Spaghetti Aglio e Olio - 17 April 2011

Sunday afternoon, waiting for the evening to come, how could I ever let the afternoon pass just lazying around in front of the computer watching some Korean variety shows? Then my growling baby stomach started complaining, it's time for some light lunch. Ransacking through the refrigerator, not much ingredients to make something worth eating. Then after 10 minutes of looking though the cupboard, I finally found the perfect meal for a Sunday brunch - Spaghetti Aglio e Olio.

Probably the simplest and quickest out of all the pasta recipes (Bolognaise Sauce in tin can is NOT counted), Spaghetti Aglio e Olio is a must-try even for a newbie. Though this would my first attempt to make my own, a friend cooked and taught me once. A shout to NENEK RATNA!

Now, let's go to the ingredients;
2 cloves garlic
2 cloves shallot (READ: Bawang Merah)
2 tablespoon of olive oil (I used Bertolli Extra Virgin Olive Oil)
A spoonful of diced bacon
Half a teaspoon of dried chilly flake
A pinch of mixed Italian herbs
Spaghetti

Shall we start with the cooking process?
1. Cook the spaghetti half-way through (You wouldn't want to cook it too well-done, since we're going to stir-fry the pasta later on)

2. Thinly Slice the garlic and shallots (Please do not mince them), then stir fried them in medium to low heat olive oil until the fragrance came out. Then dump in the italian herbs, chilly flake, and the bacon. (I put the bacon last because I didn't want crispy bacon)

3. Once all the ingredients are cooked, throw in the half-cooked pasta in the sauce and stir-fried until the pasta is cooked through. I prefer mine to be 90% cooked, so it might take around 2 minutes or so.

4. Serve on a plate and garnish with a wee bit of dried herbs on top.

Originally, the recipe needs cheese, but I'd skip that sin part. Also, many recipes on the net doesn't use shallots, but my mentor NENEK RATNA mentioned it brings the extra aroma and flavour to the overall dish. Very true.

A really simple pasta recipe, perfect for those who are too lazy to go out, but too hungry to have home-delivered food.

Munchies - Gandaria City

Just last weekend, my first visit to the new Gandaria City Shopping Center in Kebayoran Lama. The last time I was tempted to go there was last year's Korean Indonesian Week, where there were kimchi tasting and BiBimBap competition, but never actually went there.

So finally, my friend and I went there to explore the new mall (It was more like what food are available there?). After a few round here and there, we finally decided on Munchies. Looking through heaps of restaurants menus with an empty stomach, but still can't decide where to eat, is unbearable.







We were recommended the "Combination of two meats and sauce" main. So how it works is you've got to choose two kind of meat (red and(or) white) and then there are varieties of sauces to combine with the meat. In the end, we didn't try those mains.

So after a quick glace through the iPad (I wanted to see the pictures of the menu), we decided to order 2 different type of mains (sandwich and pasta) and a salad (You know, to make you less guilty about eating too much meat).



For beverage, we ordered ice blackcurrant tea and ice jasmine tea. The thing I like about the beverage is the rock-sugar solution is in another shot glass, so we could adjust to our own preferences. Mine was a little bit less sweet even though I did put all the sugar. As usual, there's a mint leaf just for decoration.



For the salad, we ordered Chicken Aioli. I definitely didn't expect the salad to be like this! Craftly built, the base was a piece of bread (or nan), then sliced lettuced-mixed-with-mayo in the middle, and topped with grilled chicken breasts. First impression; unique. Never in my life to have salad to be served like this. Taste-wise, it wasn't as good as I expected. The chicken was crispy, which was good, but too salty, really really salty for my liking. Then the lettuce was good, even though I think they could reduce the amount of mayo used. By the time we reached the bottom of the salad, the bread below is too soggy. (Anyone tried soggy bread before?)



My main is the Chicken in the Middle Sandwich, which was recommended by the waitress. The highlight of the dish is definitely the soft white bread. Probably even the best single ingredient for that meal is the bread. It's super soft, not mushy, doesn't get stuck in your teeth, and smells like it's just came out of the oven, simply nothing ordinary. Inside those buns, is a piece of grilled chicken, caramelized onion, some mayo and melted cheese. Accompanying the sandwich is salads with balsamic vinegar dressing (I think), and a bowl of creamy mashed potato. I did request the chips to be changed to mashed potato, due to other 2011 resolutions.

My only complain about the dish is the over-cooked onion and over-used mayo. The onions literally smelled like instant noodles (READ: Indomie). Other than that, the mashed potato is very nice, not too creamy, and seasoned perfectly.





My friend ordered Mushroom and Almond Fusilli. Basically just fusilli cooked in white-based sauce, topped with a couple fried mushroom, a bunch of stir-fried mushroom, sliced almonds, and cheese. Couldn't really taste any almond flavouring, aside from the sliced almonds scattered on top. The fusilli, on the other hand, was nicely cooked, there's still this "al-dente" feels to it. The sauce too, was not too thick nor creamy to make you sick.



We were too full to order desert, so got to ditch them. Overall, the experience was nice. Trying something different than I had always tried before surely makes one think so much food varieties in the world, you won't finish them even though you had one different ones in every meal for the rest of your live.

Prices as of 23 Jan 2011:
Chicken in the Middle Sandwich Rp49k
Mushroom & Almond Fusilli Rp48k
Chicken Aioli Rp35k
Ice Blackcurrant Tea Rp18k
Ice Jasmine Tea Rp16k

Restaurant Info:
Munchies - Gandaria City Mainstreet Ground Floor,
Jl. KH. Syafi’i Hadzami No. 8, Kebayoran Lama
Jakarta Selatan

Phone: 021 2905 3076