OpenRice Meet the Chef Event with Hog's Breath Cafe and VMAD Vegetarian Restaurant

Got invited to OpenRice event: "Meet the Chef" at Central Park Mall last Sunday. Well who doesn't know OpenRice? I bet you've at least heard of them, as they're the 1st culinary site in Indonesia, providing an online dining guide written by local people, featuring more than 71.000 dining places in Indonesia. This time, collaborating with Central Park Mall and Local Taste ID, they are organizing "Meet the Chef" event, a live cooking demonstration by restaurant's head chefs. Not only the visitors could learn how to cook a restaurant quality dish, they can also taste it on the spot, for free!

The first cooking demo was held by Chef Anto from Hog's Breath Cafe. Hog's Breath cafe is a chain of steak house restaurants which originally came from Australia, and now they've opened their first Indonesian outlet at Central Park Mall. Not only specializing in steak, they're also serving choices of burgers, sandwiches, and pizzas.

Aussie's Burger (IDR 89.000)

Time to judge the book by it's cover, guys, because this burger tastes as good as it looks! Hog's home made all beef patty in BBQ sauce topped with cheddar cheese, crispy beef bacon, lettuce, beetroot, pineapple, tomato, onion, and sunny side up, served with soft bun, salad, and curly fries. What's not to love? Me personally, the thing I love most -- other than that thick juicy patty in BBQ sauce of course -- is the pineapple inside the burger, which is unusual, but gives the burger the fresh and tangy sensation.

Prime Rib Steak Sandwich (IDR 149.000)

Tender prime rib char-grilled steak with cheese, tomato, lettuce, onion, and hickory BBQ sauce on a toasted Vienna loaf, served with salad and curly fries. Another jaw dropper, I just love everything on the plate.

Virgin Mojito (IDR 40.000) and Strawberry Mixed Smoothies (IDR 38.000)

Both of them were so good and fresh, a great companion for the meal in such a hot day. The mojito has the perfect balance between the lemon and mint flavor, while the smoothies is tangy and sweet. Oh please note that this glass is not their actual servings.

The second cooking demo was held by VMAD, a Vegetarian Indian Restaurant located in Sarinah and Sunter. I know some people are being skeptical when they heard the word "vegetarian". They immediately judge the food to be plain and tasteless. Well I was one of them, to be honest, but lately I've tried some vegetarian restaurant, and I even tried the vegan diet for health purpose, and not all vegetarian food is plain and tasteless. I found some of them to be delicious and addictive too. VMAD here is also trying to let people know that vegetarian food can be as good as the non vegetarian food. And they're obviously healthier.

Hakka Bakka Noodle (IDR 49.000)

Fried yellow noodle mixed with sauteed vegetarian chicken and mixed vegetables, and gently mixed with black pepper sauce, vegetarian oyster sauce, and olive oil. Even though it looks like a normal fried noodle, the taste was not just normal. It was BOLD. It's sweet and savoury and peppery in the balanced way. The vegetarian chicken they used here are actually made of soya bean, but it tasted quite similar to chicken.

Murtabak Ceylon (IDR 29.000)

Thin crusted pancake stuffed with spicy minced vegetarian chicken filling, served with Indian curry sauce. As expected from Indian food, this one's also bold and spicy. Nicely done, love the crispy outer layer and also the spicy chicken filling.

Jamaican Cooler (IDR 36.000) and Green Fantasy (IDR 35.000)

Jamaican Cooler is made of mocha syrup, vanilla ice cream, milk, and cashew nuts, while Green Fantasy's ingredients consists green veggie, lime, and pineapple. Both are cold and refreshing, but I love the Jamaican Cooler more as it's sweet and creamy but not heavy.

