Killiney - Pluit Mas

It wasn't long ago that I tried the original Killiney Kopitiam on Killiney Rd, Singapore. If you stay around Orchard, go there at least once for breakfast. The atmosphere around isn't that comfortable, but the food is really good. On a weekday morning, you'll the see the tables full of office workers grabbing a bite and sipping warm coffee O.

I think it was only a few years ago these kopitiam franchises start penetrating to the Indonesian market. Oh well, whatever sells in Singapore doesn't mean it will sell well in Indonesia. Having a history of almost 100 years doesn't mean you'll sell well here.

Having a couple of friends living in the area of Pluit Mas, there is no way I could miss out on the not-so-recently-opened Killiney shop located near the entrance gate. The view from the outside seems like a typical neighborhood kopitiam but I was more interested in the food and coffee rather than the atmosphere. When I thought the food could at least be similar to the one I enjoyed very much in Singapore, my friend could give me a kick for introducing something not worth writing in the blog. But, but I try to be rational this time.





So we arrived at the shop around 7pm, the first floor is almost full, so we decided to go to the 2nd floor. Heck, the air-con wasn't turned on, and the windows and door were all closed, so there's a slight stuffy feeling you get when there isn't much air flowing through your head. You see, though I can understand that electricity bill isn't cheap here, but restaurants are service-operated businesses. You're not only selling your food, but service and atmosphere as well. The balcony was another option, but it's meant for smoking area. It was only after 10 minutes or so, the air on the 2nd floor started to freshen up.



What do you have to order when you mentioned kopitiam? The Teh Tarik and the Kaya Toast of course! We ordered a hot and a warm tea, and the conclusion; cold is always better. I'm not sure how it tastes like in Singapore, but the one I had here is not bad at all, wasn't very sweet like in any other kopitiam, and the milk to tea ratio is just nicely propotioned.



Then everything started spiraling down. First was the Kaya Toast. If I were to compare the original with this one, it's like comparing a 2011 Honda Jazz to an 2004 Made-in-China Chery QQ with manual transmission and no power steering (No other insult intended, but you get my point). In the Killiney Indonesia website, they boast about having their kaya jam produced daily in their shop, then having the best butter, and bread that's heavier than the ones in the market and made in their own bakery. I don't believe in any of these.

The toast served to us was so thin and crispy I thought I was only munching on the break crusts when it's supposed to be crusty on the outside and tender on the inside. The kaya jam were OK, but it's spread very thinly like as if they were margarine. So no oozing whatsoever like mentioned in the website. Of course last is the butter; no need for more complaints needed. When you realized if the bread is at the same thickness as the butter, it's no longer a toast (lost for words to describe).



The Mee Rebus we ordered was far from the original, lacks the ingredients, taste and everything else. For a dish that's been decorating the tables on Killiney Singapore, it's so disappointing how it turned out here. The noodles used was cheewy, the sauce was too watery and warm (Not hot!), and the tofu is cold.



And when we thought the next dish is hopefully better, it wasn't going to be. The 30 minutes spent waiting for the Singapore Laksa Fried Rice isn't worth it. I'd go for the Nasi Goreng TekTek across the road. It's our mistake to order such unique dish in the first place. The fried rice is seasoned with laksa sauce, so there's this soury, salty fried rice that's just off-balanced. Accompanying the fried rice are few pieces of chicken, an egg, 3 prawn cracker, and some garnish. Whoever is stationed to decorate the dish must not have a sense of aesthetics.



Though their prices are cheaper than other kopitiams, I really hope they could improve on the quality of food as well as the service.

Restaurant info;
Killiney Kopitiam - Pluit Mas Ruko Blok EE no. 11
Ph: 021 - 6681511

Prices as of 16 May 2011;
Hot Teah Tarik - 18k
Cold Teh Tarik - 20k
Kaya Toast - 16k
Mee Rebus - 28k
Laksa Fried Rice - 27k

Bangkok Jam - Emporium Pluit

It was an unusually quiet Sunday when the 7 of us decided on a last minute to have dinner somewhere near. So hopping on the car and there I realized I remembered seeing a recently opened Thai restaurant in Emporium Pluit. It has, however, been opened for a few months now and don't blame me for not going to that part of the mall often.

I knew I was about to leave for the real Bangkok city soon, but there is this urge for a pad thai dinner. (Bangkok food adventure will be on the blog hopefully soon). Deciding on this restaurant simple, none of my friends seem to care of what to eat, so they just jumped board the boat with me.



