Just another restaurant encountering while I was in Bandung. We found this restaurant named Giggle Box by chance and just immediately itched to go in. And there we went. I fell in love at the first sight with the interior and what surprised me even more was the price. I was like, “IDR 20k for steak, for real?”. I had Fish and Chips, anyway, but I sliced a little bit of the steak my brother and boyfriend had. The taste is not too far from the expensive ones. So it was a really good-giggly day. We had fun at Giggle Box! I think I need a lot of these kind of places in town. We all need them, don’t we?

When opting for favourite eating-out places, some people might just take the food into their account and don’t care about the place itself. While some other might prefer good ambiance only, the food-taste follows after which is often compromisable if the place itself is already pleasing. However, there are people who want both come into one package. I am one of them – the third group. I rate a restaurant satisfying only if it meets both criteria, nice place and nice food (and suitable/reasonable price comes third). Last weekend in Bandung, though specifically meant to make a visit to family of boyfriend’s side, I’m glad that boyfriend and I managed to sneak some time off to nice restaurants. We arrived at two places that absolutely met the said criteria, Hummingbird Eatery and Vanilla Kitchen.

Hummingbird eatery, Jalan Progo No. 14 – Bandung

No, it isn’t branch of Hummingbird Bakery London I once wrote about. Unlike that famous one in London, which appeared to be the heaven of sweet-tooth mankind, this one in Bandung doesn’t sell cupcakes. Not even a single in the dessert/snacks menu. It is a proper restaurant serving foods of many kinds, ranging from Indonesian dishes to International ones, main course to light course, and steak to pasta/rice. Well, I did love the food I ordered, but I was honestly more fixated to the “think out of the box” interior details. Most of them are recycled stuff, such as the tranformation of used bottle racks into a unique chair (they added cushion on top of the racks so we could sit on it). Who could’ve expected?! It’s either I’m too lacking creativity or the designers are too brilliant. Hopefully, the former wasn’t the case. I loved every details of the interior, especially those troupe of birdcages found at the centre wall (last in above pictures).

Vanilla Kitchen, Jalan Cimanuk No. 11 – Bandung.

This restaurant is within easy reach from Hummingbird Eatery. They dig vintage interior and ambiance. The wooden interior totally got me and for a few first seconds reminded me of Urban Outfitters’. Each piece of the interior seemed to be carefully chosen. They even had wooden vintage bookshelves! I don’t know about you but to me, bookshelves adds up to a perfect-taste interior design. After a few scans to the surrounding, it really came as a surprise that I had identical chair in my house 15 years back when I was a tiny girl. Old days! and I tell you what, I could literally spend hours (or even get lost about the time) in this place, eating and chatting continuously. I was that certain, as it was very much comfy and homely. For the food, I tried out the Smoked Beef Aglio Olio and was about to make another order (same dish) if I forgot that I still needed to finish Chocolate Lava Cake for dessert. Tummy was beyond happy.

Everytime I leave this city, I always feel like I want to come back again immediately. Well obviously, it’s boyfriend’s hometown. However, the existence of those kind of places did successfully double my excitements! Bandung leads in splendid culinary treats. True! This is good, you know, this emerging new business. So can’t wait to explore more on next visits.

“When work, commitment, and pleasure all become one and you reach that deep well where passion lives, nothing is impossible.” That quote is quite a confidence-booster that I’m encouraged to have another blog (I mentioned in earlier posts), Macarons & Cupcakes. Maybe a brief background will help you to catch some glimpse.. So, it dates three years back when I started to create a personal blog (this one here) and that length of time has surprisingly helped me to discover my very own passion – writing (and blogging). This new blog is more of fashion magazine. To be honest, I have no in-depth knowledge about fashion-related world (I’m more of fashion-outsider). But I love the idea of having a personal style, looking good and feeling good. and why “Macarons & Cupcakes”? because they are my favourite, like nothing else! So, please have one quick reading or two or as many as you like! You’re very much welcome.

Those are some pictures from our last holiday with my sister in Paris, November 2010. Suddenly I’m brought to the past-time memories and remember how stupid we were that day. I’m one of those people who is really into the idea of “love means being stupid together”. I’m talking about stupid in a cute way, of course, haha. Ok, enough unnecessary words. My point is, I love that man, with no complicated reasons. Everything makes sense whenever I’m with him. Umm, but it’s not the reason why. I think I will still love him even if things don’t make sense. I just love him. Simple as that. (In all seriousness, how can people describe the reasons why they love someone in beautiful words and lines? I need to learn from them.)

Please don’t tell me you’ve had enough of my U.S. trip story, please, because at this exact moment I’m going to show you some left and forgotten pictures from my previous trip. Those from Chicago. To begin with, this morning I woke up, checked on facebook (I swear facebook-checking isn’t the first thing I do after I open my eyes each morning on daily basis. Trust me! haha) then I found my sister’s latest pictures, her and her close friends spending weekend in Chicago. I felt a bit nostalgic as I flicked through them from the beginning till the end. That was when I realised there are still some pictures of my last days in the U.S, hiding still in my folder. I will reveal them to you now..

Thank goodness after several days of terrible weather, we finally had an intense sunshine, crisp weather during our stay in Chicago. The weather helped us big time to explore and enjoy the city, especially for me during my few last days of trip before went home. Well, I love New York, yes I do. But I love Chicago even more. I think I had stronger emotional-bond to Chicago than that was to any other cities during this particular trip. It was as if Chicago was more relax and comfortable to live in than the busy New York, but still more bustling than Urbana or Washington, D.C. I love that everything in Chicago eased us, first-time tourists.  My favourite spots? Michigan Avenue and surrounding. We could find almost everything in the area. Well, to name a few.. there lied department stores, variety of shops and stores, cupcakes, cinema, restaurants, cafes, etc. Millenium park is also a great place to chill out. Recently I heard from my sister that she watched an orchestra in Millenium Park, for free. Ah, that must be relaxing! I wish they performed on that day I visited the park. Skyscrapers building and the label of windy-city are also the trademark of Chicago. The former, clearly shown in my pictures, skyscrapers building everywhere. I wish I’ll have another chance to come back again. So, that was some chunks of Chicago, hope you enjoy! x