Author: Miss Rasjid

Oku

JAPANESE INDULGENCE AT OKU: Where great food exceeds fancy place

I really prepared myself for Saturday’s meet up on May 29th, 2016. It was a lunch invitation from Zomato Indonesia, which was held at Oku Japanese Restaurant in Hotel Indonesia Kempinski Jakarta. When I heard it was at Kempinski the first time, I was like “Oh man, this gotta be good!”

When I arrived, the place met my expectation. Here you’ll meet a clean, modern, and sleek look of Japanese restaurant, but all screams luxury. They have sound-proof private rooms, semi-outdoor private rooms, and a bar too. They were newly opened a couple of months ago.

	Menu They let us picked a seat and mingle with other bloggers. After a few explanations from Rebecca, the PR director of Kempinski, they gave us a couple of menu books. Here was our today’s set menu, full of exciting dishes! Just couldn’t wait to start and I was drooling, haha… You could see that they’d serve more appetizers, just maybe to tease our appetites through main courses.
Appetizer
	Oku Karaage Ok, first teaser was Oku Karaage (IDR 110,000) They were actually black! The plating was as if we were gonna eat coals. I immediately took one, and bit it. Wow, it melted in my mouth! The chicken thigh was tender and juicy, and there was mayo filling inside. They used some kind of black pasta of garlic and leek for the batter to make it looked black. One-of-a-kind Karaage this was! I loved it.
	Karasumi Uni Then the second dish came… On that thick-based plate, you could find angel hair pasta, with uni a.k.a sea urchin and black caviar on top. It is called Karasumi Uni (IDR 320,000). It was served cold, surprisingly. And I found a hint of olive oil when I ate it. There was a sense of bitterness but after a few chewing it was gone.
	Aburi Salmon Roll The next one was Aburi Salmon Roll (price not listed). You can basically find this one in every Japanese restaurant. However, at Oku the presentation was so tempting! Instead of using tobiko on top of the rolls, they used black caviar. It made it tasted so rich.
	Uni The next dish came in in a bowl with bursting smoke! They called it Uni (IDR 245,000). Interesting! Inside the bowl was white asparagus, onsen egg and uni. It was served cold too. Unfortunately out of all the dishes, this was my least favorite. Maybe I just didn’t like it served cold or simply because I’ve never been a fan of asparagus.
	Ajitama Then there was Ajitama (IDR 50,000), organic egg with onion flower and shigureni beef, served with smoked rice straws. The egg didn’t give an egg smell, maybe because it was smoked. I liked this one, except for the small size, haha…
	Sashimi Next that came was a bowl of happiness… or the Japenese would simply call it Sashimi (IDR 350,000). There were 7 chef-selected sashimi, such as salmon, tuna, shrimp, squid, etc. Put as the base of the sashimi were soy jelly, angel hair seaweed, gracilaria seaweed, and sea grapes. These came with excellent quality, very fresh and clean cut.
	Oku’s Signature Cocktails I couldn’t hold myself to try one of Oku’s Signature Cocktails. I picked Ume Jumon (IDR 170,000), which contained Ume-shu, whisky, sugar cane juice, and bitters. In one sip, I knew I fell in love with this one. It was so refreshing, not strong, and just had a slight of bitterness.
Main
	Omi Japanese Beef Ok, then we came to the peak of this culinary party. Did you know what we’ve got for main course? I couldn’t believe myself that we deserved such an indulgence. Okay, don’t freak out! They gave us Omi Japanese Beef (IDR 1,200,000), a 150gr Japanese Highest Marbling A5 OMI Sirloin. The price couldn’t lie. It tasted soooooo good! Like it really melted on your mouth. No extra power of chewing needed, it was so so so soft, tender, and very very juicy. I thought it was everyone’s favorite dish of the day.
	As you can see here, they cooked it perfect medium. The center of the meat was still pink. I ate it altogether with the barbeque sauce, the black paste, wasabi, and fried garlic.
	Potato As a side dish, we got Potato (IDR 50,000). It was a cold potato salad, with cherry blossom, wood smoked aroma. The texture was a combination of mashed potato with diced potato. It was nice but I wasn’t crazy about it.
Dessert
	Granite Dessert time! When these cuties arrived at our table, they got me thinking which one would I choose? These three sorbets on stick are called Granite (IDR 60,000). The green one is made from shiso and japanese plum, the yellow one is from pineapple and yuzu, and the red one is from beetroot and blood orange. I was hesitated between the green and red ones, but I finally chose the green one. It tasted good, so refreshing an had the perfect sourness.
	Lychee Pannacotta Then came the pinkish dessert. They said it was chef’s new creation, a lychee pannacotta (price not listed). The plating was awesome, but I wasn’t a big fan of this one. I found it just a standard pannacotta and a little bit too sweet.
	Yuki Here is Yuki (IDR 120,000). A yuzu-chocolate mousse with lemon cloud, dulcey sponge cake, and crunchy chocolate praline. They added passion fruit sauce at the time. The plating once again was awesome. The mousse, the sauce, the cake and the crunch altogether made an interesting combo. But I didn’t like the lemon cloud though, tasted too sour for me.
	Green Sundae The last dessert, and also the last on the menu today was Green Sundae (IDR 80,000), a sweet matcha custard with shiratama mochi and azuki beans. This one was my favorite. It screamed matcha, the real matcha. Some bloggers found it unflattering because they didn’t like the hint of bitterness. But hey, it’s matcha! I’m soooo gonna buy this one!
	Finally, at the end of the lunch, they brought us the man behind those fancy dishes. That man is Chef Kazumaza Yazawa. He is French-born Japanese. He was actually specialized in French cuisine. But then he got back to his root, and tried to cook Japanese. Thank God he did that, because he’s very good making Japanese cuisine.