The traditional Thai ice tea was super super sweet. Though the taste of pandan is very apparent, too much of this drink will make you diabetic. I'm not sure, but maybe we could ask for a separate sugar next time.



We ordered a couple of entrees; Spicy Papaya Salad and Prawn Cakes. The salad was ordinary, nothing special, though there is a nice touch on the extra floss and peanuts sprinkled on top. The Prawn Cake, on the other hand, was delicious. Definitely the winner among all the other dishes, the prawn cake is skewered with a stick of lemongrass. The idea wasn't that original, but compliments go to the cake. You can really taste the tender of prawn meat, covered in crispy breadcrumbs and the sweet and sour dip make the whole dish more than your usual prawn cake. The not-so-oily after taste makes you want to munch more.





What is a trip to a Thai restaurant without ordering the pad thai? This is the one dish that makes me wanna visit the restaurant, but but but, how disappointing. Pad thai has got to be one dish that define the ability of the Thai chef, I just kept reminding myself, don't get my hopes up. None of what I imagine a REAL pad thai should taste like appear in front of me. Even before tasting it, I knew the noddles must had been overcooked, and that was the biggest mistake someone cooking a pad thai could ever make. Then I thought please at least serve something tasty, how wrong could I be. The dish was completely tasteless! Even with the dried chilly added and a splash of that lemon wedge, the dish is bland. Like as if it's cooked for someone with all the health complications. Enough with the complain, I would just sum up; prawn was hard; spring onion was RAW; and the portion would feed at most 2 babies!



Thanks to the donkey, the next dish we ordered were much better. The red curry chicken was nice, though if the spiciness level is to be increased to another level, it would be a perfect companion for my rice. First, it was very rich, the tinginess of that curry would make your tongue numb for a fraction of a second, then the distinct combination of spices and coconut milk makes the dish more complete. Inside, there were these green beans which I'm not sure what they were.



Another Thai favorite is of course the TomYum Seafood. But, in case you're wondering, let your imagination of a perfect sour and spicy soup filled with an abundant of seafood run wild. I think I cooked a better TomYum soup than the fellas in the kitchen. The TomYum they served is too light, too sour, and inside were a piece of mantis prawn, another piece of smaller prawn, 5 pieces of mushrooms, 3 pieces of fish, and that's all.



A friend wanted to order a fish and we ordered this Gourami Chilly Sauce. It was simply just deep-fried pieces of gourami fish, with traditional Thai sweet and spicy chilly sauce. I just don't get how the chefs couldn't make a simple TomYum soup or Padthai, but able to make this fish dish such a treat. The fish was lightly battered and deep-fried to a certain wellness. While the outside batter is still smoking hot and crispy, the inner flesh was soft and tender. Unlike the usual deep-fried gourami fish. Then pieces of onions and capsicum are stir-fried along with garlic, pineapple and chilly. Overall, the fish was a very nice conclusion to our dinner.



Restaurant info:

Bangkok Jam - Emporium Pluit Mall, 4th floor
Tel: 021 - 6667 6827

Prices as of 1 May 2011;

Thai Ice Tea - 16.5k
Spicy Papaya Salad - 22.5k
Prawn Cake - 38.5k
Seafood Padthai - 29.5k
Red Curry Chicken - 35k
TomYum Seafood - 42.5k
Gourami Chilly Sauce - 75k

Pad Ka Prow - 13 May 2011

Apologies fellas, it's been a while since the last update, been busy with work and stuffs. Anyway, this time, it's a classic Thai dish - Pad Ka Prow - or Stir-fried Pork with Thai Sweet Basil. Simple simple dish to make.

Had my Bangkok trip this week and brought home some ingredients back. The most important in this dish is of course the basil itself. Definitely different to the local ones here, the Thai sweet basil has larger leaves and the aroma is stronger and more pungent. Then, the fish sauce too, has got to be the Thai fish sauce. The Chinese and the local fish sauce is less salty and more fishy :P.

