Genji Shoppe Pop Up Store by Genji Pie

Let me tell you a great news, everyone! Genji Pie, everybody's favourite pie biscuit from Monde Biscuit, has recently launched Genji Shoppe, a cute and artsy pop up store which offers dessert creations made of Genji Pie as their main ingredients. The store is located at the Ground Floor of Street Gallery at Pondok Indah Mall 3, and will be serving you numbers of delicate desserts for a month only, starting at April 12th 2014.

As one of the favourite biscuit of the youth generation, Genji Pie launched Genji Shoppe not only to let people try their mouthwatering desserts, but they also aim to inspire the youth to gather, share the love, and inspire others to follow their passion and achieve their dream. For that purpose, five young and talented artists collaborated together to decorate the interior and exterior of Genji Shoppe. They are Rukmunal Hakim, Lala Bohang, Ykha Amelz, Muhamad Taufiq, and Monica Hapsari. Keep scrolling to see their unique and original artworks!

Left: Mr. Kelwin Darmono, General Manager of Monde Biscuit Indonesia

The five talented young artists

Moving on to the star of Genji Shoppe: The Genji Pie Dessert Creations! The desserts they offer here was quite various, but even better, you can also create your own Genji Pie desserts! Another Genji Pie's way to let the youth be creative and artsy.

Jar of Hearts (IDR 25.000/100gr)

Let's start with the simplest one. Two Mini Genji Pies stacked together with chocolate spread in between. Simple yet addictive. Get one and your mouth couldn't resist not to get another one, and another one until the plate is empty.

Sweet Sweet Love (IDR 35.000)

Melted chocolate brownies and raspberries between Genji Pies. Love the combination of the crunchy Genji Pie with the soft chocolate brownies and tangy raspberry. Such a beauty in both presentation and taste.

Sleeping Beauty (IDR 25.000)

Mini Genji Pies hidden inside strawberry and vanilla sponge cake. Another lovely creations! Dig deep and get a mouthful of this to taste the combination of crunchy genji pies and spongy and moist strawberry and vanilla cake. One of my favorite dessert here! 

This is Not a Martini (IDR 25.000)

Mini Genji Pies served with white and milk chocolate mousse. To enjoy this, get the mini genji pies and dig deep into the mousse with the pie. Eat it right away after you get your mini genji pies covered with the silky white and milk chocolate mousse.

When Sour Meets Choco (IDR 32.000)

Genji Pies, chocolate malt, and hazelnut covered with chocolate ganache and served with spring fruit salad. The presentation itself is so colorful and tempting, and I must say that it tasted even better than it looks! Crunchy, sweet, and tangy at the same time. It is my own personal favorite here, definitely a must must try!

Magic Cinnamon Pie (IDR 28.000)

Crispy and flaky Genji Pastry served with assorted spiced fruit. Well I'm always up to something fruity and cinnamon-ey when it comes to desserts, so I have no complaints for this one. Sweet and fruity!

Ratatouille Goes Berries (IDR 25.000) 

Last but not least, Genji Pie crumbles served with cream cheese, strawberry, and blueberry on top. The sweet, tangy, and cheesy sensation that will melt in your mouth. 

Wow I'm still amazed right now that Genji Pie could be combined with so many kind of ingredients, and yet they all tasted so good! I must tell you not to miss their dessert creations, especially when they're only available for a month. Go grab them fast! 

Genji Shoppe Pop Up Store 

North Entrance Lobby

Street Gallery Pondok Indah Mall III

Jakarta Selatan

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New Dessert Creations at Mandarin Oriental Cake Shop

For me, the name of Mandarin Oriental Cake Shop began to be heard often since last July, when they became the first cake shop in Jakarta who serves the famous CRONUTS! From back then until now, the Mandarin Oriental's cronuts still remains as one of the best cronuts in Jakarta, and now they also create more variants of cronuts.

And not only cronuts. Now that their pastry chef, Chef Wita Girawati, has completed an intensive training at LeNotre Culinary Institutes in Paris, she and her team has created the hotel's new dessert menu that will be offered at the famous Mandarin Oriental Cake Shop. And last week, I happened to be so lucky to be one of the first people to taste her new dessert creations.

