JAKARTA, PASTA BASTA

Having a similar name to another restaurants in New York and Amsterdam, Pasta Basta is Jakarta's newest contender in the food and beverages industry and has been opening their doors since Feb 18th 2011. Owned by brothers, Alex and Tino Tian, the tiny restaurant is the medium for them to share the love of their own family's recipe to Jakarta.

Pasta Basta is a single menu restaurant that offers Spaghetti Basta as their main dish, made with their family's recipe that has been handed down through generations since 1962. A range of beverages is available with Tinto de Verano as their signature drinks.

Residing at Kemang Selatan I no.20, the small space Pasta Basta used, has been transformed into a cozy and intimate ambience that surely will make you feel like you are in the comfort of your own house. The service is excellent from the first time you stepped in until you walked out the door. The waiter isn't acting like she's only there for work, but actually greet you like friends and chats to you.

You can get a bowl of spaghetti at the price of IDR 39000, and a jumbo spaghetti at IDR 55000. The price for the beverages are ranging from IDR 6000 for bottled water, IDR 8000 for soft drinks and IDR 35000 for a glass of their pleasant Tinto de Verano. Worth it!

Pasta Basta is the perfect place for you to have either lunch or dinner, with your friends, family or dates. Kids will love the place (besides having spaghetti as the menu) as they offer their wall to be written on with chalk by guests. They have both indoor and outdoor seating, and all are smoking area.

The whole concept of one big happy family is really embodied in the menu, service, interior and the people.

Be sure to check the place out, if you're in town!

Pasta Basta

Kemang Selatan I no.20

+62-21-7197726

Opening Hours:

12PM - 12AM

Facebook & Twitter

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sorry for the low quality pictures (i forgot my cam and took these with my iphone)

for better quality pictures check out my daily blog

JAKARTA, GADGETRY AND RITES

an exhibition by Li Hui

Gadgetry and Rites

until 31st of October 2010

at Yuz Museum

Dharmawangsa Square

City Walk unit 31-33

Jakarta

JAKARTA, THE BRIGHTSPOT

Fools on parade, yes. Brilliant fools that is.

So we have a four-day market curated by a certain community of people, which sells upraising local brands and whatnot, called BRIGHTSPOT.

The idea? Genius!

The brands? Some are genius, and some are just not getting it.

But overall, this market has an interesting feel to it, when basically you can just parade your ways of thinking or your apprehension towards life through your brands, the way you dress or just simply the way you socialize with people.

SALIHARA, THE HUMBLE GIANT

words A.D.V. CANISTER

pictures Cerveceria

Jakarta. That word been in my mouth for more than a decade, all around rude city with a “kampong” attitude. Sure its been compared to KL , and sure we lost. Transportation system is badly done. Projects that seems to be hope for us, most likely corrupted and then gone with time.

What’s left?

Just a fistful bunch of people, creative ones. Who cares about designing functions, proportions, and identity of buildings in Jakarta.

Behind all that satire perspective, little that i know, there is this one community that gather some money to built a decent performing art centre, Salihara No.16. Where it stands between a small urban street and a typical packed Jakarta’s neighborhood. It is heavy-looking, massive, and tall. Yet, somehow it is humble, blends with the people and the block plan itself. We went there with a good friend of ours, and found excitements.

In come the giant.

Imagine you live in a huge enough room for a giant to live in, that is the block plan or the city. Let say, your size is about the size of a giant’s toe. How can the small humans get to know the nice giant?

In this case, giving a humane proportions on its toe. For example he can make a bench on his toe level, create a small stairs that slowly points toward his knee, elevator to a secret garden on his hips, make a roof all around his ankle, create a roof garden on his shoulder, etc. All visible for the small human eye. The giant is trying to pull a trick, just to make you feel anything but dominated and uncomfortable. This is what i found in Salihara No.16. Excitements.

Massive heavy concretes, hanged high in the typical urban housing of Jakarta. It can be very dominating for the people. In this case, it hasn’t been, it connects us through its welcoming scales and proportions on the facilities. The giant don’t want to crush us, he wants to welcome us to have a journey all around his body, and show off what he is really capable of. Because as quoted from the modern architect, Mies Van Der Rohe, - “God is in the details”.

No more shocking feeling of seeing huge building between small houses, if you could do it the nice way. People should really learn this because basically the sites available in Jakarta nowadays are mostly between houses. Sad. But that’s reality for you.

Architecture and fairy tale, whadyaknow. It works.

JAKARTA, AT ITS FINEST HOUR

I'm going to explain to you guys how to experience jakarta in it's most enjoyable hours. yes, you will need a car, because Jakarta is one big city and you can't really walk anywhere you want, there's no proper sidewalk and the public transport is bad. Well, maybe there are a few, but you can only find those in the main streets of Jakarta. So yeah, back to my personal 'how to' guide, here you go:

First,

choose the perfect companion that you feel comfortable with. it can be anyone, from your family members, boy/girlfriend or friends.

Second,

dress comfortably. i recommend a big loose tee, shorts and flip flops (applicable for boys and girls).

Third,

prepare a great playlist to listen to. songs that both you and your companion like. when you look at your watch and it hits 11 PM, it's time to get in your car and go.

Fourth,

after filling up the gas tank of your car, get to the nearest convenient store and grab your self a four-pack and some snacks. remember, if you're driving don't drink and drive, you can get a few sip from your friend.

Fifth,

drive around Jakarta with no particular destination, listen to some music while you're at it. get lost and see the city with no traffic, pretty lights, less coppers and great weather. for alternative route, you can always get in to the toll highway.

Ok, those steps, did those with my boyfriend. We had a nightdrive and ended up at Kota Tua (old city) and got to see all the beautiful buildings. But as my fellow Jakartans would probably already know, we don't really take a good care of what we have. There were bums sleeping on the steep of the building. Trash cans don't fulfill it's destiny, because there's garbage everywhere. The Ciliwung river is really dirty and smells. Buildings, spray-painted with not art but stupid writings. It's sad. But i'd still like to say that it was a really good nightdrive. We shared our thoughts about everything from our everyday' what-not to the city itself. You guys should try it for your self. :)

JAKARTA, A LOVE HATE RELATIONSHIP

Ok, i've been going through every corner of my brain and turning it upside down inside out, to come up with at least an interesting way of describing Jakarta. To be honest, i always ended up with realizing that Jakarta isn't really that interesting of a city (wait don't leave just yet, i promise i'll have a point by the end of this post). But that's what you get from trying to describe something by not really experiencing it, you will get what your mind wants you to think. I've been turning my head every ways possible from my bedroom and google. I took the wrong approach.

I asked my boyfriend to take me around the city, so that i can take some picture of Jakarta and if i can't write anything about it, i can just post pictures. Amazingly on that brief and impromptu trip, i found some interesting things to write about Jakarta. We (my boyfriend and I) even ended up sharing our thoughts on how the city shaped us to who we are now.

HATE

- Traffics

- Bad public transportation

- Floods on rainy season

- Beggars

- A small number of park

- No sidewalk

LOVE

+ The toll highway

+ City lights

+ Various language, customs and foods

+ The old buildings

+ The new buildings

+ 24hour convenient store

+ I can find almost everything here

+ Nightdrives

+ Occasionally good weather,

that makes us appreciate a good weather even more

Those pointers was just a little bit of what you're going to get out of this blog and this city. You will see more of my love hate relationship with this city in my upcoming post. This is how i see my city and i'm not gonna lie about it.

Hope you like it :)