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Restaurant Nouri – Crossroads Cooking

When I was working in Singapore last week, I managed to have dinner at one of the Asia’s 50 Best Restaurants. Sitting at #39, Restaurant Nouri has only been opened for a couple of years. However, they have already had a Michelin star under their belt.

Chef Ivan Brehm and his team gave us this very interesting dining concept called ‘crossroads cooking’. The dining room is also where the chef prepared all of our meals.

They served four pre-dining dishes. They also advised that we could re-order sourdough bread as many times as we want. This is a very good idea as you would want to soak up all of those nice sauce!

The first two that came with the bread was their rendition of silken tofu and vegetable broth. The tofu was more like a dipping sauce for the bread!

The next two was cold kimchi made from abalone with daikon and nashi pear and Chinese bitter gourd salad. I can understand why the two had to be consumed side-by-side as the bitter gourd was really bitter. It accentuated the kimchi cold and sour taste.

The 7-course ‘Omakase’ from Restaurant Nouri

They had an option of 5- or 7- course menu as well as set or omakase. I could see some of the omakase menu was pretty similar to the set menu.

The first course was Hamachi sashimi with caviar and chilled onion consomme. It was a nice and fresh sashimi with very nice vinaigrette… the reason why you should keep asking for bread!

The second course was their rendition of prawn bouillabaisse with saffron jelly. They used the reduction from the prawn head to make the thick soup.

Their rendition of cheong fun (or rice noodles) was one of my favourites on the night. Not only they used black truffle, underneath that green cheong fun there was Alaskan snow crab! Even the foamy bit was very nice!

The second last main dish was kimedai fish with scales and black pepper sauce. Yes, they prepared the fish with its scaled. The scales were very crunchy and almost like crackers The fish was perfectly cooked and went really well with slightly hot black pepper sauce.

I wouldn’t blame you if you think this next dish as a chocolate cake with truffle. They did incorporate chocolate but only as the powder around the plate.

This dish was actually wagyu rib eye with Mexican’s mole sauce. However, they used the traditional ingredients called ‘keluwak’ to darken the colour.

Desserts at Restaurant Nouri

Before we started with the desserts, there was a bowl of Gooseberry granita with peach and champagne. It was very nice and refreshing!

The first dessert looked quite simple but it was actually pretty sophisticated. The dish was Japanese ichigo with azuki beans, sansho pepper and kinome leaf with strawberry sorbet.

The dish was sweet, sour, cold, crunchy… and hot! Every now and then there was this kick from the sansho pepper that made the dish very lively.

The last dish was 48-hour baked orange with assam tea ice cream, cream and some jelly that tasted quite bitter.

I have never tasted something quite like this before.

The final verdict for Restaurant Nouri

Restaurant Nouri clearly deserved its Michelin star and the #39 spot in the Asia’s Best 50 restaurants. They have a unique table arrangement and impeccable service.

Do you think I should go?

Definitely! Chef Ivan will surely treat you well!

Rating:

Nouri

9.5 / 10

Taste: 9.5 / 10

Price: $225 pp for 7-course Omakase

Place: 10.0 / 10

Details:

72 Amoy Street, Singapore 069891

+65 6221 4148

http://nouri.com.sg/

Aug 1, 2019
Restaurant Locavore
This week we will write about our experience in dining at one of the best in Australasia, Restaurant Locavore. This restaurant is sitting at number 21 in the list of Asia’s 50 Best Restaurants for 2018. They were a few spots off the world’s top 100 list. To give you a bit more context, out of all of the restaurants in Australia, only Attica and Brae ranked higher than this restaurant!

This will be a super long review because they served us 7 main courses, 2 desserts, 8 ‘snacks’, 8 chocolates and 1 closing dish for a whopping 26-course degustation lunch. The official menu only stated 9 dishes, priced at Rp 1.200.000,- or equal to AUD 150.

