Tenda - Haymarket, Sydney

A new-ish Indonesian restaurant just a teeny tiny bit outside Chinatown (I honestly have no clear idea of the exact boundaries of Sydney's Chinatown - as far as I'm concerned the whole Sydney City CBD is in fact, Chinatown) LOL. Anyway, I really think that the term "Chinatown" should be gradually phased out and changed into "Asiantown". It's kind of unfair to call them all Chinese since there are so many Asian ethnicities in Chinatowns...LOL

Any new Indonesian restaurants in the City should be warmly welcomed, IMO. Most Indonesian restaurants in Sydney are concentrated in the Randwick-Kingsford-Kensington-Maroubra area (also known as the Indonesian Colony or Indonesiatown). Kind of make sense, really, since most Indonesians live in those 4 suburbs in Sydney. However, for us City / downtown kids (what the...how corny and ostentatious) it's such a hassle if we have to travel 30 minutes just to grab a bite of ridiculously overpriced, somewhat fake-tasting Tempe (soybean cake). Note: Tempe in Sydney costs a whopping 15 - 20 times more expensive than in Jakarta.

Gado-Gado
Steamed vegetable salad with peanut sauce dressing

-> Words cannot describe how BAD this Gado-Gado is. I'm really sorry, but even I can make a much better Gado-Gado. Heck, even my servant in Jakarta (who's notoriously bad at cooking) makes a better Gado-Gado. To make things worse, this dish costs 9 bucks. Oh well, I guess rent in the City is expensive.
BTW, this is a Gado-Gado Siram (a type of Gado-Gado in which steamed vegetables are arranged on a plate, then splashed / covered with dressing) as opposed to the IMO superior Gado-Gado Ulek (the whole dish, including the sauce, is prepared on a large stone mortar and the sauce is made from fresh peanut & herbs / ingredients ground with a pestle)

Rating: 2/10

Mie Ayam
Indonesian Chicken Noodle

-> A quintessential Chinese-Indonesian dish. The original fusion food that preceded any fusion Indonesian food. Whatever. Served with a tiny bowl of bakso (meatball) soup. Funny thing: on the menu, this dish is described as "Indonesian Ramen". What the?? Well, even though it's TECHNICALLY correct, I don't think they should use that description. Kind of SAD, really - Indonesian food is so unpopular in Sydney they have to use that sort of description to attract customers.

Rating: 7/10

Bakso & Pangsit Goreng
Fried meatballs & fried wontons

-> Comes with the noodle set. My foreign friend was so reluctant to try the meatball thing because it resembles nothing he's ever eaten before.

Rating: 6/10

Sate Ayam, Sate Sapi, Sate Kambing
Assorted satay (chicken, beef, lamb)

-> Ah, finally a decent dish. Averaging at around $1.70 per stick, I STILL think it's a tad pricey (sizes are small-ish). But it's good nevertheless. I especially like the lamb satay - I almost NEVER eat lamb in Indonesia because for some people...Indonesian lambs can be very strong in aroma (or should I say odor). That's why some Indonesians consider lamb as 'dirty' meat.

Anyway, that's not the main point. The main point is, Australian lamb comes from those cute fluffy and not-so-odorous-depending-on-the-situation SHEEP. Indonesian lamb comes from those skinny, dirty, catastrophically-odorous GOATS. Sheep's meat tend to be more tender and less odorous than goat's meat. Also, Indonesian goats have bad image compared to Australian sheep, and let me explain why. You see, the only chance you can see a live goat in Jakarta is around the Eid-al-Adha, which is an important festival in the Muslim calendar. During this celebration, people would buy a hewan qurban, which are live animals for offering, usually goats (for the middle-class people) and cows (for the moneyed). These livestocks are displayed on various spots in the city, usually near market complexes or open fields transformed into makeshift livestock display areas. Every Eid-al-Adha, whenever I'm driving around the suburbs passing at those poor goats waiting for sembelih (to be slaughtered), I can't help but feel terribly sorry for them. I can't bear looking at those melancholic eyes, and looking at their skinny bodies, it's not like they've had a GREAT life, they should just die naturally, I reckon.
Whereas in Australia, the only chance I get to see live sheep is at the Sydney Royal Easter Show, a festival in which farmers from around Australia compete to show their fattest, greatest, cutest, plumpest, stoutest, most beautiful and prized livestocks. Looking at those cute, fat, smiling sheep makes me feel hungry. They've had a great life. It's okay to eat them.

