Ooops! I did it again!

I know!! I just did it again. Shame on me =(
But there really isn't any intention to abandon this blog...
Though it did appear so.
A lot had happened over the course of 4 months.

The moving (yes, again but only moving house - from my parents in law's to our very own apartment!), the visit to Singapore for Chinese New Year and finally, the new job (hooray, I just got confirmed)!

And....this month marks exactly one year after hubby and I returned to Asia. I realise I hadn't posted much about Indonesia nor Jakarta. Most of my blogs to date are on my previous trips in Europe.

I promise I will write (or at least post some pictures :p) about my short Bandung trip in January.

For now, let me share with you a delicacy from Bali but fortunately, available in Jakarta!

Tadaaaa...Nasi Ulam Bali (Ulam Bali Rice).
Ingredients: sambal (chili paste), flavoured hard boiled egg, stir fried french beans, shredded chicken, fish flakes, fish and chicken pepes (steamed minced fish and chicken wrapped in banana leaves).

The pepes is probably the best I had eaten so far. Succulent, tender and very flavourful. Yum....
For those in Jakarta, you may place your orders directly with :
Nasi Ulam Bali
Sg. Oka Miladewi,
Cinere
Contact:+62 21 7540458

The Day I Grew Mad For Garlic

That's right.

I would rather admit blatantly that I have a sudden strange obsession instead of acknowledging I am now officially a year older.

Last week marked the final year of my twenties. Boohooo.
On a brighter note, I had some really good years in my twenties when I looked back. That is a consolation I could hold on to.

My sister was rocking off her birthday in Seoul with some friends and it was a pity I couldn't join them. She, however, shared photos of her trip LIVE, from time to time via Whatsapp. It was cool that South Korea has WIFI practically every where.

Since I didn't get to go to Seoul, hubby said I could have a Korean meal as a birthday celebration. Yippie! Off we went to the famous Han Gang Korean restaurant in Grand Indonesia mall.

Perhaps it wasn't my lucky day. They were closed for renovation!! -.-
We checked with the Information Service counter if there were any other Korean restaurants in the mall. The answer "Mad For Garlic" came up. Twice. We asked 2 different counters twice and we got the same reply.

We decided to check it out, although I was quite sure it wasn't Korean.

It turned out to be an Italian bistro, which is originated from Korea.
Aha! That, apparently made it Korean to those two Information Service representatives! -.-""

Anyway, to save us from hunting for the real Korean restaurant, I told hubby that we shall give this a try.

The place was rather comfortably decorated. Cosy, in fact. There were huge couches that you could probably lay down for a nap while waiting for your orders to be served.
And of course, garlics were practically everywhere!

Up in the ceiling.

On the lights.

On the walls.

And surely, on your plate of food.

From left, clock wise : Lobster Cream Pasta (topped with fish roe), Garlic Snowing Pizza, and Assorted Seafood Salad.

The food portion was surprisingly generous.

I like the vinaigrette flavour in the salad. It matched very well with the sauteed shrimps, squids and aromatic garlics (of course!). While the squids were fairly fresh, I find the shrimps were either over cooked or it was a frozen product. They didn't have the bouncy texture of fresh, perfectly cooked shrimps.

Garlic Snowing Pizza is such a cheesy name - remember how Korean romance dramas always have a snowy scene :p
When it was served, the waiter sprinkled a generous portion of grated Parmesan cheese as the pizza topping. Besides, slices of fried garlics were also visible on the pizza.
Beneath all those toppings were some peeled shrimps and absolutely sweet pineapples! The pizza was a pleasant surprise to me. I enjoyed it as it had all the ingredients I like in one serving - pineapples, garlic and cheese.

We started to feel the food were slowing expanding in our tummies when we were reaching for the Lobster Cream Pasta. We only had the salad and half of the pizza. The food were filling.

Hubby wasn't a huge fan of creamy based food but he decided to order the Lobster Cream Pasta because it sounded promising. The verdict? It was all right. The pasta was cooked al dente and the cream sauce wasn't lumpy.