The food tasting session was held in Cinnamon, Mandarin Oriental's buffet restaurant which is also connected with the Mandarin Oriental Cake Shop. The restaurant was facing the garden, it was warmly light and quite cozy. At the center of the restaurant, there's this huge dessert table, offering us not only the new dessert creations, but also their favourite and best sellers too.

The new dessert menu itself is ranging from the high end desserts to some innovative eclairs and handmade chocolates. Most of them are served in the Individual Portion at the price at IDR 50.000 and Whole Cake which starts from IDR 340.000. The portion they served us that day was actually the bite-sized portion, it's smaller than the Individual Portion. They made it special for this occasion, because there were so many desserts to taste.

Caramel and Apple Tart

Caramel chiboust cream with caramelized apple on the top of almond crust tart. Creamy, crunchy, and sweet. It was such a lovely dessert. Love the texture play and it has the perfect sweetness that match my tastebud.

Piemonte Hazelnut Cake 

Chocolate caramel mousse cake with hazelnut bavaroise on hazelnut biscuit. Presentation wise it was such a beauty. Got tempted immediately by the look of it, both the bite sized and the whole cake. But too bad I'm can't handle too much chocolate mousse. It was so good at the first bite, but at the end I'm getting overwhelmed by the creaminess and sweetness. It might be a good choice if you are a chocolate person though.

Alliance Apricot

Apricot and mascarpone mousse with sable breton biscuit. Now this is more suitable for me. Even though it's a mousse, it has the tangy taste from the apricot so it's not overwhelming for me. I was expecting hard and crunchy biscuit at the bottom and found out that the sable breton biscuit was actually kinda soft, but it actually tasted good together with the mousse at it's top.

Matcha Goma Cake 

Layers of white chocolate mousse, green tea biscuit, and sesame seed jelly. Another decent cake with strong green tea taste. 

Other than the whole cakes, there are also eclairs, lime and raspberry macaroon, cassava cake, and of course their famous cronuts. All of them were so lovely that I'm getting sugar high! Never eaten that many desserts at one time before in my life.

Anyway, to enjoy their lovely dessert, you can simply drop by to the Mandarin Oriental Cake Shop, or enjoy the Afternoon Tea Package at Cinnamon. For IDR 130.000+, you can enjoy one of this high tea package.

Classic High Tea

Assortment of finger sandwiches (egg, smoked salmon with cream cheese, cucumber)

Home baked scones served with strawberry jam and clotted cream

American chocolate cake, tiramisu cake, and strawberry tart

Oriental High Tea

Basket of dim sum with char siew chicken bun

Prawn and siew mai dumplings with chilli sauce

Indonesian kue klepon, lapis legit, and banana cakes

Wait no more and get your sugar fix at Mandarin Oriental Cake Shop now! 

Mandarin Oriental Cake Shop

Jl. MH Thamrin 

Jakarta 10310

ph. (021) 2993 8889

fb. Mandarin Oriental Jakarta

Afternoon Tea at Bistronomy

Several days ago, me and my bestie Maya were planning to have an afternoon tea session since we have free time together. Did some internet research on where to have afternoon tea in Jakarta, and when I found out that Bistronomy served it, we decided to have it there (or I persuaded her to have it there :p). I've been wanting to visit this place since forever, but since the place is very popular nowdays, it's always fullbooked on weekend. Luckily it was weekday afternoon, only a few table was occupied when we arrived there.

As expected, the interior was very vintage and elegant, it was such a nice place for girls day out. See the pictures for yourself, how could you not love that floral chairs, and the vintage mirrors and lamps all over the place? Oh, and since there was a halloween party coming up, the place was also decorated with some spooky things.

Their afternoon tea is served everyday from 2PM to 6PM. For the price of IDR 150.000 ++ for two persons, here's what we got.