The ingredients;
10 cloves of garlic (Yes, you do need heaps of these)
3 bird-eye chilly (Depend on how spicy you want it to be, I like mine rather mild)
300 gr mince pork (You can use chicken if pork's not halal for you)
A handful Thai sweet basil (Tried to use the local once, not as good as the Thai's)
2 tablespoon Thai fish sauce (Please use only Thai fish sauce - I use the Squid Brand Thai Fish Sauce)
1 tablespoon Sweet Soy Sauce (READ: Kecap Manis)
1 tablespoon vegetable oil (Stir-fry purpose)

No salt and pepper needed, trust me. First the fish sauce is already salty, then you wouldn't want the pepper smell and taste to overcome the basil. Then I like to use the sweet soy sauce because it adds a mild sweet taste to the whole dish as well as some colour. You can always use sugar, but please do use the sweet soy sauce if available.

Let's get cooking;
1. Mince both garlic and chilly finely and stir-fry until the garlic releases its aroma.
2. Once they are done, put in the pork and starts breaking up the meat. Sometimes, minced meat would just crumbed together to form meatballs. We don't want this.
3. Dump in the wet ingredients and continue until the meat is done.
4. I like my basil leaves not thoroughly cooked, so I put them just 10 seconds before the whole dish is done.
5. Plate, garnish and serve with warm jasmine rice.

Old Town White Coffee - Living World Alam Sutra

I've been to this new mall quite often this past weeks or so. Much of my mates have never been there and why shouldn't I be a nice fella once in a while and take them there. Anyhoo, quite a few restaurants start opening up in the mall, there's a penyet restaurant, HanGang, and a couple more coffee shops.

But out of all places, we decided on this Asian coffee shop franchise from Malaysia - Old Town White Coffee (OTWC). They claimed that they are the largest kopitiam restaurant chain in Malaysia, and looking at the list of chain on their website, no one can deny.





Since I've tried My Kopi O!, might as well just try its direct competitor (More kopitiam-like reviews in the future). So how does OTWC different to others? I don't know. I've tried the OTWC during my trip to KL last year, and whoa the menu is so thick you'll think twice about stealing them. :P I think there's tens of different drink menu and you'll probably keep asking the waiter what are the differences between each one.

But the one here in Jakarta, there isn't much choices in both the drinks and food. I like to have options, and I'm not getting any in here. I think if you would bring a foreign franchise here, at least have a more variety menu. My image of last year's OTWC visit starts drifting away.



Of course when you go to this type of restaurant, the first thing you need to order is their toasts! And this is what we ordered; 1. Their original Kaya Butter Toast and 2. Thick toast with blueberry jam. My original plan was to order their special white coffee, but since it's early afternoon and I don't feel like having coffee for lunch, we ordered Warm Honey Lemon Juice.



Though we ordered the toasts early, the orders came quite late and we were already eating half-thru our mains. Now I'm not going to compare whose toast is better than whose, I'll stay as neutral as possible. The first toast - Kata Butter Toast, was just OK. The kaya spread is nicely overflowing the toasts, and the butter is still in 1 piece, not melted. My one only complain would be the size of the toasts. It's so thin that I think the butter is thicker!



The second toast menu is a much better option than the kaya. And when I meant by thick toast, it's actually really really thick! And I'm loving every part of it. The fat bread is toasted, spread margarine, and topped with blueberry jam. What makes it special is the jam. I don't know if it's home or factory made, but it's just to my liking. Some blueberry jam just can't make it because if they kept it for too long, the fruit's gonna break apart. Not this one, it's fresh and you can practically chew every piece blueberry and still juices oozing out from them.



Each of us ordered a main each. My friend ordered the Superior Nasi Lemak, and I ordered the Superior Rojak Mee. Both dished turned out to be average.

There was a confusion when one waiter brought a plate of unknown order and left it on our table for 5 minutes and later brought it back to the kitchen. Turns out they gave a wrong chicken to us. They suppose to give a piece of Rendang chicken in the dish, but they served the BBQ chicken. To me this is quite unprofessional considering they left the food in the table for 5 minutes. What if we already start eating them? Not even a sincere apology being offered. Tsk!

I have to say, the rice is fragrant. It's been a while since the last time I ate nasi lemak, and this one turns out to be quite nice indeed, though not as good as those in Singapore or Malaysia. The rice is accompanied by a piece of rendang chicken, sambal sotong, fried anchovies, nuts, and egg. All not worth talking about. Except the sambal sotong which I think was a little bit chewy.



The Rojak Mee, which I thought should come close to the original Malaysian dish, turns out to be very home-made, not very "restauran-y". The dish is served with egg noodles in the center, surrounded by pieces of fried tofu, sambal sotong, fried potatoes, bean sprout, and egg. Then topped with fried shallots and sprinkled some curry sauce. Tofu was over-fried, sotong was chewy, and the curry sauce is just bland.