The verdict for Oku

OKU is a really great place with great food. They really fulfill their promise: to serve excellent cuisine and not just a fancy restaurant. I’m so pleased with the dishes, and will absolutely go there again. Big thank you to Zomato.id for bringing us here.

Did you know?
The black paste that is used to make Oku Karaage was a mixture of garlic and leek, and it is continuously baked at 40 degree Celcius for a month!

Jun 15, 2016

The Caffeine Dispensary: Where Cofee Enthusiasts Experience Coffee Appreciation

On a bright Sunday morning, my friend, Mieke, and I stood in front of The Caffeine Dispensary door with great excitement about the coffee cupping event that we were going to join in.

When we walked in, we found this simple yet lovely industrial-look cafe. Several food bloggers were already inside. We were welcomed by one of the owners, Aji. He was making a drip coffee. Aji also owns a coffee shop in Singapore, called The Revolution Coffee. The other owner are Rio – the roaster – and Andri, the store manager.

When we asked why the barista area was so spacious, Aji kindly explained that they wanted to make a difference in coffee sipping. They encouraged coffee appreciation and wanted to be more than just a regular coffee shop. Here, the coffee lovers can also participate in making their cups of coffee!

The Caffeine Dispensary serves various kinds of coffee from all over the world and specialises in in-house roasting of their coffee beans.

Rio, the roaster, explained that after roasting, coffee beans only lasted for about a month. While the un-roasted beans would last longer, about a year when kept inside a sack. The roasted beans will bloat but the mass will decrease due to moisture loss. As you can see below, behind me there was a roasting machine, which could produce 1 kilogram of roasted beans in each process.

After we picked our seat, they gave us the menu. The price is very reasonable, and worth the coffee appreciation. They don’t have many choices of food for now, because they want to focus on serving the coffee.

I chose 5oz Espresso White, equaled as Cappuccino, while Mieke ordered Iced Latte Gula Jawa, one of their signature drink. Mine used the Kenya Mugaga beans, and Mieke’s were Aceh Gayo.

Tadaaaaa….our orders arrived. I immediately gulped mine. It was very good! It turned out the Kenya Mugaga coffee had the perfect combination of bitterness and sourness, very aromatic, and overall it tasted well-balanced. I also took a sip of Mieke’s Iced Latte Gula Jawa. I really loved the taste! Aceh Gayo had a floral aroma and you could really taste the flavor of Javanese brown sugar that they used. Not the kind of Iced Latte you’d easily find elsewhere.

They also gave us complimentary sweet treats, one Carrot Cake and one Banana Bread with Chocolate Chip. Both of them satisfied me as a cake lover; Rich in flavor, but not too sweet and had smooth textures. I actually ate both slices, since Mieke wasn’t a fan of sweet cakes. Lucky me!

Upon finishing them, the coffee cupping session began. First, we were given the acknowledgment about The Caffeine Dispensary, the basic theory of coffee and the process of making a good coffee. Then we had a quite interesting Q&A session afterwards.

Afterwards, we moved to the cupping table, where they had prepared 6 different kinds of coffee. They were Nicaragua Misael Sauceda, Toraja Sapan, Kenya Nyeri Mugaga, Sunda Arumanis, Brazil Formoso, and Aceh Gayo. We were given raw beans, roasted beans, and two cups of ground coffee for each type. We carefully sniffed the different aroma between roasted and ground beans. All of the raw beans smelled like grass, so we could ignore those for a while.

The two cups of ground coffee were now poured over hot water. We had to wait for about 4 minutes before we could break the crust. Using 2 spoons, carefully we scooped together the crust from one side to another. If you were an expert, you could do it in just one attempt. After the crust was clear, we could sniff the real aroma of the coffee.

We then began to taste the coffee. We had to loudly slurp a spoon of coffee. I found it difficult as I couldn’t be fast and loud. At least I tried my best and ended up looking silly, haha… We had to taste from the coffee cups for each kind, to test for consistency.

After that, we needed to fill the Cupping Form, which looked like the picture below. We scored from 1 to 10 of the aroma, acidity, body (thickness), flavor, etc. I got a tie for the highest scores between Brazil Formoso and Kenya Nyeri Mugaga, which I scored 9.

They knew that our mouth had gotten a bit bitter after the cupping, so they offered us something from the menu. I picked the Lavender Lemonade, another signature drink. It was so refreshing! A nice twist between the sourness of lemon and the good smell of lavender.

The fun carried over to lunch! They already prepared croissant sandwiches for us. I picked the Beef&Cheese Croissant and loved it! The croissant itself was very buttery, good crisps and soft inside. The filling was perfect, rich in flavor. I really loved this croissant. Mieke said that she loved her Smoked Chicken croissant too.

The final verdict for The Caffeine Dispensary

As a coffee lover, I definitely would love to get back here. I am excited for the new kind of coffee that will arrive every month.

Did you know?

There is lemon-infused water available for free if you need refreshment after drinking coffee. Don’t hesitate to refill your glass! It’s compliment from The Caffeine Dispensary for you, the coffee enthusiasts.

Details:

Jl Kelapa Kopyor Raya Blok 1 No 16, Kelapa Gading, Jakarta

+62 21 452 0109

http://www.caffeinedispensary.com/

Feb 12, 2016