They call it ‘Snacks’

Upon arrival at the restaurant they gave us a couple of very pretty flower arrangement that they called ‘Cana’. What we didn’t know that the flowers were all edible! They gave us a hibiscus spray, and kecombrang puree with drops of cricket oil. Super fancy and we were just starting up!
To shorten this review considerably, I won’t go to too much details on the snacks. Each and every one of them were masterfully prepared. The mango and bengkoang dish was quite sweet with a hint of spicy. The pumpkin leaf was pretty filling despite it being crunchy. Then you got the sophisticated black rice blini that had a million taste.

It got better from there, the mushroom custard was very yummy with the distinct flavour of native kelor leaves. Then they had BBQ mango. It was sweet and super smoky. The mango kombucha was a sweet addition to the dish. The tomato sorbet and tomato consommé was quite an eye-opening. The dish was hot and cold at the same time. It was super refreshing!

The last snack was pretty interesting. There were three condiments for the brioche bun: chili jam, cashew nut puree, and freeze dried leftover vegetables… yes, you read that right: they even reused their leftover vegetables! Awesome!

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Main Dish at Locavore

After what seems to be an eternity of snacks, we come to the first dish of the day. Cut the crab was the official name. They transformed the mud crab into a cold salad with jellied crab consomme. They then put a layer of pickled young papaya and bengkoang (instead of mango as the menu suggested). Grated bonito katsuobushi was put as a finishing touch.

We then have Foie Gras Kambing, aka Goat Liver mousse. To complement the strong taste, they introduced pickled wild berries. On top of the foie gras, they had rice flour cracker and a sprinkle of green veggies. They had two garnishes to finish off: first they grated smoked goat heart then sprayed the dish with Rosella kombucha vinaigrette.
The third dish, jagung bakar, paid homage to a snack that most Indonesian loves, grilled corn. The twist here is they use coffee-miso emulsion and coffee kombucha reduction! They also used charred baby corn and added a little termite powder on top of it.

My son loved it so much that they actually gave him an extra plate (and that’s after having most of mine as well)!

The next dish was supposed to be Cabbage and Bacon. However, we had it changed to a vegetarian version. For this, they gave us Banana blossom noodles. The ‘noodles’ were doused with white curry turmeric leaves, that tasted traditionally Indonesian with deep fried green leaves as garnish.

The Signature Dish

Their signature dish is Into The Sawah. Dish dish is a story of everything that live around the Ubud’s rice field. They consisted of the following: Heritage galuh rice porridge, 64 degrees duck egg yolk, snails, frog leg abon, fern tips, wild flowers.

They boiled the duck egg yolk at exactly 64 degrees for 1 hour. That resulted in some kind of state between solid and runny.
Gurita Bakar is our penultimate main course. They twice-cooked the main ingredient, the octopus (or gurita): boiled and then grilled to perfection. They also introduced Mexican-inspired mole using a traditional ingredient, kluwak. Enhancing the taste, they used the sourness of belimbing wuluh and freshness of timun tikus with the pickled spring onions.

Quail, or Burung Puyuh, was the last main for the day. They used two parts of the quail: the quail breast, roasted to perfection, and the leg that was barbecued and glazed. They used smoked pumpkin and charred pineapple gel to complement the dish.

Desserts at Locavore

Looking at the menu, the desserts sounded pretty traditional. Bubur tape is a fermented rice porridge and boni is a traditional fruit from Bali.

Traditionally, bubur tape is warm. At Locavore, the dish was served at room temperature, except for the palm sugar ice cream. Interestingly, the ice cream wasn’t really that cold either!

In addition to the porridge and ice cream, they also have fermented black rice foam (that purple blob in the middle). Probably I would have liked this more if it was a tad sweeter.

If you are wondering about the yellow shavings at the top of the ice cream, that shaving was sugar cured egg yolk!

Boni or blood berry is a native fruit of Bali. They also have pomelo, or what the locals called Balinese orange. They also used pickled rose petals and hibiscus leaves as garnishes. The resulting dish was this complex dessert that was sweet, sour, crunchy, cold and quite heavy – especially being the 17th dish of the afternoon!

After Desserts at Locavore

We were almost packed up for the afternoon before the restaurant manager mentioned there were still a couple more dishes to go. Some members of my group almost gave up upon hearing the news.

