If you're invited to a house warming party and don't know what to bring as a gift for the hostess, then these gift sets below might be your options or at least they could inspire you ;)

I only choose gift sets here because I personally love gift sets since they usually comes in unique packaging, and you will also receive several smaller items instead of one >> the more items you receives the happier you would be, I think that's the essence of receiving gifts, LOL ;p

So without further adieu..... here are a few of my options for a house warming gift sets ;)

 Penhaligon's Malabah Classic Candle & Matches Set

Candles are important items that every household should have. You'll need it to set the mood and atmosphere, or if you're not the "aromatic-candle" type at least you'll need it incase of a blackout ;).

Inspired by an imaginary journey to the East, Malabah is an exotic blend of citrus, coriander, Earl Grey tea, rose and aromatic spices. Penhaligon’s luxurious candles are packed with essential oils in a naturally derived soy wax base and are hand-blended for a superior burn time. This set also includes a limited edition matches.

Tranquil Tuesday "White Peony" Celadon Tea Set

A high-quality tea is considered as a sophisticate gift, especially if the hostess loves tea. And the elegant wooden packaging of this tea set makes it an appropriate gift for house warming parties.

This gift set of two celadon cups and a celadon tea canister is complemented by a sampler pack of five teas and a tin of delicate White Peony tea which is a light and delicate tea that is Tranquil Tuesdays bestseller. This gift set comes in a keepsake wood gift box. The five sampler pack consists of: Organic Ancient Tree Raw Pu'er Tea, Organic Jade Sword Green Tea, White Peony White Tea, Qimen (Keemun) Black Tea and Iron Goddess of Mercy Oolong Tea.

Chambre de Sucre I Heart Coffee Sugar Set

 Sugars are essentials in every house's kitchen so giving sugars as gift is rather a unique idea that the hostess will love. Who knew that sugars can be interesting if packaged well like this one ;)

This set includes brown and white sugars in heart, pyramid and cube shapes, and it's made in Japan. Chambre de Sucre has been making artisanal sugars by hand in Japan for over 270 years and has supplied the Japanese Imperial Family since the time of the shoguns era. 

 

 

The Laundress Spring Cleaning Kit

This is a gift that every hostess would love because these are essential items that she would surely needs for her new home. I love giving gifts that I know would be useful for the receiver, i love giving and receiving gifts that I can actually use. So this spring cleaning kit is a gift set that I would love to give or even receive ;p

The Laundress Spring Cleaning Kit includes: Scented Vinegar, Surface Cleaner, All-Purpose Cleaning Concentrate, Lint-Free Cleaning Cloths and a Kitchen Soap Bar, all packed in a pretty White Enamel Pail. This eco-chic, luxurious and incredibly effective cleaning products are filled with refreshing hints of bergamot, thyme, lavender, musk and ylang-ylang that will make your home smells as fantastic as it looks.

And if you still have no clue on what to give, then try giving food! 

Everybody loves snacks and food are such thoughtful gifts that you'll know it would be enjoyed by the whole family..

You can't go wrong by giving food hampers as gifts ;)

 

Harry and David's Signature Tower of Treats

 Chocolates, Nuts, Fruits, Popcorns... there's something for everyone!

There's nothing better than boxes upon boxes full of delicious gourmet treats, wrapped in pretty paper, stacked and tied up with a hand tied bow. No one should have to wait for the holidays to get one of these. This set includes: Royal Riviera Pears, Milk Chocolate Moose Munch Popcorn, Mixed Nuts, Chocolate Cherries, and Assorted Truffles.

Biscuiteers New Home Tin Biscuits

Who wouldn't want a pretty little tin with colorful assorted shapes of biscuits inside it, just like this one? If you show up on my door with this gift I would welcome you all year long, LOL..

It’s the perfect gift to take along to housewarming parties, or just to help people settle in. Inside the pretty tin you will find cookies in the shapes of house key, front door, houses, and flowers. What could be cuter than this? This cookie tin from Biscuiteers includes iced biscuits of vanilla bake, made with fresh vanilla pods.