Rating: 7.5/10

Ikan Goreng
Fried fish

-> Someone please ID this fish...this...overpriced tiny fish. It tastes okay, but look at that face! So annoying...

Rating: 6/10

Kingsford Chinese Restaurant - Kingsford, Sydney

A Big group impromptu makan-makan (eating out) that took almost half the room of the tiny, cramp, but popular restaurant (5 tables in total)!

Shandong Chicken

Long Beans with belacan
(a must try!)

Tofu with Broccoli

Salt, pepper & chilli calamari

Sweet & Sour Pork

Badde Manors Cafe - Glebe, Sydney

It's hard to decide what to eat in Glebe - the area along Glebe Point road is full of delicious eateries. In fact, it's somehow like Paddington - but for hippies. This road strip is a melting pot of many cultures and races. One can see a seemingly endless myriad of people types - dreadlocked hippie girls, leather fetishists, even Asians in Louboutins. It's really an oasis in suburbia, lined with charmingly un-renovated old townhouses and fabulously dinghy second-hand shops.


This quirky cafe, Badde Manors, is arguably the most popular watering hole for many locals and visitors alike. It's probably the most un-pretentious cafe in the world. Guests seat themselves just like they do at their own homes, waitresses don't look like waitresses - they look like your best friends, and from the big espresso machine, it looks like an Italian cafe - until you see a middle-aged Chinese kitchen staff carrying sourdoughs he just baked while mumbling stuff in Cantonese.


Entering the charming cafe, the atmosphere of 60's cafe is unmistakable. I was very delighted to see this, because I hadn't been born in the 60's and I've been wanting to see one for ages. Mismatched furnitures, unfinished woods, old photographs on the wall - the works. The menu is very eclectic. They've got Italian, German, Hungarian, Portuguese, whatever pleases your appetite. And oh, it's a Vegetarian restaurant, so for us carnivores, it's a very pleasant change. They also have vegan and non-gluten options.

Rye bread
...fresh from the oven. Soft, warm, incredibly tasty and inviting.

Vegetable Lasagna
...with Portobello mushroom, spinach, and ricotta.

-> It's so delightful. I love the meaty mushrooms, and the portion is so generous, it's even too much for me. The salad is dressed in what seemed to be light balsamic vinaigrette and olive oil. All in all, it's a big, hearty, sumptuous meal.

Portuguese Custard Tart

-> If you think that you're in a cha chaan teng in Yau Ma Tei, Kowloon, and the food depicted above is a dan tat (Hong Kong style Portuguese egg tart), think again. This is a custard tart, with lemony sweet creamy filling. The other one you're thinking of is egg-y and not milky. Anyway, both are delicious. I love egg tarts. Or custard tarts.

What I learned from this visit:
If I ever decide to observe Lenten fast and abstain from meat, I know where to go. LOL

Ikan Bakar Cianjur - Cipete, Jakarta

Dinner today!
This small (yet famous) restaurant chain first opened its doors in the small town of Cianjur in West Java. After enjoying much success and a cult status over there, it expanded to Jakarta, opening its 'flagship' restaurant a couple of years ago. Ever since then, customers flocked the place from as far as the East Nusa Tenggara province.



The restaurant serves Sundanese (West Javanese) food. The main characteristic of Sundanese food is a good balance between sweet and savory, and also, plenty of grilled and deep-fried stuff. The spices are subtle and not as complex as, say, Javanese food, so, for lovers of simple and less-spicy food, I'd recommend this one.



And oh, the restaurant is the reigning champion of West Javanese cuisine competition in Indonesia. Quite deservedly so, I'd say. Their food is top-notch.



Sayur Kangkung

A simple and hearty dish. the kangkung (water convulvulus, or kong xin cai, as the Chinese call it) is lightly sauteed in peanut oil with whole garlic cloves and just a dash of salt. Sounds simple, but actually very tricky to get the texture just right.)

Rating: 8.5/10
Verdict: It's delightfully light and tasty. Simplicity is the key. Many restaurants add extra ingredients to complement the kangkung, such as quail eggs, prawns, etc, but I think kangkung is best cooked without anything else.



Ikan Gurame Goreng (deep-fried gourami fish)

-> The restaurant's specialty. Ikan Gurame (Gourami fish) is considered the staple fish in Sundanese cuisine. Many inferior Sundanese restaurants serve fried Gourami fish that was frozen, but excellent ones like this restaurant have their own live fish tanks somewhere in the restaurant. Gourami fish is very tricky to breed, because if the water condition is wrong, the meat (when cooked) will have a rather unpleasant odor known locally as "bau tanah" (literally means, "smells like soil"). This restaurant is so committed to serve the highest grade of Gourami fish available, that if there's something off about the fish, they will replace it with another one immediately.

