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!

****
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!

****
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.


****
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! 

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

Eats: Iga Bakar Panglima @ Gandaria

So on last Thursday night - our official first night in our new place, we decided to walk around the neighbourhood to check out what's available for quick meals.

Hubs brought me to this roadside stall-lookalike place called Iga Bakar Panglima. He has been here before and said that the barbequed ribs are pretty good.

The place is very basic, as you can see here and the menu is also very basic as well. Most of the people there ordered the ribs but they had steak as well. So ribs it is for both of us, with a choice of BBQ (originial), blackpepper or lemon hot for sauces and potatoes or corn for the carbo/veg.

The ribs came out really good, soft and came off the bone easily. I really like my lemon hot sauce, almost like a hot sweet and sour flavour. Compared to Hubs who had the blackpepper sauce, I could still taste the smokiness of the coals on the meat. Methinks this little shack certainly give Tony Roma's a run for their money, because the last time we had that in Gandaria, I wasn't too impressed.
 

****
Iga Panggang Panglima
Jl. Gandaria Tengah 2 No. 30
Kebayoran Baru, Jakarta Selatan
Jakarta

Moved again!

Hubs has a habit. It's been 5 years since he moved to Jakarta in 2008 and for the past 5 years, he/we practiced annual migration. I reckon we're a bit like the wildlife in the Serengeti. LOL! So in total he/we have stayed in 5 different apartments and this mark our 6th apartment.

But in all fairness and honesty, we both realised we needed to get out of our previous place. Like badly. For different reasons of course! For him, it was because of the lack of natural sunlight, and me purely because the furniture ensemble was thrown in more in the spirit of recycling rather than eclecticism. Hehe.

It's exactly one week since we moved and settled into our new place. We really like this place a lot. A tad smaller, takes some getting used to, but just nice for the both of us. And of course it has a lot of natural sunlight streaming in through the use of big window panes.

And I didn't realise how useful that was until last night. Hubs was out for an event. So it was me and the TV for company. Suddenly, the electricity went off and I was left sitting in the dark and wondering "Are you kiddin' me?" And it happened just when I was about to charge my soon-to-be zero phone battery and had no torchlight. 

Had no choice but to use the phone as torchlight and as I was moving around the house, I realised it wasn't that dark after all! How cool is that!

Anyway, it turned out that most probably the air-conditioner in the hall shortcircuited our unit, as other units had electricity. The building reception and engineering have been helpful to come over and figure out what happened. And I have all their numbers on speed dial now!

And also getting quite good in explaining in bahasa Indonesia of what happened and hope that they understood me. I think they did! ;p

Eats: Degustation at Amuse Restaurant, Perth

While we were visiting family in Perth recently, we had the opportunity to drop by the best restaurant the city has to offer for a belated Valentine dinner celebration.

Making last minute reservation at Amuse wasn't easy. When Hubs's uncle first called to make the reservation on our behalf, he was informed by Amuse that the restaurant is fully booked for February and March and the earliest seating was April! That's how popular they were. Hubs's uncle put us on waitlist, just in case someone cancels. And lady luck was smiling on us! :)) Couple of days later, we got our table at Amuse for the night of 26th February at 630pm! Yay!!!

When we finally got there, I was expecting a swanky, upmarket restaurant. However, Amuse is housed in a single storey house that has been converted into a commercial lot. Its location on Bronte Street in East Perth is very unassuming, looking like its more suited for apartment complex. Amuse on the inside has a minimalist design - simple white chairs with fuss-free wooden tables in walnut and white wall panelling.

Once we were seated, we were presented a sealed envelope which contains the menu of what we are going to eat that night. Amuse presents a 10 course degustation menu at AUD 130 per person with optional wine pairing at AUD 80 per person. When Hubs's uncle made the reservation for us, he had requested a wheat free menu for me. And so I'm really grateful to see that my menu for that night had been specially tailored to my needs. Hubs got an "Omnivorous" menu. Lol! The staff who served us that night was also attentive to check again with us if there's anything that we don't eat before we commence our gastronomic journey that night. :)

This is our first course for the night. On the left: Rosemary flowers, sour cream and blood limes on crisp (which for me was a wheat-free option) and on the right: Carrot, walnut and hyssop

And the third part of our first course: Pumpkin, curry leaf and beurre noisette. Everything on this course is lovely, and we especially love the pumpkin served out of a jar. I took my time to spoon bits by bits and was almost disappointed when I finished the pumpkin.