 La Boite Biscuits Collection

Another biscuit gift box option is this larger biscuit assortments from La Boite. This is perfect if the hostess have a rather large family or if she loves entertaining guests. It's a perfect addition to afternoon tea and/or midnight snacks ;p All the kids and adults alike would surely love to get their hands on this yummy tin box.

This biscuit collection from Lior Lev Sercarz’s latest baked goods/artist collaboration is called: 'The Human Animal,' and it features a selection of mouth-watering tasty cookies in a decorative keepsake tin, complete with a series of limited edition prints from Jody Morlock. The biscuits assortments in this collection are: 
Fourmis Rouge: Hazelnut, dark chocolate and Szechuan pepper
Boten: Peanut butter, granola, and milk chocolate
Anisette: Salted butter, Anise seeds, and Marcona almonds
Tapuz: Orange marmalade, long raisins, and hibiscus
Zuta: Wild mint, date, and cashew nuts

 

Samplrs for AHAlife Basket

This sampler basket from Samplrs would satisfy everyone, it has lots of well-curated assortment of local-focused artisanal food products, perfect for a house warming gift so that the hostess and her family would feel right at home.

Each of the sampler basket includes: assorted cured meats, savory and sweet spreads, crackers and desserts for 4 persons and an information card along with suggested recipes.

Inside the basket you will find: Black Truffle Sausage, Country Sausage, Fig Salami, Cayenne and Cumin Crackers, Pretzel Chips, Blueberry Bourbon Jam, Black Tea Pickled Dried Plums, Collective Mostarda di Frutteto, Pickled Okra with Smoked Paprika, Honey Almond Caramel Corn, Maple Thyme Pecans and Six Chocolate Chip Brownies.

 

So, do you like my choices above? Which ones do you like, if any?

If you like this kind of post, you can also check out my "Mother's Day Gift Idea" post or "Unique Ordinary Things for Gift Idea" post.


Ciao, bella!



Sources: 
the Tower of Treats is from Harry and David's website, the New Home Tin Biscuits is from Biscuiteers website, and the rest are from AHAlife website.

Jakarta's Street Food Edition: Tongseng

I just browsed an old photo folder and found these photos of another street hawker food called Tongseng that I haven't posted yet. (Actually there are many food photos and restaurant reviews that I haven't posted yet ;p). 

Anyway, in Jakarta you could find Tongseng sellers on many corners of the city. Lots of street vendors as well as small eateries all around the city offer Tongseng for the city dwellers. You can also find Tongseng in bigger restaurants and food courts. 

I like Tongseng since the first time I tasted it which is back in high school when me and my classmates used to skip school to go hang out at a small city park in jl. Lembang (Lembang street). There were several Tongseng sellers on the park so we're used to have Tongseng as our lunch. I love the sweet savoury taste of the hot soup and the dash of spiciness in it.

For you my foreign readers, you must have a big question mark right now, asking "what the h*ll is Tongseng?" ;p

Well, according to Wikipedia, Tongseng is a goat meat stew in curry-like soup with vegetables and sweet soy sauce. Originally from Surakarta, a province of Central Java, Indonesia.

The soup is made of ground mix­ture of garlic, shallot, black pepper, ginger, coriander, galangal, bay leaves, and lemongrass sauteed with oil until it gets aromatic. The diced meat then poured into the sauteed mixture until cooked. Add water until it's boiled and add sweet soy sauce with tamarind juice. When the boiling reduces, add shredded cabbages and sliced tomato. 

Tongseng is usually served with hot steamed rice. And I would usually order an iced sweet tea with my Tongseng because it is a hot soup, and hot soup + iced tea = my favorite formula ;)

Here are some photos of the food that I took while eating Tongseng in a small eatery (warung) near hubby K's home. It was good and we left with a full happy tummy ;)

Served with rice

Green tomatoes were used instead of red ones

Iced Sweet Tea - perfect with a hot soup!

