Gourmet Garage - Kemang

When reading the review and the concept i got slightly excited! Wagyu beef burger, seriously, even though its now quite common in places like Melb, i didnt know it has already arrived in Indo and at a very reasonable price of USD10.

I had to go! It was also on top of ranch market which is apparently the higher end of super markets here in jkt.

I kinda like its decor but felt it was too big, too open spaced. And they had 2 sections 1 japanese and 1 western. If i were the restaurant, with the space i have, i would have just divided both sections rather than combine it. Im a stickler for a restaurant for trying to do too many things at once. And this restaurant really tried to do everything. But i was adamant since they actually have a japanese chef to man the japanese side.

We didnt order the japanese stuff though. Mum snob had the ribeye, sis snob had the fillet salmon and i had the aussie burger.

Now, lets just combined both of my ribeye and burger together since both are beef. It was very weird, usually the beef will come out dark brown with charred marks. But both our beef turned out pretty pale almost looking white. On top of that, neither of our beef were medium rare. There were no signs of rare at all, no slight sign of blood whereas Mr Pancakes was just blood. Although my burger tasted okay with the bread, cheese and all. The beef patty along with mummy's snobs ribeye was utterly disappointing. And here we were thinking that they could have gotten the fresh ingredient since ranch market was downstairs. What i couldnt understand was why was the beef pale looking? Was it because the blood was utterly drained that it lost its colour?

Sis snob had the salmon fillet. Now, rarely do i prefer cooked fish than raw fish, and this was no exception. The fillet was not exactly fresh, it also wasnt not-fresh. It was just mediocre.

Yes, if i would to sum up my dining experience at Gourmet Garage it would just be mediocre considering the price i had to pay.

I would rather head down Casa which has a much better decor to chillax, or Potatohead for the food.

Oh, we ordered the hot chocolate cake with mascarpone cheese and vanilla icecream. The mascarpone cheese pipped my interest, but there were none when i ate it! maybe they used the cream to make the chocolate sauce. But that was probably the redeeming dish of the night. Try that if u're there

Being vegan

In Singapore i tried eating vegetarian once a week, but since this is Indo and considering this is probably one of the most polluted and environmentally unconscious people, it rubs on onto you. Which is me. I used to recycle all when i was back in Melbourne, but now i simply cant be bothered. Im ashame of myself.

Anyway today i was chit chatting to a friend of mine who stays in Jkt and is actually vegan cause she cares about the environment and all. Anyway this is some information on which we should eat less meat.

Meat and Climate Change
* According to the UN report “Livestock’s Long Shadow,” livestock production is the greatest contributor to global warming.
* Animal waste and feed cropland dump more pollutants into our waterways than all other human activities combined.
* Meat-based diets require 10-20 times as much land as plant-based diets – nearly half of the world's grains & soybeans are fed to animals.


Proportion of GHG emissions from different parts of livestock production

Livestock production emissions: 18%
Global Transportation emissions: 13.5%
18% of all greenhouse-gas emissions from human activities, including:
9% of CO2
37% of CH4(methane) - 23 times the Global Warming Potential of CO2 over 100 years, 72 times over 20 years
65% of N2O (nitrous oxide) -296 times the Global Warming Potential of CO2 over 100 years, 275 over 20 years
Source: FAO, 2006 (1)

Producing 1kg beef:

* Leads to the emission of greenhouse gases with a warming potential equivalent to 36.4 kg of CO2 .
* Releases fertilising compounds equivalent to 340 g. of sulphur dioxide and 59 g. of phosphate.
* Consumes 169 megajoules of energy .
* 1 kg of beef is responsible for the equivalent of the amount of CO2 emitted by the average European car every 250 km, and burns enough energy to light a 100-watt bulb for 20 days.
* Over two-thirds of the energy goes towards producing and transporting the animals' feed.

Source: Animal Science Journal, 2007

Casa Kemang

Gd Fd Guide Jkt, recommended this place and i went down to check it out.

