Category: Global Cuisines

All About Food Blog loves trying different cuisines from all around the world. Sometimes food has the same name but completely different look and taste.

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

Tim Ho Wan – Burwood

Review:

Tim Ho Wan was arguably the biggest name to appear in Sydney’s culinary world in 2015. Tim Ho Wan restaurants in Hong Kong are considered to be the world’s cheapest Michelin-star restaurant. When they announced that they would open a restaurant in Chatswood, the earth shook… well maybe not to that extreme, but the anticipation was suffocating. For the first few weeks, queue could be seen outside its store and people waited up to four hours (or more) for it!

Fast forward to mid-2016, we went to one of their branches in Burwood and there was no queue. Mainly, it was because a lot of people over-expected the restaurant to have the same quality as the ones in Hong Kong. Nevertheless, Tim Ho Wan Burwood was still decently filled.

We have never been to Tim Ho Wan in Hong Kong and our comparison was based on Yumcha restaurants in Sydney. Instead of having trolleys pushed around the restaurant, you need to order the food in Tim Ho Wan.

Braised Chicken Feet with Abalone Sauce – $6.80

I love a good chicken feet dish! It was quite a decent portion and pretty well presented at Tim Ho Wan. However, there was an apparent deficiency in the taste department.

Prawn Dumpling – $8.30

Wasabi Salad Prawn Dumpling – $7.80

There were only four options for dumplings at Tim Ho Wan and they were all seafood. We tried steamed prawn dumpling and deep fried wasabi salad prawn dumpling. They were quite on par with dumplings in other Yumcha place.

The next three plates are part of dishes that were called Big Four Heavenly Kings in Tim Ho Wan

Vermicelli Roll with Liver – $7.50

Vermicelli perhaps isn’t the best word to describe the dish. I have never seen a rice noodle roll dish with liver.

Baked Bun with BBQ Pork – $7.80

This is the dish that got everyone talking about and at the same time criticised Tim Ho Wan: Baked Bun with BBQ pork. The bun looks like an under-baked PappaRoti bread. It had quite the right fluff and, according to my friend, it was pretty nice and sweet.

Pan-Fried Radish Cake – $6.00

The radish cake has pork meat inside. Excluding the desserts, the whole dish in Tim Ho Wan is meat-based. So, if you are a vegetarian, you might want to stay away.

Vermicelli Roll with Beef – $7.50

It was similar to the other vermicelli roll, but this time it was filled with beef instead of liver.

The final verdict for Tim Ho Wan

I think Tim Ho Wan has been heavily criticised for being sub-par to its main branch in Hong Kong. After the hype has died down and the chefs can concentrate on producing the food instead of being a fast-churning production line, we could see that it was a decent restaurant.

Did you know?

If you have never been to a Yumcha but you are not a pork or seafood eater, you might want to reconsider your visit. There are only a handful of dishes that you can choose from in Tim Ho Wan that are neither pork nor seafood.

Rating for Tim Ho Wan:

7.0 / 10

Taste: 7.0 / 10

Price: $5.80 – $9.90 per dish

Place: 7.5 / 10

Details:

Shop 173 – 175 Westfield Burwood

100 Burwood Road, Burwood 2134

+61 2 8719 9888

http://www.timhowan.com.au/

Jun 1, 2016
Intermezzo Ristorante

Review:

This week we went to a restaurant in quite a premium venue, GPO Grand at Martin Place. The name of the restaurant is Intermezzo Ristorante. Their menu is predominantly Italian with French influence. It has all the cues of a fine dining restaurant. However, they are not a hatted restaurant and also not listed in Top 500 restaurants in Australia. The good thing about it is that you don’t put any expectations on the restaurant and anything good coming out of it is a bonus!

Sicilian Green Olives, Diced Marinated Roma Tomato with Fresh Herbs, Extra Virgin Olive Oil and Sourdough – $9.50

It is quite a simple antipasto for little nibbles… and you might need to order a bit more sourdough.

Carpaccio di Bresaola – $21 – Cured Wagyu Beef, Marble Score 9+, thinly sliced with Rocket, Reggiano and Housemade Grissini

It was a pretty well made beef carpaccio and I quite enjoyed it.

Linguine Scampi – $36 – Linguine with Western Australian Scampi, Fresh Vine Ripened Cherry Tomatoes and Chilli

We chose to have the Linguine for starter because originally my wife thought she could share it with the little one. However, to our surprise, the chilli was actually quite spicy here.

Calamari Fritti alla Napoletana – $21 – Crispy Hawkesbury River Calamari Rings with Lemon and Chilli Oil

We had to order this as a backup plan to the kid. We asked for a tomato sauce to accompany the calamari rings and they actually gave us a proper tomato pasta sauce.

Bistecca Alla Fiorentina – $41 – Dry Aged Grain Fed T-Bone (400g) served with Roasted Potatoes and a Rocket and Parmigiano salad

I liked my steak medium rare. I think the t-bone was just a tad overcooked. The rocket salad was also quite sour.

