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.

Ippudo Sydney

Rating:

8 / 10 Taste: 8.5/10

Price: $10-$20 per person

Place: 7.5/10

Review:

When I first heard people saying ‘Ippudo opened their shop in Sydney!’ I was pretty sceptical. In my mind, what’s the big fuss? Is it really that good? Then I saw it being the top restaurant in Urbanspoon for many months! Coupled that with more people saying how good it was and how people queued for it, it really got my attention. I then decided it must feature in my blog!

When I arrived at the venue, it was quite empty (I arrived quite early for lunch tho)! So, I thought it must be our lucky day. I could see a line was prepared there, presumably for later on. First glance at the lunch menu, I couldn’t find any ramen without pork! So, don’t come here at lunch time if you don’t eat pork.

Our first dish of the day was a very disappointing Ippudo Shrimp Bun ($5) – it was steamed bun with deep fried shrimp and Ippudo original sauce. It was an average tasting and looking shrimp/prawn bun with a little bit vegetable and sauce.

Akamaru Shinaji Tamago Ramen ($18) excerpt from the menu: Ippudo original tonkotsu broth enhanced with special blended miso paste and fragrant garlic oil. A refined, modern-style ramen served with thin noodles, pork belly, black mushroom and shallots.

As you can see from the description above, Ippudo paid very special attention to its ramen. They have three different kinds of ramen and we chose the one that sounded different to a ‘normal’ ramen. With Akamaru ramen, they used pork belly instead of pork loin and fragrant garlic oil to enhance the thick soup based. It was seriously mind-blowing, even with a very high expectation coming into the restaurant with!

Next, we got Hot Stone Unagi Rice ($10) – it was a small hot stone of grilled Japanese eel on rice with original Kabayaki sauce. Yes, you can get twice as much unagi rice in other restaurants and they tasted equal.

Our last dish of the day was Ippudo Vegetarian Ramen. My wife said it was the best tasting vegetarian dish she had ever tasted. There were quite a lot of elements in the ellipse bowl, including avocado and green vegetables.

The final verdict for Ippudo Sydney

When you visit Ippudo Sydney, just stick to the ramen! I know it commanded a slightly premium price, but you get the best quality ramen in Sydney!

Details:

Westfield Sydney Level 5 (Shop 5021)

+61 2 8078 7020

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

Jul 30, 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
Ahmet’s Licensed Turkish Restaurant

Rating:

7 / 10

Taste: 7/10

Price: $46 per person

Place: 7.5/10

Review:

Welcome to my first review on Brisbane’s restaurant. I was lucky that I stayed in South Bank, a suburb known for its restaurants. It is also my first review on Turkish restaurant. The restaurant is simply known as Ahmet’s.

Since we didn’t quite know what to order, we’ve decided to order Ahmet’s King Feast (whoa!! Such a grand name, eh?). Ahmet’s King Feast is an 8-course share plates for the whole table (I list the food descriptions at the very end). Interestingly, you don’t need to order with the number of people on the table. I suggest you only order four when you come with a group of five (they are massive!!!). Let’s get the show on the road…

I am glad they decided to bring freshly baked Turkish bread & Turkish garlic bread served with dips (eggplant and hommus) as the first one as we were quite hungry then. The second was Kisir. It was very spicy for my taste and I am not sure where the spicy taste came from as the ingredients were only bulgur, parsley, tomato on a lettuce.

According to the menu, the third one was Ege Bogrek. They were deep fried cheese balls with sour cream on the side. Another quite filling dish (my tummy was quickly filling up just on the third dish!). Luckily the fourth was a simple Falafel with Hommus. Another type of carbs comes in for the fifth dish, Kiymali Pide! At this stage, some of us have already started feeling the pressure and it wasn’t even the main dish.

After waiting quite a long time with tummy almost at a capacity, the main course arrives. It was Mixed Grill Platter (a massive one!!) with Yesil Salad on the side. There were five kinds of grill on this one and they were all cooked perfectly!

Last, but not least, we have a petite dessert of Turkish Delight. Obviously a lot smoother than the ones you bought at the supermarket, but didn’t taste more special.

The final verdict for Ahmet’s Turkish Restaurant

Phew! That would be the first word we said at the end of the day at Ahmet’s. We were indulged by the grandeur of Ahmet’s King Feast and for a price that won’t drain your pocket!

Details:

Shop 10 / 168 Grey Street, South Bank, Brisbane

07 3846 6699

http://www.ahmets.com/

Descriptions:

Kisir – Bulgur, Parsley & tomato wrapped in lettuce

Ege Bogrek – Filo Pastry hand rolled with three cheeses, parsley, shallots & dill

Kiymali Pide – Turkish pizza with lamb mince, tomato, onion, parsley, red capsicum, green chilli, sweet chilli & garlic

Yesil Salad – Green leaf, tomato, Spanish onion, cucumber, parsley, sumac, fetta and lemon dressing

Mixed grill platter – Lamb cutlets, prawns, chicken, lamb & adana skewers

Jul 4, 2013
Oven-Baked Avocado and Egg
My wife got this dead-simple recipe from somewhere on the net (apology for forgetting the link – I’ll update it here when I found it again).

