Venue Focus: Goedang Koffie Medan, Epic Battle of Durian vs Avocado

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We head for Goedang Koffie at 3pm for late lunch. The coffee establishment is dominated by industrial decor - trend that's taking the town by storm. It was almost full that we had to park distant away. Good sign of good food? or maybe no. Let's dig in then!

Starters

For stater we had Crispy Chicken Thai - Rp. 28K, deep fried chicken and fries served with Thai chili dipping. Nothing to brag about the chicken n fries.The dipping mix is quite unique. My tongue tells me there honey, lime, and bottled Thai chili sauce - please excuse if I'm wrong. 

Mains

Ordered Claypot Tofu Saus Pedas - Rp. 35K, as it was featured in the menu cover. It's egg tofu, minced chicken, mushroom braised w/ spicy gravy inside claypot. Sauce is sweet, sour, and spicy at the same time. Pretty good with rice, like my good o'granny's homecook. My suggestion, it lacks of fibers, a bit of leaf veggies would definitely help.

Beverage

Beverage came in one separate menu, loaded with plenty of choices. As we are durian worshipper, nothing can stop us ordering Blended Coffee Durian - Rp. 35K. Blurrrbbb, finish it in one go, brain freeze, but it's really good. Durian never fails to impress me. Durian Coffee will probably end the reign of Avocado Coffee craze. To the inventor of this drink, WE SALUTE YOU!

Also ordered, Oreo Goedang Koffie - Rp. 35K, which was actually not bad. But since we are in the Durian state of indulgence, we can't comprehend the goodness of Oreo. Sorry, Oreo bro.

Only drawback is lack of aircon to cool the heat from hot weather. Ceiling fan is not enough. Nevertheless, it's a good place to visit, inexpensive, homey-feel, great place to chill with friends.

Final word of wisdom: There's boxing match of the century, Mayweather vs Pacquiao. Likewise, there's beverage match of the century Durian vs Avocado.

Well Done

Good Durian Coffee combo

Nice decor

Good value, inexpensive

Can be improved
More aircon to combat hot day

Kitchen Guide: Sushi

Sushi is single most recognizable Japanese dish in the world.
Sushi comes in different shapes and arrangements. However, at its very basic it has seafood, or meat and rice as ingredient. Below are popular sushi variants

Nigiri

This type of sushi is possibly you've seen most. It is the simplest form of sushi, hand shaped seasoned rice with toppings. Popular toppings include fishes, fish roes, squids, shellfishes, beef tataki, and veggies.

Gunkan

Gunkan translates to battleship in Japanese. Gunkan sushi is nigiri sushi with seaweed wrapped along its perimeter. The purpose is to contain the topping which is usually difficult to keep intact, such as salmon roe (ikura), and sea urchin roe (uni).

Maki

 Maki sushi, widely known as rolled sushi, has its fillings rolled inside a sushi rice. Fillings are usually combination of various ingredient, salamon, eel, avocado, crab sticks, mayonnaise, flying fish roe (tobiko), cucumber, shiitake mushroom, egg (tamago), etc.
Traditionally, maki has sea seaweed wrapped outside the roll. Modern version of maki sushi includes inside out roll.

Temaki

Temaki literally means hand (te) maki (rolled sushi), i.e. a handy version of maki. It is shaped like a cone for ease of handling and very suitable to eat on the go.

Hakozushi

A variant of nigiri sushi which differentiate itself on its shape. Hakozushi takes the form of squarish shape.

Chirashi Sushi

Chirashi Sushi is very similar to Katsudon, in which various slices of toppings are arranged and stack on top a bowl of sushi rice.

images
http://img04.deviantart.net/3cea/i/2012/365/0/3/sushi_platter_2_by_patchow-d5ps8cj.jpg

http://media-cdn.tripadvisor.com/media/photo-s/03/98/e4/f7/wasabi-asian-plates-sushi.jpg

http://www.masuyainternational.com.au/images/makoto/menu/platter03.png

https://yourstrulyzhivali.files.wordpress.com/2015/05/phlgh2h6cz7lie.jpg

http://gnt.estaticos.tv.br/migracao/fckeditor/image/Temaki-Salmao-Cream-Cheese6.jpg
http://d13uygpm1enfng.cloudfront.net/article-imgs/en/2013/10/15/AJ201310150034/AJ201310150035M.jpg
http://www.lurlo.info/it/wp-content/uploads/2015/03/4517327969_8159846fbb_z.jpg

Venue Focus: Smokey Ribs Medan, Onion Wedding Ring

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Sits across old Polonia Airport & The Palace elite housing complex, Smokey Ribs is easy to find, as there's not many store tuck along the street. You just need to watch out for the bright orange neon light on the signboard.