See other Jakarta's Street Food Edition, here.
See other Food & Cooking ideas, here.
See other Places To Eat, here.

What We Ate Lately

Trying to keep up the pace here on this blog, so here's a post on what we ate lately ;P 

I had a post like this before and by overseeing the statistic data of this blog I found that the "What We Ate" posts are one of the most read ones, so I thought I'd do it again (maybe regularly ?). 

So anyway, here's this month's edition of what we ate (and drank) lately ;)

 

 Sushi Tei
Pondok Indah Mall 2

Here's the drinks that we order from when we were having a Sunday Sushi lunch at Sushi Tei. I've been dying to try out their Salmon Carpaccio but always forgot about it, maybe because we were always distracted by the various sushi options on the menu. Maybe next time.. The drinks are a real thirst quencher though.. ;)

Pad Thai 

Thai & I, Pondok Indah Mall 1

I usually would order the Seafood Tom Yum Soup or the Pad Thai in Thai Express because both dishes are slurpy goooood ;p Love the presentation too! The pad thai came in a small wok with pandan leaves as the dish base. I also love the level of spiciness!

American Breakfast 

TRS Diner, Cilandak Town Square

I forgot the exact name of this order but it's one of the breakfast menu offered at TRS Diner. I love almost everything in TRS Diner and they always serve the breakfast menu all day, even for dinner ;) From the hearty breakfast menu above I love the baked beans the most! But everything else is also good :D - Full review coming soon!

Kimberly's Green Sausage Pasta & Capers, Fried Buttermilk Mushroom, Blueberry Lemonade
Nanny's Pavillion - Sewing Room @Gandaria City

I've reviewed Nanny's Pavillion before (over here) and (here). But this one is at another counter, the one in Gandaria City. I ordered Kimberly's Green Sausage Pasta and Capers and Fried Buttermilk Mushroom.

And I don't know if it's just me ..but i found that all the food in the Gandaria City's counter are not as good as the one in Pacific Place. We tend to always ordered the same thing over and over again at Nanny's Pavillion Bathroom counter at Pacific Place so we also ordered the same menu while in their "Sewing Room" counter, and that's how we noticed that something seems not quite right. So far, the one in Pacific Place tastes better than the one in Gandaria City. So if you never try Nanny's Pavillion before I suggest their "Bathroom" counter at Pacific Place instead.

Chicken Glass Noodles with Meatballs Soup

(Bihun Ayam Baso) @ Bakmi Bangka Afen, Pondok Indah (Pertok)

As you might probably have figured out by now if you read my blog regularly, I am a noodles lover :D I love noodle dish, but I only like thin noodles. I don't like big / thicker noodles such as Udon, etc - I like mine thinner ;p The thinner the noodles, the more i like it ;)

So no wonder I love glass noodles, because they are super thin, LOL. Bakmi Bangka Afen is one of our favorite noodles resto, and it's located not far from our house too. And it's relatively cheaper than the ones in the mall ;p

On one of our outings there I ordered this chicken glass noodles with meatballs soup, and it was a delish (as expected from Bakmi Bangka Afen ;p). If you live near Pondok Indah area you must try this place, I have been a fan since I first visited this place back when I was in high school!

 

 Crab Corn Soup, Dory Fish Fillets Sprinkled with Salted Egg, Sauteed Green Vegetable, Blackpeppered Beef.

Ta Wan - Setiabudi One

It was my mother in law's Birthday and we left for dinner pretty late that night and didn't have any reservations. My MIL (mother in law) loves Ta Wan so much so it was a safe bet to go there for her Bday dinner. 

Ta Wan is one of our favorite family restaurant because we have tried literally almost everything on their menu and not once did we find something bad with the food. All the food on the menu always came out delicious, thumbs up for Ta Wan! Well I don't know about the other counters but the one at Setiabudi Building is highly recommended! ;D

Chocolate Mocha Milkshake and Sausage + Fries Platter.

