Eats: Christmas Kaiseki Dinner @ Xenri

I've previously wrote about my first omakase dining experience at Xenri. We were there again over the last Christmas, this time along with my parents to have Christmas eve dinner together. Xenri was running a 4-course kaiseki dinner promotion over Christmas/New Year's which we thought were very affordable for the quality of food, presentation and service over there. It was for RM 80++ per pax and it never fail to impress :)

This was the appetizer - seared diver scallop with purple sea urchin glaze and garnished with basil leaf, black caviar, scented chilli and baby sardine cracker. All of us loved this dish very much. The scallop was fresh and the sea urchin glaze - with creaminess to die for! :)

Our second course appetizer was premium sashimi with a serving of aka ebi (shrimps), yellowtail and fresh oyster. Don't you just love the igloo presentation of this dish? Cute!

For my main, I opted for braised duck whole leg with burdock broth and garnish of wild mushroom, aubergine and fried gobo. My choice was so-so only. Kinda Chinese-y...

... while the rest of my family chose roasted meltique beef with golden sesame mustard gravy, wild mushrooms and brussels sprouts. Me thinks this would have been a better choice.

And finally for dessert, it was chocolate brownies with royal vanilla ice-cream and wine berries...

... and for a little bit extra (I can't recall exactly how much), we also took another choice of dessert which was green tea cheese cake. Between the two, I preferred the green tea cheese cake because it was almost like eating green tea ice cream. There was a layer of red bean paste in between and it didn't feel cheese-y at all.

Overall, very satisfied dinner we all had.

ITC Kuningan and outlet shopping @ Mal Ambassador

Over last year's year-end holiday season, I got introduced to two new shopping destinations. And I really mean SHOPPING DESTINATIONS. They are ITC Kuningan and it's next door neighbour, Mal Ambassador.

All over Jakarta, you have these kinda of local malls called ITC which stands for International Trade Center. These ITC are rather similar to Sg. Wang shopping center in KL, which has a lot of small, independent stores selling clothes, children clothes, shoes, bags, fashion accessories, pirated DVDs, beddings, baby items, batiks, just to name a few.

However the ones in ITC Kuningan/Mal Ambassador stood out. Why? When Hub's childhood friend who was visiting her hubby wanted to go to these places and said that she read off the internet that there are fashion outlets at these places, I was a bit skeptical. ITC? Because so far the ones I've been to before were rather dismal. However, with a sense of adventure, I went along with her and her two kids.

When we reached there, as usual, the ground floor of these places seems to be filled with pirated DVDs. And as always none of us can resist buying them. After the courtesy rounds, we begun to explore. And I'm lost in shopping paradise. See my stashes below. ;p

Some shirts I bought for Hubs

These are for Me!

Unbranded skirt for me again! ;p

Fashion accessories galore!

Hugo shirts for my dad's christmas pressie!

Both these places has quite a fair bit of fashion outlets for adults and children alike, located on the ground floor of ITC Kuningan, and also 1st floor (Premium) and 5th floor (Passport) of Mal Ambassador. According to my friend who bought for her kids, generally they were lots of jeans, dresses and t-shirts in the likes of Guess, Burberry and Gap. For adults, what I've seen are Nike, Burberry, Hugo, Bebe, Superdry, Fred Perry and some H&M.

Some may asked "are these real?" To be honest, I really don't know. But my policy of shopping for these items here in Jakarta or even in Bandung, is to touch/feel and see for myself the texture and quality of the cloth. If they are decent, then I would buy them. And based on my experience so far, they are pretty good quality. Bandung, a neighbouring city has always been known for its outlet shopping. But the journey to which takes 2 hours can stretch up to 5 hours when coming back, especially on Fridays and weekends, due to what else but traffic! Definitely will be back from time to time!

Eats: 5th year anniversary dinner @ Lyon, Mandarin Oriental Jakarta

Well, this has been a weekend of indulgence simply because yesterday was my birthday as well as our 5th wedding anniversary. Hubs and me have not been celebrating our wedding anniversary for the past two years due to work. So I reckon we are making up for lost time of some sort! Hahaha

Hubs did asked me what would I prefer, but I left it to him to decide. And the choice was going French at Lyon in Mandarin Oriental Jakarta. This place came highly recommended by one of Hubs friends and Tripadvisor reviewers seem to have good comments about this place.

I guess no French food ritual is complete without French onion soup and escargot, which were what we ordered for our starters. We were quite surprised that both dishes were served up pretty fast after we made our orders. Maybe because the restaurant was rather empty. Despite the prompt service, the food was good. We were both very happy with our choices. :)

Next up were our mains. I ordered one of their daily specials which was langoustine, scallops with artichoke puree and cepes mushrooms. I loved my dish a lot. The seafood were fresh and delicately balanced by the artichoke puree and mushrooms.

 Hubs chose one of their signature dishes which was the steak au poivre i.e. seared black peppercorns crusted beef tenderloin with cognac cream sauce. The steak was cooked to perfection according to Hubs's choice of doneness i.e. medium. Which only meant one thing - Hubs was a happy camper, because it's not easy to get steaks cook to medium perfection here in Jakarta. I especially like how the steak was crusted with black peppercorn which gave extra flavour to the meat without overpowering it.

Since it's to celebrate our wedding anniversary, we decided to share a sweet instead of having individual choices and also because we were quite full already. Floating Island it was - which was basically bourbon vanilla sauce, caramel and toasted almonds. A tad sweet but otherwise a pretty good choice.

According to Hubs, Lyon is hugely popular for the Saturday brunch promotion which offers something like a 2 hours beer/wine free flow with a buffet of starters and diner's choice of main. We definitely will be back for that!

Eats: Mussels Lunch @ Sala, Kemang

I spotted Sala a few weeks back when we were making our way to Kemang. The quaint, cottage-like exterior of the restaurant make me very much wanted to try this restaurant one day. And the day came when my friend treated me to a birthday lunch on Friday. Yay!

 
My friend made a reservation for us to sit on the first floor of the restaurant, and my oh my... I felt like I step into somebody's secret garden. The floor was fitted with artificial grass and there were  pots of hanging wildflowers overhead. The rustic dining tables and chairs and small jars of cut fresh flowers completed the magical feel.

Food wise was great. At least our selection was. Haha. My friend had been here before and absolutely raved about the mussels. We first had the mussels mariniere and decided to order a second pot i.e. mussels tomatoey to eat to our fill. I gotta say that I'm a picky clams/mussels eater. I always have a natural gag reflex if I eat mussels/clams that's a bit too metalic to the palate. Surprisingly, the ones we had were alright by me. Maybe they were not too big. But all in all, it had been a very yummy lunch indeed!

My choice of beverage - a concoction of peaches and mint, aptly named Peaches!

Mussels Mariniere

Mussels Tomatoey