Manadonese Food

Manadonese food is spicy. Hot is one thing, but it is spicy as in full with interesting spices, which make good taste.

My (Bibip) favourite is Restoran Ikan Tude. Frank also likes this, but he always cannot find sayur acar kuning there and he always complains about it :-).

Another good one is Chamoe Chamoe. It's specialty is Kuah Asam Salmon. Unfortunately we don't have a picture of it but it is the best! I love Salmon and spicy stuff and it has both! :-) It is salmon in a clear soup with some leaves, tomatoes, and green chili. It is hot and sour, but not like chinese hot and sour soup, it is clear and much more fresh. But kuah asam salmon is all about Chamoe Chamoe for us. The chili is not hot enough there and it basically destroys the whole idea about Manadonese food for me :-). Well, they sometimes have "perkedel ikan nike", too, very rarely though, i think it is a rare as they have Frank's favourite "acar kuning".

The hottest manadonese restaurant we have tried so far is Beautika, near Plaza Senayan. It is a pretty authentic manadonese restaurant with cooked bat and all that :-). But the hot chilli kills and the traffic jam on the way there does even more! :-) So, no, we don't go there anymore :-).

Here is our usual menu of Kuah Asam Sayur-perkedel jagung-ikan tude bakar-cakalang fufu rica rica in Restoran Ikan Tude.

Penang Bistro's Hong Kong Style Steamed Fish

Have we told you that we love steamed fish? I think we did :-). We told you about Bawal Medan and Nila Kukus. Now, Penang Bistro also has Hong Kong Style Steamed Fish. We think it is number 3 in our list of favourite steamed fish (after bawal medan and nila kukus sari kuring). It is "only" number three because there are "hong kong style steamed fish" in many other restaurants. It really depends on taste of the "hong kong style" sauce and the freshness of the fish then. This one is good, though! They put dill on it. And a little candle would be alit under the serving plate.

Rujak Peureulak

I travel a lot (btw this is Bibip), nation wide and internationally. Usually the first two questions I ask would be: "what is the special local food here?" and "where is the traditional market?" I think those are the best things that could tell you much about the place if you have limited time (I have crazy work travel schedules, well not anymore now since I started "bertapa" in Seattle.. :-)).

Once I had an assignment to advice "ibu-ibu DPRD" in Langsa, Aceh Utara, and Banda Aceh. So I would travel by car from Langsa (south east) to Lhoksemawe and Aceh Utara (north). There is Peureulak city in between and I love the rujak there! So, as usual, I took some pictures :-). Rujak in Medan has the same style. In Jakarta we call it "rujak ulek." But rujak peureulak is different. You shoud try! i

Btw, hmm.. I guess the English translation of "rujak" is mixed fruit with peanut sauce.

This is the "basic": peanut sauce. The grinding stone is massive! We call it "ulekan" :-)

This is when the guy was mixing the peanut sauce with the cut fruit. Oh look at the yummy green chilli!

..and tadaaaaa! this is MY plate of rujak! yummmy!! (I am in Seattle now and I am missing it...)

Sosis Oom Jance at Kembang Goela

Some months ago Frank, Bas, and I had dinner at Kembang Goela Restaurant in Central Plaza, Jakarta. That was the third time I had dinner there.

Some dishes are good, I must admit, and good choices of wine, too. But the price is a bit too much for me, for an Indonesian food (I cannot help but to think about the similar food di pinggir jalan with very different price :-)). Well, it is a fine dining Indonesian food restaurant. Just like Dapur Baba, Loro Jonggrang (Frank always calls it Loro Gondrong :-D), and Bunga Rampai. Kembang Goela and Bunga Rampai are in the same group though, the cheaper not-fine-dining member of the group happens to be located across our apartment :-) ("Waroeng Kita" in City Walk). Don't blame us for going there often :-). Frank's favourite is Asam Iga and my favourite is Buntut Goreng and we must drink teh tarik there!

It is a nice place to have special dinner on special occassions. Very nice presentation and interesting titles of the food :-). Here is "Sosis Oom Jance", now you know what we mean by "nice presentation and interesting title"... :-) (look at the scissors to cut the sosis! :-))

Frank's Roasted Chicken

This oven-roasted chicken is stuffed with fresh lemons and thyme. It is prepared with potato, paprika, carrot and onion vetches, as well as some roasted garlic. After cooking for one hour in the oven, the chicken has a crispy skin and a pink juicy meat that just drops of the bone. Tuck in and feel happy! Unfortunately, it is only available at special occasions :-)

(written by Frank)

Chocolate Melt

Another one of Bakerzin's signature desserts is the succulent warm chocolate melt with vanilla ice cream served on a slice of orange. The first spoon reveals a treasure of warm chocolate and the sweetness is contrasted by the slight bitterness of the caramelised orange skin.

The dessert is beautifully presented with fresh strawberries and a ring of strawberry sauce. A green crown of fresh mint rests on the ice cream. All in all, it is a dessert that pleases all senses and sweetens any Sunday afternoon!

(written by Frank)

Coupe Cheese Cake with Strawberries

This version of cheese cake is quite different from ordinary cheese cake since it is served in a glass cup (therefore its name: coupe).

Cream flavoured ice cream and biscuit crumbs are mixed with fresh strawberries and topped with strawberry sauce and mint leaves.

Despite its rich ingredients, the coupe cheese cake is very refreshing. A real masterpiece of the Bakerzin Cafe!

(written by Frank)

Bebek Bali - Balinese Style Duck

If you are in Ubud, Bali next time, do not miss the Restaurant Tepi Sawah. It serves a great version of Bebek Bali, a crispy fried half duck that is tender on the inside. It is served with white rice and Balinese string beans with herbs (Urap) that even Bibip does not give a miss.

Accompanying the duck a various versions of sambal, from fried sambal to fresh sambal, grean tomato sambal (like dabu dabu) and sambal with peanuts!

(written by Frank)

Chocolate Souflee with Hazelnut Sauce

One of Jakarta's best desserts are prepared by the chefs at Koi Restaurant. The chocolate souflee is humongous and rises like a volcano our of the oven-proof form. It is served with a hot hazelnut sauce and chocolate ice cream. Simply delicious!

(written by Frank)

Avocado Juice

There is nothing more soothing after a spicy meal than a glass of fresh avocado juice with sweet chocolate milk!

Some places use white chocolate milk or coconut milk instead of dark chocolate but I still prefer the dark version :-)

I promise you if you start sipping the straw you won't stop until you reach the bottom of the glass...

(written by Frank)

Steamed Nila Fish

This is one of our favourite steamed fish. Well, I like the bawal medan better, but we eat this steamed fish more often because the restaurant is easy to reach :-) while going to Medan takes some time :-). It's Sari Kuring's steamed fish.

The sauce is the interesting part. It is prepared with fermented black bean (tauco), chili and spring onion. The ingredients are similar to steamed bawal in medan, except that the bawal has ginger, but they must have different composition because they taste different (but both are yummy!).

Bawal Medan

There is a small restaurant behind Sun Plaza in Medan that has a very good steamed bawalfish. The restaurant is called "Bintang". It's quite "sederhana" but the bawal is sooooo yummy!

As you can see in the picture, the fish is steamed with fermented black bean (in Indonesia we call it "tauco"), ginger, spring onions, and chilli (cabe rawit).