Category: Indonesian

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

Boncafe Steakhouse

Rating:

7 / 10

Taste: 7 /10

Price: Rp. 100,000 pp = $11

Place: 8/10

Review:

This week we’ll visit (possibly) the oldest and most well known western restaurant in Surabaya, Boncafe Steakhouse. It manages to survive amongst the elites due to its ability to reinvent itself over the years and bring in new and attractive menu to its customers. This improvement is apparent in its renovation of the building and a change in its fries and some other new food.

You will always start your lunch/dinner with complimentary bread when you order the steak. I chose to go heavy on the drink by ordering a mixture of coconut and avocado juice, named Snow on the Desert. I love avocado juice in Indonesia because of its soft and sweet taste. The coconut was sort of sprinkled on top with coffee syrup sprayed over it.

For starters we ordered two of Boncafe’s originals: Kulit Ayam (Crispy Chicken Skin) and Butter Corn. Although it might not be the healthiest starter, the skin was incredibly crunchy. Combined with their special sauce, it became one of my favourite starters of all time. The butter corn was boiled corn with a hint of butter and a sprinkle of grated cheese served in a petite corn-shaped bowl. It was also sweet and nice.

Before we move on to the steak, I must tell you that unless you stated otherwise, it will always come with Boncafe’s legendary mushroom sauce. I would also recommend you to have the steak medium well, considering the meat products of Indonesia.

The steaks were served in sizzling hot plate and I personally love the sound of the sizzling when the waiter pours the sauce onto the plate. The first one we ordered was the original Sirloin Steak. It was a decent-sized steak with a little extra side dish. Then came the new food on the menu, BBQ Lamb Ribs. Slightly bigger size than the Sirloin, but I guess it was due to the bone part of the Ribs.

However I would still recommend you to taste their original collection: Cordon Bleu, Spring Chicken, or Mixed Grill.

The final verdict: Old favourites like Spring Chicken and Cordon Bleu are still better than the new additions. Unfortunately this time we didn’t order them. Otherwise, It’s a decent restaurant with a local taste.

Did you know?

The one I visited was actually the branch. The main restaurant is located in Kertajaya. Boncafe is one of the rare few restaurants that manage to withstand local Surabaya’s harsh food climates. People continually crave for innovative new choices in restaurants or they’d face the inevitable decline of patrons.

As with most restaurant in Indonesia, unfortunately they do not have a website that we can go to.

Location:

Jalan Raya Gubeng 44 – 46, Surabaya, East Java

Mar 22, 2011
Kafe Halaman

Rating:

7 / 10

Taste: 7 /10

Price: Rp. 15,000 – Rp. 55,000 per dish = $2 – $6

Place: 7/10

Review:

For my first review in my home country, I will take you to one of the only few good things in Bandung, Kafe Halaman (translated into ‘backyard café’). This café gave you the feeling of having a meal in a patio on our backyard.

Before you start, you might want to familiarise yourself with the menu, since there are literally 100s of things to choose from. Feel free to explore the variety of menu in the restaurant, as I will only list a fraction of it that we actually ordered.

Our first starter was this funny looking dish called Rambutan Prawn. Derived from the Rambutan (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rambutan) image, the noodle-coated prawns were deep fried till they’re golden brown. Enjoyed with condiments of Chilli and Tomato sauce, it was really crunchy. The other starter was Lumpia (Spring Rolls). Another deep-fried menu, but this time was too similar with the regular spring rolls, with the exception of their tiny bite-size.

We also ordered some share plates of Siomay (Chinese Shumai) and Ceker (Chicken Feet). I will pass on the description of the second one since its admirers are so little. The first one is an Indonesian adaptation of Chinese Shumai. They were slightly more sturdy and solid in appearance and usually more flour than meat.

We had two main courses to try with and both of them had the same seasoning. One was Buntut Bakar (Grilled Oxtail). It came with the unique Melinjo crackers and vegetable soup. Again, not anyone will enjoy this kind of treat. The second one was a bit ‘neutral’, Iga Bakar BBQ (BBQ Ribs). Unfortunately, these are not those gigantic Sydney’s Hurricane’s ribs. Quite the opposite, they were pretty tiny. I think it’s fair enough, considering the very low price of it. They did come in a nice old-fashioned hot plate, with sides of fries and veggies + additional yummy BBQ sauce.

