Tag: Article

These posts do not carry the usual ratings. It can also come from different authors.

Singapore Airlines Business Class Menu

Experience:

When we traveled to Indonesia at the end of last year, we had the opportunity to try Singapore Airlines’ business class on our way back home. It was named by Skytrax as the World’s Best Business Class in 2015.

Obviously being a food blog, we are not going to talk about the seats and amenities or how the seat can transform into a flatbed. You can easily find that in google. We are here to talk about Singapore Airlines Business Class Menu!

According to the menu booklet, the lunch was created by International Culinary panel that was inspired by tastes from all around the world. Australia was represented by celebrity chef Matthew Moran (that’s how it was actually written in the booklet, instead of his usual name ‘Matt’).

Denpasar to Singapore – Light Lunch

For our first leg of the journey, we traveled from Denpasar to Singapore. We departed Denpasar at 1 pm. They only serve ‘light lunch’ for this leg (I can’t imagine what’s the not-so-light lunch is like).

There was no option for appetiser, it was only Tian of Colossal Crab-Mango with mesclun and black sesame seeds (unless you stated in advance that you were a vegetarian or you were allergic to seafood). It was also served with the dessert, Strawberry mousse cake with strawberry coulis, and two herb and garlic breads.

As you can see from the picture below, it was much better presented than the meal in economy. You also got the tray cloth and proper cutlery.

After your appetiser, there was three different main courses to choose from: one Indonesian lamb, one Singaporean chicken, and one seafood. I chose the last one. It was Seared Barramundi Fillet in Tomato Sauce with green olives with basil, celery and fingerling potatoes. The dish was exclusively created by Carlo Cracco of Ristorante Cracco, two Michelin stars in Milan. Carlo Cracco is a jury in Masterchef Italia.

Singapore to Sydney – Sleeper service

For our Singapore – Sydney leg, we flew out of Singapore past midnight. So, Singapore Airlines gave us a choice of whether to have our meal soon after take-off or two hours before arrival… or if you really want, you can have at both times! Considering that you might be really full from eating in the lounge prior to departing, I think most people would choose two hours before arrival.

The entrée was much simpler this time around. It was a bowl of fruits and a croissant.

You get five different choices of main course: noodles, beef, nasi lemak, American and Continental breakfast.

This time around, I chose Braised Ee Fu Noodles with prawn, fish, scallops and leafy greens. It was a very big portion for a breakfast! However, it was actually the right size for an Indonesian (or Asian) breakfast. When I was younger, I was used to eating nasi goreng, congee, or noodles for breakfast.

There are also endless supply of alcohol (and not just the generic ones!) if you choose to drink, including Singapore’s national alcoholic beverage, Singapore Sling.

Did you know?

One thing that we actually missed out when flying Singapore Airlines Business Class was the opportunity to book the cook! There are a few dozen high-end dishes that you can pre-order for your flight… and they are all part of the service!

So, at the end of the day, your possibilities are endless!

Details:

Singapore Airlines Business Class Menu from Denpasar to Sydney

http://www.singaporeair.com/en_UK/flying-with-us/business-listing/

Mar 11, 2016
The Caffeine Dispensary: Where Cofee Enthusiasts Experience Coffee Appreciation

On a bright Sunday morning, my friend, Mieke, and I stood in front of The Caffeine Dispensary door with great excitement about the coffee cupping event that we were going to join in.

When we walked in, we found this simple yet lovely industrial-look cafe. Several food bloggers were already inside. We were welcomed by one of the owners, Aji. He was making a drip coffee. Aji also owns a coffee shop in Singapore, called The Revolution Coffee. The other owner are Rio – the roaster – and Andri, the store manager.

When we asked why the barista area was so spacious, Aji kindly explained that they wanted to make a difference in coffee sipping. They encouraged coffee appreciation and wanted to be more than just a regular coffee shop. Here, the coffee lovers can also participate in making their cups of coffee!

The Caffeine Dispensary serves various kinds of coffee from all over the world and specialises in in-house roasting of their coffee beans.