SWEETS

Fruit Tarts (Kiwi Tarts and Strawberry Tarts)

Muffins (Blueberry Muffins and Strawberry Muffins)

Chocolate Cakes

New York Cheese Cakes

SAVORY

Sandwiches:

- Ham and Cheese Sandwiches

- Egg Sandwiches

- Tuna Sandwiches

Cheese Puffs

Chicken Fingers

TWO COFFEE OR THESE TEA FLAVORS

English Breakfast Tea, Earl Grey Tea, Green Tea & Mint, Jasmine Green Tea, Pure Peppermint, Pure Chamomile, Passionfruit Mango & Orange, Lemon & Ginger, Peach Tea, Blackcurrant Tea

I couldn't help but notice that there's some differences between the menu and our plate. First, it was said in the menu that the muffins are dark chocolate and lemon, but we got strawberry and blueberry muffins. Second, instead of almond cookies (as it written on the menu), we got chicken fingers and one extra sandwich variant. I don't think that this differences is a bad thing since we wasn't drooling for some specific items, but maybe they should told us first.

On the top of that, I found that everything served on the plate was more than satisfying. Well they're not perfect, the muffins and sandwiches was just a little too dry and the tarts crumbling apart when we try to lift them from the plate, but the taste of all elements was delicious. I especially love their fruit tarts, even though they're crumbling apart, but they got perfect sweetness from the custard cream and it blended well with the crunchy tart and fresh fruits.

On my first visit to Bistronomy, I was pleased. Couldn't wait for my next visit!

BISTRONOMY
Jl. Ciniru 1 no.2
Ciranjang, Kebayoran Baru
Jakarta Selatan
ph. +6221 7396655
fb. Bistronomy

UNION at Street Gallery Pondok Indah Mall

UNION is my favorite place to get cakes, and I believe most of you adore it too just as much as I do. Having heard that they've just opened their second branch at Street Gallery Pondok Indah Mall that serves new cake variants, I just can't stop myself to immediately visit their new joints several days ago.

Located at the end of Street Gallery, the venue is surely more spacious than the one at Plaza Senayan. Welcoming you at the entrance is the bakery, where the mouthwatering cakes and luscious danishes are displayed beautifully. A little further inside is the dining area, which is designed with similar concept as their previous outlet with the black framed windows, ceramic tiled columns and ceiling, and still bathed with sunlight. But while the Plaza Senayan's outlet connected to the outdoor plaza, the PIM's outlet is connected to the main road of Pondok Indah, so you might smell the exhaust fumes sometimes. 

Not wanting to be left behind in this Cronut Craze Season, of course I ordered their available cronut selections, which is called Flaky Doughnut here. There were three available selections, the Cinnamon Sugar, Boston Cream (Chocolate Vanilla), and Peanut Butter, at the price of IDR 35.000 each. Actually the Cinnamon Sugar looks more tempting for me, but according to the waitress' recommendation, their Boston Cream flavor is the best seller, so we decided to give it a try.

Their Boston Cream Flaky Doughnut came in a big size. It looks crunchy and chocolatey from the outside, but then I cut it through and the Vanilla Custard Cream started to flood outside. And as expected of cronut, you can see layered pastry inside. Taste wise, well, I always love UNION's creation for their pastry always match my not-too-sweet tongue. The cream is rich, but not too sweet, and with a slight bitterness taste from the chocolate, they're a perfect match to eat your cronut. A satisfaction indeed.

Moving on from the flaky doughnut, I also got a hard time choosing which cake to try. They got two new creations, the Nastar Crumble Cake and the Confetti Cake, which for now only available at PIM outlet. Nastar Crumble sounds very unique, but in the end, Confetti Cake won, simply just because it has cream cheese frosting which I love so much, lol.

The Confetti Cake (IDR 55.000) came in a rather pale colour (pardon my bad photography skill, it was actually not that pale), and the taste was just okay. Well as always the cake was moist and the cream cheese was superb, and when you eat the cake you could taste the sweet burst from the confetti, but I think it's kinda too ordinary? I think I should've ordered the Nastar Crumble instead as it sounds extraordinary.

Well don't worry, there's always next time for UNION.

