Category: Indonesian

Traditionally varies between each region of Indonesia. The majoriy of Indonesian food in Sydney is influenced by Western Java and Padang region.

Sate Kelinci Pak Sapri

Rating:

7 / 10

Taste: 7/10

Price: $2 – $2.5 per plate

Place: 7/10

Review:

This week, we will take you to a typical Indonesian restaurant with a pretty unusual (for some people) ingredient. Sate Kelinci Pak Sapri is a restaurant specialises in rabbit satay. Great-tasting restaurants in Indonesia have predominantly one champion dish with some other dishes that people rarely ordered.

As expected, the first ten items in their menu are all about satay and all of its variation. However, since it took a while to grill them, the first two that came was ‘Gule Kelinci’ and ‘Paha Kelinci Goreng’. ‘Gule Kelinci’ is a soup-based, curry-like dish that was a bit spicy and quite bone-full. ‘Paha Kelinci Goreng’ (deep fried rabbit’s thigh) on the other hand was quite yummy and perfectly accompanied by the pickles and tomatoes on sweet soy sauce.

Now comes the rabbit satay. The regular ‘Sate Kelinci’ came with the usual peanut and sweet soy sauce, with a side of pickles. Rabbit meat is considered a white meat, so it tasted quite close to chicken, although some claimed to be healthier. The second one was a variation of it, Sate Kelinci Barbeque. So, instead of the peanut sauce, they were soaked with pre-made barbecue sauce. It is definitely quite an interesting combo, but I still like the regular one.

The next two items weren’t on the menu but we know it’s there, because we asked them. The first one was Karedok. Karedok is a kind of vegetable salad with peanut and garlic sauce. It is a dish originated from West Java and you could pretty much find it in any traditional restaurants. The second one is called Otak-otak. It is a grilled fish cake wrapped in banana leaf. They are enjoyed with spicy peanut sauce. Otak-otak is a pretty interesting dish because it’s soft and charry with a rich peanut sauce taste.

The final verdict for Sate Kelinci Pak Sapri

Sate Kelinci Pak Sapri gave us an authentic lesehan experience with a nice and affordable serving of satay. This might not be the restaurant for rabbit lovers, or people allergic to peanuts, because there are plenty of them.

Did you know?

There are quite a few of ‘Sate Kelinci’ restaurants on the way to Lembang. However, we picked Sate Kelinci Pak Sapri restaurant because it has a pretty spacious parking and the restaurant looked pretty presentable. This restaurant is pretty un-miss-able because it is located at a right bend of the road.

You can either enjoy your meal the normal table and chair way, or ‘lesehan’. ‘Lesehan’ is when you enjoy food in a restaurant where you sit on the floor/mat-covered floor, instead of sitting on the chair. I always choose lesehan, because it creates a sense of informality.

Details:

Jalan Raya Lembang, West Java, Indonesia

Aug 26, 2013
Ninety-nine Restaurant

Rating:

7 / 10

Taste: 7/10

Price: $15++ per person

Place: 8/10

Review:

This week’s restaurant is located in the most posh mall in Jakarta Indonesia, Grand Indonesia. Ninety-nine restaurant promised a casual-yet-exclusive place with a rustic feel of European setting. Expectedly, it was nice-looking but I couldn’t shake out the feeling of being in a food court, a pricey food court. The menu was designed to capture all (too many!) interests: from European to Seafood to steak, they also have Indonesian and Chinese food.

How is their food? Our first two dishes of the day were the entrees: Breaded Onion Rings with Mayonaise and Tomato Ketchup and Mushroom Fritto Misto with fried garlic and chilli salt. We were really blown away by them. The onion rings were very crunchy and perfectly matched with the condiments. The assorted mushrooms were even better! I liked how they combined different mushrooms to create an interesting assortment of textures.

The next two were from the seafood section of the menu. There was an interesting combination for the Grilled Norwegian Salmon. It was served with tomato and mushroom butter rice and lemon sauce. The other one was Dory fillet with almond thyme crust, leaf spinach, whipped potatoes and lemon caper butter.

