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.

Bakmi Jowo DU 67

Review:

This week review is a restaurant in the city of Bandung called Bakmi Jowo DU 67. Bandung and most part of West Java consist of mainly Sundanese that has quite distinct Sundanese language and culture. Therefore, having authentic Javanese cuisines in Bandung is quite rare. I understand the irony of Bandung being in the island of Java.

The amazing thing about this place is that they cook our dishes using ‘arang’ (charcoal). Bakmi Jowo DU 67 is located in Jalan Dipati Ukur 67, Bandung (hence the ‘DU 67’ name).

Bakmi Jowo DU 67’s signature dish is its Bakmi (Noodles). They have three versions of the noodles: Goreng (fried), Godhog (boiled, with soup base), and Bakmi Nyemek. Nyemek is a Javanese word for a dish that’s neither dry nor soupy. The noodles dish was served with green vegetables, eggs, ati ampla (liver and gizzard) and chicken.

Our next dish was Bihun (glass noodles/vermicelli). Similar to the noodles, you can have Bihun Goreng, Godhog or Nyemek. It has quite a similar configuration to Bakmi Nyemek, but the Goreng version was cooked with sweet soy sauce.

I chose its Nasi Goreng Mawut as I love good fried rice! The word ‘mawut’ (chaotic) is for mixing noodles into the fried rice. It is chaotic as one would not normally mix rice and noodles!

All of the dishes above are priced at Rp 20.000,00. That’s less than AU$ 2. They are also served on a pandan leaf that enhanced flavours.

If you think you can’t finish a whole plate of them, I suggest you share it with someone else. The half-portion version of the dish would cost you Rp 18.000,00 (that’s only 2k difference!).

The next two are add-ons that some of you might not enjoy. One is Krengsengan Ati Ampla and the other is Krengsengan Brutu. Krengsengan is a stir-fried dish with sweet soy sauce. It costs between 80c – $1 and you can have four different choices: ati Ampla (liver and gizzard), brutu (chicken’s butt), sayap (chicken wings), and paha (chicken thighs).

For a more authentic feel to your meal, try its Teh Poci drink for only Rp 6.000,00. Teh poci is a special tea served hot in clay pot. They also use rock sugar if you like your tea sweet.

The final verdict for Bakmi Jowo DU 67

Bakmi Jowo DU 67 offers the resident of Bandung authentic Javanese dishes without actually going to Central Java! Thanks to its char-grilled Bakmi and Nasi Goreng.

Did you know?

Our last review was an all you can eat restaurant in Jakarta costing us $40 per person. A plate of noodles in this restaurant, costs us less than a mere $2!

Furthermore, $2 won’t be the cheapest food you can find in Indonesia. It just shows the discrepancy of buying power amongst Indonesian citizens!

Rating for Bakmi Jowo DU 67:

7.5 / 10

Taste: 7.5 / 10

Price: $2

Place: 7.0 / 10

Details:

Jalan Dipati Ukur No 67, Bandung 401320

+62 22 7053 5874

http://www.bakmijowodu67.com/

Sep 3, 2014
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
What to eat in Madiun? | My Madiun Culinary Experience

I probably have mentioned this to you a while ago: Restaurants in Indonesia normally only have one champion dish with just a couple more side dishes if you really must have it. For this reason, I have decided to review the whole city instead of a single restaurant on this occasion. It is the city of Madiun in East Java, Indonesia.

The restaurants are so far away from the word ‘fancy’, but their dishes were great and for Sydney-siders, it would cost almost nothing to eat there!

Granted that most of you might never even set foot in this city, but when you do you might wonder “What to eat in Madiun?”

My Madiun Culinary Experience

Whenever I am in Madiun, I always have a list of food that I must eat while I am there. On top of the ‘What to eat in Madiun?’ list is Pecel.

Pecel

Obviously, when you talk about Madiun, you can never be far away from its Pecel. There are quite a number of variations for pecel and you can easily get its paste from any Indo-Asian stores in Sydney. Generally, you have a mixed of seasonal vegetables (mostly bean sprouts and green beans) on top of warm rice with Pecel sauce. Pecel sauce is peanut-based but it tastes different than satay sauce or gado gado sauce, if you are familiar with Indonesian cuisine. Pecel is usually a bit spicy, but you can always ask the level of hotness.