Smokey Ribs offers American BBQ fairs, centered on grilled items such as ribs and steaks, US Meat. It features wood & brick dominated decor, low lit lighting, and vintage posters over its wall. Homey welcoming ambiance.

Starters

The Onion Ring is the star of the night. It has crunchy and flavorful batter outside, and sweet moist onion inside, you simply want to MARRY them. But heck, it need more generous helping of the thousand-island like dipping sauce. It's so good that 1 small bowl is not enough, have to lick it clean!

Salad is kinda dry, again, more dressing can certainly help. Veggies are fresh and cheese gratings are tasty tho.

Mains

Pork ribs are tender, fell off the bone, and well seasoned. It came with equally good coleslaw, and choice of sides like mash potato, fries, etc, - we chose baked beans.

The coleslaw, bro, is possibly the best coleslaw I've ever tasted, crunchy veggies, runny and tasty dressing. Baked beans has slight spiciness to it, fits in Medan's taste bud well.

Unfortunately, the accompanying sauce is kinda too salty. It overpowers the meat if you dip into it. So I prefer not to use the sauce at all. Adding ingredients honey, brown sugar syrup, apple puree and cinnamon could help awaken the natural sweetness and flavor to the sauce.

But still, good job on the Pork Ribs Dish, Chef!

Oklahoma BBQ sausage is okay, nothing much to be bragged about. The sauce is also too strong. Good thing it came with milder cream of chicken soup as side, which balances the saltiness - we ate the soup after finishing the sausage because the soup came late.

Beverage

Unfortunately, beverage items were not appealing, we ended up ordering hot lemon tea and lime juice, and to my surprise, they serve off-the-supermarket-shelf-midlow-teabag (can't mention the brand - don't want to get blackmailed) for their hot tea, and too-simple-looking-and-tasting lime juice. Dude, for such a respectable restaurant like Smokey Ribs, surely you can do much better than this. 

Made me rubbed my forehead! Yes Jackie, just like you...

My suggestion, they should try using tea leaves, turn it into their own powerful mocktail, and put more twist on the lime juice. The ambience is perfect to chill with mates on Saturday night. Certainly enough, a great cocktail or mocktail will light up the night!

Prepare to spend IDR 150K++ per pax. Expensive, but it justifies the quality ingredients and tasty food. Good thing doesn't come cheap - worth it well.

All in all, great food, perfect ambiance, superb service, good value.

Well Done
Tender Meat
Good Service
Onion Ring

Can be improved
Sauces for meat pretty salty
More sauce for Onion Ring
Limited Beverage items



images
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Chef's Diary: Reynold Poernomo - Indonesian Prodigy in Australian Masterchef

Best desert I've seen in six year - Matt Preston

Yes, he is just 20 years old. Yes, he hails from Indonesia. Yes, the judges and other contestants dubbed him, "THE DESSERT KING", and yes, he is Reynold Poernomo.

Reynold's family moved from Surabaya, Indonesia when he was very young. Both his mother and brother are prominent names in culinary industry. His mother is the owner of, Artplate, pastry and cakes house offering catering service in Sydney. Meanwhile, his brother, Arnold Poernomo, is none other than the youngest judge in Masterchef Indonesia.

His cooking technique earns him high praise from judges in Masterchef Asutralia, not once, but 3 times.

He hit it hard in his first qualification round as in the first video above. The three judges finished the dish, leaving clean empty plate.

That is the best Quenelle I've ever seen in Masterchef - George Calombaris

The judges even took picture of his food, first time this has ever happened in Masterchef Australia history. skip to 27.30 in the video below

Finally, his most formidable dish, "The Forbidden Fruit", chocolate mousse shelled in red cocoa butter that resembles apple. A dish that left the judges stunned, saying, "This is only week 2, and you deliver dish that is worthy for Grand Final". skip to 1.03.15 in the video above

But his path of success does not always come smooth. Ironically, he was criticized for his artisan skill by fans, who reckons that he should be kicked out from the show because he is obviously overqualified - as Masterchef is supposed to take amateur contestants without significant experience in professional cooking.