Hopefully they could improve on their service, as well as the non-toasts meals and food varieties.

Restaurant info:
Old Town White Coffee
Living World Mall - Alam Sutra
Unit G19 - 19A, Alam Sutra Boulevard Kav.21
Serpong - Tangerang

Ph: 021 - 532125502
www.oldtown.co.id

Prices as of 24 April 2011
Honey Lemon Juice - 17k
Kaya Butter Toast (S) - 9k
Blueberry thick - 20k
Supreme Nasi Lemak - 38k
Supreme Rojak Mee - 30k

My Kopi O! - Living World Alam Sutra Visit 2 April 2011

They say the ACE Hardware in the recently opened Living World is the biggest in South East Asia, and indeed it is. With the combi of ACE and Informa side by side, no wonder IKEA is still absent here in Indonesia. And I have to say, the quality of products here is still up to par to IKEA's.

Though the mall is still 70% empty, there were quite a few places to consider for a quick light lunch. We decided on My Kopi O!, a typical 'kotipiamy' family restaurant. The owner, a Surabaya-based-Malang-Chinese fellow decided opened his/her first Jakarta shop here in Living World. The first was opened in Sutos Surabaya around 6 months ago.

There were 2 more similar restaurants like this one in the mall, KOPITIAM and The Old Town White Coffee. Comparing the 3, My Kopi O! seems to have more unique dishes and we're not disappointed at all.



The interior was very simple with not much accessories displayed. There were a few bottles with coffee beans displayed in the shelves and try to sit outside. There were quite a distance between each table so getting in and out of the table is no hustle.



OK, it was hot and the most tempting drink in the menu is any iced drink. But since my throat is still in war with the flame inside, I have to pass on the ice drink and decided on a warm one. We ordered Ice Milky Chocolate, Teh Tarik and Teh Tarik Halia. The ice milky chocolate, according to my mom, is very milo-ey and ovaltine-ney. Though it has a much stronger flavour and not as sweet as those 2. She loved it! Dad ordered warm Teh Tarik, and it's just ordinary. Mine is the obvious winner, Teh Tarik Halia. It's just like any teh tarik, but with a glitch of ginger. The taste of ginger is so apparent that the light-stinging taste stays for a while. It's accompanied by a piece grilled (or fried) bread and it taste better to soak the bread in the drink before consuming.





Moving on to food, we decided not to order too much as we had planned for a nice dinner that night. Something strikes my eyes in the menu, chocolate and kaya toasts. Too bad they ran out. What's the point of going to such restaurant if we don't order the toast? So we settle for the Traditional Toast. I asked the waitress and she said it's the next best thing after the choc and kaya version.

This version is just toasts with palm sugar spread. And I thought what the heck is palm sugar spread? Then it came, oh wow, the look itself is already so tempting, and when you take a bite, the over-flowing palm sugar spread just makes you want to have more. The grilled toasts is warm and soft, and sandwich-ed in between is this sensational sweet spread that will entice your sense of taste as well as your smell receptor.



The next dish we ordered was the Curry Fish with Rice. I actually can't understand why on earth did my dad ordered this, but how wrong must I be. It's quite a delightful dish. It's white fragrant rice with Indian curry splashed on top, then slices of deep-fried fish fillets and steamed broccoli. The curry itself is just OK, not too salty, not too spicy and quite light. But the fish is great. Lightly battered, then deep-fried slices of dory fish is the YUM. The crisps of the batter, the softness of the fish, and the overall texture is prefect. The fish instantly breaks off the first time you put it in your mouth - No biting necessary.



Then came my choice of order, Mamak Spaghetti. Just spaghetti stir-fried in mamak (Indian Muslim) style. The dish sounded weird, but surprisingly it's really good as well. Spag is boiled perfectly, and the sauce and other condiments in the dish is just well-accompanying each other. Taste-wise, not too salty, not too spicy, not too sour, it's just right. Then the beef is so tender. Usually in stir-fries, the meat is somehow over-cooked and become tough. This is a definite treat!



Restaurant info:
My Kopi-O! - Living World GF Unit-35 Alam Sutra
Telp: (021) 29239418

Prices as of 2 April 2011:
Ice Milky Chocolate - 24k
Teh Tarik - 18k
Teh tarik Halia - 20k
Traditional TOasts - 18k
Curry Fish with Rice - 26.8k
Mamak Spaghetti - 32.8k