English Breakfast Jakarta

Been a hot and slow weekend, and I have not really ventured too far from home as I am tired. Work is pretty much full on and so I needed a chance to relax and wind down before getting wound up again for work next week. The good news is that next week, is the final week before the break for lebaran and end of Ramadhan and the big Idul Fitry celebration. Jakarta will empty out, the pollution will lessen and the roads become quieter. The TV news for Indonesia comes from a toll way in Central Java showing traffic reports and motorists who have broken down on their long trip across the country as people go to their home towns and villages and celebrate with family the end of the fasting.

So after work this weekend I took a taxi out to Kemang and visited the only British restaurant in Jakarta, Bangers and Mash.

It does seem that Bangers and Mash has a big following from the Brits here and now I can see why. I will pretty quickly state that I am rather lucky I don't live too close to it or I have to travel past it to my work otherwise I would just get fatter and fatter as the food is great and so I will have to make frequent trips back just for the pies and sausage rolls.

The place itself does look like typical cafes in England I have been in minus the ash trays and dirty sauce bottles and with the lack of AC running it felt hot as well, which was good.

I ate the full English all day breakfast and it was great. I will mention that hot tea did not seem apparent and to be honest it would have completed the meal but still it was good food and a nice place to go. We left with sausage rolls and pies to go!! Which were great. 

I am sure to return as the menu of sausages and pastries need to be worked through and I never saw any scotch eggs which I need to get hold of.

Go here for the website and menu  http://www.bangersnmashkemang.com/

 Fantasic table mats in Bangers and Mash!

 Full English.............

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From there a trip to Starbucks to keep the wife happy and then home for a quiet night in, in front of the telly with a few gins to round Saturday off nicely.

At some point over the weekend I have visited my local supermarkets and have left both feeling rather disappointed as they are just terrible. My local is Giant in Mampang and on the whole is pretty good at service and range and the quality of meat and veg is often better than most I have seen, but I use the word often loosely. So what with it being Ramadhan and fasting month and the supermarkets selling bottles of Syrup and Tins of biscuits galore at the moment, you expect it to be busier and more chaotic than normal. But I did not expect the staff and service to have vanished. The pricing of products has become even more misleading, basic foodstuffs not available and whilst stocking shelves in the day is needed, from experience, leaving cardboard and mess everywhere so customers can not shop or get down the aisles is very annoying. On the flip side Anchor Beer is currently 11,000 a can!

Mampang nearing 6pm

Then we needed to get some more stuff so we went to Tendean Plaza where there is a Carrefour express. The plaza itself is becoming emptier and emptier with the KFC gone. The place must be going bankrupt if KFC moved out! The department store is becoming emptier and emptier and the Carrefour is still busy'ish but the range of produce and meat is getting smaller. The fresh meat was terrible and again the produce was lacking in some basic foodstuffs.

But Carrefour express still has lots of things to get so it was not too bad except for someone else kids constantly screaming and running around the place, knocking things over and getting in the way. Sigh, I should he used to that by now, running a school but no...

And then with the great weather Jakarta is having ( a British viewpoint not necessarily shared by Indonesians) and the full on sunshine days and rainless weeks, it seems the ground water well is soon to be an empty ground water well as the pressure is getting less and less and the water sometimes stops coming out of the taps. I am now considering doing a rain dance to induce rain in South Jakarta. 

Still its the holidays from Friday and Friday doubles as Independence Day, 67 years of freedom from colonial rule and oppression which is always fun and full of noise and fireworks followed by the end of the month long fasting and then more noise and fireworks.... 

I took this picture when I was out and about in West Jakarta, I just wanted to share it with you. No idea where the lane goes and I have no intention of ever finding out.