So when I got invited by Goorme to attend this food tasting at Jackrabbit, I was super excited! And that they will present Chef Juna himself in a sharing session + Q&A – who turned out to be false alarm The food tasting itself was specifically designed for us to experience their brand new “Brunch Club” program, so we didn’t get to order from the daily lunch/dinner menu (moreover Chef Juna’s signature dish maybe I’ll try it next time)

And as for its review for each dishes :

Eggs Benedict – served with English muffin, gruyere cheese, smoked ham/spinach, poached eggs, grilled tomato & asparagus, side salad, hollandaise sauce. The egg itself was poached perfectly, except that in my opinion it’s a little bit under-seasoned. But I guess the melted cheese covered it all

Caviar Scrambled Egg – served with rustique garlic bread, grilled tomato, sauted mushroom, beef bacon, side salad, beef sausage. I have to say…. this was disappointing. Chewy bacon (too crispy & a little burnt, seriously), bland taste on the scrambled egg itself, too little amount of caviar, cold garlic bread, a bit bitter mushroom. The finest part of the dish is probably the beef sausage. I guess I just had too high of a hope regarding this caviar dish.

Huevos Rancheros – served with pico de gallo (Mexican condiment on top, made from chopped tomato, white onion, and chili), avocado slices, laid on top of a bed of Texas baked bean. This wasn’t my favorite, but if there’s anything they could improve is the chewy part of the egg. Well I don’t even know how fried eggs could be so chewy & made us a big effort to slice’em.

Beef Wiener Schnitzel – breaded beef schnitzel served with mashed potato, salad, lemon twist, and real sauce (which is not that generous. Because it goes perfect with the schnitzel! just can’t get enough of the sauce, hehe..) Overall a good dish, but it could be more ‘hot’ because when they served it to us it was already a bit cold.

Grilled Quarter Lemon Chicken – with barbeque sauce, side salad & potato wedges. The chicken was sooooo tender it actually melts in your mouth in every bite. I really like this dish, they should gave us more of its BBQ sauce because it really worked with the tender & juicy chicken.

Lamb chops – two rack of lambs grilled to medium well, served with flour tortillas, mint yoghurt sauce and side salad. Lamb was delicious, I got them perfectly cooked & it was the right preference. Flour tortillas, I thought they’d be crunchy, but it’s okay. Mint yoghurt sauce – I can’t taste any mints at all, haha.

Chicken En Croute – chicken breast + spinach wrapped in a crunchy pastry, served with side salad & supreme sauce. This was my favorite! I love anything wrapped in a crunchy pastry, hehe…

Beef Chimichangga – served with pico de gallo & guacamole on top, texas baked bean and side salad. The wrapped beef inside was seasoned beautifully, it was just the right amount of ‘heat’. I really enjoyed this dish.

Red Spicy Laksa – laksa with hard boil egg, prawn, and “yellow noodle” (written on the menu). But I really think that was spaghetti, angel hair type of spaghetti maybe. And the soup itself wasn’t really kicking in – I mean, a good laksa should have that ‘punch’ of taste, you should be able to taste the creamy coconut milk + all the herb & spices blending into one kick-ass flavor, but I just don’t feel that in this dish. Quite a standard one.

Besides all of the above, there are also some dishes that I forgot to take pics of :

American Hearty Pancakes – served with grilled tomato, sauted mushroom, beef sausages, side salad, beef bacon. More or less same review as the other egg dishes served with bacon & sausages. It’s just too similar except that they had pancake in it. And the bacon was also overcooked.

Steak & Eggs – US sirloin beef served with grilled tomato, potato o’brien and bordelaise sauce. It’s actually quite nice & satisfying.

Overall, our brunch experience has its ups & downs. Good thing is, we get to try new menu first before everybody else, and some dishes are quite a spot on. Plus we get a 300K voucher! Bad thing: it’s mostly eggs, eggs, eggs (I get it, it was named Brunch for a reason) and.. most of the dishes were served cold. I think Jackrabbit still needs improvement especially for their brunch menu in the future. Looking forward to visit again, next time for dinner (probably the best time of the day to visit. I heard their oxtail soup & mocktails are goodddh!)