BMC - Bandoengshce Melk Centrale, Bandung

We went to Bandung (a nearby city from Jakarta) several times these past few weeks and in one of our outings there we stopped by at BMC for an afternoon snack before heading back to Jakarta. I ordered the above menu because I was half hungry, LOL. The milkshake is good, and i love the historical building as well as the history behind the BMC itself.

Cheese Burger from Klenger Burger

Klenger burger is one of local burger stalls, i think they're trying to be the dupe of the more famous local burger joint: Blenger Burger (noticed the similar name?), but sadly they failed big times :( - This particular cheese burger that I ordered was so blah, I would prefer the more cheaper Dwima Burger over these Klengers.

Red Velvet Cake

I got this from my sister in law who in turn..got this from her sister in law (confuse, much? ;p). I don't know if this is home made or bought from the store but this one is soo delicious and looks really great. I love the color red so seeing this cake in display is really a feast for my eyes ;)

Spicy Chicken Ramen and Baked Potato with Butter
Kin No Taki Restaurant, PIM 2

As usual, at least once a month we ate at Kin No Taki ;p If you read my blog long enough you would know that this is one of our fave Japanese resto in Jakarta ;) - You can read my review here.

Meanwhile, if you dine there don't bother to order the baked potato with butter above (I forgot to take note of the Japanese name on the menu), it was really just a baked potato with butter ;(

 

Chicken Glass Noodle Soup

Bakmi Villa, Cinere

This is one of our old hang-out place, and it has been there for quite a long time too so almost everybody who lives in nearby area would know about this noodle place. I usually ordered the Yamin noodle but these past few weeks I am more into glass noodle soup, and I don't know why ;p

Almost everything in Bakmi Villa are delicious, their fried wonton are similar to the ones from the more popular big brand noodle restaurant Bakmi GM ;p They also have Iced Passion fruit drink which is my favorite drink everrr!

Rotiboy
Carrefour Lebak Bulus

This is one of my favorite munches ;p Rotiboy is simply a type of bread/bakery with coffee topping and butter filling. It's crispy on the outside and soft on the inside. Super yumminess in one simple bun.

Hubby K brought me one of these when he arrived home from work one day. Well actually I gave him a hint earlier that I'm craving this big fat boy ;p

ABC Selera Pedas Hot Tomato Instant Noodle Soup

This is an instant noodle soup, I ate it late at night in the middle of my blogging when I got hungry ;p I love noodles so it's no wonder that I always stocked my cupboard with instant noodles ;p I know eating them regularly (or eating any instant food) can cause a great danger for our health so I tried to only eat them sparingly. This is one of my favorite hot and spicy instant noodle soup brand on the market.

Roasted Chicken Salad

Kenny Rogers, Pondok Indah Mall 2

Sorry for the almost-empty plate photo hahaha... I was invited for a BFF meet-up by The Body Shop team at Kenny Rogers (the whole story on The Body Shop BFFs here), and knowing that Kenny Rogers have a big portion of individual food so I was afraid that I couldn't finish their meal. I don't want to offend the ones who invited me by not finishing my meal so I ordered a smaller meal instead which is the Roasted Chicken Salad above. 

Well it turns out that I was still hungry when I left Kenny Rogers, LOL - so I end up buying some pretzels instead to satisfy my belly ;p

 

Cheese and Original Pretzels

Auntie Anne's, Pondok Indah Mall 1

I knew Auntie Anne's pretzels since my early work days and was feeling a little bit sad when I can't find them on my usual spot, but now I'm glad that there are one of their counter near my house ;) - I love both the cheese and the original ones, and I always ordered an additional cheese dip for my pretzels ;p

 

Chicken Porridge, Omelette with Potatoes and Sausage platter

Savoy Homann Breakfast area

Me and K were accompanying K's father to Bandung for his reunion. The reunion were held at one of the famous historical hotel in Bandung which is the Savoy Homann. The reunion wasn't until 10:00 am so when we arrived there early we had a chance to grab some breakfast at the hotel's famous breakfast spot, the Garden Restaurant. 