My father decided to go with Indonesian’s traditional Sop buntut goreng. It was a clear vegetable soup with fried oxtail and emping (crackers from gnetum gnemon). There was also the Hainan poached chicken – I must say it looked pretty standard when compared to Singaporean ones.

The last dish of the day was the one I actually ordered. It was Croque monsieur. The sandwich was pretty big by Indonesian standard and it was grilled beef ham with swizz cheese and mornay sauce. This is one of the dishes that I could only eat in Indonesia, because the real croquet monsieur was typically served with ham. The sandwich was delectable! It was crunchy, tasty and add an extra tomato sauce if you want to enhance it a bit more.

The final verdict for Ninety-nine Restaurant

There are some issues that restricted me in giving a higher score to Ninety-nine restaurant. The obvious one was its price! It was seriously expensive for the food court setting. The food was generally nice with a decent serving.

Details:

Grand Indonesia LG Floor East Mall

Jl. MH Thamrin No 1, Jakarta 10210

+6221 23581196

http://www.ninetynine.co.id/

Jul 24, 2013
Restoran Sederhana – Masakan Padang

Rating:

7 / 10 Taste: 7/10
Price: Rp 10k – Rp 35k per plate
Place: 7/10

Review:

Let’s kick off our holiday reviews with this uniquely Indonesian restaurant, Restoran Sederhana. This restaurant is now a well-known franchise throughout Indonesia and each restaurant has a pretty similar dishes. They serve ‘Masakan Padang’ (Padang-style) which originates from Sumatera and is known for its distinct spices that are almost curry-like (they called it ‘gulai’). I should probably tell you how the restaurant works first.

As soon as you sit on your table, there will be people coming over to your table delivering all kinds of things, like rice, various dishes, hot tea, even desserts. Your table would end up like the picture below.

‘It’s shocking!’ might be the usual response for first-timer, because within minutes all kinds of dishes are ready in front of you. You don’t need to be afraid as you are not obliged to buy all of them. The way it works was that you eat what you want to eat and leave the ones you don’t eat untouched (except for the purpose of moving the plates around).

The two dishes I loved in this place are Gulai sotong (Curry of Whole Squid) and Gulai kikil (kikil is a meat between cow’s hoof and leg). I would never miss either of them whenever I visit a restaurant with Masakan Padang. In a decent restaurant, the squid should be easily shredded and not chewy, the same goes with the kikil.

They have quite a few vegetable selections, like the hot and spicy potato and eggplant, quite a few seafood and chicken options. I think it’s better to refer you to Wikipedia for the relatively complete list: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Padang_food.

If you can read Indonesians, there are literally dozens other dishes on the menu and you can order like you normally would in a restaurant. I would suggest Sate Padang (Skewers of meat with special Padang-style sauce) with rice cakes. There is also the infamous Ayam Pop (not a big fan, personally), it’s a pale-coloured chicken that is said to be boiled, then fried. If you feel a bit more adventurous, perhaps you can try its Gulai Kepala Ikan (Fish Head Curry). I really love it but it gets too expensive to my liking.

You might then be compelled to ask ‘What about hygiene and stuff?’… well, if you have ever eaten from a buffet bar, I can’t see the difference.

The final verdict for Restoran Sederhana

The best thing about Restoran Sederhana is its uniformity. It can deliver delicious Padang dishes in all of its restaurants. It also features a unique presentation in which all dishes are displayed in front of you.

Did you know?

For those of you Indonesian readers, I suggest you read this article about the founder of Rumah Makan Sederhana. I think it’s pretty inspiring in his will to continue on and say no to giving up!

Restoran Sederhana in Indonesian means a simple/humble restaurant. It might be true 30 years ago, but I think it’s more for middle (or even mid-upper) class people.

Details:

Multiple Locations

We went to the one on the highway rest area between Jakarta and Bandung.