Pesce al Cartoccio – $36 – Ocean Trout Fillet with Truss Tomato, Wild Mushrooms, White Wine and Herbs, served Steamed in Baking Paper

The other main was wrapped in baking paper and was quite small. Also, I could not taste any flavours from the trout.

Wild Rocket, Pear and Parmigiano Reggiano – $11.50

Just like the steak’s sald, the vinaigrette was quite over powering that made the rocket too sour to my liking.

Tiramisu – $15.50 – ‘Pick me up Dessert’ of Mascarpone Layered with Biscotti, Espresso Coffee and served with a Coffee Sorbet

Finally, a dish worth talking about. I always enjoy a good tiramisu. The deconstructed tiramisu was pretty special. It is not your traditional tiramisu and the coffee sorbet really lifted up the mood!

Pannacotta al Caramello – $15.50 – Caramel Pannacotta served with Pistachio Brittle, Honeycomb and Buttermilk Gelato

It is quite a unique take on pannacotta. Instead of the usual shape, this one was almost spherical. It looked quite lively but the pannacotta did not look like the centerpiece of the dish.

The final verdict for Intermezzo Ristorante

Dessert was the only saving grace for Intermezzo Ristorante. Their tiramisu was delightfully refreshing. In contrast, all I could remember from the main and entrée were the high price tag they put on them.

Did you know?

If you book online, apparently you can get a complimentary coffee. They also have different ‘menu of the day’ and the image below was from dessert of the day.

Rating for Intermezzo Ristorante:

6.5 / 10

Taste: 6.5 / 10

Price: $35 – $41 main dish

Place: 7.5 / 10

Details:

GPO Grand, 1 Martin Place, Sydney 2000

+61 2 9229 7788

http://www.gpogrand.com/intermezzo-italian-restaurant-sydney-cbd

May 25, 2016
One Tea Lounge

Review:

We went to One Tea Lounge solely because of its ramen burger. I have actually visited their ‘express’ restaurant at Hawker Lane in Chatswood and I was curious enough to try their main restaurant in the city.

One Tea Lounge and Grill is not your typical Japanese restaurant. ‘Funky’ might be the word that best describe the restaurant. The menu was even funkier. Peking duck fries anyone? Or what about Lava Stone grill?

Peking duck fries – $12 – with hoisin sauce & coriander

Obviously this is the first one I ordered (after ramen burger that is). When the dish arrived, it is a big bowl of fries topped with shredded Peking duck and coriander.

The strange mix of Peking duck with hoisin sauce and chips actually worked really well!

Popcorn curry chicken – $10 – with green tea lime mayo sauce

We ordered this for the little guy. However, he already made his mind up about Peking duck fries. The popcorn was actually pretty good as a snack.

Designer sliders – $21 – Choice of 3 sliders of our signature designer burgers to get started for the night

Ramen burger is actually part of the designer sliders. You can pick between three different sliders (ramen, rice, or matcha baoger) and four fillings: original wagyu beef, braised pork rib, teriyaki chicken, and miso tofu vegetarian. Matcha baoger is a Japanese bun with a hint of matcha.

The burgers were flavoursome. As ‘sliders’, they were not really that small.

Lava Stone Grill 9+ Wagyu Beef 180gr – $48 – Sizzle the best quality wagyu beef with shimeji and enoki on a hot lava stone at the table. Served with 3 dip sauces – matcha sea salt, green tea hollandaise & yakiniku sauce

One of the mains in the menu with quite an eye-catching name and also one of the more expensive ones. It was quite justifiable as they used marble 9+ wagyu beef. The sauce also married up perfectly with the quality beef!

Matcha Fries – $7 – with green tea salt, seaweed or shichimi spicy

The matcha fries was quite standard when compared to the other fries at One Tea Lounge. I guess you can compare it yourself by the picture below.

Matcha Fondue (for 2) – $23 – Fresh fruit, Green tea castella, macarones, cookies with Matcha white chocolate dip sauce

I had a hard time taking a picture of matcha fondue. Everyone seemed to be wanting to dive in straight away! If you look at the pictures below, you’d understand. It has quite a lot of little bits to dip into the pool of heated green tea!

The final verdict for One Tea Lounge

One Tea Lounge and Grill have quite an interesting list of dishes in their menu. If I could, I would try every single one of them!

Did you know?

You should really try their Asahi burger from the lunch menu. I tried it when I visited Hawker Lane in Chatswood

Rating for One Tea Lounge:

7.5 / 10

Taste: 7.5 / 10

Price: $10 – $58

Place: 7.5 / 10

Details:

Upper Ground Floor, 73 York Street, Sydney 2000

+61 2 9279 3311

http://www.onetealounge.com.au/

May 20, 2016
Zeus Street Greek

Review:

If you haven’t driven along New Canterbury Road in recent years, you might be in for a surprise. There are two new eateries that attract huge crowd, especially on the weekend. One of them is Zeus Street Greek. It is one of a few outlets that Zeus has.