The first ‘surprise’ was eight pieces of chocolate in different textures. They used a traditional game board called ‘congklak‘ to serve them. Some of the more notable ones were coffee rice cookie, kaffir lime krokant and dried pineapple dark chocolate.

We finally came to an end with the Mangosteen ice cream. Served on a coconut husk, the dish consisted of fresh longan, coconut flesh, nata de coco and coconut cream with lime skin shaving as garnish.

It was incredibly refreshing and tasty. Somehow we forgot that it was the 26th dish that we had that day.

Drinks at Locavore

They do have drink pairings for the lunch service, but we didn’t go for them. We opted for the normal drinks and cocktails on the menu. One of them was the ‘ashes’ that involved dipping burned cassia bark into your drink!
The final verdict for Restaurant Locavore

Restaurant Locavore is without a doubt the best restaurant in Indonesia. It is comparable to, or probably even better than, most high end dinings in Australia.

The staffs were super friendly and super attentive. The massive plus is that the restaurant welcomes children as well! – I must say it’s super rare for a fine dining restaurant.

Do you think I should go?

Definitely!

Rating for Restaurant Locavore:

9.5 / 10

Taste: 9.5 / 10

Price: Rp 1.200.000,00 + 21% tax ~ $150 degustation menu

Place: 9.5 / 10

Details:

10 Jalan Dewi Sita, Ubud, Bali, Indonesia

+62 3619 777 33

https://www.locavore.co.id
Feb 4, 2019
Gunners Barracks Wedding

Gunners Barracks Wedding Reception:

This is the second time that we went to Gunners Barracks for a wedding celebration. They used to be called ‘The Tea Room at Gunners Barracks‘. Gunners Barracks is located on a waterfront in Mosman. I’m sure there are a lot of websites that talked about ‘Gunners Barracks Wedding‘, but we are here to talk about the food.

There were two sets of entree, main course and desserts for this occasion. Of course, a handful of canapes and free-flowing refreshments were also on the menu.

Entree

Tuna Sashimi, Avocado, White Soy, Nori

Rather than the normal sashimi, the first set of entree was actually a lightly seared tuna with a few cuts of avocado and sprinkled with seeds and some Asian greens. It was quite a simplistic start to the lunch service for those having the tuna.

Crispy Pork Belly, Pineapple Jam, Asian Leaves

On the contrary, the second set of entree was quite on the heavy side, crispy pork belly. Instead of the usual Apple jam, they used pineapple jam.

Main

Roasted Fillet of Beef, Potato Gratin, Broccolini, Pepper & Thyme Jus

I would call the first main Steak… I’m not sure why they called it ‘fillet of beef’ as it kinda looked like grilled meat. They chose to cook the steak more in the medium-to-medium-well range, which unfortunately wasn’t my cup of tea.

Pan Fried Tasmanian Salmon, Calamari, Crushed Peas, Sauce Vierge

The Tasmanian salmon, on the other hand, was exquisite. It was quite a delightful dish! The addition of calamari and sauce vierge further enhanced its taste.

Dessert

Dark Chocolate Fondant, Cornflake Ice Cream, Crumbs

Considering that I’m not a big fan of chocolate (yep, I’m weird…), the decision on who would pick the fondant was quite straightforward.

The presentation of lava cake was more on the dry side… akin to the sashimi entree.

Sticky Date Pudding, Vanilla Ice Cream, Butterscotch Sauce

The sticky date pudding, on the other hand, was drenched in butterscotch sauce and super creamy vanilla ice cream. It was pretty heavy and I felt guilty after finishing it… but it was very good.

What do we think about Gunners Barracks Wedding Reception?

Gunners Barracks is probably one of the best venues in Sydney (or Australia) to hold a wedding reception.