I was looking for clean fuss free food in a nice environment to just chillax. I wld have gone to Potatohead but that isnt really such a chillax place. Casa upon arriving was really one. It reminded me so much of Melbourne and how they love their au natural/vintage decor. Lovely.

I ordered the apparently famous squid ink pasta with chili garlic oil and chicken. Mom snob had the steak sandwich with eggplant.

Now the squid ink pasta was liberally doused with chili such that i couldnt even taste subtleties of the squid ink pasta, i was disappointed as im quite a big fan of nero pasta. Although most of the nero pasta ive tasted have always been the sauce that is nero rather than the pasta itself. I was hoping (considering that my cholesterol was in check) to find out what nero pasta tasted like.

Mummy snob had the steak sandwich, it had a fancier name which was very forgettable, but the steak consisted of 3 thin slices of beef. Mummy snob was complaining how measly it was considering the price tag, but my thoughts were different.

Considering the dismay of Indonesian chef and their lack of passion/bushido spirit (for the japanese), i realised tht sometimes you have to create a menu that is in their means to cook. Having sliced beef rather than a thin fillet mignon was probably the right path to choose. You would have to really cook the sliced beef waaaayyyy too long just to ruin it. For the chef, you just have to wait for all the reds to disappear and the beef is done. Whereas fillet mignon requires a certain level of skill to reach the medium-rare tenderness which i love.

I would like to digress here abit since i touched on the topic of medium rare steak. We were at Mr Pancakes and i had no idea why mummy snob had to order the steak. It came out bloody, and when she sliced through the beef, blood ran all over the plate. It was simply not rested after grilling it. She told the people to send it back to cook again but i told her that these chefs do not understand that it had to be rested first, before heating it up again to serve it.

Anyway the steak sandwich was okay

What i really love about the place is the really chill atmosphere plus the decor which remains me of melbourne. Would love to go back there again if just to lounge and while my day away

Now all i need is an all white macbook (not the new austere aluminium frame) to look super gaya while sipping tea

Waiting for my itunes to work

Okay, like ive said ive been pretty busy and also pretty unmotivated to continue writing

But after eating at shabu tei and waiting for this itunes work, i realise that my job on this blog is somewhat of an evangelist... or maybe im putting myself too high on a pedestal.

Anyway my father snob out of a sudden decided to eat shabu tei, it could be the because the previous day mom snob was mentioning that she wanted something hot and soupy for her stomach, or it could be that 30% off bank mega that was available.

We ordered the nz beef for shabu, and my mom had the sukiyaki. The NZ beef for shabu was apparently 120-30 for 6 pieces whereas my mom who had the sukiyaki was only 80, and it seemed she had the same amount as us... it seemed pretty weird considering that the shabu stock was basically msg water, whereas hers there were stock/soyasauce and the lot. I felt terribly cheated.

We also ordered the beef katsu, and lo and behold, they use the beef slices to make the katsu. I mean seriously... what the fuck are you doing there?!

Dad snob was endlessly complaining on how paper thin the beef and how beef slices were used for the katsu?! On top of that, the sauce they provided for the sauce was sambal... I mean i know this is Indonesia and all, but at least serve some bulldog sauce or something. I had to dip it in the goma sauce provided by the shabu shabu to add some flavour.

Goodness, i would never go back there again. The whole day after i was suffering from msg.

Loewy

I've never really understood the concept of "gaul" or "gaya"

So on Saturday me and my friend went over to Loewy, this apparently "gual" place. And gual it was. We had to wait 90mins to get a table considering we didnt have reservations. but it was okay since we were at the bar and we had some snacks. But my friend wasnt too happy.

Okay onto the food, i had duck fillet with blueberry sauce and my friend the sole dish.

First, the sole dish SUCKS. Enough said. Dont bother ordering it.

The duck fillet when it arrived, it was like pieces of meat thrown onto the place, and was drowned in blueberry sauce. I had to lift the plate up to take a look and check whether this is really what i ordered!

