Food Food & Food...

Being in other country with diversity of culture, it is always interesting to try their local things which is including trying the local food. During my one year stay in America, I've tried so many different kind of foods starts from the local 'cheap on the street' restaurant to the classy 5 stars restaurant. Lucky me I've made great friendships with the local people who really likes to eat. So basically, I rarely cook at home but went out (almost) everyday.

By that experiences I just want to share some interesting restaurant for your reference, listed as bellow:

>> Las Vacas Gordas

933 Normandy Dr
Miami Beach, FL 33141

If you named yourself as a steak lover, you can NOT miss this place. I fall in love with this place since the first time I got here. Amazingly brilliant food with a perfection of the chimichuri sauce; my stomach was spoiled… Make sure you share the meal in order to save room for the delicious dessert special, a fired crepe filled with sweet Dulce de Leche.

My pick: Parrillada Para 2 & Molleja

>> Wine Depot & Bistro 555

Wine selection at bistro 555

555 Jefferson Avenue - Miami Beach, FL 33139

A very chick kind of bistro; they offer a very wide range of wines from different countries. Serving French tapas style, just makes you wanna try more and more… And they also serve tremendous dessert (we ordered 5 out of 5 desserts that they had)

My pick: Homemade duck rillettes & all the desserts

>> The Fish box by La Camaronera

Food Truck - Fish Box

All Over Miami
Miami, FL 33135

It’s a food truck (but they also have the restaurant) which serve any kind of food made of fish but most of them shrimp. Tried once at the restaurant, it’s indeed very unique because there is no seat available and you are literally standing when you are eating.

>> Chimicuri Dominican Burger

Somewhere in Downtown Miami

This is probably the getho-est burger I ever eat. Located in the middle of the ‘black’ neighborhood, it’s worth a try. Went there (first) at midnight after a NBA game, we are addicted to it and finally went there (again) at 4.00am… Ty also the lemonada!

>> Gotham Steak @ Fountain Bleau

4441 COLLINS AVENUE MIAMI BEACH, FLORIDA 33140 USA

Located in Fountain Bleau Hotel, this restaurant provides excellent 5 stars service and best quality of food (steak and grill). No wonder, the price is a bit up market too (don’t be surprise). The setting is very elegant but simple. I spent the most money just for a single dinner in this restaurant.

My pick: Fillet Mignon

>> The Restaurant @ The Setai

2001 Collins Avenue 33139

Serving Asian types of cuisine in the middle of hectic South Beach is a tremendous idea (even there is also Hakkasan & Mr. Chow). Probably they serve the most authentic Asian cuisine is Sobe since the cooks are from the origin country (India, Thailand, China, Indonesia).

My pick: Sunday brunch & Pecking Duck

>> Bali Café

109 NE 2nd Ave
Miami, FL 33132

Being home away from home. This is always the perfect escape for me when I miss food from my home country. Not really serving Balinese food yet Indonesian, they serve many types of Indonesian cuisines from Opor, Rendang, Satay, Es Sarang Burung, and of course Es Campur. Just so you know, I didn’t come to this place very often since I rarely miss home… LOL

Wynwood - Design District

>> Wynwood Kitchen and Bar Restaurant

2550 N.W. 2nd Avenue
Miami, FL 33127

A restaurant with full of wall gravity; the concept is amazing. Serving American Brasserie cuisine and beautiful urban art seems to be designed as a cool place to hang out. Having a friend work there as a bartender, we occasionally get a free drink.

>> Chevice 105

Lomo Saltado

105 NE 3rd Ave
Miami, FL 33132

Located in Downtown Miami, CVI.CHE offers a fine Peruvian cuisine (mostly made of potato and corn) with a reasonable price. It’s always packed and yes, it’s hard to find parking around the area but worth it. 

 My pick: Lomo Saltado

>> Jerry’s Famous Deli

1450 Collins Avenue
South Beach, Miami, Fl 33139

The only place to go for (early) breakfast after party… No wonder, they’re open 24 hours. Pretty chill place with big portion of food (but) with (not that) good taste.