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Tuna sashimi from one of the best wedding venues in Sydney, Gunners Barracks #sashimi #tuna #wedding #lunch #celebration #celebrate #sydney #weekend #AllAboutFoodBlog

A post shared by All About Food Blog (@aaf_blog) on Sep 28, 2018 at 8:51pm PDT

Details:

End of Suakin Drive, Mosman 2088

+61 2 8962 5900

https://gunnersbarracks.com.au/

Oct 12, 2018
Sixpenny

Sixpenny Review:

Our restaurant this week is listed as one of the top restaurants in Australia located in a very quiet street in Stanmore, Sydney. They have held two hats status for as long as I can remember. Their chef, Daniel Puskas, is the Chef of the year in this year’s good food guide.

Sixpenny only has two degustation menu: 6 courses and 8 courses. They also cater for children with a 2-course menu for $65 on some days – we actually got 3 for our little one as he really wanted our dessert. As usual, the dining starts with warm bread and butter. Halfway through the service, they gave us a different kind of bread (but not pictured here).

Starter

Lightly pickled cucumber with Rose Geranium, Green Tomato & Cheese Gougères, Sweet Potato Scallop

The starter is not part of the degustation set. They are more like a ‘freebie’ during the service. The trio was wonderfully presented and super tasty. They recommended us to eat from the amazing gougère to the super fresh cucumber and onto the more substantive sweet potato.

Main

There are 4 mains served in the 6-course degustation. This month, the fifth main was the Venison tartare.

Ballina Spanner Crab with Clam butter & Yarra Valley Salmon Roe

The main course starts with very fresh and tasty spanner crab. The crab was very rich and full of flavour.

Dutch cream potato with Oyster emulsion, mushroom powder & button mushroom

This was one of the best dishes of the day. I love the creaminess of the potato and combined with the slightly crunchy raw mushroom.

The crispy kale and zucchini flower added an amazing dimension to it.

Swordfish with Buttermilk, Green Chard & Salted Red Cabbage

Unfortunately, the swordfish was our least favourite of the day. It did introduce the sour element to our dining. However, it was a tad too sour to our liking. The foamy look was also a bit scary.

Rangers Valley Chuck Tail with Mushroom & Marsala and smoked onion

Chuck tail cut is a part of beef that you might not hear very often about. Texture-wise it’s like in between ribs and rump. So, you got the best out of both worlds!

Add the sauce and smoked onion into the mix… and you get yourself a fantastic dish!

They also gave us a bowl of salad for the steak.

Kid’s Menu

In addition to the following 2-course meal, they are also given the same snacks as the adult. The kid’s dessert is also one of the degustation desserts.

Steak

Cocoa Ice Cream with Chocolate Caramel and Almond Sable

Desserts

Mead Vinegar Custard with frozen Raspberries & Strawberry Consomme

If I heard it correctly, it took ten weeks to make the custard. The dessert might look very simple: part frozen raspberries and part custard with strawberry consomme. The combination of the three created one amazing dessert! It was sweet, a hint of sourness, frozen bites of raspberries, and most importantly… yum!

Feijoa Granita with White Chocolate & Dehydrated Feijoa

The second dessert was a bit more challenging to understand. The white chocolate was nice along with the granita. However, the dessert left a lingering taste of bitterness at the end.

The final verdict for Sixpenny

Sixpenny is the best restaurant we visited this year. They deserve the two-hat status for their awesome dishes… and probably not that far off from three-hat quality dishes.

Do you think I should go?
Definitely!

Rating for Sixpenny:

9.0 / 10

Taste: 9.0 / 10

Price: $125 for 6-course and $155 for 8-course

Place: 9.0 / 10

Details:

83 Percival Road, Stanmore 2048

+61 2 9572 6666

May 30, 2018
Edogin

Review for all you can eat menu:

Edogin is located in one of the most posh hotels in Jakarta. At a price point of $40 per person, it should be one of the most expensive dinner experiences in Indonesia. However, if you look at what they have to offer, that price is ridiculously cheap compared to other ‘big name’ restaurants with really crappy dishes and overly jacked up price.

So, what do they have to offer?

Quality All You Can Eat

I have been to Edogin twice now and I have yet to find any dishes that are below my standards. Some of them actually exceeded my expectations for non-Indonesian food served in Indonesia. They were as authentic as you could probably ask for!