There were no greens nor carbs. What a fucking let down.

The taste however was okay, but how wrong can you go when you just have to bake,panfry the duck and just drown it in blueberry sauce?

The plating of the dish was lazy, atrocious and totally unappetizing.

Gaul and gaya place indeed, closer to 10, lots more hip and happening youngsters came to this awful place.

Potatohead is so so much better for food.

Pepenero

I've blogged about this place afew times. And really both times have been disappointing. But i've said that the sauces were good, but texture was lacking. REALLY LACKING

I went back to the one at kuningan on a sunday at around 9 where it wasnt too crowded. maybe 40% capacity.

The food that day was good! I had steak with wine reduction and my sis had gnocchi, both really quite good. The chocolate souffle was pretty good too.

Mummy snob had minestrone soup, and it came out like indo style soup sayur, she was utterly upset and agitated. I told her that maybe in Italy there is such a dish and we shouldnt complain lest risk us looking like country bumpkins. I whipped out my samsung and started surfing to prove her that it does exit. Its called Italian Peasant Soup. But mummy snob, the snob cldnt resist and complained to the Italian chef who claims that it is from his hometown.

Food is good, go to kuningan when its less crowded, they might have mastered the art of texture with less people

Leko Teko

Teko, Leko, the iga penyet place. My friend swore by the sambal and claims that it had fucking ganja inside it. I mean seriously, if ever there was a sales pitch on eating something, that was it, except ganja is not so addictive, maybe something like coke or something. Anyway i digress. I went to Leko, and i ordered "spicy" since my stomach was okay.

Worst.mistake.ever

I was dying eating the fucking chili and i was cursing and swearing while eating it

So which is better, leko or teko?

Personally i prefer Leko, the iga penyet seems to be better marinated

But my friend says Teko chili is with the one iwth the ganja

Sushi Ippachi

Ippachi - widely considered one of the most expensive and the place to have sushi. ULTIMATE FAIL considering how bloody expensive it is and how hyped it is. Father snob and me realised that one of the sushis which had a liberal dose of wasabi was indeed not fresh, damn those fucking bastards. Don't bother going there if ure looking for sushi. My brother did say that the kyoto style sushi was okay. After Ippachi, ive vowed never to eat sushi again in Indonesia. Im just utterly dissappointed.

However there was one saving grace, the white fish sushi, i think it was halibut or something. The rest just tasted awful.

But one thing's for sure, the range of fish they have is really one of the best i've seen so far.

Maybe sashimi here is okay

On a side note, while in Singapore, i had to go and get my sushi fix, but the problem lies with the fact that i went in the morning, and thats where the reasonably price set lunches came in, it cost me 40 and i had sushi with some tempura. The sushi was ok at best. I shan't complain since if i wanted to have good quality sushi i should have gone at night, or not order the sushi set.

I have no life

The snob officially has no life. These days i only sleep 4 hours every night, not counting the 1-2 hours of nap time i spent in the car, damn the fucking indo traffic.

Anyway over the weekend i bought this book Jakarta Good Food Guide 2008-2009. Usually i shy away from these books because they dont really give a good account on the food. Its usually waaaayy too polite. And im not too discerning, i rather have in your face, no reading-in-between-the-lines to tell me it actually sucked.

When i read the review for Kinokawa, i knew i had to buy this book. She was spot on and brutally honest. Toro seared on a pan? Man, only idiots would do that. And i ate it, and it sucked big time. I always said time and time again that Indonesian Japanese chefs just dont have the bushido spirit.

The one restaurant i really wanna try is Shy, and i think in the book, its one of the longest reviews that took up to 3 pages.

Over the past few weeks ive eaten in a lot more places with less caution considering i was in singapore and got my stomach checked up. the dr gave me some medicine and now i can take chili and diary products. I'll post them up, one by one, but short entries since i hardly have any time these days...

Let me give you a round up on what i ate and whether you should bother making a visit.