Delicious チキン南蛮 (Chicken Nanban) and Warm Cappuccino at Ekologi

Recently, I found out over X that there are over 3200 coffee shops in my area. Can you imagine how long it will take to finish them all? Apparently based on the calculation, if you visit one a day, it would still take 9 years to finish them all. While it might seem that I’ll never run out of coffee and cafe shops to visit and talk about, I still enjoy coming back to the same spot. There is that comforting feeling when you know, the quality and the service would be the same. Especially when you're not in the mood for potentially ruining your day.

As someone who has visited a lot of coffee shops and cafe, it can feel like a gambling visiting a new place. And eventually, overtime, I learned to curb my adventurous need to visit different cafes. Before going out, I would refer to the task that I have to do of the day. If I want to do something productive, I wouldn’t gamble my day away drinking potentially poor quality coffee and eating random food from a menu list. But if I have a spare time and feeling like I deserved the time to gamble my day away, I wouldn’t mind checking out a new place. In the end, cafe and coffee shop is a whole experience itself.

The coffee culture and shops here don’t seem to be dying anytime sooner. Each coffee shops creates a scene as well as sub-culture. This is why, cafe hopping in this province is quite interesting. Not only that you can sample delicious coffee but sometimes, being inside an architectural building that’s inspiring. At least in the region, I mean South East Asia, the country with seemingly rich cafe culture in Vietnam. I have yet visiting the place but would love to when I can soon.

Throughout the time, my checklist over the years have gone pretty simple. I need a good coffee and a very cold AC. Food and everything else would be on my 2nd and even ambience too. I choose comfort over everything else when I want to be productive. Nowadays, Ekologi has been my go-to place when I want a comfortable space to work from as well as place when I needed a good consistent coffee. I am honestly surprised that their cappuccino is quite consistent and tastes as good as Starbucks. What’s even better is that their internet is ultra fast and no hassles. We can simply connect to it without purchasing any extra internet unlike some co-working cafe around the area. So,when I am looking for comfort and convenience, it’s the place I go to. In the past, I frequented some place but now, since I found Ekologi, they are no match to this place. Ekologi just does it better although it comes with price. So, while I am at the place, I maximized my time as well as my STEAM download as of recently 😁

Fortunately, the spot that I am getting lately is perfect. It’s away from many tables and just underneath AC. So, I can journal peacefully. Occasionally, I saw some patrons around but many of them typically spend an hour to two then left the place. I could stay in this place all day if I want to but usually, since I am often sleepy midday, I would just go back.

Today, I decided to finally try their チキン南蛮 or Chicken Nanban. It is basically juicy karage served with zesty tartar sauce and vegetables as its side. In the place, we can also add egg with an extra cost. But since I wanted to actually taste the meal without any adds-on, I skipped the egg. As it was served with rice, that was my meal of the day. I have to say that among all the karage sauces I tried, I definitely love this one after salted egg. While chicken nanban has been quite around as menu in cafe, only today I was able to sample them. This also dish sparked my interest to learn how to make it. As not only it is filling but it also has vegetables and protein too. It's a complete meal and nutritious as typical of Japanese meal where they often have balanced carb, protein and fiber.

While it is strange pairing it with a cup of cappuccino, to me anything goes. I can pair fries with iced coffee and life goes on. As again, coffee is essentially water for me. So, it was not as bad as it may seem. While previous day they were doing a beautiful latte art, today, they decided to stick with the basic and a classic latte art. And when it comes to food pairing, although I would suggest pairing it with fresh beverages, like iced tea or sweet beverages. Overall, the food in the place was 8/10 as considering the presentation and the taste, it was quite decent and better than some rice bowls in most cafes I visited.

That’s all for my food adventure this time. I have a few list in mind that I wanted to visit especially the places that was featured on Netflix which got me really curious. Maybe one of these days I could bother checking them out.