D'ORET PATISSERIE & CAFE

Finally, managed to upload some pics from Istanbul trip. This is where we had our very first breakfast in Istanbul. We stayed at a lovely apartment in Cihangir (promise, more on this later!) that's only a two minute walk away from d'Oret Pâtisserie & Café. Runs by two lovely girls, it is cutely located at the left end of rows of apartments in Cihangir Caddesi, just a short walk up the hill from our place. We woke up that morning really hungry, not knowing what to expect in the surrounding and in desperate need of coffee. I can get really cranky in the morning without caffeine, like everybody else :P

Ambience of the cafe is really laid-back. I could imagine myself coming back here with an empty tummy and a good book. Loving the bits and pieces of furniture and accessories here...especially the "stamped" timber flooring and that long console table in turquoise.

As I mentioned earlier, this patisserie is run by two lovely girls. One of the girls helped us to understand the breakfast selections because I had suspicions of why the traditional breakfast menu for 1 person had such loooong description and since we were really hungry, we just wanted to make sure if we should order one or two traditional breakfast. And then it came...small plate by small plate filling up our entire table. It's what I could only describe as a feast of happiness in the morning! I've never had such elaborate breakfast before, I mean like these entire items are indeed meant for one person's first meal of the day.

Had to ask like 3 times just to make sure that the sliced meat weren't pork and made sure she understood what I was enquiring, she was surprised when I asked and said "No, no, no!"

Fresh cherry tomates and cucumber in olive oil goodness with herbs

Peanut butter, Nutella, sundried tomato paste, sugar frosting, name whatever spread you want..but I am in LOVE with this marmalade-cream cheese spread!

 Boiled to perfection

Mom and I just pointed whatever we saw in the cookie jars and stands...all too tempting!! Here are the crescent moon shaped apple pies, nut cookies (reminded me of polvoron), and savory sesame seed ring shaped cookies

Coffee was surprisingly good (or maybe it's just the Turkish coffee in general) Hmmm,cappuccino!

 A novel.....not

Ta-da! Another cute bill holder!

Other than the photos above we also had Borek and some other pastries...all very lovely. Verdict? I would definitely come back in a jiffy. With better Turkish, of course. Or at least a better dictionary ;)

d'Oret Patisserie & Cafe

Cihangir Cad. No 1/A | Cihangir, Beyoğlu

Istanbul, Turkey

FRIED BANANAS WITH PALM SUGAR & CHEESE

Been staying at Grandma's for the longest run ever now. I just broke my own record of staying here for more than a month and actually really loving it. The only downside to this city is that sometimes it gets so hot I'd start daydreaming of rainy days. So here I am,  imagining what I'd eat during a rainy day...and what could better brighten up your day if not with good ol pisang goreng (fried bananas). And no no, I didn't eat this out on a blazing hot day, I ate it in a fully blasted air conditioned room, while sipping tea, under a blanket and having Modern Family marathon. Pure bliss.

At home, we usually just fry the bananas in batter or slighty brown them with butter and then sprinkle over some chocolate sprinkles and grated cheese. This time our relative is staying at home and she made this for us. Although I had suspicion it's gonna be too sweet from the palm sugar coating, but it turned out perfect. Just oh so yummmm!

Ingredients:

5-10 ripe pisang raja (or ladyfinger bananas if you can't find any of these), split lengthways

1 cup rice flour

1/2 cup all purpose flour

1-2 cup water (depending on how thick/thin you like your batter)

a pinch of salt

3 cups of palm sugar for coating

1 cup of grated cheddar cheese

about 5 tbsp condensed milk

Directions:

1. In a bowl, mix rice flour, all purpose flour, and water and a pinch of salt until there is no lumps.  You can adjust the thickness of the batter if you like. Here I wanted something "light" (yeah riiiight, with all those cheese and condensed milk) so my batter is quite thin but still crunchy. 

2. Heat up your frying pan and oil for frying. Prepare the palm sugar in a large bowl for coating.

3. Once the batter mixture is ready, put in the bananas into the mixture in several batches. Fry them until golden brown. Repeat with the remaining bananas. Let the fried bananas cool slightly on a paper towel-lined tray to absorb the oil.  

3. While it's still hot, toss the fried bananas in palm sugar until well coated. Arrange on a serving plate.

4. Drizzle the condensed milk over and top with generous amount of grated cheese. Oh, you're welcome :P

THE PROBLEM IS...

Guilty as charged!! :P

THE RARE GEMS

First thing first, Happy Independence Day, Indonesians!! To commemorate it, I intentionally post this recipe because tempe and tahu are Indonesians' fave. But why the title? Well they went AWOL from the market for a bit because of the sky rocketed price of the ingredients.

