Cooking Class at Hotel Pullman Jakarta

Last week I was invited by Pullman Hotel Jakarta for their very first Cooking Class. Since I love cooking so much, I was directly saying yes to the offer even though I always had a busy Saturday :p 
It was a great experience! Since I never cook Indian food before, and finally had a chance to do it.


In this occasion, we also been introduced to Mr. Sunardi Song, the new Director of Food and Beverages, and also Chef Ranjit Debnath as Chef de Partie of Pullman Hotel Jakarta. So let's cook shall we? ;)

Mr. Sunardi Song - courtesy of Pullman Hotel Jakarta

Chef Ranjit Debnath

I paired up with Culinary Bonanza for the class and the first menu that we cook that day is Paratha Bread. This flatbread originated from India it's already popular in many countries. Paratha bread is very yummy when paired with some curry. The second one that we cook is Chicken Curry. This chicken curry is very yummy and more healthy too, since we don't use any coconut milk. 

This is it ! The results with my own presentation ;p

And this one is made by Culinary Bonanza :D

Wanna know how to make it ? Here's the recipe. 

Paratha Bread

Ingredients : 
   - 250 grams Whole - wheat flour
   - 4 grams salt
   - 15ml Vegetable Oil
   - 125ml Water
   - Ghee (  Indian Clarified Butter or Minyak Samin in Bahasa ) or butter for greasing

Directions :
   - Sift the flour and salt together. Mix in the oil and water and knead to make a soft dough ( Chef Ranjit said he knead the dough with the mixer for 2 hours )
   - Cover the dough with a damp cloth and keep aside for 30 minutes.
   - After resting the dough, divide the dough equally into 5 balls and dust with flour.
   - Flatten the dough balls with rolling pin
   - Heat the non- stick pan, and put in the dough. Cook both the sides well until brown spots appear and it becomes crispy. Greased some Ghee or Butter.
   - Serve hot

Chicken Curry 

 Ingredients : 
   -  800grams Boneless Chicken, cut into 8 pieces
   -  100ml Vegetable Oil 
   -  2 Bay leaves ( tej patta )
   -  6 Green Cardamoms
   -  6 cloves 
   -  150gram Onion, 36 gram Ginger, 36gram Garlic ( ground into paste )
   -  1tbsp Red Tomato paste
   -  1tsp Coriander powder
   -  75gram Cashew Nut, 200gram Yoghurt ( ground into paste )
   -  2tsp chopped green chilies ( add more if you want more heat ) 
   -  2tsp oregano 
   -  Salt and White Pepper to taste  
   -  150ml Cooking Cream
   -  2tbsp Ghee  
   -  1 1/2cup water

Directions : 
   -  Heat the oil in heavy- bottomed pan, add bay leaves, cloves and cardamoms, saute until brown.
   -  Add the green chillies, onion, ginger,garlic paste and stir fry till the oil separates
   -  Add coriander powder, red tomato and cashew nut - yoghurt paste,  stir fry for 2 minutes
   -  Add the chicken and cook for 3 minutes. Add Ghee, oregano, Salt and White pepper. Stir and add the water. Cover and simmer in low heat until reduced.
   -  After the chicken already tender, fold in cream.
   -  Serve hot

Green Cardamoms and Cloves

After the cooking class, we had a yummy lunch at Collage Restaurant ( my previous review of the restaurant here ). Since there's an Indian Food Promotion during March - April 2013, I've also tried their Indian food.  There's a various Paratha ( include cheese :p ), Chicken and Fish Tandoori, Rogan Josh ( Lamb ),  Dal Makhani ( Lentils ), Basmati Rice and also various chutney ( mint, mango,etc ). Seriously, They were all so spicily yummy!  

