k-meals: french food bliss in jogjakarta (aka 3 days of creme brulee)

traveling to indonesia, i expected to eat my share (and more) of amazing indonesian food. the city of jogjakarta let me down in that way. gorgeous city as it is, i enjoyed very little of their traditional food. instead, i happened upon french food, and a creme brulee that lured me back 3 days in a row.

but this story of love & creme brulee has a bittersweet aspect to it. the day my sister and i randomly found this restaurant, i took some beautiful photos, and i was excited about them (i'm a modest person, excitement about my own work that i admit to publicly doesn't come often). and then i accidentally deleted all of them. its kind of pathetic to admit to, but my grief was such that you would have thought i had gone through a painful loss.

but i got over it, and i dragged my sister back so i could take more photos (and eat more creme brulee and drink more coffee) i will briefly divulge my thoughts on the restaurant, and then i will let the photos below do the rest of the talking.


from what the very friendly servers at k-meals told me, i think this restaurant has only been open for a few months. there are a few owners, but one of the owners is also the head chef there. the kitchen is visible and the friendly french chef will greet you (& welcome you back) and if there's a lull in the kitchen later, he comes by your table to ask about your meal.

you can tell that these people love their food - each plate is beautifully presented. even the simple dessert of ice cream is garnished in a way that makes it look like a complicated, high-class dessert. you can find out a bit more about k-meals on their website.

the menu is in french & english. they seem to have a special of the day that wasn't on the menu, but otherwise they specialise in wood-fired pizza (tasty). the drinks we had (orange juice and some weird mint & green tea creamy concoction) were so-so, but the coffee was quite delicious. but if you do go, make sure you specify that you want kopi java. the second day i ordered the same coffee from the menu, but i got an americano, and although it was lovely, the java coffee is just so much better. and if you're in java, drink coffee from java for goodness sake.

but the best part of k-meals is their desserts. the creme brulee uses vanilla beans from java, so you know its good, fresh stuff. the top layer of sugar is thick & crusty & yummy and the inside is creamy but not too sweet. i came back for this stuff 3 times, ok? it was good. the $3 canadian i paid for it didn't hurt either. the other dessert i tried was the kappuccino mousse "chocolate mousse in a cappuccino way" :) it was perfect. twice.

kopi java

i've been busy travelling and taking pictures and haven't had time, energy, desire etc etc to blog. BUT i've been trying to take lots of pictures. and have been enjoying coffee in asia. :) i got to visit a coffee plantation in Bali, i will be sure to write about that later...



this is java coffee (or or kopi java, pronounced jawa) that i drank a lot of in jogjakarta (on the island of java in indonesia). its very thick and sweet. usually they don't strain the coffee, the grounds are just left in the bottom. which means that if you are enjoying the taste of the coffee (like i do), and then you want to sip it til its gone (like i do), you will end up with a mouthfull of coffee grinds (like i did) and its just not that pleasant.

drinking coffee here in southeast asia (more specifically singapore, indonesia, malaysia) has almost made me switch back to sugar in my coffee as opposed to my usual black coffee. sigh. it took me a while to swtich from being an excessive-sugar coffee person to a snobby black-coffee person, so this is a bit of a setback. :) but i don't care as long as i am enjoying my coffee.

becoming a southeast asian foodie

i used to live in singapore. but i was a teenager, so you can imagine that i ate a lot of fast food, most of which i make sure i avoid these days like most people avoid h1n1.

i will be spending a couple months in the south east region of asia - mainly singapore and indonesia - and i am hoping to be a bit more adventurous with food this time around. i've been here over a week now, but sadly i didn't have my camera on me for many of my meals. lugging that heavy contraption around is just more pain than its worth sometimes. i'm still coming up with a solution to that....

but here are a few of my favorites (from my teen years, and still now) that i managed to sneak photos of:

kopi - malay/indonesian for coffee

i think kou fu is a chain of coffee shops here. its not that i care specifically for THEIR coffee, i just like coffee in general. sadly they do have starbucks here, and sadly, i have ventured into not one, but two of them. at least. overpriced. and i can't even use my starbucks cards so i actually have to pay for the coffee i buy there. but i digress. kou fu, and other coffee shops here like kopitiam, yakun, and other nameless shops here make coffee the traditional malay/indonesian way, which is strong, sweet, and made from a sock. and often made with either sweetened condensed milk or evaporated milk. if you ask for coffee, they will give you coffee with sugar and condensed milk. if you ask for coffee 'o' it is black with sugar. if you don't take sugar or milk you have to be very specific, and ask for 'kopi kosong' which means 'empty coffee.'*

guava - a type of fruit.

this stuff is pre-cut, peeled and conveniently bagged for me, so you can't see the green skin or the seeds inside. its a crunchy fruit, comparable to an apple but not really.
some people think its bland, but i love it.
its even better with salt.
oh yeah, i grew up on this fruit in the jungles of indonesia. i'm pretty sure it was one of the first words i spoke as a baby.

roti prata - oily goodness.

that's not what it means, but seriously, oil never tasted so good. it's an indian delight you can get for roughly 80 cents a piece. (curry included) literally roti prata means 'flat bread.' this is one of the cheapest, most satisfying dishes one can get in singapore.

here's what i gained from wikipedia:

"Roti prata is the Singaporean evolution of the Pakistani and Indian paratha, a pancake bread made of dough composed of fat, egg, flour and water."

please, avid readers (i know you exist! don't worry i am going to write more often than every few months), stay abreast for more exciting foodie adventures with joey.

*important note: i may not actually know what i'm talking about. just general observations. if i write any untruths please, please tell me. this way i can be irritated that you brought my faults to my attention and proceed to correct my naivety and assumptions.