Rio, the roaster, explained that after roasting, coffee beans only lasted for about a month. While the un-roasted beans would last longer, about a year when kept inside a sack. The roasted beans will bloat but the mass will decrease due to moisture loss. As you can see below, behind me there was a roasting machine, which could produce 1 kilogram of roasted beans in each process.

After we picked our seat, they gave us the menu. The price is very reasonable, and worth the coffee appreciation. They don’t have many choices of food for now, because they want to focus on serving the coffee.

I chose 5oz Espresso White, equaled as Cappuccino, while Mieke ordered Iced Latte Gula Jawa, one of their signature drink. Mine used the Kenya Mugaga beans, and Mieke’s were Aceh Gayo.

Tadaaaaa….our orders arrived. I immediately gulped mine. It was very good! It turned out the Kenya Mugaga coffee had the perfect combination of bitterness and sourness, very aromatic, and overall it tasted well-balanced. I also took a sip of Mieke’s Iced Latte Gula Jawa. I really loved the taste! Aceh Gayo had a floral aroma and you could really taste the flavor of Javanese brown sugar that they used. Not the kind of Iced Latte you’d easily find elsewhere.

They also gave us complimentary sweet treats, one Carrot Cake and one Banana Bread with Chocolate Chip. Both of them satisfied me as a cake lover; Rich in flavor, but not too sweet and had smooth textures. I actually ate both slices, since Mieke wasn’t a fan of sweet cakes. Lucky me!

Upon finishing them, the coffee cupping session began. First, we were given the acknowledgment about The Caffeine Dispensary, the basic theory of coffee and the process of making a good coffee. Then we had a quite interesting Q&A session afterwards.

Afterwards, we moved to the cupping table, where they had prepared 6 different kinds of coffee. They were Nicaragua Misael Sauceda, Toraja Sapan, Kenya Nyeri Mugaga, Sunda Arumanis, Brazil Formoso, and Aceh Gayo. We were given raw beans, roasted beans, and two cups of ground coffee for each type. We carefully sniffed the different aroma between roasted and ground beans. All of the raw beans smelled like grass, so we could ignore those for a while.

The two cups of ground coffee were now poured over hot water. We had to wait for about 4 minutes before we could break the crust. Using 2 spoons, carefully we scooped together the crust from one side to another. If you were an expert, you could do it in just one attempt. After the crust was clear, we could sniff the real aroma of the coffee.

We then began to taste the coffee. We had to loudly slurp a spoon of coffee. I found it difficult as I couldn’t be fast and loud. At least I tried my best and ended up looking silly, haha… We had to taste from the coffee cups for each kind, to test for consistency.

After that, we needed to fill the Cupping Form, which looked like the picture below. We scored from 1 to 10 of the aroma, acidity, body (thickness), flavor, etc. I got a tie for the highest scores between Brazil Formoso and Kenya Nyeri Mugaga, which I scored 9.

They knew that our mouth had gotten a bit bitter after the cupping, so they offered us something from the menu. I picked the Lavender Lemonade, another signature drink. It was so refreshing! A nice twist between the sourness of lemon and the good smell of lavender.

The fun carried over to lunch! They already prepared croissant sandwiches for us. I picked the Beef&Cheese Croissant and loved it! The croissant itself was very buttery, good crisps and soft inside. The filling was perfect, rich in flavor. I really loved this croissant. Mieke said that she loved her Smoked Chicken croissant too.

The final verdict for The Caffeine Dispensary

As a coffee lover, I definitely would love to get back here. I am excited for the new kind of coffee that will arrive every month.

Did you know?

There is lemon-infused water available for free if you need refreshment after drinking coffee. Don’t hesitate to refill your glass! It’s compliment from The Caffeine Dispensary for you, the coffee enthusiasts.

Details:

Jl Kelapa Kopyor Raya Blok 1 No 16, Kelapa Gading, Jakarta

+62 21 452 0109

http://www.caffeinedispensary.com/

Feb 12, 2016
Catalina Rose Bay Wedding
Catalina Rose Bay Wedding

This is probably one of my most memorable reviews of the year. We went to Catalina Rose Bay to celebrate my ex-work/gaming/foodie mate’s wedding. Catalina has been a Good Food Guide’s one-hat restaurant for a few years.

