Author: Ardi

Sop Buntut Bogor Cafe

Review:

This is probably the most bizarre signature dish (for non-Indonesians) that I have ever written. Sop Buntut Bogor Cafe is a restaurant that serves grilled oxtail soup as its signature dish… and Indonesians (or at least most people I know) LOVE them!

These days, you can find grilled oxtail soup in quite a lot of places. However, I daresay Bogor Café in Borobudur Hotel Jakarta is the first one to do it. For this review, we went to its branch in one of the shopping malls in Jakarta.

There are quite a few dishes that use oxtail as their main ingredient at Sop Buntut Bogor Cafe.

Tahu Pong – 45k – with sweet soya – chilli sauce dip

Tahu pong is a typical Indonesian snack that is made of tahu (tofu). The tofu is then deep fried and served with sweet soya and chilli sauce.

To be honest, this one did not really look like the real ‘tahu pong’, which was usually more round with crunchy edge. However, taste wise, it did not disappoint.

Martabak Buntut – 45k – Sweet soya sauce dip and pickles

Martabak is also an Indonesian snack that you can pretty much find everywhere. However, it can be considered as a pretty ‘heavy’ snack. I think most of you would know ‘martabak’ by now (or you can read it from wiki).

The filling for its martabak was oxtail meat. Taste wise, I couldn’t really tell the difference between oxtail meat and regular beef meat. To make a good martabak, it is very important that you serve nice pickles and sweet soy sauce with it!

Oxtail Nasi Goreng – 125k – Fried Javanese rice with oxtail, pickles, stock, melinjo crackers

It is probably one of the more expensive nasi goreng dishes that you can find in Indonesia. It is the same cost as fried rice in quite a lot of Sydney restaurants!

You only got one small oxtail piece and a few shredded meat in the fried rice. Honestly, I think I would rather have three martabaks than this fried rice.

Hotel Borobudur’s Legendary Oxtail Soup Specialties – 160k – Served with steamed rice, melinjo crackers, pickles, chili sambal and lime

This is what we came here for… and yes they now actually put the word ‘legendary’ on the menu. They have two sizes, medium and legendary. The ‘legendary’ size is actually not that big for non-Indonesians. You can have the oxtail stewed in a soup (regular), grilled or fried. Traditionally, Indonesians love stewed oxtail but it also means quite a lot of fat. Grilled (and fried) oxtail on the other hand have less fat.

I’m pretty sure they were legendary because they were one of the first ones to grill oxtails. These days, you can find grilled oxtail in quite a lot of places.

The final verdict for Sop Buntut Bogor Cafe

Although Sop Buntut Bogor Cafe might be the first one to grill oxtails, it’s apparent that they are quickly losing its competitive advantage and become somewhat overpriced nostalgic restaurant… Nevertheless people are still coming in for that reason.

Did you know?

Whenever you are in Indonesia, always on the look for Avocado juice (like the one pictured below). It is such a nice drink to have!

Rating for Sop Buntut Bogor Cafe:

7.0 / 10

Taste: 7.0 / 10

Price: $4 – $20 per dish

Place: 6.5 / 10

Details:

Street Gallery, Ground Floor, Pondok Indah Mall

Jl Metro Pondok Indah, Jakarta

+62 21 2952 9718

Apr 20, 2016
Won Jo

Review:

One afternoon we walked around Strathfield trying to find a nice Korean rice cake, or tteokbokki. Our short stroll around the area lead us to Won Jo Korean BBQ restaurant. On this occasion, we actually did not order the BBQ menu. We were interested more on the rice bowl and… obviously… its tteokbokki.

Won Jo served quite a number of kimchi. We had the five dishes below to begin with and when we asked for a refill, they gave us an extra one.

Cheese stir-fried rice cake – $20 (M) or $30 (L)

This is a variant for the dish that we came to Won Jo for. Instead of having the normal sweet chilli rice cake, they added cheese to the dish. It actually dumbed down the chilli flavour – good for people who doesn’t eat crazy amount of chilli like me!

Ginseng chicken stew – $22

Every time I see ginseng chicken on the menu, I am always interested in ordering it. The first ginseng chicken stew I ever had was in Seoul. I went there a long time ago but somehow it was imprinted in my memory.

Ginseng chicken stew is usually served with garlic, rice, and jujube. In Won Jo, they also put some mushrooms in the stew. It was a nice hot soup.

Beef bulgogi with rice – $16.50

Having a Korean beef bulgogi in a Korean restaurant is like ordering a Japanese Karaage. Nothing can go wrong… if it’s wrong, don’t come back to that restaurant!

Garlic Soy Fried Chicken – $17 (half) or $27 (whole)

We actually ordered this in our second visit to Won Jo. Their fried chicken is boneless, which was always nice to have!

