Ayam Goreng Sri - Pandaan, Jawa Timur

If you ask me what is my favorite ayam goreng, I would definitely say Ayam Goreng Sri, without a doubt. The name might not sound familiar to those who don't live in Jawa Timur, since it is located in Pandaan, a small town on the way from Surabaya to Tretes (sort of Puncak of Jawa Timur). Growing up in Surabaya, I have been eating this delicacy since I was little kid and I always have fond memories, not only of the foods, but also of the place. The restaurant is located a bit on uphill, with very fresh air, beautiful scenery and local people selling their fresh produces such as bananas and veggies.

Since living in Jakarta, I haven't eaten this dish for long long time and finally a while ago my family went to Surabaya and bought the fried chicken for take away. Eating the chicken really brought up all sweet childhood memories. It still tasted exactly the same as I used to eat before, and still as yummylicious :D

The take away box

The chicken itself doesn't look like it was fried, but more like steamed or baked, since the skin wasn't crispy or crunchy like normal fried chicken. The meat is really soft, to the point that you don't have to make any effort to pull or break any bones. Even the bones themselves are also quite soft. The meat was sweet and savory, and combined with steaming rice and very spicy sambal terasi (beware, it is very spicy), it was just heavenly. I heard that the sweetness of the meat was because it is cooked in coconut juice.
I could finish the whole chicken and the whole bakul of rice myself if I didn't force myself to stop X_X. You could also choose the less spicy sambal bajak (without terasi), but in my opinion, the taste and spiciness of sambal terasi matches best with the sweetness of the chicken meat.   

The Fried Chicken and Sambal Bajak

Too bad they don't open any other branch except the one in Pandaan, so I will have to keep this dish as my occasional special treat. If you have a chance to visit Malang or Pasuruan, just remember to visit and taste this special dish. You won't be disappointed!

Ayam Goreng Sri
Jl. Dr Soetomo 3-4 (in front of Taman Candra Wilwatikta)
Pandaan, Jawa Timur
Ph: (0343) 631956

Le Bistro Restaurant - Jakarta, Indonesia

I read a positive review about this restaurant, and decided to give it a try. Le Bistro is owned by famous actress, Rima Melati and considered to be the oldest French restaurant in Jakarta. It is located behind Jaya Building, which is right opposite Jakarta Theatre (Skyline) building. The restaurant is tucked at the back, near the parking lot. Stepping inside, I suddenly felt like being transported to an antique shop somewhere in Europe. The restaurant itself is not very big, probably not more than 20 tables. But it is very neat, and with a lot of antiques and dim lights, it surely has a very unique atmosphere that is hard to find today with many restaurants nowadays having almost similar concepts to one another. There is also an old-fashioned bar adjacent to the dining room.

The Menu

Inside Le Bistro

Inside Le Bistro

Inside Le Bistro

We were served by a very friendly middle-aged lady, who recommended chicken steak (sorry, I forgot the exact name of the dish, which she said is one of the most popular menu here) and lasagna. While waiting, a basket of garlic bread was served as appetizer. The breads were tasty and had very nice smell of buttery garlic, but they a bit too soggy in my opinion. If they were little more dry and crunchy, they would be just perfect.

Garlic bread

 The main menu came, and here what my order looked like.

Chicken Steak

 Actually the dish didn't exactly look like what I imagined, but the taste was very tasty. It kinda reminded me of the home-made old-fashioned style of chicken steak. The chicken was covered in breadcrumb and fried, and topped with generous amount of rich sauce. The sauce kinda reminded me of rendang sauce, but much milder. The portion was very generous, and I had to force myself to finish the whole chicken.

When the lasagna came, it looked very different to the usual lasagna found in other restaurant. It was kinda flat, and the texture was very soft and creamy. Despite the look, the taste was actually quite yummy.

Lasagna

Wanting to taste the dessert, we ordered Crepe Suzette (which I forgot to take pic of). It was not bad actually, but I would like to more if the crepes were not too soggy and the sauce less sour.

