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

Cooking Class at Paradise Dynasty

Last Saturday, I got invited to a cooking class held by Groupon Disdus, in collaboration with Paradise Dynasty. This was my first cooking class, and I was so excited! The event was held in Paradise Dynasty Plaza Senayan early in the morning. There were two dishes for us to cook that day, the famous 8 Flavored Signature Xiao Long Bao and Vegetable Bun.

Before heading to our station, we got the chance to see Chef Atin doing the demonstration of how to make the xiao long bao and vegetable bun. The dough and filling has been prepared before, so all we have to do is inserting the filling into the skin, and cover it with folds at the top. Seems pretty simple right?

The picture above is the chef's Xiao Long Bao, and the picture below belongs to my team. Well for me, making the folds were actually pretty hard. My folds often got too thick and it can't patched well. But in the end, I quite satisfied with my Xiao Long Bao. The ones I made were the orange, pink, and green. For the taste, you can check my earlier post.

Same problem happened to the vegetable bun, so as you can see, our folds were a little bit too thick. But in the end the most important thing is the taste right? ;p Oh the green thing on the top of our bun is a part of the filling. We put it on the top as it was meant to be garnish, but Chef Atin said it should be done after steaming so the garnish didn't get watery, so we removed it.

Of course there has to be a narcissistic photo session of these young but talented amateur chefs (read: my team ;p) with Chef Atin and our dish (sorry it's over exposure). From left to right it's Yulie, Dini, Novie, Chef Atin, and me!

After the fun cooking session, we waited for our dish to be steamed, and we also got lunch served by Paradise Dynasty. What we got for our lunch is La Mian with Dan Dan Sauce, Paradise Dynasty's signature hand-pulled noodles, topped with spicy minced chicken and cucumber. And for dessert, we got Kue Kapas, a very soft textured cake with two flavors, the yellow part is Mango, and the white part is Coconut flavor. 

Bottom line, I would like to say thank you to Groupon and Paradise Dynasty team for having me in this event. I learned something new, tasted something new, and made new friends! See you again in the next event :)

Paradise Dynasty
Plaza Senayan 5th flr (across XXI)
Jl. Asia Afrika
South Jakarta
Ph. +6221 579000146