Crispy Crusty Potato Pancake - 10 April 2011

I was craving for some rosti lately (Thanks to someone posting up Marche's rosti), and since the Marche in Jakarta is not as good as the one in Singapore, I got to at least try to make them. Searching in Youtube for a rosti recipe, I came across a recipe for crusty potato pancake by Food Wishes, and looking how simple the technique and ingredients are, I thought I at least got to try this.

So this afternoon was just the perfect timing for the pancake. Please go to this site for the full recipe and how-to-make video: http://foodwishes.blogspot.com/2010/12/crispy-crusty-potato-pancakes-always.html. I altered the recipe a abit by adding some sausages and bacons. The main ingredients were prepared, and we have, potatoes, onions, egg, nurnberger sausage, bacons, and some green onions. Then for seasonings, we have salt, black pepper, Italian herbs, and paprika powder. I skipped the sour cream shown in Chef John's recipe.



Two things to keep in mind is to really really drain and squeeeeeeeeze the potatoes dry before adding the wet ingredients, and make sure to add it just before frying. Don't let it settle because it will turn watery and bye bye crispy crusty crunchy potato pancake.

So here's the end-results. Crispy Crusty Potato Pancake, accompanied by pork nurnberger sausages, topped with a spoonful of pan-fried diced bacon, and finished with a touch of spring onion for garnish.



What's better and more importantly healthy to go with this kind of dish? (No, I'm not paid by Three Leg Brand for helping them promote).

May Star - Central Park

Choosing this restaurant for a meeting with a friend whom I've not met since a couple of years ago was the easiest task I could ever remember. Not really foreign to a lot of the Chinese-Jakartans, May Star definitely has become one of the top-rated restaurants well-known for its BBQ duck, DimSum, and of course its Coconut Pudding. The restaurant chain is rumoured to have been established by a group of people of the Fujian-ethnicity. (READ: Orang Medan)

Probably the best location for the owners to decide to open their chain is this one in Central Park. Location-wise, it's quite 'central' Jakarta, though its location is really the North. Since Central Park is quite a new mall, to have at least May Star as one of its tenant is precious, as it's never run out of patrons, even on a weekday. Though there were many other High-end Chinese restaurant in the mall, May Star is a definite winner. The most recent chain is the one in Gandaria City and I heard is catered for non-pork eaters. A very good strategy considering more and more non-pork eaters are starting to dine in Chinese restaurants.

Prior to have booked the restaurant that afternoon, there is no wasting time in queuing. To have to say "excuse me" to all the people swarming the restaurant entrance is a sign of achievement, with just a phone call. A friend overheard another guest asking the manager when will they get a table for four, the manager just shook her head. So, please do book the restaurant (even on weekdays) before your grandma kicks you in the butt for making her queue.

A friend once gave me tips on what to order and what not. The first one he said was if you don't come with your parents / elderly, don't order fish and other luxurious Chinese delicacy (Sharks Fin Soup, Sea Cucumber, Lobsters, etc). Even your credit card will scream its lungs out. But even without ordering those, May Star is May Star and it is indeed expensive. The seven of us didn't bother to check out the prices before ordering, let's conclude it's a lesson learnt. (The menu pictures are just so tempting)

So each of us ordered a dish, and we concluded to exclude those dishes listed above. The first dish is the BBQ Combination. Perhaps, most families who came in numbers order this one. It's a combination of 5 mini dishes, BBQ Pork, BBQ Duck, Chicken in soy sauce, Stewed beef and jellyfish. All of them taste average, especially the beef and chicken. And there were 3 types of sauces served; Soy sauce, Chilly sauce and a type I don't know what sauce. They should have served the typical Hongkie sauces; Chilly oil, Duck Sauce, and Plum Sauce.



Then we ordered the Prawn in Salted Egg. I didn't like it that much. First it's still shelled and the salted is covering the prawn shell, so there isn't much salted egg after de-shelling the prawns. Nobody can blame me for eating the whole prawn, with its shell, minus the head and tail. The worse thing about this is actually it's quite greasy and you can't enjoy the crisp of fresh prawn meat.