>> Sum Yum Gai

1403 Washington Ave
Miami Beach, FL 33139

It is a must place to go if you like Chinese food (which tasted like Indonesian food). Go there on Monday or Thursday you will get free draft beer (as much as you want). It’s very cheap, so you can tell this is where I went when I broke.

My pick: fried rice & pork ribs

>> Shake Shack

11 11 Lincoln Road (at Lenox Avenue)

Delicious burger & cheese fries at shake shack

It is one of the finest and most healthy burger in USA. With small(er) portion compare than Five Guys or McD they offer fresh steer burgers which ground daily, cooked medium and served plain (unless you want them with lettuce, pickle, tomato or onion). It’s always a great place to go before or after movies (considering the location is next to the cinema).

My pick: Shack burger & Cheese fries

>> Rosa Mexicana

1111 Lincoln Road, Miami FL 33139

Located right next to the Regal Cinema, this place always is a good option to go for dining before or after movies (besides Shake shack). From the name it’s clearly mentioned that they serve Mexican food with the most delicious fresh Guacamole (ever)

There were a lot more that I tried, but those probably the most interesting places that i ever visited. Brunch @ The Biltmore at Coral Gables, World News Cafe at Ocean Drive, Hakkasan at Fountain Bleau, the amazing Vietnamese Restaurant in 163rd street, Thai House and Sushi Siam, Michael's at Design District, Smith and Wollensky at South Point; all of them were also very good and left a good memory on me.

Do NOT forget, some of my friends also likes to cook - Michael Nunez: thanks for taking me to the finest chicharon places and for cooking very often, Osmar for making me a lot of drinks and the gheto sangria, Mami Jacky for the most delicious homemade chimichuri burger, Rubens for the barbeque, Vijay for the scallops, Eka for the lamb soup (even i rarely like it), and other Balinese friends who I always eat (noodle, sausage, egg) in their room :)

Hopefully above information is usefull and can be a guidance to explore Miami cuisine.....

ORLANDO - it's all about the ride...

It’s been a while after my last post. Kinda busy at work for the Christmas and New Year… (Btw, it was a great celebration I had) and the Chinese New Year as well – of course!

Well now back to the new writing. What about my adventurous ride to Orlando, FL; 2 days visit full of excitement! Sounds nice right… 

The famous sign of Universal

It wasn’t that busy at my work place back then, so I and 4 other friends could have 2 days off together and we decided that we have to go to Orlando – the heaven of roller coaster lover. There were some options of theme park but we came up with the decision of coming to the worldwide famous Universal Studio and the Island of Adventure. The day started very early in the morning at around 5.30am when the bus showed up in front of our apartment considering the long ride from South Beach to Orlando which up to 4 hours… Sweet! No question, we were all sleeping at the bus due to we had no enough sleep the night before. The ride was smooth and the weather was perfect and we were wide awake right before we arrived at Orlando. Five of us were happy in excitement when we saw the sign “Welcome to Universal Studio”… Arrived there, the bus driver gave us a short briefing that he will come to pick us up at the same spot by 6pm.

