Here and There Archives - Page 16 of 21

March 28, 2016

Restaurant Review – Ale Ale, Pontianak, Indonesia

This is another super late post from our trip back home September last year. During our very short trip to my hometown, Pontianak, we visited this restaurant which my family had been going in the past but kind of forgotten in the recent times somehow. The restaurant name Ale Ale refers to a type of shellfish that are found in a small fishing town in West Borneo, called Ketapang; hence their famous dish is spicy ale ale stew. Upon researching on the internet, apparently ale ale can also be found in other part of Indonesia and called with different names. I think they look quite similar to pippies, don’t you think? They are fairly small in size compared to mussels, the shells are whitish and so are their meats are kind of whitish and almost transparent. Here is a picture of ale ale shellfish, courtesy of Google Search.

Now. the restaurant is mainly semi outdoor, with part seating consists of the usual tables-chairs in the middle and on the side are seating on floor with low tables (aka lesehan). On that occasion we chose the lesehan style for a more casual dining. Ale Ale (the restaurant) offers not only the shellfish, also various Indonesian and Chinese food options. Here are what we ordered:

Ale Ale1 — From top left: Spicy Ale Ale Stew, Crispy Prawn with Spicy Mayonnaise, Anchovy Sambal, and Grilled Chicken

Ale Ale2 — From left: Crispy Calamari, Spicy Fern (Pakis), and Fried Rice for my nieces

We definitely had a delicious and memorable dinner at Restaurant Ale Ale Podomoro, and all that only costs about AU$30, bear in mind that is for total of 6 adults and 2 kids! So, yes we are certainly going back to this place when we are in town again 🙂

** Some other recommended menus are: Sour and spicy fish stew and Black pepper beef ribs.

Pondok Ale Ale Podomoro

Jl. Putri Candramidi (Podomoro), Pontianak, West Borneo, Indonesia

Phone: +62 561 763048

https://www.facebook.com/pages/Pondok-Ale-Ale-Podomoro/143935298989119

January 31, 2016September 19, 2016

Breakfast at Ikea Rhodes

We went to Ikea yesterday morning to look for a sofa cover for our 2-seater couch. Ikea is such a fun place to spend time, don’t you agree? I am sure it is such a playground for many people, men, women and even kids; or at least, to many people I know of, it is. There are always something to admire, to wish for every single time I go to Ikea store.

And of course, a visit to Ikea is not complete without eating something from its cafeteria hehehe. Since we were there in the morning and they were still serving breakfast, we ended up choosing the big breakfast with extra side mushroom. They are not only cheap and cheerful, but also taste not bad at all. With the big breakfast you get one scoop of scrambled egg, 1 sausage, 2 hash browns, 1 big piece of bacon, 5 pieces of their famous meatballs, and half-baked tomato. And all that comes to a bill of $5.99 – that would probably be the cheapest big breakfast meal you could find in Sydney, don’t you think?

ikea breakfast menu — The breakfast menu

Big breakfast with extra mushroom side (please pardon the little drop of ketchup on the tray) 😛

In the spirit of the coming of Chinese New Year 2016 which happens to be Monkey Year, they have even decorated their dining area with “monkeys” and chinese lanterns. Check out their cute decoration on the picture below.

How cute are those monkeys? :) — How cute are those monkeys? 🙂

You could probably see there were many people in the dining area, a lot of families with little kids. Told you, it is a playground for everyone (☞ﾟ∀ﾟ)☞

By the way if you curious, we didn’t get the sofa cover we were looking for, instead we came home with new pillows and duvet covers – such a cliche story of Ikea visit eh? ◔̯◔

January 24, 2016September 19, 2016

Restaurant Review – Suminoya, Sydney

Suminoya is the sister restaurant of Rengaya (North Sydney) and Koh Ya (now in Randwick) that serves Japanese yakiniku, either buffet style or ala carte. It is located at a little alley way near Martin Place, which may not be easy to find if you haven’t looked it up on map beforehand. I reckon they are almost always busy, so booking ahead is definitely recommended. When I made the booking for dinner buffet option over the phone, I was offered two slots of time: 5.30 pm (when they just open) or 7.30 pm, which of course we chose the earliest 🙂

They offered two options of yakiniku buffet: Gourmet Buffet and Premium Buffet. Gourmet buffet is priced at $45 pp, whereas Premium buffet is priced at $55 pp. As seen on their menu, there are more options to choose from the Premium Buffet option, such as sashimi, wagyu beef loin, pork loin, and many more. Also on the Premium Buffet option, you can get unlimited order of beef tongue which was limited to one per person on the Gourmet option. I think their beef tongue is best, thin, tender and just lightly seasoned.