The final verdict for Kafe Halaman:

The best thing about Kafe Halaman is its variety. You can choose from Chinese, Western, to traditional Indonesian food and they’re all decent (except maybe the exotic ones – for preference / distaste). It is also one of the few restaurants that open past midnight.

Did you know?

There are at least two Kafe Halaman restaurants I know of. This spot is definitely not better than the main one. In terms of taste, it’s not really different. Getting to the mall, on the other hand, is a mammoth task. Paris Van Java is one of the hottest spot in Bandung and considering traffic generally is already pretty bad in Bandung, it is worse at this spot.

Location:

Paris Van Java, Bandung, West Java

Mar 16, 2011
Blue Ginger, South East Asian Cuisine

Rating:

8 / 10

Taste: 8.5 /10

Price: $35 – $50 per person

Place: 7.5/10

Review:

Blue Ginger has everything that I wanted in what South East Asian restaurant should be: Nice ambience, table setting that won’t let u kick your neighbour, and most importantly GREAT service – no grumpy old lady throwing plates on your table!

There are choices of Banquet menu that we chose not to have because we weren’t too sure about some of the selection. We ordered 1 appetiser, 5 main dishes, and 2 desserts. For the appetiser, it was Salt & pepper squid. Definitely not the best one Sydney has to offer and quite frankly quickly abolished my hope of having a great night.

We were made to wait for quite a while until the main course arrived but in the end all of them came at once – which was the most important feature of South East Asian dining experience. It didn’t take long before dim expectation turned into great experience.The slow braised black Angus beef short ribs (boneless) literally blew my mind away! Cut into bite sizes, the ribs were cooked to dry, glazed with special sauce and an optional cucumber relish and tamarind for an extra taste.

The next one I tasted was Crispy skin chicken Maryland. Equally yummy with its unique trait, really really crispy skin! The black vinegar dressing complemented the chicken really well.Then, the stir fried eggplant & pumpkin was made special with the addition of chilli black beans and young corns.

The next two dishes were my wife’s favourite. First one was Panang curry chicken. The curry was really smooth without any overpowering taste of the element. The second one was Stir fried Singaporean chilli prawns with snow peas. It was perfect for me due to the mild hotness of the chilli.

Considering none of the dishes were disappointing, we were tempted to try out their desserts. Our choices fell to two of the following:

–Panacotta with Palm Sugar and Pineapple Ice Cream

–Kaffir Lime Crème Brulee

In overall they were not mind blowing but more similar to Chat Thai with a Fusion to western desserts, with special credit to the Pineapple Ice cream.

The final verdict: Blue Ginger charged quite a premium price but it was by far the best (South East) Asian restaurant in Sydney! Even the desserts are much better than one-hat restaurant we went to. The short ribs were the highlight of the day, shockingly excluded from the Banquet menu! They were just simply beautiful…

Did you know?

There are some nice spots in Balmain to relax and unwind, all in walking distance. Some of the nicer ones: Great coffee in Bertoni, Adriano Zumbo’s infamous Croquembouche and Macaroons.

Location:

241 Darling St, Balmain NSW 2041

Website:

http://www.blueginger.com.au/

Jan 26, 2011
Bebek Bengil, Dirty Duck Diner

Rating:

7.5 / 10

Taste: 7/10

Price Range: Rp. 80,000++ » $9

Place: 8/10

Review:

Recommended to me as one of the best restaurants in the region, Bebek Bengil did not disappoint us for one bit. There was a complementary Valet service in front of the restaurant. It was a little dark when we walked into the restaurant and the attendant asked whether we wanted to sit on the table or lesehan (kinda like Japanese tatami seats).

On our way to the table we walked in the middle of paddy (rice)’s field. We were seated on a small hut that has two sets of table. It was quite an open space but yet feel very private because in between huts lies paddy fields. The menu book looked like a novel since it had a lot of pages with blank spaces put in generously. It was a quite unique menu with specials written inside a box.

