fast feast

its the fasting month and jakarta is a feast for both the eyes and belly.
thus far, the metaphysical hunger is greater than the physical hunger but jakarta can be decent for the soul if not sumptuous for the stomach.
anyway. this all brings us to resto kembang goela which is a renowned restaurant right in the city's business district along jalan sudirman. the restaurant, which tags itself as the isles of colourful spice, is in a handsome house filled with batik pieces in a parking lot behind plaza sentral.
also, in local parlance, kembang goela means candy. goela is the bahasa indonesia spelling for gula in bahasa malaysia which means sugar in english.
but there is more than candy in the store.
there is food.
good food from across the archipelago of 17,000 islands that blends together the best of the east and west - a melange of chinese, dutch and spice islands - for a feast to end a fast.
the kicker was es van midden java - thats dutch for ice from the middle of java - and for the rest of us, its cendol with ice cubes, not crushed or shaved ice. a colleague remarked that of course, penang has great cendol and specifically, the famous penang road cendol.
for the uninitiated, cendol is a pandanus flavoured and coloured starch noodles in a coconut milk with palm sugar syrup and ice - cubed, crushed or shaved.
i wondered who actually created the first cendol or es van midden java? the mamaks, chinese, dutch or javanese, sumatrans and what have you? apparently, it is from java.
my colleague, she travels to eat, did all the ordering.
we had keropok which is standard fare with some sambal, asem-asem noni (similar to clear thai tomyam) that just did the trick, ikan krapu bakar (grilled grouper) that was fresh and tasty, oseng brocoli (chinese-style brocolli) that was not that crunchy and tahoe telur beledek (egg with soya bean curd) that went well with is lovely dark soy sauce and something to really try.
ok. what else because it didn't end there.
we also had bebek bumbu lengkuas (duck friend with galangal and spices), ayam laos (fried chicken), bihun goreng (fried rice vermicelli) and my favourite and possibly the most awesome of dishes - the dendeng balado (thinly sliced pan-fried dried beef with chilli dressing) that is definitely the bomb.
scrumptious. delicious. just heavenly.
of course, it all went together with rice. had an extra helping of rice as the sambal - ground chili relish - came late. we had sambal ijo (green chilli), sambal terasi (the usual belacan) and sambal mangga (manggo sambal - quite nice) and drinks to go, including some sweet tea.
as it was the fasting month, the feast was quite fast. we finished in no time but lingered on for a colleague who was a bit late but no less hungry than the rest of us.
we were so full we couldn't try any more dishes or even the desserts.
if you are ever in jakarta, go try it for a good meal.
kembang goela is at plaza sentral parking lot, jalan jenderal sudirman kav 47-48. call +6221 5205651 for reservations.

days of wine and roses

it happened out of the blue, a drink with a friend and suddenly it turns into a party as others turn up to share the week between christmas and new year.
and what a party it was.
i had - at one time or the other - dated three of the women at the table. one was the highschool sweetheart while the rest were in the not-so-recent-past.
that's where the roses part comes in. if i had a ringgit for every stalk i sent... hmmm!
but that is the past. and best left there as two of them will finally tie the knot this year.
back to the report at hand. we were at the vintry - a bottle shop - a couple of doors away from the ribshop in medan damansara and as usual, decided to get a bottle of wine.
red it was and for the life of me, i cannot remember the name except to say that it took time before it was good to drink. we had some, make that lots of bruschetta as we gave it time to breathe.
having said that, that bottle finished fast and it was time for the second bottle - a stonier pinot noir. the crowd grew to three and possibly four - i had already picked up my highschool sweetheart - by this time as we opened the bottle.
the pinot noir had a delicious berry taste with some plum notes and a certain spiciness. it had a smooth silky finish and certainly went to our heads.
the crowd grew bigger as an old friend from school turned up in the already packed bottle shop. we ordered the wonderful chilled beef tenderloin from the ribshop as some were hungry.
so off i went to trawl among the bottle racks and picked a bottle of porca de murca douro reserva 2002. wasn't quite sure what i was doing but the bottle was a revelation.
it was really really nice with a pleasant woody and vanilla taste. the full bodied wine was also smooth and went well with the beef that we had.
great stuff from the douro region in portugal where porca de murca - which means the sow of murca - is one of the best selling wines.
that was done and the crowd grew larger. another bottle was to be found and it was the chateau belles eaux coteaux du languedoc 2003 that made its way to our table. another round of glasses for the ever-growing crowd that now stood at 10. only one couldn't drink while another had to be persuaded to try a sip as she had sworn off alcohol a while ago.
that was done and we sipped another good wine, slightly mineral in taste but a good plummy finish.
that bottle went pretty fast too.
time was coming to somewhere around midnight and a platter of cheese kept us company, apart from the crowd from other tables that became chummy with us as smiles were exchanged and bottles drained their content.
so we chose another bottle that was nice but no one could remember the label as none were that great a wine aficionado. guess our taste buds were inundated with so much wine that we just couldn't think of the label.
but it was a great night, i can assure you that! hic!
the vintry is at 130, jalan kasah, medan damansara - among the other restaurants in the only row of shops there. one can order from the other restaurants to eat in the vintry - which also has its own selection of good food.

whine and din at the ribshop

i really have no beef with the rib shop since it opened a couple of years ago. the food is great and the wines superb.
but the wine-and-dine rib speciality restaurant in medan damansara didn't score full marks last night. their most under-rated speciality, chilled australian tenderloin beef in red wine sauce didn't taste as good as it did previously.
well, to put it mildly, the red wine was missing from this mouth-watering delicately medium-to-welldone roasted chunk of meat garnished with sauteed mushrooms and potato cubes in red wine sauce.
maybe chef danny liew was missing too.
an off day for both the chef and the dish.
could that be possible? i didn't bother to find out.
thankfully, the fettucine with crispy bacon, creamy parmagianno and a dash of nutmeg made up for the dinner as diners at another table put on their party hats, clinked their glasses and sang happy birthday as they busily snapped away with their cameraphones.
the pasta dish was splendid with its creamy cheesy flavour meshing well with the crispy crunchy bacon and the al dente fettucine.
just what i needed to offset the disappointing tenderloin.
the saving grace was the beef carpaccio remains without equal among the few places i have had this wonderfully simple dish of slices of beef, lemon juice and olive oil with scattered slices of heavenly parmagianno cheese and garnished with rocket.
and the wine of the day? well, the wine shop people had said it was an argentinian wine but that went missing too.
to my surprise, and subsequent delight, the house wine was a wonderful medium bodied haywood cabernet sauvignon 2001. a refreshing and spicy wine, it had flavours of berry and pepper plus hints of vanilla and oak.
had two glasses. nice.
the rib shop is at 120-122 jalan kasah, medan damansara. its open for lunch 12.00 to 2.30pm and dinner 6.00pm to 10.30pm. wines from the wine shop can be consumed in the restaurant without any corkage.