Eats: Cantonese Porridge @ Kamseng Jakarta

Kamseng is Hub's favourite. Even though I managed to convince him to try another restaurant  i.e. Bubur Kwang Tung, he still thinks Kamseng is the best. Probably he's right.

Kamseng is a chinese restaurant located near the Chinatown of Jakarta. I think one of the reason why Hubs adores Kamseng is because they serve pork, unlike Kwang Tung which is halal. Last weekend, I had some cravings for Cantonese porridge and suggested to Hubs "Let's go Kamseng." Certainly, no argument from Hubs. Lol!

I think majority of Chinese in Jakarta are Hokkiens. Why I says so is based on how the menus describe some of the ingredients. For example, when I glanced through Kamseng's menu, I saw this word "tito". My brain just can't compute how would somebody's name end up in a menu. Then I look at the Chinese description. It's actually pig stomach and the actual pronunciation of this in Hokkien is "tu tor". Finally comprehension! Another example is "hipyo" which is a phonetic spelling of fish maw.

Back to the food. No surprise what Hubs' ordered which was sliced pork porridge with egg, while I decided to try their prawn porridge. The prawn porridge wasn't my first choice. I wanted fish head porridge but they ran out on fish head. So prawn it was. Both were yummy, and the texture of the porridge is not too glob-by like how May Star (a chain of popular Chinese restaurant that's located mainly in shopping malls) serve theirs. Personally I prefer Kwang Tung porridge texture - it is a tad runnier than Kamseng, but don't think I wanna go back because I feel they put a lot of ajinomoto into their porridge.

The main attraction at Kamseng is really their Cantonese porridge but you can order various small dishes ala like eating Teochew porridge to go with the porridge. Normally, Hubs would order a small dish of steamed minced pork with duck egg yolk, but we decided to try something else which is braised pork trotters. Unfortunately ran out again! So we ordered braised samchan (local lingo for 3-layer pork) and it was pretty good. The braising liquid is really yummy.

Kamseng is currently undergoing renovation but they are still open for business. An added pluspoint of this place is that it is 24 hours. Whenever Hubs has friends from KL over, late night clubbings always invariably end up with a steaming porridge at Kamseng to clear up the alcohol. Maybe that's why they seems to run out of this and that. LOL!

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Kamseng Chinese Restaurant
Jalan Mangga Besar 1 No. 26
Jakarta Barat, DKI Jakarta 11180

Eats: Ikan Bakar Ujung Pandang @ Jl. Gandaria

Our culinary adventure around our neighborhood continues. Up next is Ikan Bakar Ujung Pandang. We had this just this past Monday night, when I was kinda lazy to cook after our visit to the dentist. We decided to leave the car at the apartment and walked out to the restaurant.

The restaurant is a simple place. Think simple rectangular wooden tables and chairs in the air-conditioned interior. Meanwhile the grill station is located outdoors and one can also choose to sit outdoors (on simple metal tables and stools) to watch the action. It is that fancy-free.

When we reached, there was 3 large Coleman-like coolers containing seafood. After looking around, we chose the best-looking (i.e. freshest) fish which is ikan kuwe. We weren't sure what species of fish is this, it felt familiar yet foreign looking at the same time. It's like a cross breed between the leatherjacket fish (i.e. chicken fish among Malaysian fishmongers) and the pomfret. I've since found out that it's actually a fish from the Trevally species.

Anyway, Hubs selected that, had it weighed (about 700gms) and requested for it to be grilled rica-rica. There's 3 ways of grilling the fish: normal (ie salty), with sweet sauce (I think this is with the Indonesian kicap manis) or spicy which is rica-rica. We additionally ordered brinjal stir-fry with belacan.

And so begin the wait. Halfway through, some condiments were served up. It was young mango with sambal terasi, a dipping sauce for otak-otak Makassar, and another dipping sauce made up of basil-lookalike leaves, bird's eye chilies and green tomatoes.

The brinjal dish came up first. And this is really good. The prawns were fresh and the belacan sauce is flavourful. We waited awhile more before the star of the dinner arrive.

and Ta-da. Basically they halved the fish and line the both side with lots and lots of bird's eye chilles and green tomatoes. It looked intimidatingly spicy. But when we bit into the fish flesh, it wasn't as as spicy as we thought it would be and had a hint of the chillies that's really unique. The grilling also did not produce a very chargrilled fish like how it's usually done in Malaysia. Instead, it felt almost like a smoked fish.

Dinner is surprisingly affordable. Hubs ordered a Bintang which was priced Rp 35,000 which turned out to be the big bottle, and the fish was Rp 89,000. We wondered if they have crabs and on our way out, we saw there were 2 guys on a motorbike, delivering crabs. Apparently they have fresh crabs delivered everyday. Looks like another trip is warranted to check the crabs out!

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Pondok Ikan Bakar Ujung Pandang
Jl. Gandaria I No. 5 Kebayoran Baru,
Jakarta Selatan

Eats: Ketjil Kichen @ Jln Gandaria

At where we stay now, getting food is pretty easy. We are located at a not-too-busy intersection, near Gandaria City mall, where traveling out for food means 10-15 minutes walk.

