Collaboration - Living Etc Magz & Chef Shinta Sugiarto

Good Morning, Good Afternoon, and Good Evening to you Wanderbiters anywhere you are in your city. Its a happy jolly day to share this blogpost with you. I had a chance to work with with one of my favorite interior magazine, LivingEtc to shoot for their EntertainingEtc section. Its a special section dedicated for chefs / resto to share their delicacies and recipes.

It was a great foodphoto session at the home of the chef, Shinta Sugiarto, who started the culinary challenge in Malaysia, and now managing her own home-crafted patisserie at Cake Away and also sharing her special dishes on private occasions. Alrighty, I won't bore you no longer, let these pictures say how grateful I am for the opportunity. I hope these pages makes you drool as much as it made me. My personal favorite is the Oreo Cheese Choux and Peanut Butter Roll. They are wonderfully scrumptious!

I thank you Biters who supported me along the way and special thanks to Andrea Sharon who also helped styling the food.

Cheers, 

Fellexandro Ruby 

Food Blogger / Photographer

Munch on my tweets at @Wanderbites

 

JFFF Day One: Es Selendang Mayang & Risol Setan

You're probably wondering what's JFFF? Its short for Jakarta Fashion and Food Festival. I'd leave the fashion part to the experts. Its an annual event held in Kelapa Gading - North Jakarta, now on their 8th years and still doing the wonders. A huge stockpile of numerous local culinary delights from all over Indonesia (and the popular ones at it) are brought under one roof. From Jakarta specialties such as Kerak Telor to Sulawesi's signature Bubur Manado to legendary streethawker Es Campur Acen. Its all right here. An Indonesian culinary heaven.

On my very first visit, my eyes fall straight into this delicious pair. Es Selendang Mayang and Risol Setan.

On the first glance, the green jellyish thingy might easily be mistaken as cingcau or the likes. Its actually what they call 'mayang', made from rice flour and sago flour. The mix made a rather sticky cake with soft texture. The green is coming from pandan leaves which added a hint of pandan fragrant. Here's a closer look of 'mayang'.

Mixed with ice, drenched in salty coconut milk, and poured with super sweet palm sugar.

I just can't leave this invigorating cup of heavenly fresh beverage until the last drop of it. Especially because I just had one plateful of scrumptiously hot Risol Setan. In english the meal translates as Devil Springrolls. Ha! Now you can imagine the kind of spicyness these four little rolls brings to the tongue.
 

Filled with a balanced mix of veggies, carrots, and eggs, the crispy skins adds an extra crunch of goodness to the spicy chili sauce. Just the way I like it, and most of us Indonesians like it. Here's a macro look of the fulfilling fillings. Indonesian friends abroad, I hope this makes you wanna come back soon. =p

I guess this time I'll let the pictures narrate the taste of these local Betawi specialties. These kind of food never fails to make my belly happy. I hope they make yours happy too. =) If you haven't got the chance, go visit Kampoeng Tempoe Doeloe at La Piazza Kelapa Gading. Savor the delicacies. Indulge your taste buds. Fall in love again with Indonesian food.

Cheers for Indonesian culinary!
Fellexandro Ruby

Let's Fish (Again)

There's this thought about winning.

Picture one thing that you've been wanting and been fighting for quite a while. Slowly but sure your hard work started to show result and suddenly the universe conspire to favor you. You have it now. For the very first time your dream visualize into reality. Right in the graps of your hand. The sense of accomplishment wraps you. You smile.

And things started to change. Now that you have it, you're purposeless. You were once in a continuous pursuit. But no longer now. Sadly, life's becoming less interesting.

And so to make your world running again. You begin to want more. Bigger. Better. Shinier. Sounds wrong. But you're back alive now that you have something to fight for again.

For in the end, its not the having, its the making-it-happen that makes you tick.

----

I don't know about you, but in my opinion wanting more is human. Having bigger vision, bigger dream is natural as your capacity grow. Quoting John Mayer, its like catching a fish, and then purposefully throw the fish back again. That's what he wants to do with his music, continually finding himself again and again with something new.

I guess that's what I want to do with my life as well. To challenge myself, develop, and challenge myself again.

Some of you might came across this blog from my food post. However, you'll be finding this kind of post every once in a while. You can find them on my old twentyten post as well. I like to share playlist too. Here's what currently on repeat.

Freelance Whales - Generator ^1st Floor
S.Carey - In The Stream
Snow Patrol - Run (Live)
Kaki King - 2 O'Clock
Freelance Whales - Kilojoules

I'm a little on the acoustic side tonight. I hope you too. Also, you might want to just download Freelance Whales complete album "Weathervanes". Almost all of the tracks are awesome.

Smile on, Shine on
Fellexandro Ruby

Now Cooking - Four Fingers Crispy Chicken

Jakarta is definitely a foodie's city of choice. Every now and then a new establishment pave a way into the already diverse culinary universe, while another roll up their sleeve and gone. Four Fingers is one of those that I hope to stick around. Why? I just like to see how it played out. Food place with chicken wings as their signature dish was once an uncharted water, until Kamikaze Chicken opened their first store last October, and just recently this month, the first Four Fingers franchise is up and running. Before we start, in case you want to see my write up on Kamikaze, here it is, click.

My first impression of this food place was cozy, and youthful. You can see their grafitti boldly covering the walls, and their lovely eames chair added a hint of sophistication. The atmosphere somewhat resembles the parent store in ION Orchard, Singapore. Oh, you have to know that Four Fingers or widely known as Bonchon in Singapore is one of the local hits. You'll find it quite packed on lunch / dinner time and they ran out of their favorite chicken wings early. After missing the opportunity to try their wings a couple time, I wouldn't miss it the soonest I knew they opened in Epicentrum, Kuningan. And so last weekend I rushed there for a quick bite.

I ordered the 6 mix set with garlic soy and spicy wings and drummettes, also the chicken burger as recommended by the waitress.

My impression of the chicken wings? Ordinary. The soy garlic was quite salty and feels a little 'in between'. Its like they were half-hearted in showing the taste of the garlic. The spicy chicken on the other hand also tasted like ordinary hot sauce. I just can't help to compare with Kamikaze. I gotta say I prefer Kamikaze with their pepperish hot sauce really kick my taste bud to a level of enjoyment, while Four Finger is not to par with the hype.

 The deep fried chicken however was real crunchy. On the down side, the seasoning was skin deep. Yep, nothing goes past through the meat other than the oils.

At the time, the Chicken Burger started to look more tempting than the wings and the drummettes. The thick piece of boneless chicken fillet was well seasoned. The bread was airy and soft as well. It was only the added layer of curry-tasting sauce on the inner part of the bread that made it taste weird. It felt improperly squeezed in. Weird. The only defense I can think of is that probably they changed the recipe, test it in Jakarta, see how well its accepted and decide whether to use this recipe for their yet another fresh franchise in India. O well. And so I decided to eat the buns and the chicken separately. It was better that way. Oh, the seasoned french fries doesn't add anything extraordinary to the flavor. Just a little note for you Biters. ; )

Overall, my belly was satisfied, but not wide-grin-ly happy. If you know what I mean. Would I come back? Maybe, for a little variety. Now I'm getting curiouser and curiouser to try Bonchon in Singapore and see if the original is any better than the franchise in Jakarta.

Anyone tried the original in Singapore? Feel free to drop a comment. =)

Smile on, Shine On

Fellexandro Ruby
Food Blogger & Photographer
@Wanderbites