Jackrabbit Jakarta

Cyber 2 Tower. Jl.H.R.Rasuna Said Blok X-5 no.13
Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/jackrabbitjakarta Twitter: @JackRabbitJKT
Web: http://www.jackrabbitjakarta.com and Goorme: http://goorme.com/jackrabbit

The night started with  talkshow with Ivan Sielegar, CIO of Goorme, sharing the background & his vision of Goorme, which I found really interesting. Then Mr. Erza, ST joined in the talkshow and sharing his experiences writing for restaurant reviews etc, and last but not least, the owner of Foodtography.com joined us and shared a wee bit tips & trick about food photography. I (hoped) I learned a lot from him, hehe.. it’s just without real world practice, I couldn’t really get the picture of balancing ISO, shutter speed, lighting, shadow, and blahblahblah. And the talkshow run almost 2hrs and yes I admitted I was getting soooo frikin’ hungry and I just wished, “Let’s cut to the chase!”

So finally, here are the list of chef & the almighty seven sins we’ve had the entire night:

1. Cold Appetizer – by Chef Fahmi Widarte, Corporate Chef of Rotaryana Prima
   Balinese Chicken Salad with Coconut Vegetables and Sambal Matah
   Okay, the very first course was really the beginning, not so many surprises here. Yes it was no different than “Urap” with a little modification – not really a favorite of mine, but it’s a good start, a fresh start and to prepare us ready for heading to the next course!



2. Hot Appetizer – by Chef Hugo Adrian, Executive Chef of Blowfish Kitchen & Bar
   Braised Wagyu Beef Cheek in Sweet Miso
   This was my favorite! How do I describe, hmm.. Wagyu beef cheek is so delicate, small portion perfect for appetizer, and when you slice it you also get the nice sensation by the combination of wagyu + horse radish underneath, then you took another sip of spoon of Sweet Miso – it blended perfectly especially after having spicy sambal matah earlier. THIS WAS SIMPLY THE BEST. I think I loved Chef Hugo for this, haha.
   
3. Soup – by Chef Agus Ishermawan, Head Chef of Ismaya Catering
   Authentic Sultan’s Tomato Cream Soup
   While it seemed like everyone was having a bit of a hard time to empty the bowl, me on the other side, I like the dish! I love tomatoes, and cream, so it’s not really that sour for my taste, but yes it was a pretty full soup.
   
4. Pasta – by Chef Gianfranco Beltrame, Italian Chef de Cuisine at Casa d’Oro, Hotel Indonesia Kempinski Jakarta
   Red Shell Pasta with Duck Ragout, Pine Nut, and Rocket Salad
   Well this one had the longest name in menu, I even had to tweet it on 2 separate tweet! Haha. The original name was in Italian, “Conchigliette Rosse All ‘Uovo Mantecate Al Ragu’ d’Anatra, Pinoli Tostati e Rucola”. Tasted okay, but seeing two reddish dishes in a row kinda made me feel “another red? This better be good ” And it definitely was. The pine nut stands out!
   
5. Fish – by Chef Sofyan Joshua, Technical Culinary Chef of Sukanda Djaya
   Chilean Sea Bass Seasoned with Lee Kum Kee Ginger Oyster Sauce
   This was my 2nd favorite best! Well first you need to know that I am a fish type person. Fish comes first before any red meats, beef/mutton/chicken/duck (ducks always on bottom of my preferences list), but fish is still below king prawns & lobsters & scallop, haha.. Anyway.. this sea bass rocked the night, and I’m already thinking to buy Lee Kum Kee ginger oyster sauce because of this.
   
6. Meat – by Chef Ignacio Virgen Jimenez, Chef de Cuisine of Potato Head
   Short Rib, Truffle Demi Glaze, Charcoal Oil, Glazed Carrots, Potato Hot Foam and Nuts Fake Couscous
   All my life I’ve been wondering how does Demi Glaze sauce tasted (this is pretty much affected by a JDorama (japanese drama) titled ‘Lunch Queen’ – anyone watched it before? The whole mouthwatering Japanese Omurice topped with Demi Glaze sauce that needed to be prepared at least 6 hours to cook. I don’t know if this was the same as in film, but at least it met my expectation!! I love the blending taste of short rib with its sauce, although I wasn’t pretty sure that night, what did ‘Charcoal Oil’ do to the dish? Really, I didn’t feel anything – no different than virgin olive oil.
   
