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rafe totengco’s jakarta diary

July 1, 2008 1:03 pm

Rafe2

June 23

Today I met with Daisy Musin, the buyer from Masari, one of the best specialty stores in Jakarta (and a Rafé stockist). Masari just opened an accessories-only shop in a new upscale mall called Plaza Indonesia. The girls scheduled a marathon press day for me—I could barely speak after all that schmoozing. But I caught my second wind after they took me shopping for Indonesian crafts, home accessories, and fashion. Retail therapy always revives me.

We then had tea in a café that overlooks Jakarta. They made me try some local delicacies like kolak pisang (banana with coconut milk, brown sugar, and pandan leaves) and this amazing drink, Sekoteng, made of ginger, peanuts, jelly, red beans, and milk. That evening we had dinner at an amazing restaurant, Lara Djonggrang, set in a reclaimed 300-year-old temple from East Java. They serve imperial Indonesian cuisine—delicious!

Rafe1

June 24

I had breakfast with Widiyana Sudirman from Harvey Nichols Jakarta, which is set to open in September. We discussed some special projects I would do for the opening. Then my friend Annette del Rosario picked me up to go sightseeing and shopping. First stop, Jalan Surabaya, Jakarta’s famous flea market. We dove right into the hand-woven ikat fabrics and batik sarongs from Timor and Lombok, as well as imperial hair accessories that I thought Zani Gugelmann would die for. All that shopping left us hungry, so we headed over to Café Batavia in the historical Kota area. It’s a grand 200-year-old structure from the Dutch colonial period and one of Jakarta’s most famous and chic restaurants—and it’s conveniently open 24 hours a day! After some food, we moved on to the Kemang district to check out the latest mini-mall concept called the Papillon. It has a restaurant with a roof deck lounge, a bridal store that would make Vera green with envy, a multi-brand shop by Club 21, and a tea room by Dutch chocolatier Huize van Wely. The profiteroles were a dream!

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