The menu was quite simple and had a good mixture of salad, sides, dips and main dishes. The entrees that we ordered were beetroot, corn cobs, pita bread and chips. We ordered the pita bread to accompany one of the main dishes.

Beetroot – $12.50 – Beetroot, feta, walnuts, honey and mint (GF)

Corn cobs – $9.50 – Roasted corn cobs with grated kefalotiri (GF)

Pita bread (2) – $3.00

Probably the one thing that I remembered the most was the chips. They were quite different. It was quite large, thin and very crispy.

Chips – $6.50

The main dishes are divided into two: pitas and nude. Before you start thinking something x-rated… I think they said ‘nude’ because it’s comparatively bare and uncovered when compared with the ones wrapped in pita bread.

There are three nude dishes and all served with a side of tzatziki and lemon. They are only available in one size only, 200 gr. It’s not bad for a light dinner.

Don’t forget to order an extra pita bread if you order these ones or any other sides as they don’t come with any.

Nude Lamb (200gr) – $18.50 – Our signature lamb from the souvla served with a side of tzatziki and lemon (GF)

Nude Chicken (200gr) – $15.50 – Our signature chicken from the souvla served with a side of tzatziki and lemon (GF)

The two pitas that we ordered on this occasion are both lamb. I cannot really tell the difference between the two, but they were both quite enjoyable.

The Zeus – Lamb – $12.50 – Our signature lamb with Aegean slaw, smoked eggplant, onion and parsley.

Uncle ‘Tzimmy’ Lamb – $12.50 – Our signature lamb with tomato, tzatziki, onion, paprika and chips, wrapped in pita.

The final verdict for Zeus Street Greek

Zeus Street Greek is quite a good place to have a quick lunch and dinner.

Did you know?

The other eatery that attracted a huge crowd in the vicinity is Tella Balls.

Rating for Zeus Greek Street Food:

7.0 / 10

Taste: 7.0 / 10

Price: $10.50 – $18.50

Place: 7.0 / 10

Details:

Shop 2-3, 362-372 New Canterbury Road, Dulwich Hill 2203

+61 2 8315 5600

http://zeusstreetgreek.com.au/

May 11, 2016
Bamiyan Restaurant

Review:

A couple of weeks ago, I read an article in Broadsheet about ‘where to eat Afghan food in Sydney’ and not long after that we dined at one of the restaurants in the article, Bamiyan in Five Dock.

Bamiyan restaurant is quite a standout yellow building in the corner of First Avenue and Cashmans Lane. The restaurant was very busy when we got there. Considering that this is our first Afghan cuisine ever, we took our time in browsing through the menu. The following four were the ones that interest us the most:

Seekh Kabab (charcoal grille) – $12.90 – Traditional Afghani Shami Kabab marinated lamb mince grilled on natural charcoal served with salad and chutney.

When half of your entree menu is filled with kabab, you are bound to choose one. Our choice went to Seekh Kabab and it was the right one! It was our favourite dish of the night, despite its not-so-appealing presentation. It came with a chutney that was too spicy for me.

Mantu (Beef-Dumplings) – $13.90 – Afghani favourite meal, ground beef, onions, dumplings with same spice and toppings with yogurt sauce, chick pea tomato and ground mince sauce, garnished with ground mint.

Mantu is a traditional Afghan dish. It is the Afghani version of dumplings. There were quite a lot of elements on the plate and it looked like a hybrid between Bolognaise sauce and dumplings. I usually am not a big fan of yoghurt in my savoury dish. However, this one is very nice!

If you really like it, they are also available as a main for $25.90.

Kabuli Pallow – $28.90 – Traditional Afghani rice slowly cooked flavoured with cumin powder & cardamom, filled with chicken pieces topped with a layer of Julian caramelized carrots, sultana and almond nuts, served with chicken korma.

Kabuli Pallow is the most expensive dish in Bamiyan. There were two plates for this. The first plate is the Afghani rice with quite a lot of fragrance flavour.

There was also a plate of chicken korma as part of the dish. It was an Afghan chicken curry with potatoes. Unfortunately, it wasn’t the best korma curry I’ve ever tasted.

Banjan Boranee (Eggplant) – $18.90 – Traditional Afghani dish with Fried eggplant covered with cooked tomato sauce and yogurt sauce, garnished with mint.

The eggplant was cooked with onions and green peppers. It was also drenched in tomato and yogurt sauce. It was quite similar in taste with the mantu, except for the absence of meat and dumplings.

Afghani Garlic Naan – $4.50

The final verdict for Bamiyan

Considering that this is our first time ever trying an Afghan cuisine, Bamiyan gave us a very nice impression! The dishes were bursting with flavors and were actually quite filling!

Did you know?

Bamiyan has two other restaurants in Sydney, Dural and Baulkham Hills. However, the other two are a bit too far from where I live.

Rating for Bamiyan:

7.5 / 10

Taste: 7.5 / 10

Price: $16 – $29 per main

Place: 7.0 / 10

Details:

175 First Avenue, Five Dock

+61 2 9712 7801

http://www.bamiyanrestaurant.com.au/

May 6, 2016