Catalina was also voted as the people’s award winner for 2015 by Australian Financial Review. The restaurant overlooked a beautiful bay with yachts and sunset view.

So, having a wedding venue that is a combination of great food and great view isn’t that bad, is it?

Travelling Entrée (or some might say roaming canapé) – Catalina Rose Bay Wedding

According to the Assistant Manager, the travelling entrée is not part of the regular menu at the restaurant. We get 10 (yes, TEN!) different travelling entrée. Being a travelling entrée, it was quite hard to get a picture of all of them although they were eventually put on display for the bridal party.

They were all quite simple but yummy entrée. Here they are in no particular order with my best guess of ingredients:
- Smoked salmon with cream cheese and caviar on crostini
- Fresh oysters with lemon and Catalina’s vinaigrette
- Fresh tuna with vinaigrette and peas puree
- Zucchini flower with goat cheese
- Beef with pastry
- Eggplant
- Sausage rolls with tomato sauce
- Mozarella arancini balls
- Battered prawns
- I am not quite sure what the last one was!
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Main Course – Catalina Rose Bay Wedding

What separate Catalina from wedding venues I attended before was its main course. Instead of having alternate main course for the table, they actually asked which of the two you prefer!

Roasted lamb rack with minted pea puree, baby beetroots & tomato jus

I sort of ‘cheated’ and asked the groom whether I should order the barramundi. He told me that I would love the lamb rack… Great advice! The dish came with TWO racks of lamb!

No surprise it was quite a sweet dish considering that it was complemented by beetroot, tomato and minted pea. It was a decent portion for main.

Roasted lamb rack with minted pea puree, baby beetroots & tomato jus

Roasted lamb rack with minted pea puree, baby beetroots & tomato jus

Crispy skin Cone Bay barramundi with spanner crab ravioli, enoki mushroom, avruga, sage & eschalot cream

Being on the main table, I could not find someone that I could pinch the barramundi from. It did look very pretty and (without a doubt) grilled perfectly!

The complements further enhanced the seafood character of the dish.

Crispy skin Cone Bay barramundi with spanner crab ravioli, enoki mushroom, avruga, sage & eschalot cream

Dessert – Catalina Rose Bay Wedding

For the dessert, it was a no-brainer for me. I do not like dark chocolate and I tried hard to find someone who wanted to swap if I did get the dark chocolate… surely I did get the dark chocolate (which I quickly swapped with the other groomsman!)

Unlike the main course, the dessert was served alternately between guests.

Strawberry pavlova with lime curd & strawberry coulis

The two-tone pavlova looked elegantly simple.

Unfortunately when I got to the table, the ice cream was completely melted – we took way too many pictures! I was also quite full from the 10-course travelling entrees.

I did finish the pavlova to the last scoop and I think it was up to the one-hat standard.

Strawberry pavlova with lime curd & strawberry coulis

Dark chocolate mousse with wattleseed ice cream & cocoa tuile

As I am not a big fan of the dark chocolate, I had to ask my friend how it tasted and he said ‘it was nice’.

The technical aspects were quite apparent on the dish.

Dark chocolate mousse with wattleseed ice cream & cocoa tuile

Petit Fours at Catalina

Sommelier Adam and Port

Catalina Rose Bay Wedding

Details:

Lyne Park, Rose Bay, NSW 2029

+61 2 9371 0555

http://catalinarosebay.com.au/
Feb 9, 2016
Bandung Culinary Tourism

In the last few years, we reviewed a few restaurants in Bandung. This time around, we would like to write about Bandung’s local food offerings. You could easily find these food in big malls or plazas in Bandung. However, if you want the ‘authentic’ ones that are loved by the citizens of Bandung, we should really hunt for them.

What is Culinary Tourism?

Indonesians love to eat (including me). Their overabundance love of food enables them to create a whole new phrase dedicated to the journey of finding good food. Hence, the term ‘Wisata Kuliner‘ was born. It was hard to find the English phrase for it. However, after brainstorming session with my friends, we decided to use the term ‘Culinary Tourism’ to describe this phenomena because someone has written a thesis about it.