It will only take around five minutes of preparation time and you can leave it until it is cooked 15 minutes later.

Let me repeat myself: it’s easy, it’s fast, and it’s super yummy!

So what do we need for making this Avocado and Egg?
1. Avocado – it’s pretty obvious, isn’t it?
2. Egg
3. Salt
4. Pepper
5. Garlic Granules
How do we make this Avocado and Egg?
1. Pre-heat oven to 200^o Celcius. The term pre-heat means you leave it on for around 5 minutes in that temperature before you put in your avocado.
2. Cut the avocado in half
3. Throw away its seed (not really edible!).
4. Crack open the egg on the avocado concave (it’s the hole left by the seed).
5. Sprinkle salt, pepper and garlic granules with a combination of your liking.
6. Put it in oven for 15 minutes on a fan-forced oven. This time frame might vary depending on the oven’s power.
A little tips to make a perfect avocado and egg?
1. Scoop a bit of its meat out if your avocado is too small as the egg whites would overflow.
2. Leave it a bit longer if you want your egg to be well-cooked – I strongly advise against this as I’d rather see a gooey egg yolk.
Oven-baked Avocado and Egg

Did you know?

In Indonesia, avocado is rarely used as a savoury dish like salad and we don’t even eat it as a fruit. Indonesians love to make what we called Avocado Juice. It’s essentially an Avocado milkshake with a sprinkle of chocolate and/or condensed chocolate milk. The variance to that is avocado milk shake with sweet coffee syrup.

Another typical Indonesian dish with avocado was something called ‘Es Teler‘ (literally translated into Drunk Ice). Es teler is a shaved ice and condensed milk with a combination of fruits such as coconut, jack fruit, and avocado (cubed).

For more recipe by All About Food blog, please check out our small (but growing) section of recipe.
Jun 14, 2013
Jumbo Seafood Restaurant

Rating:

8 / 10 Taste: 8.5/10

Price: S$208++ set menu for four

Place: 7/10

Review:

Jumbo Seafood restaurant is one of the household names in Singapore. They even had the motto ‘The big name in Seafood’ to illustrate how famous they are. Last year when I visited Singapore, I wanted to go to Jumbo restaurant but they didn’t open in the afternoon. Hence, this time around I must go!

Jumbo seafood have quite a view branch and we went to the one in Riverwalk, a nice river-side location in Clarke Quay, Singapore. When we saw the menu, there were a whole bunch of seafood dishes to choose from and it was quite hard to decide. In the end, we chose the set menu for four people, priced at S$208++. There are five dishes (with optional mantou that we took) and a dessert.

Our first dish of the day was Superior Seafood in Thick Pumpkin Soup. This was the first time I ever tasted a pumpkin soup combined with a whole lot of seafood goodies and mushrooms. It quickly built up my appetite and expectations (a good thing considering it was already sky high!) through the roof!

The second dish Jumbo presented us was Fresh Scallop & Squid Fillet in XO Sauce. Unfortunately this one was a bit spicy to my liking and I was kinda worried that the chilli crab would be this spicy! In terms of presentations, they had a balanced combination of seafood and vegetables on a deep fried noodles ‘plate’.

Our next dish fell in the category of ‘as expected’. It was the traditional-looking Roasted Duck. Although it was in the ‘nice’ end of the scale, it was still a regular roast duck with sauce, tender meat and crispy skin.

Then came the dish that I’ve been dying to try for ages, Jumbo Chilli Crab. It was presented in a wok, possibly not the one they are cooking it from as the crab was too immersed in the soup. I was extremely pleased that the Singaporean chilli crab wasn’t actually as hot as I would have imagined them to be.

Jumbo seafood’s signature dish came with an optional deep-fried mantou which I strongly recommend to take (or add some more!). The mantou really enhanced the chilli crab’s taste.

Similar to other Chinese restaurants, they served the rice last. In this case, it was Seafood Fried Rice with Silver Fish. It was staple food good to fill up tummy that wasn’t really full, like mine 🙂

It was a really yummy dessert to end the night, Chilled Mango Sago with Pomelo. It was condensed milk on crushed ice with toppings of mango sago and pomelo.

The final verdict for Jumbo Seafood Restaurant

I must say I am very pleased with my visit to Jumbo Seafood Restaurant. They might command a slight premium value to the average Singaporean Restaurant, but it was thoroughly justified with the dishes they presented. Its Singaporean Chilli Crab also lived up to my expectations.

Details:

20 Upper Circular Road #B1-48

The Riverwalk, Singapore 058416

+65 343435

http://www.jumboseafood.com.sg/

Jun 11, 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