Tag: No Pork

A list of restaurants in my blog that is considered to contain no pork to the best of my knowledge

Pempek Clovelly

Review:

Generally speaking if you compare it with the price in Indonesia, Indonesian food in Sydney is very expensive! However, if you compare it to Sydney’s food prices, they are still pretty cheap. One restaurant that I frequented is Pempek Clovelly.

Pempek is a traditional fish cake originated from the city of Palembang in Indonesia. The unique aspect of pempek is that it comes with vinegar sauce. The sauce is a combination of palm sugar, garlic, vinegar, salt, and chili. The sauce is an integral part of the pempek dish. So, if you don’t get the sauce right, you will spoil the taste. For those of you who have never tasted pempek before, I must warn you that the dish is sweet and sour. The sweet and sour taste usually dominates the flavour.

These days, you can pretty much get pempek from any big cities in Indonesia. However, it is still considered a rarity in Australia. Pempek Clovelly is one of the few restaurants that sells pempek in Sydney (or Australia).

They have six different pempek: ball, stick, tofu, skin, fish cake with egg (nicknamed ‘the submarine’) and omelette. Personally, I like the submarine and omelette with an extra fish cake skin. Being in Sydney, Pempek Clovelly separated the chili from its vinegar sauce.

Pempek Omelette – $7.50

Pempek Skin – $2.50

In addition to pempek, they also sell quite a variety of dishes that are only priced up to $10. In this occasion we ordered their Chicken Noodles. It was quite a simple chicken noodles with meatballs, mushrooms and veggies.

The final verdict for Pempek Clovelly

Being a specialist in pempek, Pempek Clovelly definitely delivered one of the best pempek I have ever tasted. Pempek is a sweet and sour fish cake. So you might need to adjust your taste palate to enjoy it.

Rating for Pempek Clovelly:

7.0 / 10

Taste: 7.5 / 10

Price: $2.50 – $7.50 per piece

Place: 6.5 / 10

Details:

198 Anzac Parade, NSW 2033

+61 2 9697 0009

abc

May 20, 2015
Martabak Cafe Australia
Review:

This week, I will review one of my favourite Indonesian desserts, Martabak Manis (Sweet Martabak). Traditionally, martabak (or better known as murtabak) is a savoury dish that resembles pancake. The Indonesian version of martabak is differentiated into regular martabak and the sweet martabak (East Java people sometimes called it as terang bulan – translated literally as ‘bright moon’).

I was introduced to Martabak Cafe Australia by my friend. His ‘sales pitch’ was that their sweet martabak was similar to the famous martabak joints in Indonesia. I have never tasted martabak in Sydney that is remotely close to the taste of the ‘real deal’ in Indonesia. So, hearing the word ‘similar’ makes me happy!

Looking at the menu in the restaurant, half of it is reserved for its martabak manis and the other half is for five other meals in the restaurant. So, you can tell that martabak manis is clearly its champion dish. The grid-like menu might seem a bit too challenging, but it’s actually very easy:
- Choose your base (pandan, or original) and the following combination of flavours: Peanut, Chocolate, Cheese, and Durian
- Choose to have half or full with five or 10 pieces respectively
Their martabak manis was gorgeously sweet! It was fluffy with loads of toppings and big! It truly feels like eating martabak manis in Indonesia.

While we were there, we also ordered the savoury Martabak with Chicken Curry. It is quite an interesting version of Martabak as I usually enjoy martabak in Indonesia without the curry bit. They also have Martabak with beef rendang!

We also had Mie Goreng Udang Bawang (stir egg noodle with garlic prawn, tomato, meatball, garlic chives in special sauce) and Nasi Goreng Ayam (Indonesian fried rice with Chicken). The noodles were nice and had a decent proportion of prawns. My guest told me that the fried rice was a bit too ‘colourful’. There were too many flavours at play.

Mie Goreng Udang Bawang – $12.95

Nasi Goreng Ayam – $10.95

Siomay Bandung is an Indonesian-rendition of dumplings. Instead of soy sauce, we use peanuts and sweet soy sauce (kecap manis).

For those of you who really love Durian, they also have Ice Durian Drink.

The final verdict for Martabak Cafe Australia

Martabak Cafe Australia has by far the best Martabak Manis in Sydney! We actually do not mind paying the slightly premium price.