Pullman Hotel Jakarta - Central Park Mall
Podomoro City
Jl. Let. Jend S Parman Kav 28,
Jakarta Barat
www.pullmanjakartacentralpark.com
Phone : (021) 29200088
Twitter : @Pullman_JKT_CP
Facebook : Pullman Jakarta Central Park

Food Review : Tokyo Banana

I've been heard that this yummy snack from Japan was raving around the instagram and also the world. Japan is very well known with their wideeee varieties of snacks, and all of them was very yummy! Thank God I got this generous friend of mine who had a trip to Japan, and bring back some snacks from the cherry blossom country :)

From their website, it is said that they had a box of 4, 8 ,12 and 16. With the range of prices from ￥470 to ￥2000 ( USD 5 - 21 ). They also had many kind of flavor, and also a leopard print cake ! Uber cute!

So how does it taste ? So it's basically a sponge cake with banana flavored custard filling. The cake was so moist and soft. The filling was quite thick but you barely can't taste the banana. It was good, but not great IMHO. I still prefer the Shiroi Koibito cookies though :) 

How about you guys? Have you try this tokyo banana? or have you try another yummy snack from Japan ? ( besides those green tea kit-kat :p )

www.TokyoBanana.jp

Restaurant Review : Sailendra Restaurant

One of the happiest moment when someone treats you dinner isn't it ? It's just even better when it was an AYCE ( All You Can Eat ) dinner. Forget diet for a moment! Because we doesn't eat like this everyday right??? ( one classic excuse )  :D

One thing that I like when having buffet on Hotel is, they have so many varieties of cuisine. So if you craving for many kind of food at once ( girls! you know what I mean :p ), it's a one good option. Or if you wanna celebrate something with your family or friends, it's a good option too. But how for a date? ;D haha... Not for a first date IMO.

Atmosphere : 
Just like usual restaurant at some 5 stars Hotel, the interior was very lux and cozy. It's also very spacious and always packed on weekends.

 

 

Price :
For buffet it was around IDR 380.000/ person/ weekend ( 40 USD )

Food :
For the appetizer, they had a very well range of salad that you can mixed on your own. This time I made my own salad with Lettuce Romaine, a lotssss of prosciutto ( love it! ) and cheese. Yum! 

From the seafood station, I always had some salmon and tuna sashimi, and some sushi rolls. The sashimi wasn't a good quality, but it's okay. We also can have fresh prawn, mussels and crab from the station. 

From the Italian station, there's a pizza and pasta. Tasted quite yum!

From the carving station there's a Prime Ribs steak. The beef tasted okay, but the gravy was tasteless. 

From the chinese station, there's a Roasted Duck, Steamed Chicken and Hainanese Rice. Quite yum. There's also some dimsum that wasn't taste that good.

From the porky porky station ;D there's a yummy pork steak with an addictive pork skin! Also the pork sausage that was so yummy. haha...

And of course, there's a looottttt more kind of food that I couldn't try. But they also done a good job at the Indian station. The briyani was so fragant!

And the dessert, oh yeah.... Ice cream provided by New Zealand Natural. No doubt, it's yummy. 

And some cheesecake, tart, pudding, mousse, meringue which tasted just okay to me ;)

Good thing about the buffet on this restaurant is, they also provide the drinks! Yayy....! 

Sailendra Restaurant
JW Marriott Hotel Jakarta
Jl.DR Ide Anak Agung Gde Agung Kav E.1.2 No 1&2,
Kawasan Mega Kuningan, Jakarta.
Phone : (021) 57988888

Food Review : Provence Bakery & Cafe

Among sooooo many bubble tea and ramen around PIK area, a friend of mine told me about this small bakery originated from Japan. I always love bakery and pastry, and my dad always love to enjoy a loaf of plain bread in the morning, so I'm thinking of buying some for him.

So after we got there, my friend only recommend this one product, Milk Pan - IDR 9.500. He said that even his mom was a big fan already! So yeah... I'm curious enough to bought 2 of it :D 
So this bread has a really soft fluffy texture on the outside, and milky creamy custard filling on the inside. Somehow, it's also taste like cheesecake :D Oh.. I also bought some wheat bread, but sorry, got no picture :p
 

Provence Bakery & Cafe
Rukan Crown Golf Blok D No. 39,

Pantai Indah Kapuk, Jakarta

Food Review : Otak Otak Si Dia

Today I got a package from Otak Otak Si Dia, a local home-business with delivery service. Otak -Otak is always my favorite snack. But too bad is quite hard to found a good one nowadays. The highly price of mackerel fish maybe are one of the reasons.