My only complain here was that the air con wasn't cool enough and my friend complained of being bitten by mosquitoes. Despite that, I would personally recommend this place if you would like to taste affordable old-fashioned and original foods, with a very unique ambiance and friendly services.

Le Bistro
Gedung Jaya (Parking Lot)
Jl.MH.Thamrin Kav.1-2
Jakarta, Indonesia
Phone number: +62-21 3192 5633

Japanese KitKat Madness

I bet most of us have ever eaten KitKat or at least know about it, right? Chocolate-coated wafer with it's catchy slogan "Have a break. Have a Kit Kat". And I guess most of us are only familiar with the standard flavours of KitKat, which is chocolate, caramel or white chocolate.

Well, the Land of Rising Sun begs to differ. I should've called it KitKat's Heaven instead. In the country where the competition for snacks and confectionery products is so fierce, coupled with very highly sophisticated and demanding customers, a company can't survive merely by producing standards products which customers could find everywhere else in the world. The competition is so fierce that companies would continuously rolling out new products once every few months, and it's not strange to find new products on the convenience stores every now and then, and the products you saw few months ago already disappeared from the shelves. Isn't it great to be a customer in Japan? :D

OK, go back to KitKat. Only in Japan you could find hundreds of variety of KitKats, some of which are really unthinkable. Have you ever wondered what Strawberry Cheesecake KitKat or Wasabi KitKat tastes like? Usually the company will launch new flavors based on the specialty of regions in Japan, and on seasonal or limited period basis. For example, Yubari Melon flavor is released limited in Hokkaido since it is a famous product from Yubari region in Hokkaido. Another example is Matcha (green tea) flavor is sold in Kyoto or Osaka region since Kyoto is famous for it's green tea. It's kinda hard to find those specialty products somewhere else, but if you're lucky you could find some in the Narita or Haneda airport.

From my last trip to Japan, I made it my mission to buy all specialty KitKat from every region that I visited. So this is what I ended up with (and this is not all)...XD

Japanese KitKats

As expected of Japanese products, they all have very nice and neat packaging, I had to think twice before throwing away the boxes..

The first place I visited was Kyushu prefecture which is located on the southern part of main island (Honshu) of Japan. I managed to find two specialty KitKat products there, Amaou Strawberry and Beni Imo (Purple Sweet Potato/Yam).

Amaou Strawberry has a very soft pink color with nice strawberry fragrant. It doesn't taste much like strawberry but I like the sweetness (but not very sweet) with faint hints of sourness, and the milky flavor of the chocolate.

Amaou Strawberry KitKat

 As its name, Purple Potato has a soft purple color, with distinct fragrant (I guess it's the smell of purple potato?). It has a stronger taste than Amaou Strawberry and definitely different than yam paste I usually find inside buns or bubble tea drinks. As with Amaou Strawberry it wasn't overly sweet and you will be left with nice milky chocolate flavor afterwards.

Beni Imo (Yam) KitKat

 Next destination was Hiroshima which is part of Chugoku region. The specialty KitKat I found here was Golden Citrus Blend, which is a blended flavor of Unshuu Mikan (satsuma mandarin), lemon and sudachi (a kind of Japanese citrus). I couldn't remember the taste well, but it has lemony taste, a bit of sourness of citrus and of course sweetness of milk chocolate.

Golden Citrus Blend Kitkat

From Hiroshima I travelled to Kansai area, which is where Kyoto and Osaka are situated. This is where the famous Matcha (green tea) KitKat is from. Kyoto is famous for its high quality matcha and everywhere you could find any products infused with green tea flavor, it is indeed a real heaven for green tea lovers. Green tea KitKat is perhaps the most famous Japanese KitKat flavor outside Japan and it would make a very nice souvenir from Japan. This particular green tea is called Uji Matcha which is produced from a small town called Uji, near Kyoto and it's known to produce some of the highest quality green tea in Japan.  And the taste indeed isn't disappointing, instead of faint flavor, you can actually taste the green tea and I think it's less sweet than the other flavors. So far it's my favourite. 

