Category: Cities

This is a category for cities. All about food have reviewed restaurants in cities like Sydney, Singapore, Bali Island, Surabaya, and Bandung.

Bandung Culinary Tourism

In the last few years, we reviewed a few restaurants in Bandung. This time around, we would like to write about Bandung’s local food offerings. You could easily find these food in big malls or plazas in Bandung. However, if you want the ‘authentic’ ones that are loved by the citizens of Bandung, we should really hunt for them.

What is Culinary Tourism?

Indonesians love to eat (including me). Their overabundance love of food enables them to create a whole new phrase dedicated to the journey of finding good food. Hence, the term ‘Wisata Kuliner‘ was born. It was hard to find the English phrase for it. However, after brainstorming session with my friends, we decided to use the term ‘Culinary Tourism’ to describe this phenomena because someone has written a thesis about it.

Bandung Culinary Tourism

Batagor

When we talk about Culinary in Bandung, the first thing that everyone mentions should be baso tahu goreng, commonly known as Batagor. Batagor is a deep fried fish tofu that is usually served with spicy peanut sauce and sweet soy sauce. There are two famous batagor restaurants in Bandung: Batagor Abuy and Batagor Kingsley. In terms of taste, we like Batagor Abuy more. On the other hand, Batagor Kingsley is more suitable to have for takeaway.

Batagor Kingsley is located in jalan Veteran 10.

Mie Yamin

Mie Yamin is the Bandung version of Chinese noodles. It is a bit unclear why it was called ‘Yamin’ noodles. We found an Indonesian article about the origin of Mie Yamin in Jakarta. One of the more famous places in Bandung is Mie Yamin Linggarjati in jalan Balonggede. In addition to its noodles, Linggarjati is also well-known for its delicious Avocado juice.

We actually did not visit the Linggarjati restaurant due to the distance. We used the gojek app that is priced quite decently for food delivery service.

Cireng Bumbu

Cireng bumbu is probably the most common dish on this list (you can pretty much buy anywhere and it would taste pretty similar). Cireng is a tapioca-based snack that is deep fried with fillings (usually spicy ones). It is usually sold just outside a restaurant or in food stalls.

What else is available on this Bandung Culinary Tourism?

The following dishes might also be available outside the city of Bandung. However, they have been modified to have the Bandung traits.

Yoghurt Cisangkuy

I’m pretty sure everyone knows what Yoghurt is. The interesting bit about Yoghurt Cisangkuy is that it has been in the same venue for, like, forever! If you ask someone from Bandung, I’m pretty sure the person would know this place. They have a few flavours to choose from and also some light snacks.

Sate Ayam Lavie

Lavie is a name of a baby shop in jalan Imam Bonjol, Bandung.In front of the shop, there is a small stall that sells chicken satay. It’s the perfect place for those of you waiting around!

What I love about Bandung’s chicken satay is the one called ‘sate lemak‘. It is literally just a skewer of fat! Pretty unhealthy I must say, but if you just eat the right amount, they are awesome!

Bubur Sumsum a la Bandung

Bubur sumsum is a rice flour porridge with sweet palm sugar sauce. We bought this from a street vendor usually roaming around the housing complex. What separates Bandung’s from the rest is the use of pomegranate.

Coffee from The Good Life cafe

This cafe might be relatively new when compared to the rest on this list. However, you can’t have a list of Bandung good stuff without a great coffee place! Located in Jalan Anggrek 15, this cafe is pretty obscured and part of a small office house. However, it’s hard to find coffee as good as this one in Bandung!

Obviously, there are a lot more dishes originated from Bandung that we could try. However, we did not have the time to try them all… maybe in the future…

The City of Bandung

Bandung is the third most populated city in Indonesia and is just a few hours drive from Jakarta (depending largely on the traffic!). However, the density of the city is twice as much as the second largest city in Indonesia, Surabaya. That’s why if you want to travel to Bandung, I suggest you to avoid the weekends!