Universal Studio, FL

Rock it Coaster

Ready for some fun, we directly moved our ass to Universal Studio! Btw, this theme park shows the movies which produced by Universal. My first impression, well it’s damn huge… I kinda feel it already! It was 10am so we thought we better go slowly (instead of going to the “Rock it” roller coaster directly) we chose Twister, Ride it out… It showed the illustration of the tornado when it attacked the city – just like in the movie – the details were great. There was even the scene where the cow flew in front of your naked eyes (if you remember that part).  After, we tried the first roller coaster at Revenge of the Mummy. It was really cool; we rode on the dark so we got a better excitement.  Your adrenaline was getting tense when you didn’t see anything and rode it backwards… The warming up was enough and then we went to the top most popular ride; the Hollywood Rip Ride Rockit! This is the only ‘real’ roller coaster in this theme park. It is really unique since you can listen to your favorite music while riding the RC. Jump up to the seat, tightened my seatbelt then I chose my music. The first song that came up to my mind was “shout at the devil” by Motley Crue…. Reminds me of Guitar Hero. Pretty badass isn’t it? Started with a 90 degree ride to the top then whuzzzzz….. It went so fast like I felt the wind hitting on my face. I heard a lot of screaming then I started screaming myself. It was like Whoa! Amazing! I felt my nerves were getting higher so I’m up for everything now yet my friends were hungry and craving for food. Wtf, are you serious? Damn it, finally we ate some lunch – a fried chicken and pizza – sounds crazy right. The clock was ticking for 1 hour, and then we continued our ride. Next stop was at Shrek 4 D – a 4 dimension love story movie of the ogre Shrek and Princes Fiona. The movie was fine but the effect was great, you felt like you were part of the movie it self– it was so real. After that we went to Men in Black: Alien attack and Disaster – A Major Motion Picture ride. Those two were good but not special… We had a few hours left, 3 of my friends were going for shopping at Hard Rock yet me and Debby decided to ride the Rockit once again – I listened to Evanescence; bring me to life – where I lost my earring on this ride L Btw, there were some other attractions i.e. The Simpsons ride, Terminator 3D, Jaws, and Fear Factor however since the lack of time we just passed it.

5.50pm 5 of us standing exactly at the same spot where the bus driver dropped us off this morning. 10 minutes later our ride arrived. Headed to our hotel in Lexington suites Orlando, we were surprise to see the hotel. That was a really nice hotel compare to the rate that we pay. The room was huge with 2 beds and a living room with sofa bed, bathroom with rain shower, swimming pool and restaurant. Not long after that, we jump off to the pool spent some time there until we get ready to have dinner at around 8pm. Decide to dine out while enjoying the night at Orlando, we walked around the city to find a good restaurant (that was the original idea). We were keep looking until one of our friend scream out when he saw a Chinese buffet restaurant… Epic fail!!!! We’re not eating the Chinese buffet in Orlando considering that was our almost everyday food in Miami. Sigh….. I have to admit, my friends taste of food was sucks a big time, hahahaha. I lost vote, 4 against 1 so we went there for a night dinner in Orlando… Pathetic! Back home around 10pm and we were all ready to sleep. Covered myself with a warm big blanket and started to close my eyes. Not even get my first dream yet, Ary shake my body and asked me to wake up. She said her friend who lived nearby will pick us up for some drinks. When I heard the word ‘drinks’ my eyes widely open without any order… hahaha. We went to a bar called Ale House and yes without any hesitation I ordered my favorite drink of all time Vodka Redbull. We were chatting about the rides that we had and how excited we were. It continued until we finished our third glass. It was a short night but worth to know the feeling of Orlando at night.

At the world of HP

the iconic 'Jaws'