I actually had the craving to cook this for iftar a few days ago. And now since the-once-rare-gems are back in the market, I feel the need to post my favorite Sambel GorengTempe Tahu recipe....just because (okay, actually was also practicing my photo-composition). Super easy and super delish! 

Balado Tempe Tahu

3 large cloves garlic
3 cloves shallots
5 large red chilies, deseeded if you like
3 chilli padi
3 cm galangal
2 bay leaves
1/2 cup water
1-2 tbsp sweet soya sauce
250 gr tempe
250 gr tahu
sugar, salt and pepper to taste
oil for frying

1. Cut all the tempe and tahu widthwise like match sticks about 0.5cm thick and fry until golden brown. Set aside.
2. Put garlic, shallots, all chillies, galangal, and water in a food processor, blend them until everything combined but still coarse.
3. Heat oil in a frying pan, and once it's hot, pour in the blended spices. Stir the mixture until bubbly and put in the bay leaves. Add sugar (bare in mind you're going to add sweet soya sauce later on), salt and pepper to taste. 
4. Mix the fried tempe and tahu into the spices and mix well. Add 1-2 tbsp (depending how sweet you want it to be) just to give it a nice brown color. Stir and...you're done!

 Loving grandma's china collections :)

Anyway, I spotted Ayu's foodie blog, she's an Indonesian blogger living in Sydney. I love her recipes and especially the photos! Looking at her gorgeous photos inspired me to keep practicing..Teeheee!!

SHAKESPEARE AND CO.

When you're in Abu Dhabi's The Souk Central Market be sure to stop by this cute cafe called Shakespeare and Co. Cafe & Restaurant! It was recommended by the then-groom-to-be few nights before when we stopped by on our way for fitting his suit. He told me that every piece of the furniture in the space is related Shakespeare's stories. I didn't pay too much attention to this when I was eating there because we were rushing like mad to catch our bus to Dubai (I could only describe the process of eating as shoveling food to our face). So when you stop by, do lemme know what's the story behind the furniture :)

The space is located at one of the corner of Central Market, on the side area (okay, that's vague enough). But surely you won't miss it because their shabby chic Victorian chairs will definitely catch your attention. One could say that the interior is such an eye-sore or eye-candy because there's too much to see in every inch of the cafe. I figured most of the customers must be female although I spotted some guys in kendouras and keffiyeh sipping coffee outside. Interesting view :P

 They have branches in Abu Dhabi, Dubai, Al Ain and RAK

 Cozy sofa setting reminds me of the familiar FRIENDS' Central Perk cafe

 This one especially...I really could imagine Ross, Monica and the rest of the gang would walk into the space at any second and hang out here!

 A superbly ornate corner

 Did I mention this place is very ornate?

 Mocha. The symbol of my loyalty to Melbourne memories haha. It was nice, the right amount of bitersweet. Mom's cappuccino was also nice too.

 Complimentary butter cookies

Halal eggs benedicts. Loved everything in this dish except the hollandaise sauce which was a bit too runny for my liking.

Mango lassi and Love potion

 And your bill comes in this cute folder!

 Oh yes, of course they made it to Time Out Abu Dhabi!

 Some of their cakes selections

 Managed to save something for the trip to Dubai...

 ....which was totally forgotten along the way and I ended up eating these on the evening.

 Caramel, pistachio, chocolate, rose and vanilla

The rose macaron was a bit dry while the rest were still okay. I'm not sure what LuxBite has done to me, but I still found their macarons to be the best that I've tried haha

MOM'S BIRTHDAY

August 3rd is my mom's birthday. It was a really sweet birthday because everybody (including my parents) had flown in to Jakarta for my oldest brother's surprise show. Made this framed scrapbook as the gift and was a little bit confused on how to decorate the gift wrap. So I dedicated myself to learn how to make these bright orange and peach pom-poms from Domestisfluff (once I knew how, I just couldn't stop. Pom-poms were all over my niece's hair and arms at one point haha)

a glimpse of the scrapbook-in-a-frame

Now what a birthday would be without something to munch? Saw this lovely package of cookies from Andra Alodita's blog and I just couldn't wait to munch them myself order them for mom's bday. These cookies came out from the lovely Surely/Someday+Kitchen. Mom got the green tea and peach+passion fruit sable, chai, Earl Grey, honey lemon cookies, plus pineapple cookies and the purple rose Haabu tea...ooh I LOVE all of them!! Would love to order from them again soon :)

Albeit the simple humble handmade gifts....we love you, Mama!

H A P P Y  B I R T H D A Y !

RANDOM RANTS

For some weird reasons *cough* obsessions *cough* I just feel the need to post my fave David Mitchell's rants from British TV show "Would I Lie to You". These are the antidote to any of my bad days.