As hubby paid the bill, the waitress brought him a dine in voucher with the validity till December 2013. Mmmm...will we come back here again?

Maybe.

Just maybe, if I grew mad for garlic again.

And if Han Gang is closed, again ;p

Soto Kudus Kencana

There is never a time when you will be deprived of food in Jakarta. Eatery outlets are basically at every corner - from luxurious to down right economic ones.

If you happen to be in Indonesia, you should not miss Soto. It is a common dish among the locals and varies according to regional locations. Basically, it is a traditional soup that is usually eaten with rice. If you prefer a slight tangy flavour in your soup, squeeze a small slice of lime into the soto before serving.

Soto Kudus originates from a placed called Kudus, Jawa Tengah (mid Java island). Hence, the name. Kencana, is just the "name" of the shop we went to.

The soup contains chicken, bean sprouts, fried garlic, an coriander. The mixture of these ingredients gives a very aromatic flavour to the soup. It is tasty. I do believe, however, MSG is also an ingredient in the soup because I felt quite thirsty after the meal.

You may request the soup and the rice to be served separately or have both in the same bowl (the locals called it "campur", which simply means mix or combine).
I notice that if you ask them to separate the rice and the soup, the rice portion is larger. Otherwise, you will have to order a good 2 to 3 bowls of soto campur, depending on your appetite. Hubby eats at least 2 bowls and he still have room for another.

The interesting part of eating Soto is that there are many finger food being offered as side dish. You pay based on what you take from the table.

The usual ones are:

Tauhu isi (stuffed bean curd), perkedel jagung/kentang(fried mashed sweet corns or potatoes or also known as potato or corn frikandel/frikadel in Dutch. In Danish, frikadeller) as depicted in the top left picture;

Stewed quail eggs in skewer, fish balls in skewer and clams in skewer as depicted in the top right picture;

Tempe (different types of tempe), Fried cow brains and fried bean curds as depicted in the bottom left picture.

Notice how small the bowl is? It just takes about 4 to 5 spoonful of rice with the soup and the bowl is already empty.

Jakarta : The Duck King, Senayan City

It is always a pleasure to meet up with friends. Especially, those that you have not a single clue when you will meet again.

About four months ago, we bade each other au revoir in Copenhagen. Four months later, we meet again in Indonesia.

Such reunions are incomplete without a hearty feast and a perky toss of drinks. Since we are all not drinkers, we skipped the latter.

After heeding the advice of another friend, we decided to indulge into a meaty dinner at The Duck King, which sounded extremely seducing to our sudden call of carnivorous appetite.

There was no queue though many tables were occupied (Otherwise, we would have opted for another alternative).

Upon being seated, we were handed a large menu with pictures of mouth-watering dishes for us to consult upon. Without hesitation, the duck was the first pick. We ordered one whole duck for four - two ladies, two men.

Other dishes?

Those were secondary. Having the duck alone, had satiated our hunger for meat.

Dishes that we ordered: One whole roasted duck, Braised spinach bean curd with mushrooms and Hong Kong kale with garlic.

Needless to say, the star of the night was the duck. Honestly, I didn't expect it to be that good. Good is probably an understatement.

The sound of crisp rang through my ears as I sunk my carnivorous teeth into the duck skin. Before I recovered from the pleasant surprise, the rich flavour of the moist and tender duck meat started to dance its way into my tongue.

Every bite of the meat was well marinated and the duck was cooked perfectly (according to Asian standard - the meat was not pinkish but it was very tender and succulent).

Double thumbs up for the duck! What further surprised me was that, we could actually request the bones from the duck to be removed before serving it on the table. That was a bliss! We enjoyed the duck without having to lick the bones clean.

People always sing praises to Hong Kong's roast duck and China's Peking Duck. There is no need to travel to the North Asian countries to those dishes. The Duck King can offer equally good ones. 

Apart from the roasted duck, the Peking Duck was also in the menu. We didn't try that though. Just having the skin alone would not tame our carnivorous hunger.

We noticed that many patrons in the restaurant also ordered the same bean curd that we did. That confirmed our brilliant choice.

