L’arriviste Excentrique

BLIND, A Journey of Taste…

Makan di kegelapan…
Saat indra penglihatan anda tidak berfungsi
Panca indra lainnya akan menjadi lebih tajam
Makan di dalam kegelapan TOTAL
Akan menambah sensasi kenikmatan makan
BLIND memberi anda kesempatan
Untuk mencoba pengalaman baru ini…

One one Sunday afternoon, after a particularly tiring day I managed to meet shortly with a certain Mr G. Also known as Goen. Since it was only mere hours until he has to depart to the train station, we decided to only navigate around my house. Despite the fact that we already went there previously, we decided to go to Ciwalk. Now, even though I am a resident of Cihampelas, I don’t go to this mall often, and we found some difficulties in deciding where to dine. Soon enough, we laid our eyes on big, literally glowing text of ‘BLIND: Journey of Taste’.

I remember when I last paid small attention to this joint, I thought, what kind of a stupid idea is this? Since when I buy food, I do buy food instead of surveying the general atmosphere of the cafe (which was, completely dark anyhow so I don’t see the point), the prices of the beverages that already contain five digits already scared me off. Besides, I thought the whole new experience of taste when your eyes are shut off is a load of bullshit anyway.

Even so, we headed in anyway because someone needed a shot of espresso and despite all my negative thoughts earlier, I was curious about the whole ‘eating in the dark’ thing. So first, we ordered the food at the counter after glancing at the menu for a few minutes. I wasn’t particularly keen on ordering any food, so I merely ordered a glass of Shirley Temple (which costed Rp. 18,500! *dies*), while Mr G got his double espresso. Perhaps feeling bad because we didn’t order any food, my companion asked for a plate of french fries. After paying for the order, we were directed towards the lockers where any objects that radiate light (mobile phones, camera, and so on) belonging to us are supposed to be kept. I wanted to choose number 7 but I couldn’t find a locker key with that on it, so I just chose Locker 4.

Then we went up the staircase, where a waiter holding a pair of suspicious-looking goggles await us. He was supposed to direct us to our seat, and I can understand why; behind the black curtains, it was indeed completely dark, except for the red light dot coming from the waiter that guided us. Actually, I heard that they had two blind waiters, but the one we had wasn’t one of them (considering the goggles).

We were directed to the sofa; at least, I thought so. Apparently, the waiter left Goen back at the entrance (“Ah! We left the guy behind, didn’t we?” he exclaimed), so he went back to fetch him. It was completely dark indeed, and it felt somewhat weird just listening to music as we waited for our beverages and side dish to arrive. No other sound but the rolling of ‘Perhaps, Perhaps, Perhaps’ sang by Cake, and our own voices. A few other guests arrived at the table behind us, and somewhat made a racket. For some strange reason their order arrived before ours (if I remember correctly).

After a few minutes of casual chatting and so on, finally our drinks were delivered. The Shirley Temple was in a plastic glass, but the waiter said it would not do for an espresso to be treated that way! So the double espresso, placed in an ordinary cup was served with a small container of liquid sugar. Then came the french fries, and went the other guests. Despite the fact that he did not want any sugar, wanting to test his 1337 skillz in the dark, Goen tried to pour the sugar in his drink and he did not only succeed! He managed to pour it all, haha.

Then there was the complaint of how the double espresso wasn’t strong enough. I, on the other hand, was quite satisfied with my kiddie cocktail. Unimportantly, I thought the straw, fused with a small spoon, made with the same material as the cup was quite cute (and functional) as well. And so, as we went through the french fries, we experimented with our awesomeness in the dark as we tried to perform various things to each other such as punching the forehead, hitting the side of the head, and other violent acts. Oh wait- that was just me.

The french fries tasted quite good, I thought, since it didn’t have to much of the powdered flavourings, nor too little. It was a good thing as well that the fries weren’t too crunchy, haha. But what I felt more strongly even compared to my grenadine mix was the atmosphere of the place. Hey, it’s not everyday that you eat in complete darkness, and it is indeed, a new sensation and a journey of taste in a way. In fact, the atmosphere was so soothing it gave me and Goen the same thought of ‘I guess it would be okay if I died here right now’.

Though we finished our food quite a while ago, that same atmosphere made BLIND a nice place to generally talk about ongoings in life (this is also because of the fact that there seemed to be no other customers except for the previous guests. Though I’m beginning to worry about just where the night-vision goggle-equipped waiters stood waiting). Talking about this and that and some other things, time passed by without us feeling it. I guess the complete darkness gave me a sense of complete emptiness that also gave the impression that the flow of time is paused somehow.

Finally realising that it was getting late, we beckoned the waiter to come to our table, and after finding out just what the time was, I was shocked to find that we already spent an hour in that place (plus, only ordered beverages and a side dish? Oh, come on!), and I guess the resto would be glad to get rid of us already. So we were guided to the entrance (now exit) again, and after a few polite thanks, we trodded down the stairs, and to the front of the counter. After taking out our stuff placed in the locker, we went out of the joint, quite satisfied with our new experience.

Then, I discovered the existence of a Nikon Coolpix (carelessly left) in my bag, and Goen, who refused to take a photo of the resto himself despite the fact that he would probably be better at it, made me do it. It was shaky with the pocket camera, but what’s life without a few difficulties, har har (irrelevant?). Finished with taking a few blurry photos, we wandered around the outside area of Ciwalk, since the inside of the building did not suit Goen’s taste. Then nightfall came, and it was time for me to head home, and for him to take his Lodaya back to Yogyakarta.

And… that’s the end of the supercalifragilisticexpialidocious review of… err… the place we went to.