Rating for Martabak Cafe Australia:

7.0 / 10

Taste: 7.5 / 10 (or 8.5 if you just eat their martabak!)

Price: $15 – $22 per martabak

Place: 6.5 / 10

Details:

439 Harris Street, Ultimo 2007

+61 2 9566 4178

http://www.martabakcafe.com.au/
Apr 17, 2015
Willis Canteen

Review:

One day a friend of mine asked me a question: Do you want to eat gado-gado? At first I admired his courage in offering me something that I don’t eat that often (vegetables) and obviously my subsequent question ensued: What’s so special about this one?

He said “This is the best one in Sydney and you even need to call them up in advance or be prepared to wait for an hour”. I was really tempted to say: are you mad? I’m not going to wait for an hour for my meal!

However, there was that ‘call in advance’ method (I still had my doubts at that time) that we can utilise so that we don’t need to wait for an hour.

We went on a Sunday afternoon and the restaurant was quite packed (good indicator of a nice restaurant!). Willis Canteen is the name of the restaurant. There were no big dramatic sign boards and no fancy decors. It was a plain and simple canteen!

As we were a bit late (because somehow we went to a different location!), my friend was already there with the gado-gado my wife ordered already on the table! She pointed out that this gado-gado was very similar to the ones in her city. Gado-gado literally translates into mishmash or mixes. It is a mixture of boiled vegetables with homemade peanut sauce. This peanut sauce is the very reason the preparation time was long. It wasn’t from that pre-packaged stuff you get from Asian groceries. They were passionately (and freshly) made by the chef.

Gado-gado – $12

I ordered another variant of peanut-based dish, Ketoprak. I will let you read the description in Wikipedia for ketoprak. Ketoprak is slightly different than gado-gado, but if you get the elements wrong it will be called something else. Their ketoprak was fabulous!

Ketoprak – $11

We also ordered Iga Penyet and Rendang. Iga penyet was a lot simpler in presentation. It was beef ribs with just a couple of vegetables and a small stone mortar with spicy sambal (chilli). In Indonesia the term ‘penyet’ is actually used for smashing the sambal with the main (usually soybean cake, eggplant, or chicken). The beef rendang was the icing on the cake on the already nice lunch.

Iga Penyet – $12.50

Rendang – $12.50

The final verdict for Willis Canteen on facebook

Willis Canteen surprised me in many good ways! I can feel the owners’ passion for food in every dish they served.

Did you know?

Seriously, if you are told that you will be waiting for a long time for your gado-gado, it means you WILL be waiting for a long time. If you want to order the peanut-based stuff, please call them in advance!

Rating for Willis Canteen:

7.5 / 10

Taste: 8.0 / 10

Price: $10 – $15 per dish

Place: 6.5 / 10

Details:

197/392 Jones Street, Ultimo

+61 2 8040 8372

Willis Canteen on facebook

Feb 26, 2015
Mancora Peruvian Restaurant

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Unfortunately, Mancora has closed its doors for good.

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Review:

There was a discussion in the Sydney Food Bloggers facebook page about restaurants in Marrickville. The details were a bit sketchy but it ended up with Gaby from Lateral Eating suggesting that this week’s restaurant in review, Mancora Peruvian Restaurant, was one of the better Peruvian restaurants in Sydney.

We went there for lunch the weekend after the New Year. The streets were so very quiet and lots of restaurants were closed. I have been to a Peruvian restaurant before, so I know what I wanted to order. Having said that, the first two dishes were recommended by the chef as both of them were the ‘must have’s in Peruvian cuisines.

Peruvian sarsa criolla cassava

Our first dish is deep fried cassava with salsa criolla (that purple thingy), grated cheese and that yummy yellow sauce that I guess it was some kind of cheese sauce. I usually am not the biggest fan of cassava, especially when it’s hard to chew. However this cassava was so crunchy and delectable! This is technically a side dish, but I guess it looked more presentable as an entree.

Ceviche Clasico – $23

Diced blue eye fish marinated in key lemon juice with a blend of garlic, chilli, cilantro, Spanish onion & crushed white pepper. Served with caramelized sweet potato, corn & cancha

The chef told us that Ceviche was THE Peruvian dish. Apparently, it even has its own National Day of Ceviche in Peru on the 28^th of June!