Next is another seafood, Deep fried Squid XO Style. It's very appetizing! Just a few years ago I realized XO sauce doesn't involve the XO liquor as I thought before. Check this out: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/XO_sauce. It's just based on naming method. The squid is fried perfectly, doesn't get rubbery as it just snaps when bitten. Then the dry XO aroma is just so pleasantly flirting with your sense of smell.



Time for a meat dish, we ordered the ever-famous Beef in Black Pepper Sauce. It's served with blanched Kailan and a piece of fried papadum. I still have no idea on why they served a papadum, but who cares, the overall dish is without doubt, a winner. Starting with the chunks of beef, cooked to an inch perfect, they just breaks off in your mouth when chewed and the strong black pepper sauce seems to have penetrated to the core. Amazing! Though the Kailan is just average, I think this dish is a must-order.



Then we ordered the Imported Broccoli. Again this is very ordinary, even homey I'd say. It's probably blanched for a while then showered with some oyster-sauce.



Lastly, a friend recommended this Sapo Tofu. It's a dish where the tofu is weirdly stewed in some thick sauce but taste surprisingly quite nice. The thick sauce taste very light and the additional mushroom matches the whole dish.



So one thing that makes people keep coming back to May Star is probably the complementary whole BBQ Duck when the order is more then Rp500k (or Panin Bank CC holder -> 25 - 30% discount). And we did forget the duck almost until the end. Honestly this is not the first time I had the duck, but the quality seems to have dropped by a little wee bit. The duck skin is still crisps, but the meat is not as tender as it was 2 years ago, and it's becoming more salty lately.



Just when you think it's over, a trip to May Star is never complete without the Coconut Pudding. The pioneer of this dessert, there are many restaurants trying to imitate, but haven't so far found any that can match this masterpiece. The pudding is made from imported Thai coconut, and the sweetness and the jelly-like texture is just perfectly harmonized. A Thai friend whom had tried the pudding even praised it's better than the one in Thailand, he even went for a second serving.



Though I did complained about the prices in the beginning, and some people argue that there are other restaurants offering similar dishes at more affordable prices, May Star somehow managed to pull back customers with new creative dishes and more promotions (The most recent one is winning a car).

Restaurant Info:
Hotel LE GRANDEUR Lt.3
Jl Mangga Dua Raya
Jakarta
Phone: +62 21 6127880

Emporium Pluit Mall Lt.4
Jl Pluit Selatan Raya
Jakarta
Phone: +62 21 66676280

Central park mall LG Floor NO. 103-103A
Jl. Letjend S Parman Kav.28
Jakarta
Phone: +62 21 56985422

Gandaria City GF-Main Street NO.M-G38 & M-G39
Jl. Sultan Iskandar Muda (Arteri Pondok Indah)
Gandaria - Kebayoran Lama
Jakarta
Phone : +62 21 29052922

Prices as of 5 February 2011 in Central Park:

BBQ Combination - Rp148k
Prawn in Salted Egg - Rp144k
Fried Squid XO Style - Rp87k
Beef in Black Pepper Sauce - Rp192k
Broccoli - Rp87k
Sapo Tofu - Rp78k
BBQ Duck - Rp100 (Promo)
Coconut Pudding - Rp42.8k

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

Lau's Kopitiam - Emporium Pluit

One lonely lonely Saturday afternoon, nothing to do, no one asked me out, asked no one out, and there we have, sitting down alone in a four-chaired-table, among other couples, families, staring at me (and probably gossiping) for taking snaps at food. Anyway, Liu's kopitiam is well-known for YaKunKaya-kindoff-toast. Of course, being a fool sometimes, I got to try other things.



For a hot Saturday afternoon, what's better than chilled ice-milk-tea with jelly (Actually there are better drinks than this). It was very diluted, but sweet, not much tea flavour. And the jelly's too soft.



