Keisuke Tori King

We came to this place during chinese new year but it was close. This time is a perfect place because ramen is just nice after playing badminton.

I ordered the black spicy ramen with flavored egg. I didn't know there are free eggs on the table. I shouldn't have ordered the egg.

I like this ramen because the soup is good. This is still comparable with Menya Mushasi one. The chicken is also very tender.

For next visit actually the wasabi soup is good to try.

For 2 bowl of ramen and additional ramen, it was $28.50

Anna Karenina

The movie is about Anna, a wife of Russian state man, and they are very wealthy. She has been married with the husband for 10 years and now she is 28 years old.

She meets a handsome guy on the train whom she will have an affair with later on.

She is pregnant with his son. She tells the husband about it when her husband takes out condom from the cupboard.

She delivers a baby girl and the baby is under her husband custody.

She ends up being kicked out from the house by her husband.

She has depression on how people treat her on public. She drinks laudanum to forget it.

She finally commits suicide because of hallucination. She hallucinates on the boyfriend making love with another girl.


I think the way they shoot the movie is very interesting as every scene has stage setting as part of it.

Argo

We watched this movie last night. The movie was successfully made us tense as there was not any anticlimax period.



After watching, as usual we read the wikipedia about this movie. I think what is very interesting about this move according to me is that it deviates too much from the reality. A lot of people are disappointed on this movie because it takes away credits from them. I am wondering whether this movie will give impact on political relationship between Canada and US.

If I were the ambassador or Canadian, I could have felt the same. The movie is just showcasing how brilliant the agent is to come out with the movie idea and to carry out the plan by himself. As I recall back, the role of the ambassador is just to accommodate 6 of them in his house which in fact, he has a friend who accommodated 2 out of 6.

From the commercial point of view, I think this movie is a success. If you don't want to be disappointed, do not check on the history. It will then unveil the distortion of this movie.

Hajah Maimunah, Jalan Pisang

This place sells Malay food but the taste some how close to Indonesian food. The price is not cheap. I spent more than $5 for sure.

Today I ate half rice, grilled chicken with sweet ketchup, kangkung, and perkedel. Ice water for drinks. Total was $6.70.

Judging from the look, every thing they sell is damn good. Especially the egg tofu.



The grilled chicken was good, meaty with sweet and salty taste. The perkedel was ok but a bit dry, they need to add a bit of water to make it like potato paste. I think the one in Technoedge is better.
The chili was damn shook. It was super hot with no sweet taste. I have been wanting to order Oxtail soup, but I worry that the meat is going to be too little.

I think for halal food, this place is fully recommended.

Bandung Trip 2012, October

I think I forgot to blog about our Bandung trip last year. It was on October 2012. We attended Listy and Hendra's Wedding.

Here are the photos. I believe these pictures can tell hundreds words.

Trattoria Del Rosso, Bologna

This place was recommended by our BnB owner. The place was quite full on lunch time and dinner time.

First visit was not so good. We ordered fettucini bolognese and lasagna. But they have good appetizer.



Second visit was better...we ordered boneless grilled chicken alla bolognese.





Trattoria Del Rosso
Via Augusto Righi 30
40126 Bologna, Italy

Open for lunch (forget the time) and dinner (7.30pm - 10pm)

Nasi Tim (Indon Steam Rice)

Niko made nasi tim ayam for me because I want to eat. I passed him the recipe I found in the internet.

Here's the preparation pictures and the result pictures.

La Specola, Florence

The most interesting museum I have ever been in Italy. According to Niko, this is the most boring museum so he played candy crush for the entire time.

The place is like abandoned old building. Really not attractive for tourists.

The journey began from the simplest creature. Like Molusca followed by insects and more complex animals. At the end of the journey you then can guess, they showcase the most complex creature.









I spent a lot of time seeing the bug, birds, and butterflies. They are so beautiful.



I felt scared when we entered the crocodile section, the crow section, the primate section, and the vulture section. I imagined that if they suddenly became alive, I will be attacked immediately as they are consider aggressive animals.

The gross part was the last one and it was the key exhibits in the museum...human. They show humans partially or even full body with some parts are opened.

Vatican Museum, Rome

It was morning after breakfast when we reached this place. We had no reservation and Niko started to worry that we could not enter. In fact, we just bought tickets inside and no need to queue at all.



The journey began with a boring early civilization stories from Mesopotamia and so on and so forth.



Then it continued to the naked human statue...I wanted to faint ... keep seeing penis.



The journey became more interesting after the statues....we moved on to a circular room with huge bowl in the center.


There was a room full with tapestries on the wall, followed by another room full of fresco for 200m length. It was very impressive.

The climax at this museum is the Sistine chapel. It's not allowed to take picture in this area as this is consider holy place. This is guarded by a lot of staffs. What is nice about Sistine Chapel is the fresco by Renaissance artists including Michelangelo, Sandro Botticelli, Pietro Perugino, Pinturicchio and others.





The super famous fresco by Michael Angelo in Sistine Chapel is The Creation of Adam.

At the end of the journey, we found the iconic staircase. The staircase designed with a golden ratio. I felt like again...back to 12 years ago when I studied architecture.





It was really looking back to what I had been taught in Architecture...

Duomo, Milan

We were there 2 times, before we watched the stupid match and when we shopped.





Basically seeing it from outside, we really didn't expect that the interior of the church would be so gloomy. It is the other way round from the church at Venice where the exterior is simple and the interior is so ornamented. Milan duomo is ornate at the exterior but the interior is so simple because it is a gothic church. It is also the 5th largest cathedral in the world and the largest in Italy.

We can see the differences between gothic churches and renaissance churches. In gothic churches, there are some characteristic features include the pointed arch, the ribbed vault and the flying buttress. It was going back to 12 years ago when I learned history of architecture in my undergrad. That time I didn't even think I would see this kind of architecture by myself. It was totally different when you just see the photos and when you are there. That's what architecture is about. It is about creating feeling in time and space.

The architecture gives the impression like human is very small in front of God by its high ceiling. The difference that gothic architecture gives is that God is very powerful that you must fear of him. I actually like the vertical stain glass window as they will allow lights to enter the gloomy room. The light is just like hope for human given from God.



In this church, we saw some mummies from former archbishops in glass coffins. They are embalmed. I can still see the hair and wrinkled hands.



What I like more about Gothic church rather than renaissance church is that the architecture elements come out stronger in Gothic rather than in renaissance. The architecture speaks by itself without any additional ornaments. I perhaps would say Renaissance church tend to be over-ornate but of course the impression of space is meant to be different.

Burger King, Italy

Same thing as the Mc D post, we tried to avoid as much as possible eating junk food. It was because of the late dinner time in Italy, we decided to just eat junk food near to where we stayed.

I ate BK for the first time when we arrived at Milan Central Station while we were waiting for our next train to Venice.

I ordered Grilled tender chicken Burger. It was very good even we waited for so long. BK is meant to be fast food chain but for my tender grilled it was like slow food.

The chicken was so tender and juicy. The vegetables were fresh and sweet.



Overall the junk food there tasted nice.

Meet Up with Leedy on 15th March 2013

After the course ended, this is the first time we met again.

The meeting was actually for 3 persons. Some how Seto (again) didn't turn up on the promised time.

We then ate Song Fa Bakuteh...it was just so so.



We continue to Marina Square to see the Balloon Festival at the center atrium. It was good.