We were amazed by the ceviche and it metaphorically begged to be eaten! What’s more enjoyable was that the taste met the delicate presentation.

Arroz D’Mariscos – $28

Marine cocktail mixture with crushed white pepper, Spanish onion & scampi (small lobster). Topped with parsley, lemon & parmesan cheese.

For our first main, the scampi obviously stood out! In addition to the scampi, they also put some seafood into the mix.

Arroz D’ mariscos is probably equivalent of Spanish’s paella. The distinction is that they don’t use Arborio rice.

Jalea Puerto Bravo – $26

Marine mixture of fried calamari rings, baby octopus, fish, prawns, mussel & black crushed pepper. Served with small portion of Peruvian sarsa criolla cassava, cancha, salted slices of dried banana & tartar cream.

Jalea Puerto Bravo is the Peruvian version of the seafood mix you found in fish shops. They have quite a distinct batter. It was soft, but not soggy and had quite a bit of crunch about it.

Oh, and what about that salted banana & tartar cream as your dipping sauce?

The final verdict for Mancora Peruvian Restaurant

It was a very enjoyable afternoon at Mancora Peruvian Restaurant. We love everything served on that day.

Did you know?

I am in love with a Peruvian / South American drink called Chicha Morada (or Purple Corn). If you see it on the menu, ORDER IT!

It is quite interesting how Mancora differentiate weekend and weekday menu. I am actually quite interested in their weekday menu as it has more exotic items in the menu! Usually restaurants divide made the distinction between lunch and dinner menu.

Rating for:

8.0 / 10

Taste: 8.0 / 10

Price: $20 – $30 per main dish

Place: 8.0 / 10

Details:

107 Addison Road, Marrickville 2204

+61 2 8065 6337

Jan 13, 2015
Choco Corner

My Choco Corner Experience:

Located in Mal Artha Gading (North East Jakarta), I must admit that I would not normally visit the area as I tend to stick to Central or South Jakarta (due to the traffic). However if you are around the area, I can say that Choco Corner truly worth your visit.

Established in 2010, Choco Corner have quite a large variety of food on their menu, from classical Indonesian, Indonesian fusion, Spanish, and other – what Indonesians called – the ‘Western’ food.

Beef Nachos Grande might not be as ‘grande’ (large in Spanish) as one would expect. However, it was actually big for Indonesian standards. When you order Nachos in Indonesia, you usually get a few pieces of tortilla with half-heartedly put tiny pieces of meat. So looking at this serving made me quite happy.

Beef Nachos Grande – 43.9k

Our next entree is a hidden gem. It is also appropriately named as the Exotic Delight! The image might not do justice as it only showed French fries and capsicums. However, I can tell you that they are not your usual French fries.

Exotic Delight – 34.9k

I ordered Nasi Goreng Kambing (lamb fried rice) because I wanted to make a comparison (that might sound a little bit unfair) to the legendary Nasi Goreng Kambing Kebon Sirih. In terms of aesthetic, there was no doubt that their fried rice fared a lot better than the legendary site. It was still a good alternative if you didn’t want to travel to Central Jakarta.

Nasi Goreng Kambing – 35.9k

They also have decent-sized ribs, such as Iga bakar balado or Rib original barbecue. Iga bakar balado had quite a unique taste to it as it was meant to be hot and spicy (not your typical ribs, eh?). Rib (notice that it is only one rib) original barbecue on the other hand resembled your typical ribs with slightly juicy twist, Indonesian-style.

Iga bakar balado – 78.9k

Rib original barbecue – 78.9k

The dish that I actually ordered myself was smoked chicken with creamy mushroom sauce. You get nearly half a chicken with a hint of salsa and green veggies at the top. The chicken was perfectly cooked (well, in this case, smoked) and I was impressed with the combination of mushroom sauce and sweet and sour. They also have other flavours for the smoked chicken you are welcomed to try!

Smoked chicken with creamy mushroom sauce – 69.9k

I didn’t get to try the next two dishes. Its Spaghetti Bolognaise was nicely presented with two edible curiously-looking things sticking out of the noodles. If you look at its Lasagna alforno you have to admire its juicy and messy feel to it! Don’t be afraid to get your hands dirty in it!