May 31, 2013
Deep Fried Meatballs Recipe
I have been pondering about this for a while and I have decided to add a section in All About Food Blog dedicated to recipe. For my first post on recipe, I’ve decided to write about Deep Fried Meatballs. I actually got this recipe from the back of a premix flour and I know it’s not the ‘proper’ way to write a recipe, but I think it’s a good start. I am also not a chef, so the writing can be quite unorthodox.

We altered the recipe slightly to substitute Mackarel fish with Basa fish. I guess you can substitute the meat from the list of ingredients to whatever you like as long as you have the right weight for each.

So, what do we need for making this Deep Fried Meatballs?
1. 1 Litre Canola/Sunflower Oil
2. NILASARI Premix Bakso Goreng
3. 125gr Fresh Prawn
4. 125gr Fresh Basa Fish
5. 250gr Chicken Thigh Fillet
6. 2 Eggs
7. 35cc Water
How do we cook the Deep Fried Meatballs?

1. Blend all the meat together. You could use either a hand blender or a conventional one.

2. Further mix eggs, the premix, and water into the blend. The instruction specifies you to mix with hand mixer for this stage.

3. Prepare a wok filled with cold oil.

4. Dust your palms with any kind of flour. This will help prevent stickiness for the next stage.

5. Spoon out the blended dough and create a dough roll with your fingers.

6. Immerse the roll you have created into the oil prepared in step three.

7. Bring the wok to a low heat and fry the meatballs until golden brown.

8. You might want to lower the heat a little bit for your second batch as it would cook a lot quicker.

Some tips to make the perfect deep fried meatballs

First tip: Do not stuff the wok with too many meatballs

A bit of advice from a friend: If your meatballs shrink after you take it off the wok, it means you haven’t cooked them long enough.

Another tip for you: To reach the perfect golden brown, you need around 15 minutes of frying time.

Deep Fried Meatballs

What’s in the premix?

The box stated that for every 250 gr of the premix, it consisted of Tapioca Flour, Wheat Flour, Chicken Flavour, pepper and salt.
Mar 19, 2013
Mie Kocok Bandung

Rating:

7 / 10 Taste: 7/10

Price: $7.50-$10.50

Place: 6.5/10

Review:

Started in 2003, Mie Kocok Bandung has served my friends and families well for as long as I can remember. It can be quite busy on Sunday afternoon in the restaurant. Other than that, you will most likely get a table. I know the restaurant name is Mie Kocok Bandung, but I have never ordered their Mie Kocok. Mie kocok if translated literally is ‘Shaken Noodles’.

With the entrée, I always ordered the first one: Pangsit Goreng. They are ten deep fried wontons with chicken fillings. The wontons worked really well with the accompanying sweet and sour sauce. I liked its crunchy texture and on top of that it was the perfect dish to build up your appetite for your noodles. Alternatively, you could also order Siomay Goreng, fried fishcake served with spicy peanut sauce. This was also a sweet dish and was actually considered a main dish in the city of Bandung.

For our first main course, in the menu listing there are a bunch of combinations that might confuse some people. To break it down quite easily, it was an egg noodle with mince chicken and chicken soup called Yamin. You can then choose if you want it sweet or savoury, I chose sweet. Lastly you choose what you want with it, you can have meatballs, wontons, tendons, or combination of them all. I always like the Combination Sweet Yamin (Yamin manis komplit).

Mie Panorama is very famous in Makassar (city where the restaurant owner came from). The description from the menu said it was egg noodle topped with BBQ Pork, steamed chicken, fried and steamed chicken wonton.

I might give you a brief description of the next dish as some people might not appreciate it. It was an Oxtail soup. The dish is very well known, especially in East Java. It was a boiled and seasoned oxtail with vegetables (carrots and potatoes) and melinjo in clear soup. The long boiled oxtail was very tender.

My personal favourite in Mie Kocok Bandung was its Lo Mie. Lo Mie is egg noodle with thick and sweet soup base. It came with the usual add-ons: meatballs, minced beef, mushrooms, bean sprouts and green veggies. This would be one of the most filling (and possibly cheapest – $10 a bowl) noodles you could find in Sydney.