Seafood pancake – $15

Their seafood pancake was quite large for the price. There was also quite a few toppings inside the pancake!

The final verdict for Won Jo

It was quite an enjoyable lunch at Won Jo. We definitely got our craving for tteokbokki satisfied.

Rating for Won Jo:

7.0 / 10

Taste: 7.5 / 10

Price: $16.50 – $30

Place: 7.0 / 10

Details:

33a The Boulevarde, Strathfield 2135

+61 2 9746 7041

Won Jo on Facebook

Apr 12, 2016
Woodland House

Review:

Woodland House is a two-hat restaurant (based on 2016 Good Food Guide) located in the city of Melbourne – Prahran, to be exact. They have a 10-course, fixed-price degustation menu of $155. Since it’s quite a lengthy list, I will get on right away.

Purple potato chip

It was quite an interesting amuse bouche. Three purple paper-like things were neatly arranged on a log. We were quite hesitant to eat it at first – the risk of looking pretty stupid before we even ate anything. It felt like munching an edible paper – which was quite fun!

Danish and Sourdough rolls with butter

This is available throughout the course should you want them. The Danish is probably why I would want to visit the restaurant again in the future… They were just so good!

Foie gras, kiwi

It looked like a very tiny croquette with a little kiwi decoration at the top. Expectations were quite high after this strong start.

Charred abalone, wood ear, wasabi and ponzu

Well, nothing really wows more than having an abalone as your first course, doesn’t it? It was probably one of the best starts of a degustation course I have ever had. Having ‘abalone’ in your dish’s title usually guarantees an instant favourite. This was also my first charred (and/or grilled) abalone ever.

Rock flathead, puffed quinoa, toasted corn, pickled cucumber

There was a bit of theatrics when the waitress poured the toasted corn sauce (?) into the plate for the second course. There was also a nice crunchy texture from the quinoa. However, it was clearly overshadowed by the abalone.

South Australian marron, chicken liver, finger lime

Third course was quite simple and artsy. To be honest, it was quite small for my tummy to realise what it was. There was a little crunch from the veggies and a strong chicken liver flavour. The marron itself was nicely done.

Pea bavarois, lemon sorbet, almond

Fourth course was the in-between course. To cleanse our palate for the main course that was about to come. It was quite a complex dish with quite a strong lemon sorbet.

Master Kobe beef, roasted onion, nameko and miso

Just like the appetiser, the main course also started off with a bang. Master Kobe is the highest marbled beef that you can get, with a score of MB9+. To illustrate how special (and expensive!) it is, the plate was minimally designed with only three small slices of meat. It went really well with the miso paste and nameko mushrooms.

Kangaroo, grilled kohlrabi, quandong and native fruits

Despite boasting quite a number of native Australian ingredients, this sixth course was a miss for us. The dish was quite bitter and very sweet… quite interesting I must say, but unfortunately it was a bit too strong for me.

White rabbit saddle and leg, turnip, mustard and yeast, polenta

It was nice to see carrot in the same plate as rabbit. The polenta could use a bit more crunch, but it wasn’t as disastrous as the previous one. However, given that the standard of the first few dishes were so high, this one was more on the ‘average’ side.

Coolea, walnut and apple cider

We had a doubt about what was actually in our dish. It was listed as above, but couldn’t work out the walnut and apple cider in the dish. It was quite a heavy one before desserts… or was it a savoury dessert?

Milk chocolate flan, toasted rice, fairy floss

Having a fairy floss was always fun. Although I’m not really sure how you eat the fairy floss with flan and toasted rice. It was more of a decoration than the integral part of the dish.

Fig leaf and smoked coconut sorbet, candied ginger, wild fennel

Now this is a dessert which elements worked really well together. There were quite a lot of elements that were in-sync. It was cold, slightly spicy, crunchy, sweet and sour at the same time.

They also gave us three kinds of petit fours: a jelly, nutty chocolate, and something that looked like dutch pancake.

The final verdict for Woodland House

Woodland House showed some flashes of brilliance in their 10-course degustation. However, it was apparent why they fell short of their third hat. Specifically, the sixth course, kangaroo, was a tad too adventurous for us.

Did you know?

Woodland House used to be known as Jacques Reymond. It was an iconic restaurant that was a three-hat restaurant when the chef for 23 years, Jacques Reymond, retired in 2013.

They also serve vegetarian degustation menu that I have uploaded to our facebook page. The price for 10-course vegetarian menu is $140.