7. Dessert – by Chef Rinrin Marinka, Artistic Chef
   Green Tea Cake Ala Tropicale
   And finally the dessert came.. It was already 10.30pm and yet we were still eating for God’s sake! No, don’t think of any diet program because it was already ruined since course number one, hehe. This dish is quite satisfying, there’s passion fruit, mangoes, and grilled coconut + ice cream, more than enough to close the entire seven package meal nicely.
   

In one word, the whole experience was… superb! Probably the best well-mannered dinner I’ve ever had so far. I thanked Goorme so much for inviting me over And see ya at the next Jakarta Culinary Festival 2011! Btw I’ve also uploaded the entire album in case you’d like to see that I’ve made more friends than I thought I would We even got photographed in polaroid, hehe..

Cheers..

		JCF Food Blogger Dinner 2010 VIEW SLIDE SHOW DOWNLOAD ALL

Food

So apparently we were given choices between Shabu & Sukiyaki, so we asked what’s the difference? Turns out it’s only a matter of the soup base. They said Sukiyaki is much sweeter (and also their newest menu), while Shabu has clearer soup & a dipping sauce (ponzu).  I rate them 5 stars for their thorough explanation and responsive + quick service!

Here’s what an AYCE meal package consisted of: A big bowl of vegetables – cabbage, carrot, corn, pakchoy, tofu, udon, enoki mushroom, shiitake mushroom. One seafood plate – dory fish, prawns, and squids (dory is the ultimate winner! freshly served & so tender it melted perfectly in my mouth), and obviously one big plate of thinly sliced premium Angus beef. But in the end, somehow all of the plates above were duplicated and… multipled by the number of 3, haha. I liked the taste of the dipping sauce, it wasn’t too sweet nor salty even though it looked almost as dark as sushi soy sauce. Perfect companion for the Angus beef!

Decoration & Interior

Shabuya is decorated minimalistic & large window panes surrounding it (even though not really much to look at outside, hehe), plus a clean & cozy atmosphere. It’s a perfect arrangement for an AYCE meal, they do know how to spoil visitors that would make them last for hours For more detailed interior pics please take a look at their official Facebook photos.

Pricing & Promo Package

For a 108.000 IDR (adult) and 78.000 IDR (children) AYCE meal, I think it’s very worth it! Even we had 3 additional plate for the Angus beef, seafood, and vegetables, haha.. And if I’m not mistaken they still got this promotion Buy 3 Get 4 until end of year. So act fast and go there with the whole family/friends! You can make reservation here : (021) 56985585.

Cheers….

Siomay Perintis

Raise your hand if you’re not into dumplings. It is, in my opinion, one of the reason I love Chinese food! And Siomay Perintis made it really really well. In my review, I’ve only ordered two types, the chicken dumplings & mushroom dumplings. Overall I like chicken dumplings more, because it stays longer in fridge. Even after reheating, the taste won’t be any difference. But mushroom sometimes can be tricky. I tasted a slight change of flavor after reheating the dish after 1 night in fridge. Well, lesson learned – make sure you finish your mushroom dumplings first because it can’t stay long enough.

There are 4 types of siomay/dumpling available from Siomay Perintis that you can order from their site:

Chicken dumplings
There are 7 types included within this original chicken dumplings: steamed dumplings, fried dumplings, tofu, potatoes, eggs, cabbage, and pariah. Made from minced chicken meat plus other spices and are guaranteed fresh and halal. And I love this one! Priced @2.500 IDR.
Mushroom dumplings
Made of selected oyster mushrooms, steamed only. @3.000 IDR.
Tenggiri dumplings
I personally haven’t try ordered this one, but I’ll try it next time They said it’s made of fresh ‘tenggiri’ (Spanish mackerel) and I heard it’s good! Priced about 3.000 IDR
Batagor Tenggiri
Tenggiri fried meatballs & Fried tofu stuffed with Tenggiri. @4.000 IDR

Minimum order is 50pcs. You can also join their Facebook page or make order via Twitter. More info please visit their website. Go go order! hehe.. it won’t fail you..