Jan 6, 2016
Hawker Lane
Dining Experience:

We were invited by Sibling Agency and Scentre Group (aka Westfield group) to try Westfield Chatswood’s newest food precinct, Hawker Lane. If the name is not clear enough for you, Hawker Lane consists of 13 Asian restaurants, an ice cream place and a Taiwanese milk tea place.

When we arrived at the venue, we were given a sample of coconut juice topped with marshmallow and cake. They had a promotional at the Hawker Lane: When you made purchases at Hawker Lane of $20 or more, you received the coconut for free. The coconut really stole the show that day.

One Tea Grill – Baoger

One Tea Grill was the first restaurant we went to because we were so curious about their burgers. Their main attraction was the slider burger with three different kinds of burgers: ramen, matcha and rice. They also had three different patties: wagyu beef, teriyaki chicken, and green tea ice cream with red bean.

Cheers Cut

There are quite a few Taiwanese XXL fried chicken stalls in the city. The interesting bit about XXL chicken is its XXL size. It is seriously big! As you can see in the picture below, it is around three times the size of regular Taiwanese milk tea glass.

The rest of the restaurants are:
- Aqua S – Dessert
- Chachu’s – Indian
- China Chilli – Chinese
- Dumplings & Co – It had not opened when we were there
- Gong Cha – Drinks – Taiwanese
- Jim’s Malaysia – Malaysian
- Lamb & Cumin
- Noodle Warriors – It had not opened when we were there
- Madame Nhu – Vietnamese
- Makanai – Japanese
- Mao Cai – Chinese
- Nahm Jimm – Thai
- Sushi World – Japanese
We also tried quite a few other restaurants on the day. The one that really stood out was Lamb and Cumin. We love the marinated lamb satay!

There was one stall that we missed out when we were there because we actually did not see the stall inside the precinct. I have tried the ice cream from the main shop for Aqua S in George Street. They are known for their sea salt ice-cream.

We also did not go to Mao Cai / China Chilli as the queue were ridiculously long on that day. Despite our curiosity, we could not be bothered queuing for it.

Details:

Level 2 Westfield Chatswood, 1 Anderson Street, Chatswood NSW 2067

(02) 9412 1555

https://www.westfield.com.au/chatswood/dining

Hawker Lane
Dec 8, 2015
Surry Hills Eating House

Review:

This week, we were invited to Surry Hills Eating House. The restaurant is located in the corner of Elizabeth and Campbell Streets. It is owned by Sujet Saenkham of five Spice I Am restaurants in Sydney. Spice I am has a pretty good reputation in Sydney and it’s a great opportunity for me to try their other establishment. Surry Hills Eating House is a Thai restaurant that has quite a few seafood options.

Pla Tod Phae – $14.00 – Curried white bait fritter served with house made sweet chilli sauce and crushed cashew nut

I love white bait in Yum cha place. It is pretty interesting to see a white bait in a non-Chinese restaurant. Surry Hills Eating House’s white bait was amazing. It was probably our most favourite dish of the night.

Pad See Ew Chicken – $18.00 – Stir fried flat rice noodle with sweet soy sauce, egg and Chinese broccoli

We ordered this specifically for the little one. The portion was pretty decent and it was one of the best pad see ew chicken that we have ever tasted.

Phuak Neung Tod – $14.00 – Steamed dried shitake mushroom, dried shrimp and taro wrapped in bean curd skin and deep fried then served with spicy sweet coriander sauce

We were not going to order this entree. However, after looking at the first two dishes that came in, we decided to order this one. It was not a bad choice!

Gaen Kiew Wan Nua – $24.00 – Green curry slow cooked beef served with roti

The green curry was pretty good, but pretty spicy. They made the correct decision of serving it with roti. Curry tasted so much better when enjoyed with roti!

Lin Ped Pha Lo – $26.00 – Duck tongue simmered with five spice, served with braised pickle, green mustard and nam som (vinegar chilli)

We ordered this out of curiosity. There are not that many places serving duck tongue. They nailed it in terms of its taste. However, I think they should serve it as a side dish instead of a full main dish.