Next came the bread. Hubs got a sourdough (on the left) while mine was a wheat free bread, served with olive oil and butter. I tasted almond nibs and some spices in mine and I'm so overjoyed to be able to eat bread again after such a long time. Lovely though it was, I didn't stuff myself because I wanna leave a lot of stomach space for the next 9 courses!

 And now to the main courses. Both of us really liked it how the Chef slowly builds up the palate from light to heavier tasting stuff towards the end of the mains. First up is a bit of a salad - Tomato, goats's cheese and tomatillos.

This was followed by Marron, fennel and avocado. Both of us were excited by this dish simply because a day earlier at Araluen Botanic Park, we spotted a lobster-like looking creature, taking up residence in a freshwater pond. My sister-in-law's girlfriend pointed out to us that it was a marron, a freshwater crayfish. As you can see here, there's a tiny marron claw that's cooked while the rest were sashimi style. Can't say which one I liked best, because both were very yummy.

Next up was Egg, mushroom and pine nuts. I gotta say this is probably gets my vote of best dish of the night. It's actually runny eggs with mushrooms, pine nuts and bits of deepfried chicken skin as garnish. To top it off there was a toasted bread (again wheat-free option for mine) stick. Opening the jar was magical. I opened mine first and hence did not know what to expect. As I lift the lid, I was hit by a waft of smokey-flavoured steam, almost like opening up a magical box. Lol! All the ingredient went really together in this dish, especially the chicken skin. Yum! Hubs being the pragmatic, joked that "I can't believe we are eating telur setengah masak!" Well it was an ingeniously done one, methinks.

A fish course was up next - Goldband snapper, beetroot and leek. We both didn't like this dish very much. I personally felt that the texture of the fish was a bit rough. And of course, I don't really fancy beetroot.

The Pork, prawn and popcorn is next. The prawn is fresh and succulent although I didn't particularly like the pork and thought that it was a bit heavy for this dish. The dusting of crushed popcorn added a nice texture to the dish. 

Our final main course was Venison, rustleberries and wattle. When the venison was presented to us, we heard words like berries, and coffee in the explanation and really wondered how all of this would taste in one single dish. And surprisingly, they did really well. The venison was perfectly cooked, and went really well with the rustleberry sauce and coffee wattle crunch.

 Before we started our desserts course, we were served a passionfruit meringue as a palate cleanser. Although tart but it wasn't too sharp to taste and certainly cleanse our palate before the desserts. :)

Our first dessert course was Grapes, coconut and ginger. At first look, we both thought those whitish chunks were pop corn. But actually they were pops of coconut and ginger ice cream. And hidden among them are carbonated grapes. Absolutely clever and fun to eat!

Next up is Pear, pecan and vanilla. Again another amazing feat of a dessert. Everything on this dessert is perfectly done and round up the experience.

And the finale piece, Tisane and treats.  When it was first presented, I was more intrigued by the plates of stones. Cleverly disguised among them are two pieces of white chocolate, shaped and coloured like little pebbles. If you haven't guess which are these, they are the two lighter grey "pebbles" right in the center. The other treats are sugared lemon jelly and sugared blueberries. And with a peppermint tisane to complete that night experience.

In total, Hubs paid AUD 250 for the meal. It has been nothing short of an amazing gastronomic experience. We were served really well by the staff - they took time, including some of the chefs who served us our meals to explain each dish and one can really see Amuse use all Australian produce.

I think Hubs's summed up his experience really well - "Whenever I watch Masterchef, I've always wondered what do the judges mean when they say 'Everything in this dish comes together.'' Certainly that night, we left wondering no more. :)