Cheers…

Akhirnya hari ini iseng-iseng ke Giant CBD Bintaro, dan ternyata… jeng jeng jeeng: ada versi instantnya! Langsung deh.. padahal tadinya niatnya pengen cari bahan-bahan utamanya, tapi BlackBean paste & jenis mie-nya susah ditemukan di Giant (ya iyalaah).. kapan2 deh kalo ke supermarket Korea yang di deket Senopati. Kalau berdasarkan hasil googling bing-ing, harusnya kayak gini nih :

Instead, what I found is this instant Jjajangmyun for IDR 13.000 (super murah dibandingkan kalo ke Restoran Korea yang harganya sekitar 50.000-70.000, walaupun rasanya terjamin sih, hehehe)

Ok, so here we go..

Resep Modifikasi Jjajangmyun Instant

Berhubung ini udah instant, sebenernya gak perlu repot-repot menumis pisah si Blackbean sauce-nya. Tapi berhubung gw pengen ada tambahan seafood & sayurannya, jadi semuanya tinggal urusan chop, chop, chop

1. Iris semua sayuran bentuk dadu – zucchini, bawang bombay, kentang, wortel, lobak (kalo ada & doyan, nah masalahnya gw ga doyan lobak dan lagi kehabisan wortel.. haha..)

2. Panaskan teflon, tuang sedikit olive oil, masukkan potongan seafood/beef terlebih dahulu, kalau sudah agak empuk baru masukkan sayur + jangan lupa tambah air secukupnya.

3. Masukkan blackbean powder yang dari bungkusan mie instant, aduk rata.

4. Tambahkan tepung maizena supaya kental, aduk-aduk terus sampai matang. Kalau kurang manis bisa tambahkan gula.

5. Rebus mie-nya, kalau sudah, tiriskan, taruh di mangkok.

6. Tuang paste chunjang yang sudah matang tadi diatas mie. And that’s it! My very first Jja Jang Myun experiment.. Looks good so far!

Aah..mashitaaaa! Enjoy…

		Fish & Co Journey VIEW SLIDE SHOW DOWNLOAD ALL

Let the quest begins…. For starters we picked these: Prawn Fritters, Mussels in Garlic Lemon Butter Sauce, and Soft Shell Crab Salad. What I love the most: Mussels in Garlic Lemon Butter Sauce. Man, that’s what I called starters! So fresh & delicate, not too sour, perfectly made.

And what we had for main course (at the time there was 6 of us and yet there’s like 9 main courses ). We ordered Seafood Platter for One, New York Fish and Chips, Philadelphia Fish and Chips, Baked Salmon, Grilled Chicken Peri-Peri, Salmon Grilled (Cajun style), Seafood Pizza, Peri-Peri Prawns, and Wild Mushroom Spaghetti. If I were to pick the best dishes of all time then it simply has to be New York Fish & Chips, hmm.. crunchy outside yet so tender inside, with melted cheese, my goodness, I just love them! It just felt right..

And what’s not really recommended: both Pastas and Pizzas, I don’t know whether my choice was bad at the time, but Seafood Pizza is the worst part of the dinner. It’s not even a pizza crust, it uses thin crispy chewy puff as its bottom crust! So when you eat it gets messy all the time! Never ever ever ordered pizzas in a seafood specialist restaurant. About the wild mushroom pasta, I really think Pancious got them better.

And finally the dinner ended with desserts – Ice cream cake & Melted Choco Lava. Both yummy but I guess we were too full that we couldn’t really enjoy it

I think that’s about all. This is not my first time eating in Fish & co, but this is definitely the best moment to share because I did taste lots lots of menu, hehe. About the place & coziness, it won’t fail you. We love the interiors especially in Pacific Place, SCBD Jakarta.

You can view the slideshow by clicking one of the images. Cheers!