This time we skipped on appetiser; jumped into main course and ordered the named restaurant, Bebek Bengil. It’s half a duck cooked to golden brown and really crispy and served with a bowl of rice. We were given two bowls of condiments and one bowl of vegetables. The condiments are a bowl of chopped chilli and onion and massive amount of chilli hot but with medium hotness. The duck’s crispness is the restaurant’s trademark, combined with their sauces.

For the other main course, we ordered Fresh Grilled Seafood. Presentation wise, it looked a lot more appealing than the duck. There were 4 slice s of snappers, 3 prawns, and 6 grilled calamari in the meat department and 2 slices of red, yellow, and green paprika, eggplant. There were also condiments for this dish: garlic oil and chopped chilli onion. It would easily be shared between two people!

I might say it was a mistake to order the drink: Yellow Giant Duck, because it was really giant *sigh*. However the combination between the mango and pineapple (possibly with a little bit of orange juice) was nice.

As if those dishes were not enough, we also ordered Italian tiramisu for dessert. It was quite nice – I would rate it quite better if I did not have my favourite tiramisu on my mind (Badde Manor’s of Sydney). The tiramisu was creamy and I think it would have been much better if it were softer. We were lucky enough to taste their best dessert in the restaurant: The Black Russian. The cake was quite soft and yummy with great tasting cream on top.

Did you know?

Bali… I’m sure everyone would know everything there are about Bali. I’m just gonna tell you about a little piece of Bali called Ubud, this is where bebek bengil is located. Unlike Kuta or Nusa Dua, Ubud is the place to rest your mind, body and soul (and that’s why there are hundreds of spa houses). The place is very relaxing and great for quality holiday away from crowds. We stayed in a resort called Beji Ubud Resort. It was such a fantastic new resort.

Ubud is famous for its numerous art galleries, traditional dance shows, and monkey forest.

Location:

Jalan Hanoman, Padang Tegal, UBUD, Bali, Indonesia

http://www.bebekbengil.co.id/

May 15, 2010
Hot Cui Mie

Rating:

7 / 10

Taste: 7/10

Price Range: Rp. 15,000 –

Rp. 20,000 » $1.8 – $2.4

Place: 7/10

Terms:

This will be a new section that briefly explains the terms I use in the review.

Gorengan: It’s like deep fried wonton/dumpling without the meat.

Kulit Ayam: Deep Fried Crispy Chicken Skin

Udang Rambutan: Deep-fried prawn balls that are shaped like Rambutan fruit.

Review:

If you look at the price range, there was no typo there. That’s just how ‘affordable’ (if you don’t want to say cheap) food can be in Indonesia. As a general rule, when we go food hunting in Indonesia, it’s the taste that matters.

Hot Cui Mie presents us with a unique bowl of noodles. Their signature dish is Hot Cui Mie Ayam Jamur(Chicken and Mushroom). The bowl was coated with gorengan and the noodles is served with deep fried chicken and mushroom with spicy sauce (and some veggies, of course). For those of you who don’t like it spicy, they also provide us with the No Hot version.

We ordered Kulit Ayam and Udang Rambutan for starters. Both starters came with sweet and sour dipping sauce for extra taste. Kulit ayam were deep fried to a point where it still retains the softness of chicken skin, yet it’s crispy on the outside. It also filled us up incredibly quickly before the main arrived.

Udang Rambutan wasn’t well presented. It looked like a plate full of crackers. You had to dig into the crackers to actually get the prawn ball. Their prawn ball was also filled with quail egg.

For the drink, I would suggest you to order Iced Mocha. However this is not the regular mocha coffee that you’ll find in coffee shops across Australia. Instead, you will get slices of avocado in shaved ice with chocolate milk. I like this drink a lot since it is refreshingly sweet.

Did you know?

There was the big mud flood incident near the city of Porong years ago that causes the trip from Surabaya to Malang doubles. The government built natural barrier to isolate the mud. ‘Lumpur Lapindo’, as the locals said it, can still be seen on your way to Malang.

Surabaya citizens normally go to Malang or Tretes for a quick weekend getaway since it has cooler temperature than the scorching hot city life.

Location:

Ruko Kawi Atas 43-B, Malang, East Java, Indonesia

Mar 3, 2010