For entree, I tried the Fried shrimp-roll (READ: Lumpia goreng). Honestly, it's not bad at all. The chilly sauce accompanying is a must. The skin is crispy, not too oily, and you can taste the shrimp meat. And there isn't any fishy smell like the other shrimp rolls in cheap restaurants. In the picture below, the shrimp-roll seems to be neatly arranged, it was not like that initially! I got to arrange them nicely so it will look at least presentable in the blog. Of course it was followed by stares from aunts and uncles in front.



The waitress recommended the fried flat rice noodle with beef (READ:Kwetiaw Goreng Sapi). Seriously, I had considered asking for a refund after being served this kind of flat rice noodle. It was really bad. Considering they had printed the picture in the menu, they had to at least know how to cook properly. First, it was tasteless, not even a bit of saltiness. Then the rice noodle is so so soft (in a negative way). I expected the chef's trying to save his own arse by putting more flavour in the dish after messing up in boiling the noodle, but it was really bad. Then the beef was chewy. Yes, it's chewy, obviously from being over-cooked. In a usual Chinese dish, the beef is usually deep fried, then added to the half-cooked dish, but it's unlikely like this in here. The small portion is next. I know it's not expensive and all, but the serving is a real shame.



Restaurant Info:
Lau's Kopitiam - Emporium Pluit Mall Lv.4 - 07

Prices as of 12 FEb 2011
Ice Milk Tea with Jelly - 12k
Fried Shrimp Roll - 14k
Fried Flat Noodle with Beef - 20k

Canton Bay - Puri Indah Mall

Our family was just hanging around in a mall we seldom go to a couple of weeks ago and we realized we were craving for some light simple Chinese food. And voila, here we were browsing at the Canton Bay restaurant menu and who knows it's so tempting looking at the pictures.



So without much consideration, we went in and ordered a few looking-great-in-the-menu food.

I had the most craving in porridge in ages and I HAD to order the well-recommended HongKong style porridge (with scallops) in here. It was very very hongkie, but a little too salty, though the scallops isn't as fresh, but the overall smooth texture of the over-cooked rice is pretty nice. The young ginger sprinkled on top just makes it more hongkie. Of course HongKong porridge is not complete without the deep-fried chinese doughnuts.



Then we ordered the Seafood Ifu Mie. Just like a typical ifu mie sold in school canteen, this was definitely the most disappointing menu. It was too crispy, the choice of egg noodles was too thin, and thus making the noodles just to crispy when deep-fried. The seafood and vege condiments were over-cooked and the sauce is too thick. Bad bad choice.



For the soup, we ordered the duck (I forgot the name) soup. Also, doesn't live up to the expectations. It was like eating soup cooked with left-overs from yesterday. Don't bother trying. It just wasn't our day.



Then we came across the so-tempting Beancurd hotplate Szechuan Style. Oh wow, this was very good. We opted for a change from Japanese silk tofu to just normal tofu. The mince pork (or chicken) coated in the Szechuan sauce was probably the best taste in all of the dishes.



For vege, we ordered cai miaw cooked in garlic. Surprisingly well-cooked. Not too over-done, the stem and the leaf is still crispy when you bite it, and the fried diced garlic make the dish less "vegi".



Though we ordered this last dish first, it came last. The 3 combination BBQ; BBQ Duck, Beef, and jellyfish. All I can say about the dish is, 4/10. Firstly, the jellyfish is not fresh, too spicy and too salty. The duck isn't tender as it looks, and the beef, was the worst. It's topped with some garlic-hoisin sauce and taste just as bad.



Overall, disappointing.

For more info, visit: http://cantonbay.com/index.php

Pho House - Muara Karang

It was actually my second time going to this restaurant, but the first experience was a few years ago and both the service and food were really disappointing. A few friends mentioned there were changes in the menu and renovations, so why not give it another try. There were definitely improvements on the service, and of course the food also. They vary from the original Vietnamese pho noodle, pork (or chicken) chops, broken rice, and some Thai food as well (Tomyum and padthai).



For the entree we ordered beef salad and prawn spring roll. The beef salad was refreshing, very different from the usual ones I had in Oz. Very thinly sliced beef with raw red onions, red chilly and a plash of vinegar. But a little too spicy for me.