Not only in Indonesia, Otak - Otak or Otah can also found in Singapore or Malaysia. This soft and chewy cake made from fish meat and spices are very addictive. Wrapped in banana leaf and then grilled to perfection also gives a nice smokey taste. To enjoy otak-otak, we also dip it to the sweet spicy peanuts sauce. Yes.... one is never enough! :D

Back to Otak- Otak Si Dia, to me, this otak-otak meets all the criteria right after the first bite. Generous portion and yes, I can taste the mackerel fish! Savory and not too chewy. Yum yum! 

The peanuts sauce also addictive too! Quite spicy!

Dip Dip ;D

The price is only IDR 4.000/ piece. With minimum order of 20 pieces, you can enjoy this otak-otak right to your door!


Otak Otak Si Dia
www.Otakotaksidia.com
Phone   :  ( 021 ) 26 170 180 - David
Email    :  order@otakotaksidia.com
Twitter  : @otakotaksidia

Dapuraya : Authentic Indonesian Kitchen

Traveling around Indonesia and tasting all the food are already on my bucket-list. We have too many kinds of food and culture and landscapes that even you spend the whole month traveling around Indonesia, it will never be enough. I have a friend from Finland who plan to travel around Indonesia for 3 months, then he ended up living here for 1 year! Haha....see? Never seems enough to explore this whole country!

Didn't have enough time, imprisoned in your work cubical, or... simply didn't have the budget to travel more. You're not alone. Or maybe you are from another city and have to work in Jakarta, and sometimes you missed a lil' bit of 'home' and craving some of the food there. Ow yeah.... some of us would definitely feel that, but hey.. worry no more! Because now, there's a ONE place to satisfied all your cravings and fill up your tummy, yes it's Dapuraya!

Located in legendary Pasaraya Blok M Mall, this new concept of presenting Indonesian food from Sumatra to Papua just recently open! With more than 50 food vendors & a 'tempo doeloe' ( vintage ) atmosphere, definitely one comfortable option to enjoy street food. One of the mission of Dapuraya is to made Indonesian food more recognizable by the public, so from 23 - 31 January 2013, they held "Festival Makanan Enak- Enak" that specially invite food vendors from Bogor, Bandung, Yogyakarta, Semarang, Surabaya dan Solo. So here is some of the food that I've try with some of my food bloggers friends.

Laksa Bogor Kampung Cingcaw ( Jl. Ranggagading, Kampus Kesatuan, Bogor ). The coconut turmeric soup tasted savory and slightly sweet. 

Burung Dara Goreng SBTB ( Jl. A. Yani No 76, Yogyakarta ). This fried dove tasted more like fried duck, but the spicy sambal is very yummy!

Tengkleng Solo ( Solo ). A feast for innards-lovers!

Loempia Mataram ( Jl. Mataram, Semarang ). Too bad this wasn't fresh enough. The bamboo sprouts tasted very unpleasant.

Es Mangga dan Pala Aming ( Jl. Suryakencana, Bogor ). Always love this Es Mangga!

Es Mangga ( Ice Mango)

Es Pala ( Nutmeg Ice )

Tahu Petis Prasojo Semarang ( Area jajanan simpang lima, Semarang). Too bad the Petis ( sweet prawn paste ) was too mild.

From the other food stall in Dapuraya, we tasted Sate Padang Ajo Ramon. The yellow spicy sauce was very enjoyable.

Rawon Buntut.

Tahu Tek-Tek. Love the peanuts sauce.

Ayam Penyet

Not only Indonesian food, in Dapuraya also offers Korean, Japanese, Philippines, German and Western Food. For the dessert we also tried Bungeoppang. This Korean pancake fills with red beans or chocolate.

swing swing ;D

Dapuraya

Pasaraya Blok M, Level LG

Jl. Iskandarsaya II No.2, Kebayoran Baru, South Jakarta

Phone        : ( 021 ) 726 01 70

www.Pasaraya.co.id

Facebook   : Dapuraya

Twitter       : @Dapuraya