However, Madiun’s pecel is quite distinct because of these two elements: Kembang Turi (Sesbania Grandiflora’s flower) and Lempeng (the cracker).

Pecel is usually presented on pincuk (a plate made of banana leaf) and enjoyed with bare hands.

You also would normally enjoy Pecel with side dishes of empal (sweet fried beef) and jerohan (various parts of cow’s inner organs). Some pecel establishment also provides other variation of dishes such as Rawon (black beef soup with rice).

You can literally find Pecel establishments in almost every corner of the city. The famous ones are located in Jalan Cokroaminoto. There are quite a few options in that street and personally I think they’re all the same. My personal favourites are Pecel Bu Wiryo and Pecel Pojok. On this occasion we went to Depot Nasi Pecel 99 because they said the president has dined there (big deal!).

Tahu Telor

For this second restaurant, we have been patrons for as long as I remembered. Again, they only served one thing: Tahu Telor or Tahu Panggung. It is a plate of tofu fried with egg and served with rice cake and pickled cucumber. One thing that got me hooked to this dish was its peanut-based sauce. They were distinctively different, but very yummy!

This restaurant is located in Jalan Merbabu, Madiun. Back in the days, they are simply called by the name ‘Depot Tahu Telor’. I just found out this year that they put a name in their restaurant, and now called ‘rasa tunggal’.

Dawet Suronatan

Located in the same street as Depot Tahu Telur above was my favourite Dawet Suronatan. Dawet is largely known as Cendol in other parts of the world. Dawet suronatan is famous because of its unique presentation. It was presented in a petite bowl that everyone can finish. I usually have two or more when I am there. What differentiate dawet suronatan and the rest was its content. In addition to the cendol mixture, they also put black sticky rice, bubur sumsum (rice-flour based), and tape (fermented cassava). I usually ordered the one without tape because I am not a big fan of it.

What to eat in Madiun? What other cuisines are there?

In addition to the dishes I described above, there were several others worth noting was Bakso Simo. Named after its owner, Pak Simo, we usually went there at night time. It is well known for its bakso (meatballs). Unfortunately we didn’t get to visit this establishment this time around.

Sate Ayam Ponorogo also known as Sate Ayam Ngepos

Around 25km south of Madiun, there is a city called Ponorogo that is famous for its Satay. Sate Ayam Ponorogo (as Indonesian said it) is available in a lot of big cities in Indonesia, but they can’t beat the real deal from this city. Our family loves to go to Sate Ayam Ngepos. In this area, the whole street is filled with Satay stalls and you can pretty much choose anyone.

Again, what they sell is just a simple plate of chicken satay with peanut and sweet soy sauce. You can ask for a variation of satays: chicken skin, chicken giblets or the usual chicken meat. Personally, I love the ‘not-so-healthy’ ones!

If you have time, I strongly suggest you visit the city.

The City of Madiun

Madiun is quite a small city (by Indonesian standard) of less than 35 km2 with around 200,000 residents (that’s 20 times more densely-populated than Sydney). It is located around 180 km West of Surabaya and 180 km North East of Jogjakarta.

The city is forever written in the history as the center of the communist party uprising against the republic back in 1948.

Aug 22, 2014
Ippudo Experience

My Ippudo Experience

Ippudo is located on the fifth floor of the buzzing Westfield Sydney precinct. We have visited Ippudo a few times before, but it was always during lunch. On this occasion, we were invited for a three-course dinner meal at Ippudo. They have a lot more items on the menu when compared to the lunch menu.

Entrees

We ordered the Ippudo Pork Bun. Overhearing the loud conversation from the table next to us, this pork bun apparently has reached the ‘legendary’ status amongst food enthusiasts. We think it was quite a nice pork bun to set the mood for the evening. The braised pork was a perfect match with the sauce.

Ippudo Pork Bun – Steamed bun with braised pork and IPPUDO original sauce – $4

Our second entree of the night was Camembert Tempura. I love camembert cheese and I love crunchy stuff. Enter camembert tempura and I instantly got the best of both worlds! It was an interesting combo because both were pretty delicate and were masterfully fried whilst retaining its shape. The only thing missing here was the substitute for the cranberry sauce. Personally, I would love something sweet to accompany the tempura.