UNION Brasserie, Bakery, and Bar

Street Gallery Pondok Indah Mall 1, GF

Jl. Metro Pondok Indah

Jakarta Selatan

ph. +62 21 29529781 - 82

web. UNIONJKT

Afternoon Tea for Two and Carvery at CANTEEN

CANTEEN is now serving Afternoon Tea for Two! 

Well I don't think I need to write a long introduction for CANTEEN. Has been serving you since 2008 under the same group as Loewy, Union, Cork&Screw, Casa, and E&O, CANTEEN has now becoming one of the well known and reputable restaurant in Jakarta.

Last Friday I was invited to a private tasting event to try their new Afternoon Tea for Two. Later that day, I happened to be very fortunate to meet Head Chef Chris Moes himself in person, and also tasted his signature Carvery.

CANTEEN's Afternoon Tea for Two

SWEETS
Dark Chocolate Rum Truffle
Dutch Butter Lemon Cake
Olive Oil Madeleine with Blueberries
Dark Chocolate Tart with Raspberry and Italian Meringue
Coconut Cookie
Dutch "Olie Bollen"

SAVORY
Crostino Smoked Salmon with Crème Fraîche and Dill
Crostino with Tomato Jam, Feta Cheese, and Basil
Dutch Bitterballen
Dutch Edam Cheese Croquette

and two choices of CANTEEN's gourmet tea selection:
Earl Grey, Camomile, English Breakfast, Peppermint, Ginger, or Japanese Green Tea

(IDR 165.000 ++)
Available everyday at 3-6 PM


What made CANTEEN's afternoon tea special is the taste of Dutch on the plate, which is brought directly by Chef Chris Moes from his hometown. I personally really like the Olie Bollen, a traditional Dutch food which recipe comes directly from Chef Chris' mother. His mother always made it every year only during the New Year's eve. Literally translated as "Oil Balls", it is the Dutch style Doughnut topped with white sugar, but without the hole, which was crunchy at the outside but the inside was moist and it got a glimpse taste of cinnamon.

From the Savory selections, their Crostino with Tomato Jam, Feta Cheese, and Basil 

is to die for! I've never thought that tomato could taste that heavenly. The tomato jam got melted 

as soon as it enters your mouth, and it tasted sweet. 

Well even though I'm just praising that two items, it doesn't mean that the other's not good enough.

 Every little thing on that plate was more than just satisfying, but I'm leaving it to you to try and decide

your favorite ;p

CANTEEN's Friday Special: Carvery

Carvery is held every Friday night at CANTEEN. It means that Chef Chris Moes himself will be out of the kitchen, slicing the meat for customers based on order. The meat changes every week so the customer can always taste something new. Well that night's meat was Pork Knuckle, so he didn't literally slice it, but he was preparing it for me, how lucky I am :D

Not going to hold you any longer, here's Friday Carvery menu that night: Pork Knuckle Served with Hutspot (another traditional Dutch cuisine, which is a combination of mashed potatoes, carrots, and onions), Brussel Sprouts, and Gravy (IDR 165.000). First impression, the portion was so generous that I think it could fed 2-3 girls. But then I took a bite of that crispy golden pork skin, combined with the succulent and juicy pork meat, and I just can't stop munching. In the end the portion was really too big for me to handle, but it was indeed a delightful dinner.

One last thing, I also tried one of their signature cocktail Sakura Spring (IDR 110.000) which is a mixture of Japanese Sake, Strawberry Liqueur, and Fresh Strawberries. Presentation was lovely and it tasted fresh and light. It could be a great choice to accompany your girls night out.


Well my day couldn't get any better. Thank you Febrina, Nina, Ing, and Chef Chris Moes for your kind invitation and warm companion. Till we meet again!

CANTEEN

Plaza Indonesia 

5th Floor # E02,E10, 

JL MH Thamrin, Kav 28-30, 

Jakarta, 10350  , 

Indonesia

ph. +62 21 3156537

fb. Canteen Jakarta

also available at:

Pacific Place 4th Floor SCBD

Jl. Jend. Sudirman Kav. 52-53

Jakarta 12190

ph. +62 21 57973742