Wednesday, June 15, 2011

Misteri - Sate Penyu, Sate Babi, atau Sate Celeng ?

Om Swastiastu!

Ini akan menjadi salah satu post berbahasa Indonesia dari sekian banyak post saya sebelumnya dalam Bahasa Inggris. Bukan sombong bukan congkak, but I do feel I write better in English. (tuh kan balik lagi =p) Dan sebenarnya, saya ingin sekali kuliner Indonesia bisa dikenal dan dinikmati juga oleh foodies di luar Indonesia. Itu salah satu alasan utama saya. Alasan lain, saya memang bisanya Inggris saja, haha. Alasan terakhir, kalau saya pake Hokkian situ bisa keblinger.

Nah dalam perjalanan saya menyusuri Bali beberapa kali terakhir, saya selalu menyempatkan diri untuk menikmati sate yang satu ini. Rasanya sangat khas, dan sulit saya lupakan. Terletak di Jalan Patih Jelantik, masih seputaran Kuta, sate ini sudah ngebul mulai pagi sampai sore. Ini penampakannya.







































Daging yang empuk dan juicy, dibalut dalam bumbu rempah yang wangi. Plus siraman sedikit pedas rawit pada kulit terluarnya. Satu porsi saya jamin tidak cukup. Saat itu pun saya menghabiskan dua porsi back to back dan masih nagih. Benar-benar nendang rasanya. Untung diingatkan oleh teman-teman kalau setelah itu masih akan menyambangi resto lain. Hehe.








































Yang masih menjadi misteri untuk saya adalah daging apa gerangan ini? Kalau teman-teman yang asal Bali bilang dari dulu mereka menyebutnya Sate Penyu. Tapi dalam benak saya, daging penyu itu enggak murah loh. Kenapa saya tau? Ehm, ada teman saya yg mantan exportir tapi sudah tobat kok. Suer. Tidak mungkin rasanya melihat harga per porsinya yang cukup ekonomis, hanya Rp. 10.000,- saja.

Lalu pada kesempatan kali ini saya beranikan bertanya pada sang udang di balik batu ibu di balik kipas sate. Beliau bilang kalau ini daging babi (namun dengan wajah yg mencurigakan). Tapi paling tidak lega lah saya setelah tau kalau saya bukan baru saja melumat salah satu hewan yang dilestarikan. *fiuh* Belum selesai saya menikmati info terbaru ini, sang supir yang mengantar lalu menyeletuk kalau yang baru dimakan itu Sate Celeng (Babi Hutan / Babi Dewasa)

Entahlah. Babi. Penyu. Celeng. Saya pegang prinsipnya trio Kwik, Kwek, Kwak saja "Makanlah selama makanan itu enggak makan balik."

Salam,

Fellexandro Ruby
Babivora (Pemakan Babi Segala Jenis), Food Blogger & Photographer

Cemal-cemil tweet saya di @wanderbites

Monday, June 13, 2011

Petit-Déjeuner at Kafe Moka - Seminyak

A sip of warm sunshine on the surface of your skin. Bright blue sky seen from behind your Raybans. Swirls of cool wind while strolling around Bali with motorbike. These little earthly pleasures are what I seek for from this getaway trip. And while doing that, many good food along the journey made it epicly awesome.

It was one of those smileful morning when I bumped into this cafe while riding around Legian. What attracts me was how cultured this place. A lot of foreigners were around enjoying the food and drinks. I hear an Australian which looked a lot like the famous pastor, Brian Houston. I hear French with their masculine-feminine vocabulary. I hear a faint American English. By this short observation,  I reckon they must have a particular level of authenticity to be well accepted by these foreigners taste buds.



































I walked in and then it came to me, I've heard about this place before. Yes! In a review by fellow foodbloggers somewhere. And there I remember, it was on Jenzcorner, and read somewhere along the line that the shepherd's pie was one of the specialties. You can guess what I ordered right? Yep.






































Oh, and while I was waiting for the meal to come, they gave me this basketful of complimentary sliced baguette. I love this bread. It always remind me of Paris and the dining tradition there. Bread is always on the table. But let's not go too far this time. I took a slice, wipe a layer of salted butter, simple yet scrumptious to the tongue.