I really love it! I love the ambiance of the place and the various selections of breakfast buffet that were offered. All the food were delicious too. Both me and K are breakfast buffet lovers so we were absolutely in heaven there ;p 

You can have breakfast there even if you don't stay at the hotel, just paid an "all you can eat" price at the front desk near the entry to the breakfast area.

Chicken Noodle in Sweet Sauce with Meatballs & Trife Soup

(Yamin Manis Ayam + Baso Babat) @ Cafe Halaman, Bandung

While waiting for K's father reunion, me and K went shopping at factory outlets ;p And then we went to Cafe Halaman for lunch. Cafe Halaman is one of my hang out place when I was still in college so to be there again after all of this time is such a great feeling. I ordered their famous Bakmi Tasik which is as above. I would still prefer Bakmi Lela at Dago Atas / upper Dago area though, but this Bakmi Tasik is still OK lah ;p

Home-made Steak with Potato Wedges, Steamed Carrots and Green Beans

Nothing really special, this is just a home-cooked meal on an ordinary night at home.. I thought I'd put up a picture of a homemade meal for a change, instead of those restaurant meals photos ;p

 

Kupat Tahu Burangrang

(RiceCake & Silk Tofu Dish with sauce), @ a small stall in Bandung

This is a local / traditional dish that we ate when we're in Bandung. I don't really like this dish. I ordered this one because I don't like their other menu which is Kupat Tahu Petis, and unfortunately both Kupat Tahu and Kupat Tahu Petis are not for my likings. But both my parents in law loves the Kupat Tahu Petis because this is practically their childhood food. Me and hubby K are not really a fan though.

 

Hot Cappuccino @ Warung Garem-Garem

Jln Cihampelas, Bandung

K's cousins family were opening a new cafe called Warung Garem-Garem that has newly moved to it's new place at Cihampelas street. It was a pre-opening small celebration party, held for family and close friends. The food served were buffet style, and all of them tastes delicious because the whole family are into culinary business for so long so they really know what they're doing ;)

I asked if they have coffee and one of the friendly waitress kindly offered me a Cappuccino or a latte, and I chose the Cappuccino instead. It tasted so good with a strong coffee blend in it, unlike your usual cappuccino which can be too sweet. My cousin who runs the place thinks that it might be too strong for public's general taste and he might change the consistency but as a coffee lover I'd say it's gooodd ;) 

Do come and stopped by at Warung Garem Garem at Cihampelas (at the corner, right across the Advent hospital). They already had their soft opening last week ;)

And that's it guys!..

Phew... it became a long post in the end ;p

So what did you guys ate lately? 

Weekly Digest

Here is a glimpse of what happened these last weeks:

I won two giveaways on August and here is one of them, these just arrived a few weeks back on my house. I won a really cute package from Honeycat! It is a package full of beauty products from shower gel to sparkly lip gloss, and i really loooove the packaging! I love black cats ;D - Thank you Honeycats!

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Found this really cute Cookie Monster dough recipe pic one day from the internet (i'm sorry i forgot to take note of the source), and it's really super cute and I couldn't wait to share it with you guys..
Aren't cookie monster is the cutest amongst the Sesame Street bunch? (well except for Elmo & Miss Piggy, of course ;p)

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I am absolutely in love with my new Cinderella ipad case!!

I'm thinking of selling these (Indonesia only) so if you live here and wants to buy this (it also available in other princesses such as Snow White, etc - and also comes in other series) just drop me an email: yuri.kristi at gmail dotcom ;p

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Last but not least, I want to show you a design I made using one of the decorating game on iPad, but too bad it's not a free app so I only have the lite version and it only came with one room. So here's what I did to the room:

Before:

I made some changes, more like a make-over (;p)
and here's the new design that I came up with:

After:

I changed the whole look and added some new furnitures but I kept the same window treatment and chandelier. I also kept the same credenzas (tables) and the christmas tree.
What do you think? Do you like what I did to the room? ;)