We ordered the "wet" spring roll instead of the usual fried ones. Had too many oily food recently and not wanting to mess around with sore-throats during Lunar New year. Anyway, the spring rolls were just OK. Though the dipping sauce was nice, it's hoisin sauce and some crushed peanuts. The spring roll itself is served chilled and tasteless, but the sweetness of hoisin sauce and crunchiness of the peanuts give it more flavour. Fresh prawns nonetheless.



What is the point of going to a Vietnamese restaurant if you're not ordering PHO! So we ordered two portions of it. The first one is the pho special; inside were beef slices, beef balls, beef tendons, and other beef parts I can't remember of. The rice noodle is just average, but what was nice is the beef slices. Even the soup wasn't as good as I expected. It's was just beefy and tasty, but that was it, nothing special. The pho set came with a plate of raw bean sprouts, raw onions, basil leaves and a slice of lime - to add sourness. You can eat all of them raw, but I just dumped them inside the hot soup.





Prices as of 30 Jan 2011
Beef salad - 26k
Prawn springroll - 16k
Pho Special 37k
Pho (Beef slices + Beef balls) - 35k

Restaurant Info:
Pho House - Muara Karang Blok L9 no 5-6
Telp : 021 33099648

Bakmi Gajah Mada - Emporium Pluit

Went there last week for Saturday lunch after a few months absent and I promised myself not to order the same one as I usually did, the Chilly Beef noodle.

As usual, we've got to pay first, only then the order is put through to the kitchen.



For drinks we ordered some ice green tea and warm tea (since I've got a bad flu to conquer before the ultimate Chinese New Year feast the week after).



Anyway, the four of us ordered a few entrees and each ordered a noodle. Of course, we got to order the ever-famous fried dumplins. I'd say, this is probably their winning formula to grow from a small noodle shop along Gajah Mada Road to being a house-hold name in noodles in Jakarta. If one hadn't tried the "pangsit goreng", one had not had bakmi gajah mada. The sweet and sour sauce accompanying the fried dumplings, too, had not changed a bit since I first had it maybe some 20 years ago.

Now, the dumpling is not oily at all. Nor is it crunchy like the usual oil-absorbing-dumpling-skin some other shops sell. Many noodle shops / Chinese restaurants tried to copy the dumpling, but of course to no vail. They just can't make the oil go away. In the past, My brother and I had a theory they might not fry the dumpling at all, but of course, baking them would not work either. And other theory include frying them in a very very high heat for seconds, then quickly scoop them up before the oil starts to get absorbed.



We also ordered the soup dumplings, which IMO, is crap. If only the standard of the soup ones is as good as the fried ones, they'll be more successful. We tried the chicken siomay as well. Another disappointment! Tasteless, oily, and super oily.





Let's move on the main course. I ordered the broccoli beef noodle, something different than the usual. It was just OK. The sauce was too thick and the noodles was a little bit over-cooked. But the broccoli and beef were complimenting the downsides.



Then we ordered one of the new menu, Thai chicken noodle. The chicken was grilled, not too oily and crispy. The sauce accompanying was also very Thai, sweet and sour.



Of course, as usual, one of us must order the chilly beef noodle. In the end, we ordered a couple portions. Anyway, to me this is the best noodle they have. The beef is very tender and the dish was not spicy at all considering the name itself. Ever since the price of chilly hiking up since the past months or so, it seems, they also cut down the quantity used.



Prices as of 29 Jan 2011
Fried Dumpling (5 pieces) Rp10k
Soup Dumpling (5 pieces) Rp9k
Fried Chicken Siomay (2 pieces) Rp13k
Broccoli Beef Noodle 30k
Thai Chicken Noodle 22k
Chilly Beef Noodle 30k

Restaurant Info:
Bakmi Gajah Mada - Emporium Pluit Mall, Lt 2. Jakarta Utara
Phone Number: 021-6667-6399

(Go to http://www.bakmigm.com/outlets/jakarta for more info)