Rating for Woodland House:

8.0 / 10

Taste: 8.0 / 10

Price: $155 for degustation

Place: 9.0 / 10

Details:

78 Williams Road, Prahran, VIC 3181

+61 3 9525 2178

http://www.woodlandhouse.com.au/

Apr 4, 2016
Izakaya Masuya

Review:

Izakaya Masuya is located at the very heart of Sydney CBD. It is a nice place to wind down after a hectic day at the office. There are quite a lot of varieties at Izakaya Masuya… and quite a few dishes were uncommon in Japanese restaurants in Sydney.

Oden – $1.80 each – Naruto and Chikuwa

Oden was probably the cheapest dishes in the restaurant – depending on how many you actually ordered. On this occasion, we tried Naruto and Chikuwa as those were the two kinds I enjoyed the most.

Izakaya Hot Pot – $48.00 – Snow crab, prawn, scallop, salmon wing, chicken, Gyoza, sausage, seasonal vegetables with Dashi soy soup

By contrast, the hot pot is one of the more expensive dishes in Izakaya Masuya. It came with a few legs of snow crab – justifying the price tag. If I weren’t in a large enough group, I probably wouldn’t have ordered this. It is so much more fun to pick and choose a variety of dishes!

Chicken liver – $6.80 – cooked in ginger soy sauce and mirin

Probably not a lot of you would order this, but we love trying dishes that are pretty uncommon. The chicken liver at Izakaya Masuya was perfectly cooked. I loved how the sauce and mirin kept it from drying up.

Wagyu Robata

It wasn’t the best wagyu I have ever tasted. It was a tad overcooked to my liking.

Salmon Aburi – $14.80 – 8 pcs

Our opinion was a bit divided for this. I liked slightly charred salmon aburi. However, the little one wasn’t a big fan of it – and he usually likes nice salmon.

Roe Rice

Simple sushi rice with fish roe and seaweed flakes. It is perfect if you need to fill your tummy a bit more.

Originally we only ordered the dishes from the list above. However, we were still curious and hungry enough to order some more!

Duck

These duck fillets are not part of the regular menu. We ordered it out of curiosity as duck isn’t a staple in Japanese restaurants.

Karaage Chicken – $6.80 – Japanese style deep fried marinated chicken

Karaage chicken was the ‘substitute’ dish for the little one’s salmon aburi. It is one of those dishes that can’t go wrong in a Japanese restaurant.

Bonito Tataki – $9.80

Picked bonito tataki purely out of interest and the fact that I was still not full.

Desserts

Zenzai – $5.80 and Green Tea Ice Cream – $5.80

It was actually my first time trying a Zenzai. Zenzai is a porridge of azuri beans with mochi.

The final verdict for Izakaya Masuya

If you work in Sydney CBD, Izakaya Masuya is a good place to wind down. They have quite a large selection of Japanese food and drinks.

Did you know?

I must admit that I actually made the wrong booking for this one. I was supposed to go to Masuya Japanese restaurant that are located just next to it. Somehow, I dialled the number for Izakaya Masuya.

Masuya Japanese restaurant is the more upmarket version in the group.

Rating for Izakaya Masuya:

7.5 / 10

Taste: 7.5 / 10

Price: $1.80 – $48

Place: 7.5 / 10

Details:

Ground Floor, 12 O’Connell Street, Sydney 2000

+61 2 9233 8181

http://www.masuyainternational.com.au/en/izakayamasuya/

Mar 30, 2016
Singapore Airlines Business Class Menu

Experience:

When we traveled to Indonesia at the end of last year, we had the opportunity to try Singapore Airlines’ business class on our way back home. It was named by Skytrax as the World’s Best Business Class in 2015.

Obviously being a food blog, we are not going to talk about the seats and amenities or how the seat can transform into a flatbed. You can easily find that in google. We are here to talk about Singapore Airlines Business Class Menu!

According to the menu booklet, the lunch was created by International Culinary panel that was inspired by tastes from all around the world. Australia was represented by celebrity chef Matthew Moran (that’s how it was actually written in the booklet, instead of his usual name ‘Matt’).

Denpasar to Singapore – Light Lunch

For our first leg of the journey, we traveled from Denpasar to Singapore. We departed Denpasar at 1 pm. They only serve ‘light lunch’ for this leg (I can’t imagine what’s the not-so-light lunch is like).

There was no option for appetiser, it was only Tian of Colossal Crab-Mango with mesclun and black sesame seeds (unless you stated in advance that you were a vegetarian or you were allergic to seafood). It was also served with the dessert, Strawberry mousse cake with strawberry coulis, and two herb and garlic breads.

As you can see from the picture below, it was much better presented than the meal in economy. You also got the tray cloth and proper cutlery.

