Tag: No Pork

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

Cut The Crab

Review:

Every time I go back to Indonesia, I always ask my relatives, friends, and other food connoisseurs about the current trend in the gastronomy world. Some of them mentioned that the 2014 food destination is Cut the Crab. So, here we are trying to figure out what the fuss is all about.

The restaurant’s concept is quite ‘common’ these days amongst seafood restaurants: Your table is your plate. Basically, they just pour everything on the table. You then have to eat with your bare hands. So, you have to throw your table manner far far away and start a savage beatdown on those dishes! However, it is quite a risky business in Indonesia, especially when you have outdoor tables.

Starting off quite ‘civilised’, we have the Garlic Bread and Fish and Chips. For only less than $1, I can’t complain about the portion size of the garlic bread. They served two decent cutlets of fish with the chips. The fish and chips were actually quite nice and it’s a pretty good option for people who don’t want to get their hands dirty.

Cut the crab’s signature dish is the Crab Combo, which is technically just mud crab and corn. You are given a choice of male and female mud crab with sizes range from Extra Small to XXL. On this occasion we ordered the medium male crab and small female crab. They say the male is 1 kg and it costs around $22.

They have an interesting two-dimensional system for its sauce. You can choose a combination of sweet and salty with three levels of hotness: Non Spicy, Medium, and XXX. A word of advice: when Indonesians said hot, then it is really (REALLY) hot!

For me, the best value for your money is either its Crawfish Combo or Shrimp Combo. For only around $10, you get crawfish (or shrimp), green mussel, beef sausages, sweet potato and corn. It is a decent-sized portion for one!

Crawfish combo (Rp 110.000,00)

If you can’t decide between shrimp or crawfish, you can get its Seafood Mix of Green mussel, shrimp and crawfish for less than $20. This one is more for share plate as they don’t include the sweet potato and corn.

Seafood Mix (Rp. 200.000,00)

Last, but not least, I present you the mound of aftermath!

The final verdict for Cut The Crab

I must say Cut the Crab is quite daring in presenting this table-as-plate concept in its restaurant. In general, Indonesia isn’t known for its good hygiene condition. However, there was nothing wrong when we were there (and 10 days after that). The price was very affordable and the taste didn’t disappoint as well!

Did you know?

Mud Crab in Sydney ranges between $65 and $85 per kg! So you could literally eat to your heart’s content and still pay only a fraction of it!

In 2013, Steak Hotel by Holycow was the food destination. They have just opened their first branch in Surabaya.

Rating for Cut the Crab:

7.5 / 10

Taste: 7.5 / 10

Price: $10-20 for main dish

Place: 7.0 / 10

Details:

Jalan Cikajang no 32, Kebayoran Baru, Jakarta Selatan

+62 21 7206810

http://cutthecrabcoid.wordpress.com/

Sep 19, 2014
Ria Galeria

Review:

Ria Galeria is famous in Surabaya for its vast array of dishes in their arsenal. It is one of the few good restaurants in Surabaya that doesn’t consist of only one champion dish. Established in 1985, Ria Galeria is trying to live up to its slogan ‘authentic taste’.

There are two dishes that we always ordered: Tumis Lurjuk and Sate Sumsum. Unfortunately they ran out of marrow for the satay sumsum this time around. Stir fry ‘lurjuk’ in sweet soy sauce is a rarity dish that you can only find in a handful of restaurants in Surabaya. It is a seafood-based and taste pretty exotic. Read more about lurjuk on the ‘Did you know?’ section below. Seriously, you must order this dish as you would never find anything like it in any parts of this world.

Tumis Lurjuk – Stir fry ‘lurjuk’ in sweet soy sauce – Rp. 42k

Tumis Lurjuk – Rp. 42k

Still from the seafood department, we have Gurami Asam Manis. Gourami is also quite a unique fish from South East Asia. On this occasion, we wanted it to be deep fried with sweet and sour sauce. It’s quite similar to sweet and sauce condiments in Chinese food, but usually Indonesians add shredded carrots to the sauce.

Sweet and Sour Gourami

We also ordered Kepiting Gembos Dadar Telor (soft shell crab omelette) and Deep Fried Calamari. Considering that Surabaya is a port city, there is bound to be loads of fresh seafood products.

Kepiting Gembos Dadar Telor – soft shell crab omelette – Rp. 50k

Deep Fried Calamari

Moving away from seafood dishes, we have Sate Ayam Ria Galeria. They claimed it to be the ‘special’ chicken satay. As I have been eating it for a very long time (every time I visit the restaurant), I have grown accustomed to its unique taste. From the beef department, we have Sop asam-asam Iga, loosely translated into spicy sweet and sour ribs soup. Although the name is sweet and sour, this version incorporates quite a distinct flavour compared to the gourami one above.