Nevertheless, he is the pride of Indonesia, bringing the nation name to the world's elite culinary world.

images from
http://resources3.news.com.au/images/2015/05/11/1227350/007863-9df1e04e-f6c8-11e4-9416-e181221d5c3b.jpg
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/tvshowbiz/article-3078451/MasterChef-fans-question-Reynold-Poernomo-s-professional-expertise-brother-revealed-judge-Indonesian-version-show.html

Chef's Diary: San Pellegrion World's Top 50 Restaurants

We recognize San Pellegrino as Premium Italian bottled water brand. What does it has to do with World's Top 50 Restaurants?

It turns out that they are the sponsor of the annual crowning event. Together with Michelin Star, they are two most prestigious award for restaurant around the globe.

SPANISH DOMINATION

General knowledge would tell us, sitting at the summit of the world culinary industry is France. It's not completely true. Instead, Spain shows dominance in top 10 lists by having two representatives, taking 1st, and 6th - El Celler de Can Roca, and Mugaritz respectively. 

Surprisingly, top French representative only hold 11th, outside top 10.

El Celler de Can Roca - Girona, Spain

ASIA's BEST

Tokyo's Narisawa was named as Asia’s best restaurant, ranking 8th in the world. Hailing from Southeast Asia are Gaggan (10th - Thailand), Nahm (22nd - Thailand), Ultraviolet (24th - Shanghai, China), Amber (38th - Hongkong, China) and Restaurant Andre (46th - Singapore). Restaurant Andre is perhaps the closest one you can visit. The venue is walking distance from Outram Park MRT station.

Narisawa Natural Landscape Themed Dish

PERU - DARK HORSE

Another fact that might surpise you is Peru having three restaurants in the list. Their best restaurant even ranked 4th this year.

WOMEN IN TOP 50

Mani from Brazil, successfully made it as the only woman in the list, only 1 in 50.

For complete list, visit http://www.theworlds50best.com/

images taken from 
http://www.theworlds50best.com/filestore/jpg/header-sp.jpg
http://www.tripsforvips.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/06/celler.jpg
http://www.four-magazine.com/files/images/articles/1812/

Venue Focus: The Thirty-six Medan, Velvety Tulip Cappuccino

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Located across the shophouse complex of Multatuli, right by the main street, occupies a whitebrick mansion called The Thirty Six. A rustic and unpretentious decoration embellishes the building.

The venue boost typical design of Australian coffee establishment, from old-fashioned string lights to industrial pallet furniture, along with hand-drawn murals, gray concrete floor, and glass dominated walls, It recently underwent renovation, but retains its good old industrial looks.

Expectations flew high when we saw quotes of “Food is on the menu, but it’s the caffeine that will get you to our door”. Considering the recent café-booms in Medan, that is a bold statement to make. Yet, as soon as we had our first sip of latte, we were SOLD! Perhaps it was the magic of barista and La Marzocco epsresso machine that made it possible.

Typical dinner here would cost IDR 90K/pax for a main & drink, still a money worth paying for the comfy venue, great coffee and decent food.


Jalan Multatuli No.36, Medan
+6261 4530970
hello@thethirty-six.com


Well Done
The Coffee & Fish n Chips
Comfy industrial style decor
Parking spaces

Can be improved
Mac n Cheese & Pasta dishes, esp on presentation
outdoor seating needs stronger portable air-con / fan





PS: News has it that they are preparing to open a new outlet in Ring Road Citywalk Mall. (TBC)

Chef at Home: Prawn Spaghetti Aglio Olio

Aglio Olio, literally translate to garlic and (olive) oil, is pasta at its simplest, pasta - usually spaghetti - tossed with garlic, olive oil, herbs, and chilli flakes.

For this version, we add a little twist to the humble recipe, fresh seawater prawn.

INGREDIENTS

1. Spaghetti 120gr

2. Garlic 5 cloves

3. Salt to taste

4. Paprika pinch

5. Oregano 1/2 t.s.p.

6. Mix herb 1/2 t.s.p.

7. Chili flakes to taste

8. Olive oil 3 t.s.p.

9. Fresh Prawn 80Gr

10. Cheese for garnish

INSTRUCTION

Bring spaghetti to boil, drain and rinse with cold water and let it rest

Chop garlic to thin slices, and deshell prawns

Heat olive oil on pan, add chopped garlic, paprika, oregano, salt mix herb, chili flakes, and prawns

Put spaghetti on top, and toss throughly

Voila! Prawn Spaghetti Aglio Olio is done!