Camembert Tempura – Camembert cheese dipped in batter and deep-fried – $8

A La Carte

We were very pleased with the first a la carte dish, Sauteed Tasmanian Salmon. It was a very well-presented dish. The grilled salmon was presented with maitre d’hotel butter with an accent of Japanese shiso. The salmon was complemented with potatoes and asparagus. In the end, the salmon was mainly devoured by my son as he loved it so much. I only got to taste it a bit.

Sauteed Tasmanian Salmon with maitre d’ butter with an accent of Japanese shiso – $15

Presentation wise, the second a la carte dish, Wagyu Steak with Sauce Japonaise, was comprehensively beaten by the first one. However, the taste was quite on par. The steak was cooked according to what we wanted and laid out in a bed of bean sprouts atop a teppan plate. Its strength was in the sauce Japonaise. The inclusion of mirin and ginger invoked my memory about Tetsuya’s legendary vinaigrette. It worked very well with the steak!

Wagyu steak with sauce Japonaise – $18

These two dishes were more than enough to enhance my Ippudo experience.

Ippudo Ramen

It is not an Ippudo experience without their ramen. There are five different noodles dishes at Ippudo.

Shiromaru Motoaji

Description from the menu: Ippudo original tonkotsu broth served with thin noodles, pork loin, bean sprouts, black mushroom and shallots. Classic Hakata-style ramen.

The only ramen in the menu that we have not tried. Judging from the description above, this is supposed to be the ‘classic’ ramen.

Akamaru Shinaji

Description from the menu: Ippudo original tonkotsu broth enhanced with special blended miso paste and fragrant garlic oil. Served with thin noodles, pork belly, black mushroom and shallots. A refined, modern-style ramen.

Akamaru shinaji is my personal favourite. The miso paste worked well together with the fragrant garlic oil! On this occasion, we did not order this because we wanted to try the other on the menu.

Ippudo Karaka Men

Description from the menu: Ippudo original tonkotsu broth with special spicy miso & ground pork.

Karaka Men Tamago – $20

Karaka Men was a pretty simple miso ramen. Unfortunately, I underestimated the word ‘spicy’ in the menu. The ramen was quite spicy for someone who only eats spicy food sparingly.

Tori Shoyu Ramen

Description from the menu: Topped with original chicken chashu, menma, leeks, naruto and nori.

When we first came to Ippudo, we did not see this menu. It was quite an option for people who doesn’t eat pork. Instead of miso-based, this ramen was soy-based (shoyu) and that gave the clearer soup based. However instead of chashu looking chicken, the meat looked more like thinly-sliced chicken breast fillet.

Tori Shoyu Ramen – $15

Vegetarian Noodles

Description from the menu: Topped with avocado, cherry tomato, cucumber, yogurt, mandarin, corn flakes, mixed nuts, and a side of greens. Noodles mixed with a special sesame based sauce and topped with balsamic vinegar.

The vegetarian-version of the noodles was actually a dry one. I am not a big fan of large amount of vegetables, but my wife said that this dish was her favourite in Ippudo.

A few interesting things about Ippudo:

– You are not allowed to have BYO at Ippudo Sydney.

– When you ordered the soup-based noodles, you were offered how well you wanted the noodles to be cooked (Soft, Medium or Hard).

– You can’t book the restaurant in advance.

Details:

Westfield Sydney Level 5 (Shop 5021)

+61 2 8078 7020

http://www.ippudo.com.au/

Updated Information on Ippudo

They will open their second restaurant around mid-September at Central Park. The address is: Level 1 RB07, 28 Broadway, Chippendale, NSW 2008.

Jul 23, 2014
Darband Persian Restaurant

Review:

We are on a roll reviewing the West part of Sydney! This week, we take you to the best Persian restaurant in Sydney (claimed one of my Iranian friends), Darband Persian Restaurant. Looking at their website, they said they open seven days a week for lunch and dinner from 11 am – 9 pm (that’s a huge commitment!).

They have a very simple one-page menu with pictures of dishes you can order. They also give you a plate of mint and raw onion if you think your dish is not tasty enough. They also give you pita bread. The bread goes really well with the Shirazi Salad (Finely diced cucumber, tomato and Onion with lime, black pepper and mint dressing) or Kashk-e-Bademjan (Eggplant pan-fried with mint and onion with whey dressing).