So last Sunday afternoon after the routine massage, we decided to explore and try out some of the restaurants in our neighborhood. First up is Ketjil Kitchen, serving a variety of pasta, burgers as well as local Indonesian favorites. The restaurant interior is charming - made up of an eclectic mix of furniture, splash of colors, vintage radios and pictures and metal-pots-turned-into-hanging lamps. Very cosy indeed.

For a Sunday afternoon, business was relaxed at Ketjil Kitchen. When we entered, we made a beeline for one of tables before one of the wait staff politely told us to order at the counter. To order, one either have a look at the menu which is presented in the ubiquitous blackboard or alternatively, flip through an iPad at the cashier to see what pleases the eye and appetite. Having done that, we proceed to our table and waited for our food to be served.

First up is our drinks. I would say they serve up a pretty mean chocolate milkshake. Rich, flavourful and yummy! For lunch, I had their nasi goreng bumbu ijo, while Hubs had a burger. Burger was alright but the winner was the fried rice. I think it was fried rice in green chilli paste, which lent a nice "green" taste that is unique of green chilli to the rice. Lovely! It came with a piece of fried chicken and grilled sardines with red chilli sambal. I loved the grilled sardines as well, although I'm not too sure if they used canned sardines.

Certainly Ketjil Kitchen seems like a cool hang out place, ideal for a lazy afternoon. Definitely will be back on and off.


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Ketjil Kitchen
Jl. Gandaria I no. 75,
Kebayoran Baru,
Jakarta Selatan

Eats: Easter & Oriental @ Menara Rajawali

So last weekend, Hubs made plans to meet up with one of his expat friend who was back in Jakarta for a short stint. We decided to go to Eastern and Oriental since neither his friend nor myself have been there. Some of our friends who have been there absolutely raved about the food.

From what I read, Eastern & Oriental is a collaboration between a well-known chef i.e. Will Meyrick who has two award-winning restaurants in Bali with the people behind Loewy and Union, another two very successful F&B outlets in Jakarta. I've only been to Loewy once but have been to Union couple of times, simply because Union is pretty near where we stay. Union is one place that is so popular for its red velvet cake that getting seats there is nearly impossible without reservation in advance. They do entertain walk-ins but it's a long queue. It would be a blue moon night if one walk in on one fine day and finds them able to sit you immediately!

Clearly, Eastern & Oriental is the place to be seen. At least for the moment. Decor-wise is very much in line with the theme from Loewy and Union, ala early 20th century Paris. Clientele in Eastern & Oriental tended to be more chic society whereas Loewy is more business/professional and Union is more laid-back, hang-out type.

It was around 7ish by the time we reach there last Saturday. We didn't make any reservation and the hostess was able to fit us in for dinner between 8 till 930pm. We took that immediately. Meanwhile, she ushered us to wait at the bar first while the wait staff prepared our table.

While at the bar, I ordered one of their in house creation, a mocktail made up of coconut juice (which I realised belatedly is coconut milk) and guava sorbet with a hint of kaffir lime leaves. When first presented, my initial reaction was "Uh oh" Coz it looked like one whole glass of coconut milk! Cholesterol alert!! But when I took a cautious sip, it was surprisingly nice. And I love the hint of kaffir lime leaves which kinda "cut" the "fattiness" of coconut milk. To be honest, the main reason I ordered this was because I'm a huge fan of pink guava. And the abundance of pink guava in Indonesia means that a lot of the pink guava juices, and in this instance sorbet are freshly made.

After about 15 minutes wait, we were shown to our table and our server for the night is surprisingly well-trained. With Hub's friend being a bule (local slang for white man), our server made effort to converse in English and I would say she spoke pretty well. Obviously, one can see that the owners try to infuse a sense of uppity to the establishment by having the servers introducing themselves and mentioned that he/she will be the server for the night. What's more surprising is that they are pretty well trained in terms of food knowledge. Our server was able to recommend some of the more popular dishes and the restaurant specialties as well as advising us to only take 2 portion of rice because the one serving of rice is good for 2 small eaters.

And these are what we had that night. Picture quality slightly below my expectation because we had company, and I'm sure Hubs's bule friend must be thinking "Oh gawd, not another Asian with her food-snapping antics before digging in!" ;p

This is braised duck with green nahm jin. All of us love this dish a lot. I thought it's almost like the braised duck that my mom occasionally makes. And the green nahm jin is the little jar of chutney on the side, which is made up of (I suspect, based on my taste buds) cilantro, garlic, some green chillies (but not too much because it wasn't spicy at all), lime juice, fish sauce and palm sugar. Lovely!

Next up is the massaman lamb shank. I think this is Hubs's favourite. I've never been a big fan of massaman curry because so far, all the massaman curries I've eaten are quite big on the cinnamon flavour, which I'm not particularly fond of. But taste wise, it's good and the meat fell off the bone.
Another winner and that's according to Hubs.

Between the three of us, these two plus a stir-fry vege (which I didn't manage to snap a photo of) were just nice. A mention about the stir-fry. I liked it how they incorporate thai basil into the stir-fry, giving it a very nice taste overall. If you are fan of basil, make sure to order this.

Overall, Eastern and Oriental is a winner and we definitely will be back again. :)

p/s A visit to the toilet is a must. Because one gets a crash course on how to converse in Thai. And I'm seriously not joking! 

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Eastern & Oriental
Menara Rajawali,
1st Floor, Jl. DR Ide Anak Agung Gde Agung Lot#5.1
Kawasan Mega Kuningan.