Instructional video by Awesome Cook

TIPS

How to deshell prawns - by TheHookandTheCook

Dos

#boil pasta in salt water

#watch garlic while cooking

#garnish with fried garlic

and chili flakes

Dont's

#completely drain the pasta

water, add it while tossing

Picture from http://www.noobcook.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/11/prawnsaglioolio.jpg

Travel Log: Thailand, The Land of Thousand Smiles

Salty, sweet, sour, spicy, bitter.
Not many other cuisines in the world consist of all these tastes in a single dish, except for Thai food.

My buddies and I had made such frequent trips to Bangkok that we knew how to get around the city by BTS (Bangkok Subway System), but we also managed to avoid usual tourist traps like temples and floating markets. Our main mission is to hunt for Glorious food! Here’s our typical feast fest

Brunch

We headed to Siam station. There’s a mini food court right beside the Novotel Siam Square that sells classic Thai dishes such as Thai chicken rice, braised pork rice, and fish-ball noodles, and lastly, washing all these with Thai iced-tea. Yuh!

Tea Time

Within walking distance from the food court is Siam Paragon mall. The mall
houses a gigantic food hall integrating a food court, restaurants, and individual vendor stands. Our favorite list includes Thai-style sausage lathered in sweet chilli sauce and Thai crispy crepes (sweet and salty).

Dinner

I caught up with a local Thai friend, Fai, who brought us to local best kept secrets. We went to Sam Yan market near Chulalongkorn University, a large food court. Our Thai friends do the
ordering since the vendors rarely speak English. You know they serve great food when they speak only local language. A few dishes that we love include deep fried kangkoong, stir fried eggs in curry sauce, fried pork with garlic, tom yum soup, and ground chicken with basil.

There’s more to Bangkok beyond the usual tourist traps. Open your mind to try new things, you will definitely have a good time. Till our next trip, take care!

Regards Stefan Pratama

FLIGHT

AIR ASIA (KNO to BKK)

via CGK approx. IDR 2,000,000

STAY

5* Shangri-la Hotel - IDR 2,000,000

4* Novotel The Square - IDR 1,300,000

3* Lemontea Hotel - IDR 700,000

Chef's Diary: Professional Chef's Salary

Considering career as professional cook as career, but doubted the amount of salary you will earn? Well, think again. The fact below will surprise you!

Meet Jamie Oliver, a Briton crowned as the wealthiest chef in the world. Jamie's made his fortune from his TV shows, cooking classes - Recipease, Restaurants - Jamie's Italian, Barbecoa, Jamie's Diner, etc, cookbook, personal label products (pasta, olive oils, spices mix, dips, ready to eat food, food containers, and many more).

INFOGRAPHICS

Kitchen Guide: PASTA!

Legend has it that pasta was first introduced to Italy by Marcopolo, who brought it over from ancient china. Since then, pasta spread across Italy. Each region in Italy developed different shapes of pasta, ingredients, processing methods, and sauces.

The followings are nine popular pasta noodle that are widely consumed.

1. Spaghetti
shape : Noodle
variant : Bolognese (grounded beef & tomato sauce)

2. Fusilli
shape : Spiral
variant : Al-Pesto (fusilli tossed in pesto)

3. Macaroni
shape : Bend hollow tube
variant : Mac & Cheese (grilled macaroni in cheese bath)

4. Lasagna
shape: Sheet
variant : Beef Lasagna (grounded beef & tomato sauce)

5. Fettuccine
shape : Flat noodle
variant : Alfredo (cream & herbs)

6. Penne
shape : Hollow tube
variant : Napolitana (tomato sauce & herbs)

7. Ravioli
shape: Handbag pouch
variant : Four Cheese Ravioli (ricotta, mascarpone, pamersan & mozzarella)

8. Tortellini
shape: Ring pouch
variant : Tortellini Primavera (Tortellini tossed with carrots, mushroom, asparagus, & other veggies)

9. Gnocchi
shape: Cylindrical
variant : Gnocchi Gorgonzola (wheat flour, egg, cheese & potato dough in Gorgonzola cheese sauce)

 In your next visit to Italian eatery, you can impress your mates with know-what on Pasta!