. I have my whole lifetime to do so though ☺

Let’s begin with one of my fave travel destination, Bali. In particular Nammos Beach Club, which is in Karma Kandara Resort. I fell in love with this place when I saw it from my friend’s facebook pic gallery. Even though when I saw the place for the first time (through a pic) I know instantly that I want to spend hours and hours there. 
As we all know that Bali is known for the many beaches that I have, this though, it is far the best beach in town. The water was perfect, the sand was magnificent and the drinks were.. mmm so-so la LOL. But who cares about for and beverages if you can experience nature’s heaven. There’s an entrance fee though, around Rp 200.000 which is about US$ 20(ish). That fee can be exchange with food or beverages (or both). I went there with expectations and went home with satisfaction. 

For those brides and grooms to be, this is also a place for you to do your pre-wed photos session. 
This place is truly a dear, and I highly recommend everyone to visit when you are in Bali. 

more details on: http://www.karmakandara.com/nammos-beach-club

Much love,
aha

a m a n d a     h a r s o n o
  Jl. Bungur no.2 Kemang 
       Jakarta Selatan
  081319581786
 AHA creative consultant
       www.iyoushop.com

.jakarta's street food: martabak.

I remember my dad used to bring this famous street food home from work and I will be so happy, I could finished the whole box myself. This sweet-yummy-goodness is called martabak manis or terang bulan. Now, essentially, its a pancake, with an Indonesian twist. Martabak also comes in savoury flavour with cheese fillings and there's also a version made from eggs. My favourite is martabak manis with chocolate and nuts filling. The texture of the base is very soft that melt in your mouth, with melting chocolate and then the nuts gives the whole cake, a crunch. Yuumm!!!

The ingredients for martabak manis (the sweet version) are quite simple, just like pancake, there's flour, milk and eggs. You can put whatever you want inside as a filling. Martabak Manis is a very popular street snack, trust me, I am craving for it right now! You can find Martabak stand anywhere in Jakarta's street corners. You'll most likely to find many of the hawker style stand after the sun goes down. They will have signs all over their stand saying "MARTABAK" or "TERANG BULAN", with their little light bulb and cooking away in the typical Jakarta's balmy weather.

So whenever you get a chance to go to Jakarta, I highly recommend you to hunt down these hawker's stand and try these yummy-goodness, sweet or savoury. Happy eating!!!

.jakarta: hotel bombing. an opinion.

I'm sure by now everyone would've heard about the bombing of Marriott Hotel and Ritz-Carlton hotel in Jakarta on the 17th of July 2009. To me, this incident is a great misfortune for Indonesia. As a country, Indonesia has been in turbulence for a while now. As far as I know, the country has been hit hard by the economic crisis, like many other country around the world, and off course the recent presidential election has caused some instability. Since the last economic crisis in 1998, Indonesia has been trying to rebuild its people, country and governmental bodies. One of the Indonesia's tool is relying on tourism, with promotions such as Visit Indonesia starting in 2008 and Enjoy Jakarta 2009. Relying on tourism means that the country needs to prove its stability and safety. However, this on-going terrorist attack have caused a great instability and filled potential tourists with fear.

I am hoping that the so-called terrorist realized the grave impact of their actions. I'm not only talking about the victims, people that passed away caused by the bombs, but also the other victims, the everyday people of Indonesia who rely on tourism to buy a cup of rice to feed their whole family. As a country that is, unfortunately, heavily populated with quite a big percentage living in poverty, many rely on creating traditional crafts or formed a traditional dance troops to be shown to foreigners, in order to earn money. When foreigners fear the country because of bombings and instabilities, these families living under poverty might not survive today.

I am praying for all the families' of the recent bombing victims, hoping time will heal our pain. I am also praying for the people of Indonesia who lived everyday in poverty who are hoping that one day things will get better, its a comfort to know that someday soon we'll see a brighter future for you beloved country, Indonesia. The president have been re-elected, another five years of governance is ahead of us, may the day, 17th of July 2009, becomes a wake up call for all Indonesia's young generations to come to a realization that the future of Indonesia rely on us, let us together, hand-in-hand, make a small difference each day, that one day will create an impact to improve our country.

.jakarta: short introduction.

Jakarta... its name conjures up many images on people's mind. For millions of Indonesian, coming to Jakarta means opportunities to change their fortunes. While many have found the holy grail, many lost it all in the harsh reality of the fast-paced capital city. As the capital city of Indonesia, Jakarta is the center of government and the hub of Indonesia's economy. It has many names, Sunda Kelapa, Jayakarta, Batavia, then finally, Jakarta. Just like its name, Jakarta have changes it looks many times and personally, I don't think it will ever stop changing and for this reason, many can't help but falls in love with Jakarta. For many years, living in Jakarta for me means being with family and friends. Monday to Saturday will be school time, then on Sunday its all about enjoying free time, eating out or shop in one of the big malls, off course I didn't grow up with as much malls as Jakarta has nowadays.

As a local, Jakarta is an exciting place to live because it has so much to offer. Yes, traffic in Jakarta can be a bit of a nightmare for foreigners but the government made it a lot friendlier with the creation of TransJakarta buses. The TransJakarta bus lines stops at all the important landmarks around Jakarta, by landmarks I mean, monuments, museums and off course the shopping malls. Most of the bus shelters are air-conditioned. The ticket is purchased on the bus shelter before you enter and tickets are affordable, its Rp. 3,500 equals to 35 cents USD. Other method of transportations are taxi, independent bus company and smaller van-like transport called Mikrolet (read: mee-crow-let). If you preferred the more traditional method of transportation, Jakarta has traditional auto-rickshaws called Bajaj (read: bah-jay) and the human-powered cycle-rickshaws we called Becak (read: beh-chuck). Whichever method you prefered, always beware of your belongings, as unfortunately I have to inform about the pick-pockets, generally exists in any big cities of the world.

So what to see around town? Kemang District is my top recommendations for any travelers, situation in the South of Jakarta, it's alive by day and becomes more vibrant as the sun goes down. The district hosts large number of restaurants, both traditional and fusion cuisines. However, my favourite is a unique bookstore called ak'sa.ra. Casa Cafe is located right above the bookstore in case of an appetite kicks from reading. Apart from selling books, every so often ak'sa.ra. hosts variety of book readings and music performance by artists from Indonesia's Indie music scenes.

This is just a short introduction, so many things will be written about Jakarta as we slowly grow the blog. I can say for sure to know all about Jakarta is to write endless pages and pages of posts therefore we'll explore it slowly. So... until next time.

.where to begin.

When people think about Indonesia, many will think of the capital city Jakarta or the enchanting island of Bali. However, Indonesia is a lot more than that, its an island archipelago consist of 17,508 islands. Indonesia is divided into 33 provinces and these individual province consist of many colorful cultures and culinary greats. For these reasons, many tourists becomes trap into activities that are well...'tourist-ish'. Through the creation of FEAST INDONESIA, I'm hoping to help travelers to do some of the tourist-stuff and then some more...
Feel free to leave comments or send me an email if you have any specific questions or specific topic you want me to post on the blog. Please send me your experiences after traveling from Indonesia and I will happily post it on the blog. Enjoy and Feast Indonesia.