Thank you OpenRice for inviting me to this event :D 

Oh and for you who loves to capture your food and share it with others, you can now download OpenSnap for free. It's OpenRice's mobile apps which let you share your food experience with lot's of foodies from all across Asia! Download now on your AppleStore or Android PlayStore. Because sharing is caring, rite? ;p

Hog's Breath Cafe
Central Park, Tribeca Park, GF, Unit 15
Jl. Letjen. S. Parman Kav. 28, Slipi
 ph. (021) 29200114 

VMAD Vegetarian Madness
Jl. Danau Sunter Utara Raya Blok R No. 46 - 47 - 48, Sunter 
ph. (021) 6516075
Sarinah Building, Jl. MH Thamrin no. 11
ph. (021) 3903533

Koffie Warung Tinggi d/h Tek Soen Hoo

The fifth floor of Grand Indonesia West Mall is occupied by a lot of new restaurants lately. One of them is Koffie Warung Tinggi, the old coffee shop which has been established since 1878, and now opening it's second outlet with a brand new concept.

Last week when me and my besties wandered around the fifth floor, we were attracted by this coffee shop because of two things: the comfy sofas and the martabak bar. Well it's pretty hard to find martabak inside malls, isn't it? And also the interior looks really nice, it is old and modern at the same time. By the way I didn't bring my camera that day, so please bear with the phone-quality photos.

Not only serving coffee and martabak, Koffie Warung Tinggi also serves selection of  Indonesian main courses like nasi goreng, nasi uduk, and bubur ayam. To place your order here, you have to queue at the cashier and pay it first, and then the waiter will serve the meal to your table when it's ready.

Koffie Peranakan (IDR 30.000)

A friend of mine was asking for their specialty coffee, and the barista recommended Koffie Peranakan, a glass of coffee made of a mixture of arabica and robusta coffee. To be honest I'm not a coffee person, all coffee tasted quite the same for me, only some is more fragrant than the others, and this coffee is certainly the fragrant one, I love love love the smell. You can also ask the barista to serve the condensed milk separately, so you can adjust the sweetness as you like it.

Green Tea Latte (IDR 34.000)

That day I wasn't in the mood for coffee, but I would love to see latte art on my cup, so I ordered the green tea latte. It came in the beautiful green latte art, of course. The taste of green tea was strong and sweet, a little bit too sweet for me, but still enjoyable.

Martabak Ovomaltine Keju (IDR 135.000, Large Size)

We were sold at the first time we saw the ovomaltine word on the menu. Even though it was quite pricey topping, (the price of the plain martabak is IDR 50.000, the ovomaltine topping is IDR 62.500, and the cheese topping is IDR 17.500) we're still excited to try it and put high hopes on it. Maybe too high, because in the end, we were disappointed. Yes, the martabak comes in large size, but the amount topping was stingy. Even though it looks like the ovomaltine was bursting out from the inside on the picture, but in the other part we could barely taste it. And also when it was served, all the ovomaltine has melted, so we couldn't taste the crunchy powdery chocolate milk texture that we expected before. The same happened with the cheese. The martabak itself was actually okay, but for me not as good as the martabak you buy on the street. Maybe we should've ordered the small size, because I'm hearing good reviews on the mini ovomaltine martabak. I presume, because the surface is smaller, the ovomaltine would pile up and not all melted like this, so it would definitely be better than this.

For me I have a quite pleasant time here with my friends, and the service was also great. At first we got seated on the dining table because the sofas were full, but a couple minutes later the waiter came back to us and asked if we wanted to move to the the sofa area, for they already have one vacant sofa. Beverages were also good, but they still should make improvements on the food section.

Koffie Warung Tinggi d/h Tek Soen Hoo

Grand Indonesia West Mall 5th floor

Jl. MH Thamrin no.1

Jakarta Pusat

ph. (021) 235 80312

Martabak Manis Sinar Bulan

Martabak always reminds me of my childhood, when me and my sister waited for my father to come home after work and brought us a box of martabak. Or sometimes he brought us to the outlet to see the making of our favourite choco peanut martabak, because he knew we would loved to. And it's always been the same martabak outlet since we were kids until now: Martabak Sinar Bulan.

Nope, this one is not the super-famous-and-super-expensive Martabak Sinar Bulan in Muara Karang. The outlet is located at Tanjung Duren, occupying a humble corner across ILP English course. The owner is a kind uncle born in Bangka, and our family has been their loyal customer for a very long time that now his son has started to replace his father's position in the outlet. Oh and the owner and the Martabak Sinar Bulan in Grogol's owner are brothers, so probably their martabak taste similar. 