The final verdict for Mie Kocok Bandung

Mie Kocok Bandung is one of the well-known Indonesian restaurants in Sydney. Personally, I love their Lo Mie and Pangsit Goreng.

Did you know?

There used to be three Indonesian restaurants in Maroubra road, however two of them shut down this year with only Mie Kocok Bandung remaining. Recently, a new Indonesian restaurant opened up, but rumour has it that it isn’t that good.

Details:

Shop 1, 108 Maroubra Road, Maroubra 2035

Phone: +61 2 8347 2322

Mie Kocok Bandung on Facebook

Dec 1, 2012
Sate Khas Senayan

Sate Khas Senayan’s Rating:

7 / 10 Taste: 7/10

Price: $12 per person

Place: 7/10

Review:

Sate Khas Senayan has the words timeless tradition written in their menu’s front page. I think it really captures the very essence of satay. Indonesian satay is pretty unique in its own rights. What we call satay is actually skewers of meat (chicken, lamb, or beef) with thick peanut sauce and/or sweet soy sauce. With this review, I concluded my review of Indonesian restaurants during our June’s trip.

First off the bat was Sate Ayam Campur Bumbu Blora. Ten good ol’ chicken skewers on a modernised bakaran sate (griller). This particular plate was called campur because it was mixed (dicampur) with chicken skin satay. I particularly love the skin since it was tastier than the white meat part. Sate is best enjoyed with lontong (rice cake wrapped in banana leaf).

The presentation of Appetizer Sampler was so appetising. It was a combination of Tahu kipas (stuffed tofu), risoles (croquette), sosis solo (a type of sausage), and rambak petis (beef crackling with shrimp paste). It’s a nice way to explore the diversity of Indonesian entrees. I ordered Tahu Komplit (‘complete’ tofu) as well to show you that the Indonesian tofu is a bit different that the Japanese one. Instead of silky / smooth and dense, the tofu was quite airy and best served deep fried. This way, it would bring out the crunch.

Another type of sate came up next, Sate Cumi (squid satay). Unlike its predecessor, this sate was only served with sweet soy sauce. It is rather unusual to have a squid satay since it is technically grilled squid on a stick. There was a massive expectation riding at the back of Kepiting soka saus asam pedas (spicy and sour soft shell crab) as one of my favourite ingredients. It didn’t disappoint in terms of crunchiness of the crab and the balanced sauce.

I didn’t try Sop buntut (ox tail soup) since it was ordered for my friend’s son. It is a clear vegetable soup with oxtail and melinjo crackers. Despite the presence of highly fattening oxtail, the soup was actually quite refreshing. Tumis kangkung terasi (stir-fry spinach with shrimp paste) had an extra shrimp paste added to the dish that created a nice dimension to the otherwise spicy vegetable dish. Tahu telur (tofu in fried egg) was our last dish of the day but unfortunately I’ve enjoyed a much better one during our visit to Indonesia this time.

Deciding what to drink was the hardest challenge that we had to take in Sate Khas Senayan. Out of the four in the first picture, I would choose Es Cincau Hijau (pandan-flavoured grass jelly ice), which was the horizontal one in the picture. There was also a nice and refreshing Cendol. This is a rice-flour and palm sugar dessert that is normally served as a drink. My eventual choice went to Teh Poci, a traditional hot tea in a clay pot with rock/lump sugar.

The final verdict for Sate Khas Senayan

As the name suggested, Sate Khas Senayan is all about satay. They have a whole range of satays and they made really good ones. I wouldn’t suggest you to try the other dishes apart from the entrees and drinks.

Did you know?

If you are looking for a place to stay in Jakarta, make sure you book any hotels in this area. Jakarta people wouldn’t mind meeting you in the malls surrounding this area and you don’t need to care about traffic jam since everything is here!

Details:

Resto FX Lifestyle X’nter

Jalan Jend Sudirman Unit F1 22-23 Jakarta Selatan

+62 21 2555 4150

Aug 12, 2012