They have several sections that serve different kind of Japanese cuisines. Without further ado, let me introduce you to the wonderful food from Edogin.

Fresh Sashimi

The obvious first spot to check for quality is its Sashimi range. They have a diverse selection of fresh fishes, octopus, fish roe, and fresh oysters – specifically I think it’s the big pacific oysters!

Rumour has it that they were one of the select few restaurants in Jakarta that received premium grade sashimi straight from the dock.

But seriously, their sashimi is the best I have ever tasted in Indonesia. They are on par with great sashimi place in Sydney.

Teppanyaki

I think their Teppanyaki has the biggest selection of meat and vegetables. They have assortments of fishes, different cuts of meat including beef ribs, poultry, and mushrooms to name a few.

What I like most about its teppanyaki section is its tiger prawns. Gigantic prawns and sometimes with eggs are there (and unlimited) for you to enjoy.

Robatayaki

If I told you above that Edogin’s sashimi was fresh. One of the creatures in their Robatayaki range is still alive! Better yet, they are live baby lobsters! They can even cut your finger if you are not careful in picking them up. You can see a video of the lobster walking off the plate here.

They also have ikan malas (Marble Goby), salmon, tuna, lamb chop, sausages and fish head ready to be grilled.

Noodles

I didn’t get a chance to taste the noodles (even my tummy has its limit!), but just to let you know that they have made-to-order noodles counter.

Assorted Japanese

There were quite a few fried stuffs in this section, including assortments of tempura. In this occasion, I tried their okonomiyaki, takoyaki, and fried salmon skin. I also tried its curious looking prawn and glass noodles in a short glass.

Assorted Desserts

By this point, I think you already got my point that there are lots and lots of options in every section. They seemingly have millions of mini bites, fruits, bread and butter pudding, and some things in shot glasses.

Assorted Ice Cream

And…. If your tummy can still handle it (or you can skip straight to this section), they have no less than 10 selection of ice creams with various toppings to enhance their flavours.

You can choose to have the ‘standard’ scoops and toppings scenario or they can mash them up on a bed of cold rock to create your personalised ice cream.

For this occasion, I ordered Pandan and Malaga ice creams with dragon fruit and lychee. You can also opt for the heavy options like chocolate ice cream with choco chip, cookies, and stuff.

The final verdict for Edogin

Edogin might be a bit pricey to some Indonesians, but this all you can eat restaurant has the best value of any high-end restaurants in Jakarta!

Did you know?

This is the first restaurant in Indonesia that was given a score of 9.0. It is also possibly the only 9.0+ restaurant that I would come back to without severely damaging my pocket!

It is also nice to have the waiters and waitresses address you by your name when the food is delivered to your table.

Rating for Edogin:

9.0 / 10

Taste: 9.0 / 10

Price: $40 for all you can eat

Place: 9.5 / 10

Details:

Hotel Mulia Senayan

Jalan Asia Afrika, Senayan, Jakarta 10270

+62 21 5753274, 5747777

http://www.hotelmulia.com/index.php/dining.html

Aug 27, 2014
Tetsuya’s

Rating:

9.5 / 10
Taste: 9.5/10

10-course Degustation: $210

Place: 9.5/10

Review:

Tetsuya’s used to be in the Top 50 restaurants in the world. Over the last couple of years they’ve slid down the ladder, but still in the Top 100. Critics mentioned lack of ‘innovation’ as one of the reasons. Tetsuya’s serve 10 courses of French-style Japanese Cuisine. They also had the best view of replica Japanese Garden and situated on a heritage-listed building.

Sourdough and White Bread with Truffle Butter

Throughout the night, these breads were offered for those of you needing extra carbs. The truffle butter was to die for. The smoothness of spiced butter infused with truffle was so amazing that I couldn’t stop asking for it. My little baby loved it so much too!

Chilled Pea Soup with Mint Ice Cream

Our first course of the night was chilled sweet peas blended to perfect smoothness. It was a very nice and interesting way to start the special night. A refreshing taste combination between pureed pea soup and mint ice cream cleansed our palate before the first savoury dish.