Rating: 9.5/10
Verdict: This gourami dish is deep fried until crispy on the outside, yet moist and soft on the inside. This is very, very hard to acheive. One cannot simply season the fish and deep fried it to get this perfection. The fish is incredibly tasty, with a bit of saltiness and just a tiniest hint of worchestershire sauce. Perfect when eaten with kecap manis (Javanese thick & sweet soy sauce).



Tahu Goreng Cianjur (Fried Cianjur-style tofu), served with Kecap Cabe Bawang (relish made of sweet soy sauce, bird's eye chili and red shallots) and Sambal Bajak (Bajak chilli relish)

A variation of the famous Tahu Goreng Sumedang (Sumedang-style fried tofu). Sumedang is a town in West Java famous for its crispy and chewy deep-fried puffy tofu that is incredibly, hollow on the inside.

Rating: 8.5/10
Verdict: This Cianjur version is not hollow on the inside, but fleshy and moist instead. Tastes incredible.



Karedok

Not to be confused with the omnipresent Gado-Gado (Indonesian salad with peanut dressing), Karedok is the Sundanese take on the salad with peanut dressing. The main difference is, the vegetables in Gado-Gado is cooked, but in Karedok, it's raw. Moreover, Karedok has more bite to it and definitely more spicy.

Rating: 6/10
Verdict: The dressing is not thick enough, so the dish becomes a tad soggy. The vegetables are not chopped fine enough. And also, they don't add enough basil leaves.



Nasi Putih (steamed rice)

The Sundanese take pride on their rice production, which amounts to almost 50% of the national rice output. There are hundreds of types of rice varieties in West Java alone, yet the Kepala Pandan Wangi variety is one of the most loved in the nation, which is served in this restaurant. The rice has a hint of Pandan (Pandanus leaves) fragrance to it, and served in the famous Sundanese-style bakul (rattan bowl)

Rating: 10/10
Verdict: Sundanese restaurants should be experts on cooking perfect steamed rice. Otherwise, they shouldn't bother to run a business at all.



Es Shanghai

Desert made of various sweets and fruits, topped with shaved ice and sweet rose syrup. Does NOT originate from Shanghai, China.

Rating: 5.5/10
Verdict: I don't like it because it's sour-ish. And the raisins is an odd addition.

Bogor Permai Restaurant - Bogor

It's true what is printed on the menu cover - "Terkenal di bogor sejak 1963" (Famous in Bogor since 1963).
Bogor is a small city an hour drive away from Jakarta. It's been on the media spotlight recently because George W. Bush met Indonesia's President Yudhoyono over there some time ago.

Anyway, this restaurant is famous because they still cook the dish EXACTLY the same way as they did 34 years ago. So, for an authentic Chinese-Indonesian / Indonesian Peranakan dish, this is one of THE places to be.







Fu yung hai (egg foo-young)

Rating: 9.5/10
Verdict: I'm not sure if this legendary Chinese-Indonesian dish is similar to its U.S. counterpart, but I can safely say that Bogor Permai's egg foo-young is one of the best in the country.



Cap cay (stir-fried vegetables with chicken)

Probably the most famous Chinese-Indonesian dish ever. Actually, the word "cap cay" means "ten vegetables", because back in the 1800's, when the dish was created, ten kinds of vegetables were used to make this dish. Nowadays, it's usually only 4 - 5 kinds of vegetables mixed with chicken slices, prawns, and sliced meatballs / fishballs.

Rating: 7/10
Verdict: What one should look for in a good cap cay is the 'kuali' smell (literally, wok smell). This is acheived when solid steel wok and very hot, big fire is used to cook the cap cay. As a result, the cap cay (or any stir-fried food) will have a distinctive pleasant aroma to it. This one isn't quite so.



Mi goreng (fried noodles)

Rating: 7/10
Verdict: Not bad. However, they tend to overdo with the fillings. The whole point of eating mi goreng is to eat the noodle, not the fillings.



Sate Ayam Ponorogo

Chicken satay, Ponorogo-style. Ponorogo is a region in West Java. The main difference between Ponorogo-style chicken satay and the common satay variety is the addition of freshly squeezed kaffir lime juice, among others.