Uji Matcha (green tea) KitKat

Another variety of tea-flavored KitKat from Kyoto is Houji-cha, which has brown color instead of green due to roasting process.

Houji-cha KitKat

Yatsubashi is a well-known sweets from Kyoto, which is made of rice-flour, sugar and cinnamon. KitKat released a specialty Shogoin Yatsubashi flavored KitKat, which is one of famous yatsubashi makers from Kyoto.

Shogoin Yatsubashi KitKat

 After Kyoto, the final destination was Tokyo area. The easiest place to find the specialty KitKat is in the airport, I found many varieties in Haneda airport which carries quite a lot of flavors from Tokyo area. One specialty flavor from Tokyo is Kuromitsu (black honey) KitKat, which is a type of Japanese black sugar which is usually used in making Japanese traditional sweets. I found it too sweet for my taste, but nevertheless it was still quite OK.

Kuromitsu (black sugar) KitKat

 There are many interesting flavors from Yokohama, which is located just outside Tokyo. Annin-dofu (almond pudding) flavor is one of them.

Annin-dofu Kitkat

There are also Blueberry Cheesecake and Strawberry Cheesecake flavor! Can you imagine that? I don't even know if Yokohama is famous for their cheesecake. I guess the tastes are just OK, nothing much special about them. The usual sweetness, and maybe little bit of blueberry and strawberry taste. But still, I couldn't help getting all excited when seeing these interesting flavors. And look at the cute package! It is shaped like Mount Fuji, with its iced peak ^^

Blueberry Cheesecake KitKat

Strawberry Cheesecake KitKat

Below flavors don't belong to certain area in Japan, but they are still pretty interesting after all.
I found Sakura-flavored green tea KitKat. Sakura can be found incorporated into foods, especially during sakura season, but it's rather tasteless in my opinion. So, I can only taste the green tea flavor, but not as strong as the matcha one.

Sakura Green Tea KitKat

Other version of matcha KitKat is Air In Green Tea KitKat. I guess what it means is the green tea chocolate layer is infused with little air bubbles to make it more crunchy. There is also a layer of chocolate on the bottom. This one actually tastes pretty good, I found the wafer was more crunchy and the taste was nice.

Air In Green Tea KitKat

This one is Cookies and Cream flavor, which is made of Oreo biscuits thus we could find bits and pieces of Oreo chocolate inside the white chocolate layer. Not bad at all.

Cookies and Cream KitKat

Even though I quite enjoyed trying out all those flavors, some of them are quite similar in taste, in fact you could barely taste the difference between one flavor to another, except for their different smells. However, what I enjoyed most was the thrill of hunting those specialty flavor, especially knowing that this kind of stuffs could only be found in Japan and Japan only. And certainly they would make a very unique and exciting souvenir from Japan. 

Playground - Plaza Indonesia Jakarta

I've been hearing about this new restaurant that opens in Plaza Indonesia for sometimes, but only recently I had the opportunity to visit and taste the foods there. The restaurant is located on the corner of Plaza Indonesia extension 4th just opposite Ootoya. The atmosphere of the restaurant is certainly very unique, with very dim lights and as the name suggests, there are hanging chairs that look just like swings and rolling chairs. But other than those, it looks just like another restaurants.

Interior of Playground (sorry for the blur pic..)

 My order was Red Cheddar Dory, which was pan-fried dory served with cheddar cream sauce, spinach and baked potatoes. The presentation was really nice, as you can see, but the fish was not as crispy on the outside and soft on the inside as I thought. In fact, I think the meat was a bit too soggy and too thin. However, the yummy golden sauce saved the day. It was creamy, but not overly thick and the taste complemented the fish quite well. It was so good I didn't leave any drop of sauce on the plate ;p

Red Cheddar Dory (58k)

My friends ordered Katsutti and Autopsy Burger, which I think is one of their signature dishes. I heard many people recommended Katsutti, which basically is spaghetti covered with generous slices of tonkatsu and eggs. It was indeed good as my friend testified, so next time maybe I'll try that dish.