Sate Ayam Ria Galeria – Special “Ria Galeria” Chicken satay – Rp. 55k

Sop Asem-asem Iga – spicy sweet and sour ribs soup – Rp. 65k

They also have varieties of green vegetables and bean sprouts which I would normally care less about. The important thing about eating all of the dishes above is when you eat them with steamy rice and ‘sambal pencit’ (for those of you who eat spicy stuff).

Nasi Putih and Sambal Pencit

Last but not least, it’s the refreshing taste of Es Siwalan Special. Most people mistaken Siwalan as ‘young coconut’ but, it is a very different fruit altogether.

Es Siwalan Special – Sweet young coconut drink – Rp. 35k.

The final verdict for Ria Galeria

Ria Galeria put decent efforts in keeping up with its ‘authentic taste’ slogan. They also offered several hard-to-find dishes originated from East Java, such as Lurjuk.

Did you know?

Tumis lurjuk is quite an interesting delicacy native of Surabaya and Madura island that is pretty hard to find in restaurants even Surabaya. Some said that it derived from ‘kerang bambu’ (bamboo clam), but I don’t think it’s quite right as lurjuk is typically a lot smaller than that.

In addition to the dish above, people deep fried lurjuk for snack!

Rating for Ria Galeria:

7.5 / 10

Taste: 7.5 / 10

Price: $3-5 for main dish

Place: 7.5 / 10

Details:

Jalan Bangka 2 – 4, Surabaya

+62 31 5030181

Sep 9, 2014
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
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
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
Kazbah Restaurant

Review:

Kazbah restaurant is situated at the heart of Darling Harbour’s Harbourside shopping centre. In that place, there are dozens of restaurants for you to choose. One day, we felt like eating Middle Eastern cuisine and that’s why I am writing this review.

The restaurant has an extravagant atmosphere with dimly-lit, silky smooth vibe to it. Looking at the menu, we decided to go for a three-course meal with a simple entree. Middle Eastern main courses are normally pretty ‘heavy’.

Each of us ordered Char-grilled quail (half a quail) with pomegranate sauce. We also had Rocket and Grilled Haloumi salad. Nice and light entree, as expected.

Char-Grilled Quail, Pomegranate Sauce (each) – $6.00

Rocket and Grilled Haloumi – $10.00

Main Course

If you are new to my blog, I usually look for two things in a restaurant: something unique and a dish that the restaurant is famous for. Obviously our first main course fell in the first category: Camel Kafta. Presented in Shish Kebab style, the Kafta was grilled perfectly and I loved how the date sauce gave an extra taste to the meat. Synonym to the grand theme, the camel kafta was showered with generous serving of lentil and Tunisian ratatouille.

Camel Kafta, Brown Lentil Moujadara, Tunisian Style Ratatouille, Date Sauce, Crispy Fried Onions – $34.00

We ordered the other main, Lamb Shank, because of our curiosity. The lamb shank was stewed with prunes, carrots and kidney beans. Nevertheless, we are still trying to find a lamb shank dish as good as the one we had in Port Stephens.

Lamb Shank, Prunes, Carrots, Kidney Beans – $33.00

Dessert

Since my wife is a massive fan of Baklava, we must order one everywhere we go. For this one, this one was not too sweet and quite enjoyable. We also had Turkish Delight but it was pretty sweet.

Baklava (each) – $3.50 and Turkish Delight

The second dessert was rather extravagant and very pleasing to see, Date and Walnut Linzer Tart with carob mascarpone. Two tempered chocolates decorated both sides of the tart with little droplets of butterscotch accentuated the plate. However, I would not recommend you if you already had a full tummy. This dessert was incredibly heavy with a rich taste!

Date and walnut linzer tart with carob mascarpone, butterscotch cream – $14.00

The verdict for Kazbah Restaurant

Kazbah Restaurant delivered a nice Middle Eastern feel with well-presented Middle Eastern dishes.

Did you know?

There was one dessert that really stood out when we were there but we did not order. It was called Kazbah Bomb for Two. Flamed with Kurrant Vodka, this dessert should really excite everyone around you.

Also, for some reasons UrbanSpoon’s reviewers think that Kazbah in Balmain is a lot better than the one in Darling Harbour.

Rating for Kazbah Restaurant:

7.0 / 10

Taste: 7.0 / 10

Price: $50 for three courses

Place: 8.0 / 10

Details:

Harbourside Shopping Centre

Shop 284 / 2 – 10 Darling Dr, Sydney 2000

02 9555 7067

http://www.kazbah.com.au/

Jun 20, 2014