Rating: 7.5/10
Verdict: This is very old-school. My dad said that Bogor Permai's Sate Ayam Ponorogo is as good as the old-time stuff back in the colonial era.



Lumpia Shanghai ("Shanghai" egg rolls)

This common Chinese-Indonesian dish does not originate from Shanghai per se, and I have no idea why it is called "Shanghai" egg rolls. Some people even say that it was actually the Filipinos who brought this dish to Indonesia. I find that hard to believe, since if that's the case, they should call it "Lumpia Manila". Haha!

Rating: 5/10
Verdict: Too salty. And the presentation isn't good, either.



Bogor Permai is also famous for its bakery & sweets shop. You can find any type of West Javanese sweets and desserts imaginable in this shop.



Asinan Bogor
-> Bogor's specialty food. It's basically mixed raw fruit slices in hot, sweet & sour syrup. Usually eaten with a huge cracker.



Telor Asin (salted duck eggs)



Peupeut (pronounced 'puh-pert')
-> A traditional Bogor desert made of rice



Bacang (sticky rice dumpling stuffed with minced pork)



Some unknown sweets



blablabla cakes (I have no idea what this is, either)



No idea what this one is, either. Well, the label says "jasmine", but I doubt that's what it is.



Some weird colorful rolled pancake thingies



Ah-ha! Finally, something I know. This is an Asinan Jambu, sliced raw guava in hot, sweet & sour syrup.

Ayam Bulungan - Blok M, Jakarta

Ayam Bulungan is one of those legendary restaurants in Jakarta. I don't think anyone hasn't heard of it yet, let alone tried it. They serve Javanese food.
The restaurant has been one of my family's favorites since...well...before I was born.




Recently refurbished interior. Javanese fusion swank.



The restaurant's raison d'etre, the Ayam Panggang Bulungan.
(Roast free-range chicken, Bulungan-style)

Rating: 8/10
Verdict: As with most Javanese food, it's rather sweet. The flesh is so tender and the spices fully infused even the bones taste good.



Tahu Telur
(eggs-and-tofu omelette in sweet soy dressing, served with shredded cabbage, bean sprouts and roasted peanut sprinkles on the top)

Rating: 8.5/10
Verdict: A typical Javanese dish, the eggs are purposely slightly-overcooked, so that it complements well with the chewiness of the tofu. The chewy and crunchy texture of the omelette complements well with the freshness and crunchiness of the toppings. An addictive dish.



Sate Ayam (Chicken Satay)

Rating: 6/10
Verdict: Quintessential Javanese dish. Every Indonesians know that the best chicken satays are not found in restaurants, but on the street peddlars, no matter how much the restaurants claim that they serve authentic satay (or how high is the price, as a matter of fact).



Soto Kudus (Kudus-style chicken consomme)

In Indonesia, there are a plethora of Soto (consomme / broth / soup, depends on how you look at it) varieties. Kudus is a name of a city in Central Java, from whence this magnificent consomme is originated. It is very rich in flavor, and slightly thick in consistency due to the fact that it has a high content of koyah (condiment made from ground coconut, which is mixed into the soto.)

Rating: 10/10
Verdict: An exemplary attempt of the Soto Kudus. Everything is perfect and as it's supposed to be. Delightful!



Lalapan (Fresh, cold vegetable crudites, served with chili relish)

Rating: 9.5/10
Verdict: Most restaurants don't really care about this, but it is important that Lalapan is served chilled. This one is impeccable. The relish is delightful, with a hint of terasi (shrimp paste), and it's not too hot (Lalapan is not supposed to be very hot).



Ati Ampela Goreng (Fried chicken liver and gizzards)

In Javanese cuisine, a logical accompaniment to the Ayam Panggang.

Rating: 5/10
Verdict: For some reasons, Ayam Bulungan's ati ampela goreng is declining in quality.



Es Campur Bulungan (Bulungan-style shaved mixed ice)

Rating: 6.5/10
Verdict: One of the weirdest variety of Indonesian shaved ice I've ever encountered. But still delicious, nonetheless. Contents include es coklat kopyor (traditional Indonesian ice cream made of old / matured coconut and chocolate), cincau (grass jelly), nangka (jackfruit), tape (fermented cassava), kelapa muda (young coconut meat), kacang merah (red bean), agar-agar (jelly), cendol (starch noodles made of coconut milk and pandan leaves), buah atap (palm seed fruit), and sprinkled with colorful muisjes cokelat (Dutch-inspired chocolate sprinkles)