On our first time visit, we opted for the Premium Buffet, which was not disappointing at all. The salmon sashimi are delicious and very fresh, of course we ordered heaps of those beef tongue, beef harami, wagyu beef loin, beef ribs, marinated chicken pieces, salad, soup, edamame, eel rice, garlic prawn, and many more. Indeed as many people said, the 90 minutes just went by really quick; nevertheless we left the restaurant with super full tummies 😀 But sadly they don’t have gyoza on the menu, we love the gyoza at Koh Ya when in was still located in Double Bay area.

Without further ado, here are some pictures we “remembered” to take on our dining trip to Suminoya. A lot of the time, we were just way into the bbq-ing and forgot to take pictures as the ordered were delivered or as we cooked them.

suminoya2 — Various meat on bbq, seaweed salad, garlic butter prawn, eel rice, mashed potato, and green tea-black sesame ice cream

Suminoya Japanese Restaurant

1 Hosking Pl, Sydney NSW 2000

Phone: (02) 9231 2177

www.yakiniku.com.au/

January 12, 2016October 25, 2023

Restaurant Review – Tan Thai, Campsie NSW

We went to Campsie last weekend to replenish our stash of Indonesian condiments and seasonings. That was the first time we had to since we came back from our Indonesia trip, September last year and mainly due to we finally run out of Sambal ABC Ekstra Pedas 😀 We bought back like three refill packs of those chili sauce from Bali and it finally ran out after about three months and here goes time to replenish our stash again. So, while we were in the area, we decided to have lunch there and try something new. The first option was Cinta Ria but sadly they were still closed for new year holiday and we walked along the street then saw this Tan Thai restaurant. If you followed my blog posts, you’d know we love Thai food – we agreed to try the food there.

Looking briefly from the outside, the restaurant looks small with mainly dark color interior with few tables and chairs and a see-through glass wall to separate the dining area with kitchen area. Then there is a curved archway at the back leading to more seating with a water feature in the middle. The seating at this area is mostly of wooden materials and kind of dim lighting. Then another small seating area with mostly white walls at the far back of the restaurant (see the picture below) with brighter lighting.

Tan Thai

Tan thai2

The menu on offer are mainly Thai dishes consists of stir fries, noodles, rice, curry, and the usual entrees options. For our lunch, we tried their Duck Red Curry and Crispy Soft Shell Crab Salad with rice.

We think the red curry is more of sweet tone than our favorite at Green Peppercorn also the duck itself is not as tender. But the crispy soft shell crab salad is awesome, pack with flavors and the soft shell crab was truly crispy and huge! We love the sauce on the salad, just a nice balance of sweet, salty, sour, spicy and generous coriander-mint on top. Overall we had a nice meal at Tan Thai and may come back again for the soft shell crab salad (っ˘ڡ˘ς)

Tan Thai

148 Beamish St, Campsie NSW 2194

Phone: (02) 9789 0003

www.tanthai.com.au

January 2, 2016August 13, 2023

Reviews – Nasi Ayam Bali

One of many popular Balinese dishes is nasi ayam (or chicken rice), a dish that gains just more fans these days. As most Balinese are Hindus, which allows them to eat pork, you will find so many Balinese dishes that contains pork. This makes Bali as one of very few places in whole Indonesia that serves non-halal food publicly.

Nasi ayam, however is one of the halal dish that can also be easily found in Bali and is definitely attracts many people, especially those who loves spicy food. One serving of nasi ayam Bali usually contains rice, spicy chicken, sate lilit, sayur urap, egg, roasted/fried peanuts, some crispy fried chicken pieces (may include skin or intestines), and of course the spicy sambal. Urap sayur is a mixed vegetables (typically long beans and bean sprouts) with shredded coconut side dish. Some also serve their nasi ayam with a bowl of spicy chicken broth. By the description above, I hope you get the point that this dish is truly hot and spicy! Nevertheless it is still a very tasty and delicious dish, one that hubby and I crave for.

Continue reading “Reviews – Nasi Ayam Bali”