Katsutti (65k)

 While Autopsy Burger was quite an impressive dish on the appearance, standing tall around 20-30 cm high. Basically it was a burger with its various fillings stacked up together, among others, beef patty, onion rings, cream mushroom croquette, served with french fries, potato wedges and chips. While impressive on the appearance, the taste was quite mediocre and I guess you would have a better bet having normal burgers atBK or Fatburgers, and not to mention much cheaper too!

Autopsy Burger (125k)

 The drinks…

Playground
Plaza Indonesia Extension 4th floor
Jl. M.H. Thamrin Kav. 28 - 30, Jakarta
Jakarta - Indonesia


Phone: (021) 2992-3747
Fax: (021) 2992-3749

BonChon Chicken - Grand Indonesia

Note: This post is being migrated from my previous one in Wordpress.

OK, since eating good foods is my other obsession (besides manga ;p), I thought I will give it a shot at reviewing restaurants and foods that I tried. Jakarta's culinary scene has become very vibrant where a lot of new restaurants opening up at the speed of lights, offering various different type of foods and themes. With the recent waves of Korean pop culture, not only Korean dramas, songs, singers and actors/actress became very popular, but Korean foods as well. Recently, a very popular dish in Korea, fried chicken, has also made its way to Jakarta with the opening of BonChon Chicken in Grand Indonesia.
BonChon Chicken originates from South Korea and has made its way to USA, Thailand and Philippines. When you heard of the word fried chicken, you might instantly think of the big KFC-styled fried chicken with super crispy skin (or flour?). But Korea-styled fried chickens (in this case, BonChon) beg to differ, just look at the pics below!

Bonchon Take Away Box

 I ordered 4 pieces of chicken drumsticks with spicy sauce (Rp 50k). They have choices of thighs, strips, drumsticks and mix with original or spicy sauces.

Bonchon Drumsticks with Spicy Sauce

Drumsticks with Spicy Sauce

As you can see on the pic, the drumsticks have thin layer of skin coated with sauce. And they tasted very damn good! The skin is thin yet very crispy and not greasy at all. In fact, the skin is very thin, it is almost like a crust. The meat inside is cooked perfectly, which is soft and moist and I didn't find any layer of blood on the bones which I often found on many undercooked drumsticks. I read on the internet that the chicken is cooked twice which renders out all the fats on the skin.

Besides the crispy skin crust, what I liked most is the sauce! It's hot, spicy, tangy and sweet, the sweetness is a bit like teriyaki sauce but on a more mellow side with spicy kicks enough to make your lips swell. If you like spicy taste, then this is the sauce for you! I kept licking my fingers when I ate them, afraid of wasting the delicious sauce! XD

The downside is that I had to wait quite long for them to prepare my order, I guess I was waiting for more than 15 mins for the order. I don't know if it was because the cooking process took a long time, or it was just because of slow service since the restaurant wasn't crowded at that time.

The next day, I had a chance to taste Bonchon again since a friend would like to try them. This time I ordered beef Bulgogi set, which consisted of Bulgogi and rice, with a choice of soft drink. For side dish, I order kimchi soup (forgot to take pics of them). When the dishes came out, I was quite disappointed to see the bulgogi looked dry and quite unappetizing, and indeed the beef was dry with almost no sauce on it and tasted mediocre at best. And the kimchi soup was too sour yet bland for my liking and it lacked of the spicyness that I usually love when eating kimchi.

Nevertheless, I would still come back for their fried chicken and meantime I hope that they continue to improve their other menus.

BonChon Chicken
Grand Indonesia Shopping Mall, West Mall 5th floor Unit 2-3
Jakarta - Indonesia