The next morning, it was 7am and the sun proudly presents itself and I believe it was a good weather for the rest of the day. Having our breakfast at restaurant with scramble egg, sausage, soup and toast; there was nobody yet. We enjoyed the breakfast until a small accident happened, the restaurant was smoky and when we looked around it came from – Putu; a friend of mine didn’t know how to toast bread until its burn. Funny…. Btw, the bus came to pick us up not long after that and we set to Island of Adventure. With a map on my hand, we were so ready to discover this theme park. My eyes didn’t even blink when I saw the roller coaster all over this park, ‘its gonna be awesome’… Just so you know, the most popular ride here is The Wizarding World of Harry Potter – the one and only worldwide – … I am a huge fan of Harry Potter, so this excites me the most.  We went there as the first ride since we know it will be very packed later in the afternoon. Entering the Harry Potter land, I was blown away by the design; it was soooo reaaaalllll exactly the same like what we saw on the movie. It was fuckin great! The Hogwart Express, Olivander wand store, Hogs Head, the Three Broomsticks and even the butterbeer was available there and it tasted delicious. I was like dreaming – it’s surreal. We walked along the way until we saw the Hippogriff ride and chose that as the first ride. It was short one but pretty good as a starter to raise our adrenaline. Then we continue to the Hogwarts school and I knew it’s gonna be awesome since the first minute I step inside. When I saw the detail, OMG its so genius… The combination of technology and creativity; they can made the talking picture on the wall, the triwizard trophy, the sorting hat, the common room and every single details were just simply magnificent. Magic! It took some time to get in on the ride since there was a long queue  at first I thought we were the first one there  but in fact many people ahead of us. Well finally our turn came and we were so ready to start. At first it went slow and soon after that it went faster and faster. I never experienced this kind of thing in my entire life. We rode a roller coaster with the combination of 3D effect. It seemed that we were on the top of the broom and flew with it. Speechless…. Not even a word to explain! With some scene taken from the movie i.e. the dementors and death eathers’ attack, the quiditch match with Draco Malfoy, and even the fight with Lord Voldemort it’s just amazing… Did I say amazing earlier? I guess I did, but it really was. After an incredible ride in Hogwarts, then we went for another Roller Coaster called The Dragon Challenge (still the part of Harry Potter). It was a real deal baby, scarring as hell… 2 rides at the same time with different direction and at one point it looks like they are dueling each other. Super! Had some fun on the roller coaster then we went for a chill out place; Jurassic Park. Pretty cool but not that excited about it. And yet we got wet – like totally wet – on the Dudley Do-Right’s Ripsaw Falls. There was so watery, a scary slide falls on the big raft! Lots of fun and lots of scream.  We dried ourselves under the sun and we realized it was midday and time for lunch. There were some dining options there and we went to Comic Stripp Cafe. Actually we didn’t really know what kind of food was there but since it’s the most colorful one so we decided to go there. Not bad but not special, that’s all I say. But whatever, we were full and it’s all that matter. 

The AMazing ride of Spiderman

After resting for view minutes, we headed to The Amazing Adventures of Spiderman. At first I really underestimated this ride. I guess it wasn’t that interesting but when we step inside and it started I took my words back, it was damn cool. It showed the action of Spiderman saved the New Yorker I have been there anyway and the effect of the 3D made it even better. You felt like you were flying with the spider web on the skyscrapers of NYC and the ending of the ride was dramatic. The twist was unexpected. Sweet… Moved on to the next attraction, the one that scared me the most; Doctor Doom’s fearfall. It showed from the name – fearfall – yes, that’s true!!!! When you have seated and ready to go, with a sudden time with no warning you were rocketed skyward then hurled back down faster (when I say faster means FASTER). I thought that my heart was left behind on the ground and I could not even scream. It was really tense. Damn it, but it incredibly great! This is probably the most brutal roller coaster that I ever saw; The Incredible Hulk Coaster. It’s huge, green, and goes really fast! Hell yeah…. 4 of us sneak out to the queue to get in (yes, it was 4 – Dwi was too afraid to try this one). It took almost 15 minutes standing on the line until we got our turn. It was indeed NOT a waste of time because it paid off. The coaster was crazy… The maneuvers were insane! The speed even faster than the speed of light! How amazing is that! Oh yeah, we also bought a picture while we were on the ride. Funny faces…. Poseidon’s Fury was the last place that we visit in Island of Adventures. It’s a show for the fight between Poseidon and the evil Lord Darkenon taken place underwater. Again, the special effects really help the show looked attractive. Well, to my opinion the show wasn’t that good. The building attracts me more than the show itself. I guess 1 day was really not enough to discover this theme park, for sure you need more than 1 day. We also passed some attractions here.

It was an amazing day yet tiring. But overall we had lots of fun, that’s the most important thing. It was 5.30pm and we had to finish our wonderful experience in Orlando. We grabbed some foods before went back to the bus. And yes, no question we were sleeping again on the way back home to South Beach Miami.