After your appetiser, there was three different main courses to choose from: one Indonesian lamb, one Singaporean chicken, and one seafood. I chose the last one. It was Seared Barramundi Fillet in Tomato Sauce with green olives with basil, celery and fingerling potatoes. The dish was exclusively created by Carlo Cracco of Ristorante Cracco, two Michelin stars in Milan. Carlo Cracco is a jury in Masterchef Italia.

Singapore to Sydney – Sleeper service

For our Singapore – Sydney leg, we flew out of Singapore past midnight. So, Singapore Airlines gave us a choice of whether to have our meal soon after take-off or two hours before arrival… or if you really want, you can have at both times! Considering that you might be really full from eating in the lounge prior to departing, I think most people would choose two hours before arrival.

The entrée was much simpler this time around. It was a bowl of fruits and a croissant.

You get five different choices of main course: noodles, beef, nasi lemak, American and Continental breakfast.

This time around, I chose Braised Ee Fu Noodles with prawn, fish, scallops and leafy greens. It was a very big portion for a breakfast! However, it was actually the right size for an Indonesian (or Asian) breakfast. When I was younger, I was used to eating nasi goreng, congee, or noodles for breakfast.

There are also endless supply of alcohol (and not just the generic ones!) if you choose to drink, including Singapore’s national alcoholic beverage, Singapore Sling.

Did you know?

One thing that we actually missed out when flying Singapore Airlines Business Class was the opportunity to book the cook! There are a few dozen high-end dishes that you can pre-order for your flight… and they are all part of the service!

So, at the end of the day, your possibilities are endless!

Details:

Singapore Airlines Business Class Menu from Denpasar to Sydney

http://www.singaporeair.com/en_UK/flying-with-us/business-listing/

Mar 11, 2016
Salmon and Bear

Review:

There were a few distractions around the area that prevented me from trying Salmon and Bear. The restaurant is located in one of the newest shopping precincts in Sydney, Zetland – and I had a few places I wanted to try. I also thought that it was a chain restaurant that I have never heard of.

When I eventually went to the restaurant, I was surprised that the restaurant was 100% seafood restaurant. I thought the ‘bear’ bit refer to meat. So, yeah no other meat but fish here!

Salmon Poké – 21 – Raw cubed salmon in a soy and sesame dressing served with corn salsa and avocado on coconut rice

I ordered poké out of curiosity as this was my first time ordering it. The description resembles chirashizushi with a little twist of tropical influence. Poké is said to be the next big food trend according to Business Insider. It is originated from Hawaii.

It was quite a colourful plate! The salmon was already dressed in soy and sesame so you don’t need to add more soy (a la sushi). To top it off, the dried seaweed garnish gave us the crunchy texture.

One of a few salads that I actually enjoyed eating!

Fish and chips – 18 – crisp battered hoki served with chips, lemon, and tartare sauce

It was quite a simple-looking fish and chips. The portion was quite generous that my friend couldn’t finish it.

Tacos – 6 –come in a soft corn tortilla with cabbage, salsa verde, pickled pink onions, corander, lime and sriracha mayo

They have three different tacos that looked pretty similar with only a slight difference in the filling. On this occasion, I tried the sticky soy glazed salmon. It was nicely done.

The other two are: Crispy fish (hoki NZ) and Crispy prawn and corn

Salmon Bearger – 18 – A smoked and fresh salmon patty with cos lettuce, tomato, pickles, salsa verde and aioli

This is the only menu that has salmon and bear on its title. It was quite big and came with sweet potato fries (they are very nice!). The burger itself was pretty good, but clearly overshadowed by the poké.

Grizzly plate – 28 – choose your fish, your sauce and any 2 sides/salads

This is supposed to be the main attractions at salmon and bear. However, I wasn’t quite convinced. It was clearly the third wheel behind poké and salmon bearger.

The first time we were there, my boss got a really small salmon and tuna. But in our second visit, the size of the salmon was more decent.

Individually, the grizzly plate is priced as follows:

$18 fish– Ora King Salmon, Barramundi, Tuna, Catch of the day

$2 sauce – Salsa verde, lemon herb butter, yogurt & dill, peri peri, tartare, oyster & sesame

$5 Sides – Chips, Chive mash, sweet potato fries, coconut rice

$8 Salad – All beans, asian greens, slaw, corn salsa, Moroccan salad, roasted beg, corn cob, garden salad

The final verdict for Salmon and Bear

Salmon poké was the clear winner for me at Salmon and Bear.

Did you know?

Salmon and Bear sourced all of its fishes from a certified fisheries with sustainable practices.

Rating for Salmon and Bear:

7.5 / 10

Taste: 7.5 / 10

Price: $18+ for main

Place: 7.5 / 10

Details:

6 Defries Avenue, Zetland 2017

+61 2 9662 8188

http://salmonandbear.com.au/

Mar 8, 2016