Cashew Nut Chicken – $18.00 – Stir fried cashew nuts, shallot, onion and chilli jam

For those of you who enjoyed individual serving instead of shared dishes. They have a variety of stir fry dishes. Cashew nut is probably one of the staple dishes in any Thai restaurants in Sydney.

Gaeng Het Pho – $28.00 – Phuket-style curry of bar cod fillet, Thai black mushroom and betel leaf!

This last dish was recommended by the waitress. It was one of the most ordered dishes at the restaurant. I guess it is true when they say the customers cannot be wrong! This curry is less spicy than the green curry we ordered earlier. I also liked the texture of the mushrooms.

Surry Hills Eating House

Did you know?

Eating house is located on level 2 of Triple Ace Bar. It is also within a walking distance to Spice I Am’s other restaurant: House Thai.

Details:

Level 2, 198 – 200 Elizabeth Street, Surry Hills 2010

02 9211 8107

Dec 4, 2015
Brewtown Newtown

Review:

This week’s review came from a cafe famous for its Brewnuts, you might probably know it more as cronuts (for those of you who really are clueless: a love affair between croissant and doughnut). The cafe is called Brewtown Newtown. The location was actually rather obscure and not in the main street. However, it did not deter food lovers to line up just to get a seat in this place.

These days, I am not so keen to line up for food. When I got a Friday off, I went to the cafe for lunch and got the seat pretty easily. The café’s décor is the trending warehouse-y one.

Latte (espresso with milk) – $3.50

I always have a soft spot for establishments that roast their own coffee. You can just tell its freshness!

Cronut

As mentioned above, this was the sole reason why I was so interested in going to Brewtown Newtown in the first place.

They have quite a selection of cronuts, but we still like the original cinnamon cronut.

Toasted sandwich – $14

The Australian-style steak sandwich came with caramelised onion and beetroot. It looked a bit more like a gigantic bruschetta than a sandwich.

Toast and homemade jam – $6

Because of that ‘peanut butter jelly’ song, we ordered the toast and jams for the little one. He totally skipped the peanut butter and just concentrated on the jelly and sourdough.

Elvis burger – $16.50 – Ground Beef, Savory brewnut, Canadian bacon, gruyere and mayo served with chips and relish

Little did I know that apparently this was what made people lined up: a savoury-version of the cronut!

The chips and relish were really good. Then on the same plate, you also got a cronut burger. It is just too ridiculous to put it in the same sentence!

The final verdict for Brewtown Newtown

Cronut, coffee and burger. These three are the things people look for in Sydney these days and Brewtown Newtown has them all… and they did it quite brilliantly.

Rating for Brewtown Newtown:

8.0 / 10

Taste: 8.0 / 10

Price: $12 – $24 main course

Place: 7.5 / 10

Details:

6 – 8 O’Connell St, Newtown 2042

02 9519 2920

http://www.brewtownnewtown.com/

Nov 25, 2015
BCD Tofu House

Review:

For this week’s review, we had to travel pretty far to enjoy this Korean restaurant. My friend told me that his Korean friend would only go to this place for Korean food. The restaurant is called BCD Tofu House and it’s in Epping.

They have seven different Banchan (side dishes). It is always nice to have more options than just a plate of kimchi!

Haemul Pajeon – $15 – Seafood and green onion pancake

One thing that we always looked for in a Korean restaurant: seafood pancake! Nothing really stood out from this particular pancake, but it wasn’t bad either.

Ox Tail Soup – $15

It was predominantly ordered for the kids as the tofu soup was more on the spicy side. They seemed to be enjoying the ox tail with vegetables and glass noodles.

Beef Bulgogi and Tofu Soup – $25

This is what you are here for: Tofu Soup. They have quite a few options for the tofu soup, including a mix and match with other dishes. Obviously our choice fell on the most common name in Korean dish: Bulgogi!

Their tofu soup is really good – as expected given the restaurant name. I felt that the Bulgogi was a bit overcooked and dry.

