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.

sweet scotch o' mine

'twas time for single malt scotch after the penang trip.
add on the fact two friends were to celebrate their birthdays on may 13, one a scotch lover in kuala lumpur and the other a lover of many things in singapore. hope they had their fun.
a friend was cooking dinner and we thought an announcement was in the air.
nope, it was just the roast leg of lamb. and lots of drinks with a selection of vodkas and mojito cocktails the main performers of the evening.
i brought a bottle of aberlour 12 year old for dinner and the sweet speyside single malt slowly warmed up the crowd after an evening of fine food.
aberlour produces a range of whiskies starting from the 10-year-old but the 12-year-old is matured in frew new oloroso sherry butts which help give the amber redness and sweetness of the whisky.
With 40 percent alcohol by volume, the one-litre single malt is specifically for the duty-free market and is one of the single malts that is quick to get off the shelves.
for good reason too. it tastes of honey, and rich sweet cherry and redolent with the fragrance of christmas cake and a hint of smokiness. and a beautiful warm finish that can only make you beg for more.
the few of us there attempted to finish the bottle on the spot.
guess i have to score some bottles on my next stop at the duty-free as more friends acquire a taste for the aberlour.
speaking of which, new research has determined that single malts broadly fall into 12 categories. isn't it always six of this and half-a-dozen of the other. cheers!

famous penang food

with a heading like that, one would expect the entire range of famous penang food.
apologies, i was only there for under 24 hours, most of it spent quaffing pints to cool off after the lazy drive from kuala lumpur.
and seriously folks, most penang food is famous - as the photo would show and the hawkers shamelessly proclaim. and some are infamous.
anyway, this was a trip that i have made many times years ago, a quick dash to ipoh and penang for good food and good company. i had both again this time around.
first, made a pit stop in ipoh for its famous nasi ganja, a corruption of nasi kandar. its the only shop along jalan yang kalsom but more on this in the future. suffice to say, eating it is far better than describing it.
it was a rather quick one-hour trip from ipoh to penang after lunch, notwithstanding the deluge that cut most of the visibility and slicked most parts of the highway. took the bridge and made my way along the jelutong highway to penang road for either pints, plonk or penang food.
walked past line clear, that very very famous nasi kandar joint. here's a tip, either have lunch or early breakfast, say 4am, when the food is freshly cooked and rice is steaming.
skipped it this time as the nasi ganja was still in the system.
but line clear does have an excellent range of curries, fried meats - not forgetting gizzards and fish roe - that will tempt the most stubborn of tastebuds or diets.
as is standard for nasi kandar, which basically describes rice meals that were carried in big baskets and balanced on a pole, steamed rice is the base for the variety of curries in the restaurant or stall or basket, as the case may be.
the old wives' tale is that the pots used to cook the curries are never washed but used immediately to make a fresh batch of curry. that could be why the curries are absolutely heavenly tasty.
some hundred metres away from line clear is lebuh keng kwee - famous for its famous chendol and famous penang assam laksa. chendol is a cool dessert of basically pandanus flavoured flour noodles in coconut milk and generous lashings of palm sugar. variants include red beans and other pulses or glutinous rice to the mix.
assam laksa is rice noodles in a soup of tamarind juice and fish with mint leaves, prawn paste, pineapple and cucumber slices, onions, ginger buds, and can include lettuce leaves as found in a stall in the joo hooi cafe in lebuh keng kwee. it is arguably one of the two famous penang assam laksa joint in penang. the other is at the market in air itam.
it is also arguably the best assam laksa ever. period. that's it. no arguments necessary. got my bowl, snapped a couple of shots, inhaled the fragrance of the mint and the fish/tamarind soup, and dug in. the noodles were more than al dente, the fish, pared and without any bones, combined well with the tamarind and prawn paste and the usual condiments for a hearty treat.
the bowl was dry when i left the place.
met up with friends at soho freehouse in penang road. the pub, located in the peking hotel, has a great selection of beers on tap but the food has taken for the worse. then again, good food in penang is always a few steps away.
and so, my friends took me off the beaten track for most of us non-penangites. we headed for pulau tikus, an area between penang road and gurney drive, and thus called as opposite it is a rather small island full of rats.
we ended up in mohd raffe restaurant, a nasi kandar joint quite famous for its fish head curry. i waited to be surprised as i surveyed the pots of bubbling curries and the spread of dishes available.
the wait was 20 minutes and it then appeared, fleshy-cheeked fish head covered in sprigs of fresh mint, ladies finger that looked like they were clamouring for the dish, and red-hot curry bubbling underneath. all other dishes paled in comparison.
the fish head curry went in 10 minutes and my spice-addled brain was too slow to even record the magnificient dish. all that was left was some curry and lots of bones and cartilage in the plate of the ronaldo-teeshirt-wearing dude.
the fish head was fresh, the flesh was firm and juicy like the ladies finger, and the mint made it all the more zesty and might i add, piquant.
a few other dishes attempted to compete with the fish head curry and only the beef stood up to the test. tender chunks of beef in a thick spicy gravy that went well with the fish curry.
the honey chicken, mutton curry and cuttlefish curry was standard stuff found in most restaurants in penang. having said that, the selection was good and better than most of the restaurants that pass off crap as indian food in kuala lumpur.
and so ended the quick trip of famous penang food. will be back for more.