A little while after, a generous portion of Hachis Parmentie arrived on the table. A little trivia, the dish was named after Antoine-Augustin Parmentier, a French pharmacist, nutritionist, and inventor who, in the late 18th century, was instrumental in the promotion of the potato as an edible crop.






































The portion was way beyond generous for my typical size of breakfast. Ended up with some leftover, but it was one savory meal.

The mixture of texture from the diced beef and the baked mashed potato was a treat for my tastebud who was in dire of variety after days of local Balinese food. Also the lyonnaise sauce with a hint of wine and garlic added the foreign European taste I was expecting. A pause from the stream of chili-hot-spicy food. One contented pause. It also kinda took me down memory lane. Weird, but yep, it reminds me of Sydney's meat pies. The ones you can conveniently bought at Coles, and microwave it yourself for 4 minutes or so.

It's amazing how a single meal can give a good assemble of flavor and feelings. I guess it was just a melancholic side of me, or maybe that's what Bali do to most of us. What do you say? =) Well after all it was one lovely breakfast or petit-dejeuner as the French call it.

Cheers,


Fellexandro Ruby
Munch on my tweets at @wanderbites

Sunday, June 5, 2011

Now Cooking - Nuzzys Resto

"Nuzzy's is a casual concept dining. Serving Europian cuisine from Napoli, French, and Spain. " 

That's how they introduced themselves in their website homepage here. Yup, right to the typo. =p Funny thing is, when I asked the waitress what are their Spanish cuisines, she didn't know which is which and simply answered "We have mostly Italian". And that is true if you looked at their menu, maybe a handful of Spanish menu and that's it. They even have one page dedicated for Asian menu. HA! They should write that down in their website homepage.

I was a bit upset feeling a bit misled into coming to their foodplace. But I reckon, might as well give it a try. And so I ordered the following.

Gratin Escargot as appetizer.  

































 
"Snails sauteed in wine garlic and gratin smooth hollandaise served on puff pastry".

Yep, they're as tempting as the menu description. I like how the buttery hollandaise sauce & the tomato burst out a differing taste with the snails. On a side note, it would be so much nice if the puff pastry was actually 'puffy'. Oh well, they're not a patisserie, what do you expect. 

Moving on, and here I must acknowledge the importance of speed. Restaurateur, waiter / waitress, you all should know that  when people ordered an appetizer and a main and a dessert, he expects to be pampered. He wants a joyful enough amount of minutes to savor each menu. And he wants each menu to come in time. Meaning, warmly flavorfull right off the oven. Meaning, you don't pour out all orders at once!

So the Smoked Beef Green Fettucinni came when I was halfway through my appetizer. I hate rushing one meal to quickly go to the next one before it goes cold. Good thing I had a nice ice cold Strawberry Lychee ice tea to cool down my nerves (a little too bland though). There you go, another input for you to learn, dear Nuzzys.



































 The pasta was cooked just right for my taste bud. Not too rigid and not too mushy. Plus point.

The fact that is green also make it interesting. I reckon it has a mix of healthy veggies in it, thus the color (the reason). It gives a good show of color on my plate and I like it (the actual reason, green is my fav color), especially when the generous amount of red beef bacon and the brownish mushroom rolls on plate. Also, DO YOU SEE THE CHEESE TOPPING?! Love it when food is as scrumptious on the eye as it is on the tongue. I would recommend this, spice it up with some dried chili and voila!

Priced at 35k on the Escargot, 45k on the Pasta, and 19.5k on the drink, this is not your particular everyday lunch, especially when they topped another 7.5% service charge above the 10% tax. The problem is not on the amount, in fact I gave extra tip on this visit. The problem is one, whether what you charged is up to par to your service, and second, I think tipping for service is up to one's personal choice and on-the-spot experience. And this goes for all foodplace. A little something for you to consider.

Cheers to an awesome weekend,

Fellexandro Ruby
Food Blogger & Photographer


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Nuzzys Mousse & Resto
Tribeca, Central Park Mall & Flavor Bliss, Alam Sutera
Phone: 021-83838201
Twitter: @nuzzysresto
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