The bean curd was firm on the outside as it had been fried but remained soft on the inside. Topping it with sprinkles of finely chopped spinach, a bed of fresh mushrooms, and a tasty pool of sauce, the combination was magical.

Coming to the Hong Kong kale. It didn't outperform the duck but credit should be given to the chef for not overcooking the vegetable, while having the thick stem cooked to a perfect softness (for me, at least).

I will definitely come back again, if I am craving for a good platter of duck meat, one day.

The Duck King is located on the 4th floor of Senayan City Mall, Jakarta. It is right next to Sushi Tei. 

Excellent news for the Muslims : the restaurant serves halal food. My friends were excited when they saw the Char Siew(BBQ pork) dish in the menu. However, the disappointment came as quickly as the excitement when the waiter told them the dish was made of chicken instead of pork, due to the halal status the restaurant holds.

Jakarta : Ramadan in Grand Indonesia

The weekend was spent in Grand Indonesia, shopping and having Japanese pasta (Pasta Waraku outlet). As expected, the road was filled with cars. The last minute shoppers were hastily buying new clothes, cookies and goodies, in preparation for the Hari Raya (or Lebaran, as the locals in Indonesia call it).

 

The East mall was decorated with a Turkish taste and there was even a Turkish ice-cream stall there (which gave away free ice-cream. A cone of ice cream cost Rp 25 000 and you could choose from 3 flavours - strawberry, chocolate and vanilla. We had all 3 scopes in one cone, for free! :p). 
Just spend Rp300 000 and above in Grand Indonesia, you can either redeem a free Turkish ice-cream from Zahra stall or a picture with the camels (not real ones though). I will definitely go for the ice-cream!

Not an ice-cream lover, I had to give thumbs up (and even toes up, hahaha) to the Zahra Turkish ice-cream. At a quick glance, it looked like any ice-cream out there. But a bite of it will tell you, it isn't any other ice-cream.

The chewy and the smooth texture was the reason why I totally fell for it, on just the first bite! Flavour wise, it wasn't milky as what hubby anticipated. In fact, I didn't find it milky or creamy the way other ice-cream would have been.

We were told by the stall owner that he only sold Turkish ice-cream during the Ramadan month in Grand Indonesia.

I probably was the weirdo to some people. I took a picture of the toilet in the mall. Perhaps you would do the same if you saw it.

A child-themed toilet! Cute, isn't it?? I was waiting for an elderly man to exit from the gent before I started to snap away. He was already looking at me as though I was wearing a shoe on my head. Oh well.....

The next thing I discovered was totally insane! Maybe I was away from Asia for a while but there was a Magnum cafe in the mall! A huge one. It served nothing but only Magnum ice-creams. That outlet was heavily guarded by a number of security guards, mind you. I really wondered why.....

"Magnum Chocolate Experience" - ice-cream for lunch or dinner, perhaps?

I was too excited to share the Magnum chocolate experience that I almost forgotten to mention about Pasta Waraku. A rather famous fusion restaurant in Asia. It is a Japanese eatery outlet that served pasta and pizza.

There was a promotion for set meals. You could order a set of pasta (half-half pasta set which basically means you would have 2 small portion of pasta of your choice. Recommended if you are a pasta lover like I do) or a set of pizza-pasta combination (a set with a small portion of pizza - half of a small platter of pizza and pasta). The set meal included drinks, soup and salad. 

The pizza portion in the pizza-pasta combination set was a little pathetic. First, you could not choose the flavour of your choice. It was defaulted to Beef salami pizza. Secondly, each slice was only topped with a piece of salami and a slice of raw tomato. It didn't look that enticing :p

 Corn soup and salad with Japanese dressing. The corn soup was surprisingly loaded with corns, which made it a little too sweet for a savoury dish. I like the salad...to be precise, the dressing. It was refreshing with a gentle touch of sourness.

Pasta Aglio Oglio with chilli. It was marked as Chef recommendation in the menu. Well, it was all right but may not live up to the "Chef recommendation" status.