Spaghetti Bolognaise – 36.9k

Lasagna alforno – 36.9k

The final verdict for Choco Corner

All of the dishes were beautifully presented and done at Choco Corner Mal Artha Gading. Our favourites of the day were the Exotic Delight and Smoked Chicken. They were exotically different than other dishes I’ve eaten in Indonesia.

Did you know?

Choco Corner was a brainchild in 2009 of a reunion of classmates from Institut Pertanian Bogor (IPB – Bogor Agricultural University) that wanted to promote cacao commodity. From a simple coffee corner, they expanded to full-blown restaurant service without leaving their core cocoa values!

Details:

Mal Artha Gading – Ground Floor

+62 21 458 641 99

Oct 24, 2014
Boemi Joglo

Review:

For this week’s review we travelled up and down mountain side in Bandung to a place called Boemi Joglo. It is quite an interesting name choice that can be translated into ‘The World of Joglo’. Joglo is a traditional house of Javanese people. You can read more about Joglo in Wikipedia as usual.

Boemi Joglo has this fantastic one-page listing of stuff you can eat and drink. It is very simple with no pictures. So, you kind of have to know what you want to eat.

The first thing you have to order is Tempe Mendoan. Tempe mendoan is a deep fried soy bean cake with yummy spices. The difference between regular and great tempe mendoan is its ‘sambal kecap’ dipping sauce. This restaurant has a pretty tasty dipping sauce to complement the dish!

Tempe Mendoan – 7k

Their ‘signature dish’ is Nasi Liwet. There are two options of Nasi Liwet: Nasi Liwet Ikan Asin or Nasi Liwet Ayam Jamur. You need to order the nasi liwet based on the (perceived) number of people on the table. It has a serving for 2, 4, 6, 8, or 10 people. Nasi Liwet Ikan Asin has salted fish as its core ingredient. They put quite a few vegetables in the dish, but I don’t really mind it this time.

Nasi Liwet Ikan Asin – 35k -140k

Nasi Liwet Ayam Jamur’s core ingredients are chicken pieces and mushrooms. I guess this one is for the less adventurous people that have ‘regular’ taste palate. The rice is cooked on a clay pot. Clay pot cooking presented a nice dimension to the rice you are eating.

Nasi Liwet Ayam Jamur – 35k -140k

What I love the most about the place is its Sate Maranggi. This satay has 1/3 of fat content in every stick -> Yes, it’s crazy fattening but incredibly yummy! Sate Maranggi is usually served with chopped chilli, sweet soy sauce and vinegar.

Sate Maranggi Sapi and Kambing – 23k

Sate Maranggi Sapi and Kambing – 23k

The next one might be good if you have fussy eaters: Kentang Sosis, which translates into Fries and Sausages. Nothing can go wrong with fries and sausages… or can it?

Kentang Sosis – 16.5k

This last dish is pretty good if there is only a few of you. Nasi Timbel Joglo + Sayur Asem is the name. You get a pretty good deal for this one: A quarter of grilled chicken, two pieces of Tempe Mendoan, rice cooked in banana leaf, chilli sauce, some vegetables and sayur asem. Sayur asem is a sweet and sour vegetable soup with tamarind as its main ingredient.

Nasi Timbel Joglo and Sayur Asem – 26k

Teh Poci – 15k

The final verdict for Boemi Joglo

Being Javanese I do not normally eat these dishes, except maybe the Satay. Moreover, I usually pass on Nasi Liwet, let alone eating them. However, Boemi Joglo delivered such a killer Nasi Liwet that I cannot get enough of!

Did you know?

Dago is quite a large (and famous) part of Bandung. They have shops, cafes, boutiques on the lower part and restaurants with nice view of the city at the Northern part, called Dago Pakar.

One small warning though: Going there on a weekend would seem like a struggle, because of the tiny road being run over by millions of people.

Rating for Boemi Joglo:

7.5 / 10

Taste: 7.5 / 10

Price: $3 – $5 per person

Place: 7.5 / 10

Details:

Jalan Rancakendal Luhur No. 17, Dago Bandung

+62 22 250 1344 / 9112 1679

Oct 3, 2014