Spicy Braised Beef Short Rib – $26

My favourite for the night. Although the dish was pretty spicy (I have a very low affection to chili), I could not get enough of it.

I failed in taking picture of this dish in close up. If you look at the picture below, it’s the one on the left.

Special Rice (Youngyang Dolsotbab) vs normal rice – $3

For all of the dishes above, you have a choice of having it with normal rice or Special rice (for $3 more). The special rice is an interesting Korean-style dish with (I’m pretty sure) nuts and fruits.

The final verdict for BCD Tofu House

I can understand why people travel to Epping for a tofu soup. The tofu soup from BCD Tofu House was pretty good.

Rating for BCD Tofu House:

7.0 / 10

Taste: 7.0 / 10

Price: $26 per set

Place: 7.0 / 10

Details:

74 – 76 Rawson Street, Epping 2121

02 9868 4300

Nov 17, 2015
El Bulli Surry Hills

Review:

11 courses dinner, $60 price tag, for two people… I will let that sink in for a minute… To put it into perspective, each tapas at the restaurant ranges between $8.50 and $26.50.

That was the Groupon winter special at El Bulli Surry Hills. Instead of the full recommended retail price of $153, we get all of these tapas below for just $60!

Chickpea & Chorizo – a tasty broth of chickpeas, coriander and chorizo served hot

The usual plate of tapas with chickpeas and chorizos on tomato broth.

Pan con Queso y Jamon – toasted ciabatta served with a wedge of manchego cheese and slice of jamon on the side

Aceitunas Mezcladas – a selection of black, green & stuffed olives spiced up El Bulli style, wait for the kick!

These two were served together with the bread on the side. Jamon and cheese were the perfect pair for the bread. Also, loads of different olives in a bowl… love it!

Croquetas de Jamon – croquettes filled with white sauce & ham rolled in breadcrumbs, lightly fried & topped with alioli

Salt & Peppered Chipiones – lightly seasoned salt and pepper crispy squid served with lemon and alioli

Another jamon dish, but this time it was made into little croquettes. It was paired with salt and pepper squid and alioli (pay attention to the word ‘alioli’, it’s not a typo).

Patatas El Bulli – deep fried chat potatoes served with an emulsion of fritas & bravas dressing – house favourite

Patatas bravas is one of the most common dish in a Spanish tapas restaurant. It was also one of the first tapas dishes I’ve ever tried, made by a Spanish friend a long time ago! El Bulli spiced it up a bit and called it Patatas El Bulli.

BBQ Alitas – bbq hot and spicy chicken wings marinated in chimichurri & peri peri sauce

I usually liked chicken wings. However, I was not a big fan of this. Probably overshadowed by the other ten dishes on the night.

Medallon del Rey – eye fillet medallion on a bed of caramelised onions topped with a creamy blue cheese butter

Pinchitos de Gambas – grilled prawns skewered and infused with a Mediterranean saffron and cinnamon sauce!

It was interesting to see that they decided to bunch up two of (what I thought to be) the highlights for the night in one dish. Both the eye fillet and prawns were nicely done.

Mejillones en Salsa Picante – Giant pot of chilli mussels cooked in a traditional Spanish salsa, pumped up with shallots, basil, chilli & garlic

It took a while before the last two dishes arrived.The first want was rather spicy with quite thick salsa.

Almejas Tallarinas con Jamon – South Australian Pipis pan fried with jamon served in a white wine and lemon sauce with a dash of cream

The pipis was a little light on the cream.

The final verdict for El Bulli

Would we pay a full price for these tapas at El Bulli? Possibly No! However, $60 for 11 tapas is a hell of a deal!

Did you know?

To our surprise, El Bulli Surry Hills is actually a pretty big restaurant. The interior was very dimmed with virtually no sunlight in the venue.

Rating for El Bulli Surry Hills:

7.0 / 10

Taste: 7.0 / 10

Price: $60 for 2 people

Place: 7.5 / 10

Details:

504 Elizabeth Street, Surry Hills 2010

02 9319 5199

http://elbulli.com.au/

Nov 10, 2015