As we were starving, I didn't bother to take much pictures. Just took the two things that got served first.

Vietnamese Restaurant Do An, Jakarta

Ever since hubby tasted Vietnamese food (specifically, pho - a typical Vietnamese dish of noodle soup with beef), he fell in love with it.

Fortunately, there were quite a number of good and authentic Vietnamese restaurants in Copenhagen whenever his cravings kicked in. Also, it is relatively easy to find Vietnamese herbs and spices in the Asian stores. So, it wasn't a challenge for me to cook a Thai version of pho (a friend who taught me how to cook was a Thai and the spices used were a mixture of Thai and Vietnamese) for him at home too.

Now that we have moved to Jakarta, I thought it would have been even easier to look for Thai and Vietnamese spices or fresh leafy herbs since they are neighbouring countries. To my utter surprise and disappointment, that is not true. I have been hunting them in every supermarkets I came across and yet no luck in finding them. The only thing I found was Thai fish sauce. I actually prefer the Vietnamese fish sauce (it is a clear liquid, unlike the Thai fish sauce which is as dark as soy sauce).

So, we were quite happy when we saw this restaurant in Mall Kelapa Gading - Do An. It also offers food delivery for free.

Vietnamese fresh spring rolls with shrimp and vegetables. Refreshing. Would have liked it with fresh pineapples, like what some restaurants do.

Pho Ga - Chicken Pho.

Typical Pho with beef meatballs and beef slices.

The ambience of the place was all right. It was quite quiet when we were there. However, the waitress suddenly cried out loud playfully to her colleague. I didn't pay attention to what she was saying but can be quite disturbing if you were in the middle of a conversation.

Food wise, it did meet our expectations. The soup base tasted similar to the authentic pho we had tasted before. The portion was decent and the price was pretty much the same as you would find eating in shopping malls(about Rp50000 per bowl). 

It is a place worth going to satisfy your hunger and craving for Vietnamese pho. We did not try other dishes, though. Maybe next time :)

Jakarta : Dapur Solo

Eating out is a norm in Jakarta. Most eateries (those that serve good food, of course) will be flocked with families and couples every weekend. In fact, even on weekdays. It is an incorrect perception that food in Jakarta is cheap. For its living standard and cost, the price is not that cheap unless you buy food from the stalls by the road or in places which are not in shopping malls or luxurious restaurants.

For this Trip Advisor recommended restaurant Dapur Solo, the price of food is relatively decent and reasonable. Needless to say, it was packed with people as we entered.

We were ushered to a table after waited for a few seconds. It was right outside the restroom. Not exactly my preferred choice of location in a restaurant but apparently that was the only one available at that point of time for four person.

I could not remember the names of the dishes we ordered except for mine Gado gado!

Appetizer.....forgotten the name -.- It was tasty!

My gado gado

Address of Dapur Solo :Jalan Danau Sunter Utara-Griya Utama, Indonesia (the branch we went to was at Sunter)

Cafe Dermaga, Pantai Mutiara, Jakarta

Apart from Riung Tenda, Cafe Dermaga was the second restaurant I visited in my less than a month's stay in Jakarta ( this is an outdated post =p). It is located by the sea and it simply reminded me of Langelinie (a housing area by the waters in Copenhagen).

From Cafe Dermaga, you could see boats and yachts floating on the waters along the tastefully and modernly designed houses.

According to the local, Cafe Dermaga is known for its Bakmi Sakaw. Actually, we all felt that it wasn't as spectacular as expected. Perhaps our expectations were already raised by recommendations given by friends. I tried the "kuey teow goreng" instead since I am not a huge fan of yellow noodles. Surprisingly, it (had a familiar and homely taste of "char kuey teow" back in Malaysia!!) tasted nicer than the Bakmi Sakaw. That was a pleasant surprise.

One more thing I noticed in local restaurants in Jakarta is that when the menu said "Orange Juice", they actually meant "Jeruk" instead of orange because the "Orange Juice" that was served certainly didn't resemble or  taste like the normal orange juice I had anticipated.