The dishes were quite simple, you choose between a combination of meat that you want. We ordered Barg (lamb back strap marinated in onion) and Shahi – Combination of Joojeh (chicken in Lemon Juice) and Koobideh (Lamb mince marinated in Onion). To be honest, I’m not sure how they work on the pricing, but I think the backstrap is a lot more expensive than the chicken and lamb mince. When the dish came, it was on a massive oval plate that has a combination of white and yellow rice with a side of grilled tomato and butter. Apparently you need to mix the butter with the rice to accentuate flavour. If I eat this much rice in a Thai or Indonesian restaurant, my tummy would explode.

Barg – $13

Shahi – $14

I am interested in the two pictures at the bottom of the page Baghali Polo (Lamb shank with broad bean rice and dried dill) and Zereshk Polo. This time around, I chose the first picture, Baghali Polo. If you think the dishes above were crazy, you should check this one out. Instead of sharing the plate between meat and rice. I was given two plates for this dish, one exclusively for the humongous portion of rice and the other for the lamb shank. The lamb shank was slow cooked perfectly and fell of the bone!

Baghali Polo – $12

Since I felt quite adventurous, I also ordered a jug of Doogh. It is a Persian home-made yoghurt drink. They gave you a tall glass filled with mint to drink the Yoghurt with. It was an interesting and light yoghurt that doesn’t overpower like dessert-type yoghurt.

a jug of Doogh – $6

The verdict for Darband Persian Restaurant:

They give you a mountain of rice at Darband Persian Restaurant! However, the rice was incredibly light that anyone could possibly eat the whole plate full of it.

Did you know?

Auburn is home of the largest mosque in Australia, Auburn Gallipoli Mosque. It is an Ottoman-style mosque that took around 13 years to complete.

It is also home of Australia’s oldest Hindu temple, Sri Mandir.

Rating for Darband Persian Restaurant:

7.5 / 10

Taste: 8.0 / 10

Price: $11 – $21 per plate

Place: 7.0 / 10

Details:

9/45 Rawson Street, Auburn 2144

02 9646 4466

http://darband.com.au/

Jul 21, 2014
Tem Ichi Teppanyaki Japanese Restaurant

Review:

This week our review is about an interesting Teppanyaki restaurant, Tem Ichi Teppanyaki. I went there because of an interesting deal from one of those deal websites that resulted in a very cheap price for a Teppanyaki.

We got the Kawasaki Set (Banquet-B) with supposedly 10-course banquet menu. However, we didn’t get the mixed stir-fried vegetable.

The first three courses were quite uneventful, a small bowl of Fresh Salad, a bowl of Miso Soup with beansprouts (?), and two spring rolls. They were… well… quite uneventful, except maybe with the introduction of bean sprouts in our miso soup.

The first action on the grill today was prawns and fresh fish. They were lightly coated and nicely seasoned. Unfortunately, the chef got rid of the crunchy prawn legs. Still on that same action, we also got Teriyaki Chicken. The chicken was perfectly grilled and I think was the nicest dish of the day.

Teppanyaki is all about theatrics and food entertainment and so far we haven’t seen that part of Teppanyaki. However, it soon changed with our next course, Misoyaki Steak. The chef started off by lighting up a huge flame on our beef. However many times you have been to a Teppanyaki place, seeing this is never boring! The misoyaki steak was grilled more on the medium side, but it is still okay.

Our chef didn’t do the egg-catching exercise, but he did do the ‘Gattling Gun’ egg show. He basically asked a volunteer to hold a small bowl facing the chef. He would then cut and throw the omellette in one swift motion, repeatedly. It’s a good fun for everyone… except probably the person tried to dodge the gauntlet.

The fun didn’t last long as everyone now got the chance to catch bowls, with the last being filled with fried rice – and you get to eat it afterwards.

We have a small scoop of soft serve ice cream as the last dish of the day.

The verdict for Tem Ichi Teppanyaki Japanese Restaurant

Like many other Teppanyaki restaurants, taste and aesthetic were the least things mattered to Tem Ichi Teppanyaki. The restaurant was sparsely decorated and the food was quite uneventful.

Rating for Tem Ichi Teppanyaki:

6.5 / 10

Taste: 6.0 / 10

Price: $26 – $55 per set

Place: 6.0 / 10

Details:

125 Church Street, Parramatta 2150

02 9893 9594

Jul 15, 2014