Bandung Culinary Tourism

Batagor

When we talk about Culinary in Bandung, the first thing that everyone mentions should be baso tahu goreng, commonly known as Batagor. Batagor is a deep fried fish tofu that is usually served with spicy peanut sauce and sweet soy sauce. There are two famous batagor restaurants in Bandung: Batagor Abuy and Batagor Kingsley. In terms of taste, we like Batagor Abuy more. On the other hand, Batagor Kingsley is more suitable to have for takeaway.

Batagor Kingsley is located in jalan Veteran 10.

Mie Yamin

Mie Yamin is the Bandung version of Chinese noodles. It is a bit unclear why it was called ‘Yamin’ noodles. We found an Indonesian article about the origin of Mie Yamin in Jakarta. One of the more famous places in Bandung is Mie Yamin Linggarjati in jalan Balonggede. In addition to its noodles, Linggarjati is also well-known for its delicious Avocado juice.

We actually did not visit the Linggarjati restaurant due to the distance. We used the gojek app that is priced quite decently for food delivery service.

Cireng Bumbu

Cireng bumbu is probably the most common dish on this list (you can pretty much buy anywhere and it would taste pretty similar). Cireng is a tapioca-based snack that is deep fried with fillings (usually spicy ones). It is usually sold just outside a restaurant or in food stalls.

What else is available on this Bandung Culinary Tourism?

The following dishes might also be available outside the city of Bandung. However, they have been modified to have the Bandung traits.

Yoghurt Cisangkuy

I’m pretty sure everyone knows what Yoghurt is. The interesting bit about Yoghurt Cisangkuy is that it has been in the same venue for, like, forever! If you ask someone from Bandung, I’m pretty sure the person would know this place. They have a few flavours to choose from and also some light snacks.

Sate Ayam Lavie

Lavie is a name of a baby shop in jalan Imam Bonjol, Bandung.In front of the shop, there is a small stall that sells chicken satay. It’s the perfect place for those of you waiting around!

What I love about Bandung’s chicken satay is the one called ‘sate lemak‘. It is literally just a skewer of fat! Pretty unhealthy I must say, but if you just eat the right amount, they are awesome!

Bubur Sumsum a la Bandung

Bubur sumsum is a rice flour porridge with sweet palm sugar sauce. We bought this from a street vendor usually roaming around the housing complex. What separates Bandung’s from the rest is the use of pomegranate.

Coffee from The Good Life cafe

This cafe might be relatively new when compared to the rest on this list. However, you can’t have a list of Bandung good stuff without a great coffee place! Located in Jalan Anggrek 15, this cafe is pretty obscured and part of a small office house. However, it’s hard to find coffee as good as this one in Bandung!

Obviously, there are a lot more dishes originated from Bandung that we could try. However, we did not have the time to try them all… maybe in the future…

The City of Bandung

Bandung is the third most populated city in Indonesia and is just a few hours drive from Jakarta (depending largely on the traffic!). However, the density of the city is twice as much as the second largest city in Indonesia, Surabaya. That’s why if you want to travel to Bandung, I suggest you to avoid the weekends!

Jan 6, 2016
Hawker Lane
Dining Experience:

We were invited by Sibling Agency and Scentre Group (aka Westfield group) to try Westfield Chatswood’s newest food precinct, Hawker Lane. If the name is not clear enough for you, Hawker Lane consists of 13 Asian restaurants, an ice cream place and a Taiwanese milk tea place.

When we arrived at the venue, we were given a sample of coconut juice topped with marshmallow and cake. They had a promotional at the Hawker Lane: When you made purchases at Hawker Lane of $20 or more, you received the coconut for free. The coconut really stole the show that day.

One Tea Grill – Baoger

One Tea Grill was the first restaurant we went to because we were so curious about their burgers. Their main attraction was the slider burger with three different kinds of burgers: ramen, matcha and rice. They also had three different patties: wagyu beef, teriyaki chicken, and green tea ice cream with red bean.