My father always says that their secret of delicious martabak lies in the stove. While others has started to use gas stove, they still stick with their old charcoal stove. It is believed that cooking martabak with charcoal stove will make the martabak cooked evenly (because the gas stove's heat is centralized in the middle), and make the aroma stronger. But I think making martabak with smile is their other secret. And don't forget cleanliness, here they always clean the station right after they finished with a box of martabak.

Our favourite is their Martabak Coklat Kacang/ Choco Peanut Martabak (regular IDR 45.000, special IDR 70.000). Well actually I prefer the Martabak Keju/ Cheese Martabak 

(regular IDR 50.000, special IDR 75.000), but my family likes choco peanut better, so the most voted always win. The differences between the regular and special martabak is the butter in the inner side. Regular martabak uses Blue Band, while the special one of course uses Wijsman Butter. The butter for the outer skin of the martabak here always uses Wijsman Butter.

Their other specialty is the Martabak Kering/ Crunchy Martabak (IDR 30.000). This one is filled with chocolate, peanut, and cheese. It tasted kinda like crepes, but made with martabak dough. And it's also slightly thicker and more crunchy.

Well I will skip explaining the taste in detail, you know we wouldn't be their loyal customer for more than twenty years if it doesn't taste that great. I cannot guarantee that this is the best in Jakarta, since I think Martabak Pecenongan is also great but I rarely go there, and I haven't taste Muara Karang's Sinar Bulan. But this one is definitely the best among all the martabak outlets and carts line in Tanjung Duren street. Go give it a try.

Martabak Manis Sinar Bulan Asli Bangka

Jl. Tanjung Duren Raya

(Across ILP English Course, at the corner between Jl. Tanjung Duren Raya and Jl. Delima)

Jakarta Barat

ph. 08128087826

Opening hours : 16.00 - 23.00

Ah Poong

Last Saturday, me and David were having an impromptu trip to Bogor. We were actually planning to have our valentine's date, since we didn't have a proper one on the 14th, but we're not in the mood for fancy restaurants and movie date, so we just thought, why don't we go to Bogor? I've been wanting to try Ah Poong in Sentul City since I read the review on Wanderbites. 

Ah Poong is actually the newest branch of Eat&Eat, located in the riverside of Sentul City. To go there, take the second Sentul Exit from tol Jagorawi (Sentul Selatan Exit), not the first one. We almost got lost by taking the first Sentul Exit.

We arrived at Ah Poong at lunch time, and the place were so crowded. It's hard to find the parking lot, and it's even harder to find an empty table. We decided to walk slowly, take a look of the choices of food, as we're looking for the empty table. The is divided into two parts, the first is selling authentic Indonesian Food, and the second part is for Peranakan Food. Other than food, they also have a little 'floating maket' selling fruits in the boat, and they rented the boat to the guests, with no minimum charge. You can pay as much or as cheap as you want for renting the boat.

From the wide selection of food, here's what we chose:

Martabak Kubang (IDR 29.000)

Martabak Kubang is a kind of Peranakan Food which mixes the Padang and Indian spices into the fillings of the martabak. The spice blended very well in the mouth, along with the eggs, beef, and the crispy skin of the martabak. Love it.

Nasi Bakar Ayam (IDR 32.000)

This was also good. The rice is filled with spicy shredded chicken, and then grilled inside the banana leaf, creating nice aroma when you eat it. But the fritters that comes with it is a little dissapointment. It's cold and chewy. Euw.

Tahu Telor (IDR 22.000)

Tahu Telor has never been my favourite, but always been David's. Tried it a little and it was okay. The egg is crispy on the outside, and the bumbu kacang (nut seasoning) was also okay. 

Overall, I think this less than IDR 100.000 lunch date is much more worthy than our usual fancy restaurant's date. Go and try yourself :D

Ah Poong (Pasar Apung Sentul City)

Sentul City (Jl. Ir. H. Djuanda)

Bogor, Jawa Barat 16810 

Indonesia