Foie Gras Discovery with Rougie and Bosch

Prior to this event, I have no idea whatsoever toward Foie Gras. The only thing I know was that it' has something to do with duck, it's French (i'm not even sure if its french, but it sounded french) and that it is expensive. This event with Rougie then is like opening up a new horizon of knowledge. So, are you ready to learn? Cause I'm ready to share. Let's!

Mr. Thomas Pellegrini, the manager of Classic Fine Food and Chef Jocelyn Deumie as Rougie Culinary Advisor took stage after a short introduction from Mr. Chairul Sugiharto, Bosch' Director of Sales & Marketing.

Foie Gras in essence is a duck's liver. What makes it interesting is the process it has to go through to 'create' this fine food. A duck in its nature have the ability to double, or triple its liver size as a migratory bird. That means, there's a season in a year where they would move from one part of the world to the other through a loooonng journey, and to survive this, they accumulate a large amount of fat in their liver. This natural process is what people adopted to condition ducks in cage to increase the size of their liver. How? Force feeding. I know its always an open debate whether this technique is morally ethical. I'm not gonna touch that. Everyone's entitled to their opinion.

What I'd like to say though, that Foie Gras is indeed a delicate subject matter for the taste bud. On my first try, I hated it as I hated all other kind of animal liver. But then I was introduced with these new inventions by Rougie, meet the Japanese version, Foie Gras with Seaweed, and the classic version, Gingerbread Foie Gras. The latter amuses my tongue oh-so-very-much. Let me put in a simplest way, previously it was hard for me to have any kind of liver in my mouth, not to mention swallowing it. This time however, it manage to intrigued my mouth a bit but then everything goes downhill from there. I liked the crunchy tiny bits texture that meets with super soft foiegras. It slowly melts in my mouth.

Among other menu presented was the Foie Gras Creme Brulee and the Duck Leg Confit Salad which I find extraordinary.

I liked the tender texture of the meat, the fact that it wasn't smelly, and their use of wine salt for seasoning. It felt light but fulfilling at the same time, and it kinda took me time travel to my four weeks travel in Paris. The further appearance of nice white wine made it even more nostalgic. I remembered having wine at lunch time for almost every day of the week in Paris. I was so soaked into the culture that I lost my allergies toward alcohol after the trip.

 Enough episode of Back to The Future. We were also served with other interesting menu, Pan Fried Foie Gras with Cherry and Balsamic Vinegar. 

I find the mix of cherry and the vinegar wasn't very appetizing for my liking, but good thing we get to close our lunch with a selection of Valrhona fine degustation chocolate. Classified into more than twenty diverse formula, each gourmet chocolate was meant to bring out different outcome as in acidity, bitterness, flavor, intensity, fruit & nuttiness.

I ended up trying most of them, but couldn't find the real difference among them. =p My bad, my tongue wasn't that sensitive when it comes to chocolate I guess. I fall easily to any kind of chocolate.

At the end, no event is complete without the proper goodbye photo shoot. And so we did with my fellow food blogger, Natasha, Imel and both Chef Jocelyn and Mr. Thomas.

We look happy didn't it? Well I was happy, who wouldn't. Two hours of good french food, good company, good wine, and a pleased ear and mind.

Thank you Rougie, I'd definitely visit you Chef Jocelyn the next time I make a trip to Japan. Thank you Bosch, for making it happen.

Cheers,

Fellexandro Ruby
Food Conversationalist & Amateur Foie Gras Lover

Munch on my tweets @Wanderbites

Collaboration - Monolog Coffee & Livingetc Magazine

It was Indonesia's Independence Day, 8 AM in the morning, and I'm probably the first person to park at Plaza Senayan. A special day, cause I was about to take photos for one of the most talked about foodplace at the moment, Monolog Coffee and at the same time collaborating again for the second consecutive time with Livingetc Magazine, a UK based interior magazine that shares the same passion for good looking foods. Only this time, we stood up for something fresh, it was a special spread on Coffee, as Jakartans are also rising in curiosity and openness towards coffee.

I hope we all did a good job of representing the essence of each coffee menu. I had a great time shooting, thanks for the helpful baristas who accommodate us with fresh brewed coffee again and again during their peak hours. I salute you. Also Andrea Sharon of Livingetc for doing the extra mile in giving her styling perspective, and filling in when I was at the end of my nerves.

All is well. I'm very happy upon receiving the hard copy. It looked, feel, and taste different in prints. Therefore I urge you to get Livingetc's October edition.

I hope you enjoy the work. Let me know what you think.

And gratzie for your support, Biters =)

Fellexandro Ruby
Food Conversationalist & Coffee Amateur

Snack on my tweets @Wanderbites
Munch on my instagram @Captainruby

Health Conscious OMO! Chicken

Having missed their opening in August due to clashing schedule, I finally get to taste them sometime ago. I've been screen-drooling over Selba and Jendry's review, now it's my turn to get you biters drool over these health conscious chickens.

Yep! Boasting themselves as the first that uses canola oil, they also claimed zero use of pork, lard, or artificial coloring, and most importantly NO MSG. The latter part is what interest me the most. I just watched this great life altering movie titled "Food Matters", since then I've been taking quite a good look at what I eat. Anyway, I'd have another post on that, now back to OMO!

Their signature dish is none other than the chicken wings which comes in three flavors: hot, soya, and tomato. Here's a closer look of them.

 

In general, they're not as tasty as I thought it would be. Maybe, it was partly because of the 'healthy' seasoning. As an example, we all know skim cream milk are just incomparable in any ways to full cream milk. In the same sense probably the inclusion of some considerably unhealthy yet delicious ingredients (read: pork) might resulted in a quite a turn of event for the tongue. But then again, they are good for what they are, a healthier chicken wing.

If I had to choose though, I'd go for the hot spicy one instead of the other two. It has a specific aroma that secure its Asian touch and resembles Korean food. I liked it. The tomato are somewhat tasteless for my adventurous tongue, while the soya plays on the safe side just like any other foodplace that serve wings.


For the drinks, their Korean Barley Tea is my personal favorite. My first encounter with this type of tea was in a Korean barbershop, been missing it for a while until I found it at OMO! So, it was like meeting an old friend. Pleasantly soothing, but still surprising.


Would I come back for some more? Probably. Right after I got bored with Kamikaze Chicken or Four Fingers. But for you Biters, if you haven't try it, you might wanna give it a taste then let me know which is your favorite out of the three similar food place.

Ciao!

Fellexandro Ruby
Food Conversationalist & Photographer


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Central Park Mall
Level 3 No# 121
Jl. Let. Jend.S. Parman kav.28
Jakarta Barat 11470
Phone: +6221-56985776

Gandaria City
Main Street Upper Ground
JL. Sultan Iskandar Muda (Arteri Pondok Indah)
Kebayoran Lama. Jakarta Selatan 12240
Phone: +6221-29052883


Twitter: @OMOChickenClub