Cheers Cut

There are quite a few Taiwanese XXL fried chicken stalls in the city. The interesting bit about XXL chicken is its XXL size. It is seriously big! As you can see in the picture below, it is around three times the size of regular Taiwanese milk tea glass.

The rest of the restaurants are:
- Aqua S – Dessert
- Chachu’s – Indian
- China Chilli – Chinese
- Dumplings & Co – It had not opened when we were there
- Gong Cha – Drinks – Taiwanese
- Jim’s Malaysia – Malaysian
- Lamb & Cumin
- Noodle Warriors – It had not opened when we were there
- Madame Nhu – Vietnamese
- Makanai – Japanese
- Mao Cai – Chinese
- Nahm Jimm – Thai
- Sushi World – Japanese
We also tried quite a few other restaurants on the day. The one that really stood out was Lamb and Cumin. We love the marinated lamb satay!

There was one stall that we missed out when we were there because we actually did not see the stall inside the precinct. I have tried the ice cream from the main shop for Aqua S in George Street. They are known for their sea salt ice-cream.

We also did not go to Mao Cai / China Chilli as the queue were ridiculously long on that day. Despite our curiosity, we could not be bothered queuing for it.

Details:

Level 2 Westfield Chatswood, 1 Anderson Street, Chatswood NSW 2067

(02) 9412 1555

https://www.westfield.com.au/chatswood/dining

Hawker Lane
Dec 8, 2015
Surry Hills Eating House

Review:

This week, we were invited to Surry Hills Eating House. The restaurant is located in the corner of Elizabeth and Campbell Streets. It is owned by Sujet Saenkham of five Spice I Am restaurants in Sydney. Spice I am has a pretty good reputation in Sydney and it’s a great opportunity for me to try their other establishment. Surry Hills Eating House is a Thai restaurant that has quite a few seafood options.

Pla Tod Phae – $14.00 – Curried white bait fritter served with house made sweet chilli sauce and crushed cashew nut

I love white bait in Yum cha place. It is pretty interesting to see a white bait in a non-Chinese restaurant. Surry Hills Eating House’s white bait was amazing. It was probably our most favourite dish of the night.

Pad See Ew Chicken – $18.00 – Stir fried flat rice noodle with sweet soy sauce, egg and Chinese broccoli

We ordered this specifically for the little one. The portion was pretty decent and it was one of the best pad see ew chicken that we have ever tasted.

Phuak Neung Tod – $14.00 – Steamed dried shitake mushroom, dried shrimp and taro wrapped in bean curd skin and deep fried then served with spicy sweet coriander sauce

We were not going to order this entree. However, after looking at the first two dishes that came in, we decided to order this one. It was not a bad choice!

Gaen Kiew Wan Nua – $24.00 – Green curry slow cooked beef served with roti

The green curry was pretty good, but pretty spicy. They made the correct decision of serving it with roti. Curry tasted so much better when enjoyed with roti!

Lin Ped Pha Lo – $26.00 – Duck tongue simmered with five spice, served with braised pickle, green mustard and nam som (vinegar chilli)

We ordered this out of curiosity. There are not that many places serving duck tongue. They nailed it in terms of its taste. However, I think they should serve it as a side dish instead of a full main dish.

Cashew Nut Chicken – $18.00 – Stir fried cashew nuts, shallot, onion and chilli jam

For those of you who enjoyed individual serving instead of shared dishes. They have a variety of stir fry dishes. Cashew nut is probably one of the staple dishes in any Thai restaurants in Sydney.

Gaeng Het Pho – $28.00 – Phuket-style curry of bar cod fillet, Thai black mushroom and betel leaf!

This last dish was recommended by the waitress. It was one of the most ordered dishes at the restaurant. I guess it is true when they say the customers cannot be wrong! This curry is less spicy than the green curry we ordered earlier. I also liked the texture of the mushrooms.

Surry Hills Eating House

Did you know?

Eating house is located on level 2 of Triple Ace Bar. It is also within a walking distance to Spice I Am’s other restaurant: House Thai.

Details:

Level 2, 198 – 200 Elizabeth Street, Surry Hills 2010

02 9211 8107

Dec 4, 2015