Steamed Savoury Custard with Dashi (Seaweed stock) and Avruga Caviar

Our second course was Tetsuya’s own interpretation of chawan mushi. The delicate taste and the smooth texture of the custard was a perfect harmony, as it melted directly in my mouth. The seafood taste from dashi and avruga caviar completed its beauty.

Marinated Yellow-Fin Tuna with Shishito Pepper and Garlic Chips

The third course was another simple dish of Tuna sashimi with a nice and sweet marinade and shishito pepper. As an Indonesian, I found it really weird to actually mention garlic chips on my dish since we normally put heaps on them in an Indonesian dish. Some leaves of garlic chips gave different texture and accentuation to this dish.

Grilled NZ Scampi Tail with Chicken Liver Parfait & Walnut Vinaigrette

Scampi and chicken liver, all time favourite ingredients! Another delicately simple dish Tetsuya’s presented. It’s interesting to have the walnut vinaigrette to accentuate Scampi’s already-sweet taste. Yumm, such a spoiling moment for my tastebud!

Confit of Petuna Ocean Trout with Shaved Fennel, Unpasteurised Ocean Trout Caviar and Konbu – Tetsuya’s Signature Dish

The fifth course was the legendary signature dish, Ocean Trout. It always lives up to anyone’s expectations. The confit tasted perfect, as the softness of the ocean trout harmoniously combined with the fennel, caviar, and konbu. Definitely one of the best dishes I ever tasted!

Steamed Queensland Spanner Crab with Bean Curd, Foie Gras, and Junsai

Presentation wise, it was plain – just looked like one white cylinder steamed tofu (bean curd). However, we could taste the delicacy of the spanner crab since the first bite! The beautiful foie gras and junsai completed its sweet taste.

Breast of Quail with Quail Leg Rillettes and Hammond

The seventh dish was very nice, with the exception of its size. I am not a big fan of the spring onion, so I had to separate it from the rest of the elements. The dish still worked really well.

Slow roasted De-Boned Rack of Lamb with Sheep’s Yoghurt and Kale

The last savoury dish of the day was a medium-rare, glossy, no-smell rack of lamb with the always perfect accompaniment of yoghurt. It was then softened up with Kale (wiki: cabbage’s family).

Pione Grapes with Grape Sorbet + Bread & Butter Pudding

Our first dessert of the day was a double treat. I really loved the sweet taste of grape sorbet. It was highly refreshing, especially after a nice array of savoury dishes. The pudding was glazed with brulee and it was slightly heavier than the sorbet which I think was perfect, considering most of the bread and butter pudding was very heavy.

Double Chocolate Pave with Cream Cheese Ice Cream & Cinnamon Twigs

The last dish of the day was chocolate. I was amazed by the techniques presented on this dish and I thought the cream cheese softened the pave considerably. Unfortunately, I’m still not a big fan of chocolate. There’s no chocolate that can make me ecstatic.

Chocolate Fondant with Hazelnut and Praline – Birthday Cake

Tetsuya’s gave us a different dish for people who celebrated their birthdays there. On this occasion it was a chocolate fondant. It was softer in taste than the pave but it was still a bit too strong for me.

Petit Fours and Café Latte

Lastly, we also received complimentary dish of Petit Fours (although it’s technically only one) and Café Latte.

The final verdict for Tetsuya’s Restaurant:

Critics can say whatever they want, but for first time visitors (and even return visitor like me), Tetsuya’s still presents the best dining experience in Sydney. Tetsuya’s delivered the 10-degustation without any of them being ‘average’.

Did you know?

Despite being in the Top 100, Tetsuya’s was not listed as three-hat in Sydney’s Good Food Guide this year. I found it weird since especially since only one restaurant in that three-hat category was higher than Tetsuya’s in the world’s list.

Details:

529 Kent Street, Sydney, NSW 2000

+61 2 9267 2900

http://www.tetsuyas.com/

Mar 7, 2012