Pandan Bistro

Last night, my mom's friend from Canada invited her friends for a farewell dinner at her favorite restaurant named Pandan Bistro. Whenever she comes to visit Jakarta, it's a must for her to dine at this place. It's located in North Jakarta and serves Indonesian food.

If I'm not mistaken, the owner of Pandan Bistro is still a relative of the owner of Pondok Laguna (a quite famous Seafood restaurant in Central Jakarta). Well, in my opinion especially because I love eating at Pondok Laguna, I find that the food here at Pandan Bistro is palatable.

Total of 12 people.

White Rice.
Gurame Kipas Goreng.
(Fried Carp Fish)

Tahu Kipas
(literally translation: Fan tofu - Fried Tofu with filling )

Inside the fried tofu:

shrimp, grated carrot and spring onion.

Sayur Genjer
(Yellow velvet leaf with salted soybean and chili)

Udang sambal petai
(Shrimp with stinky beans and chili)Keripik Kentang
(Potato chips with brown sugar and chili)

Gulai Kepala Ikan
(Fish Head Curry)

Daun Singkong
(Cassava leaves cooked with tumeric and coconut milk)

Gulai Ayam

(Chicken curry)

Bunga Pepaya
(Sauteed Papaya Flower,

it tasted very bitter)

Terong cabe
(Eggplant cooked with red chili)

Es Merah Delima

(A dessert made from tapioca flour and jicama that resembles pomegranate, young coconut with coconut milk and brown sugar)

Address:
Pandan Bistro
Jl. Pluit Indah No. 20
Jakarta Utara
Tel: (021) 6691246, 6693048

Disclaimer:The review and opinion expressed here are purely according to my personal taste. There's a possibility that the taste of the food might change later on, which could affect the review and opinion here. I also affirm that no monetary or non-monetary compensation has been received from this restaurant for writing this review.

Combro & Misro

Combro & Misro is an authentic finger food from West Java.

It's made from grated cassava root (tapioca) and grated coconut plus a pinch of salt. It always filled with palm/coconut sugar for sweet version called "Misro" and oncom (soybean sediment which is a traditional staple food from West Java) for salty version called "Combro". Thanks to Sepoi who clarified it :)

Making the combro into balls.

And then, deep fried.

Combro & Misro tasted crunchy on the outside and a bit chewy on the inside.

Soto Mie (noodles in beef stew)

So glad that the hot weather has been cooling off by the rain these days! But yeah, the government already gave a warning to be prepared for the flood that might happen soon in Jakarta. It's predicted at the end of January or beginning of February before the Chinese New Year.

Need something nice and warm... and I think a bowl of hot Soto Mie (noodle in beef stew) is just a perfect comforting meal on a rainy day :)

The preparation of making a bowl of Soto Mie:

Left: chopped asian celery, salt, pepper, MSG.

Right: the beef stew (beef broth, nutmeg, ginger, coriander, shallot, garlic, black pepper, salt, MSG), sweet soy sauce.

Left: Rissoles (small croquettes filled with vermicelli noodles), tomato
Right: Beef (plus the legs part)

Left: Kaffir lime
Right: Yellow noodles, Vermicelli, slices white cabbage.

Put in a bow:l noodles, white cabbage, vermicelli, slices of rissoles.
Add pepper, salt, MSG, then chopped asian celery, slices of tomato and beef.

Pour the beef stew in the bowl.

Garnish with Emping (malinjo nuts chip) and fried shallot.

Revisit Sushi Tei, Jakarta

Feeling the urge for some Japanese food, my ex-colleagues and I decided to head down to the nearest Sushi Tei Restaurant from the office.

We started with a glass of warm green tea.

Green Tea

I think, we must have been cats in our past lives as I realized that most of the dishes we had ordered had salmon in them :)

Salmon Misomayo (Rp. 58.000) is my ex-colleague's favorite dish.


Fried Salmon Skin (Rp. 28.000).
I didn't try it because I'm not a fan of fish skin.


Shared together a plate of fresh Salmon (Rp. 37.000)


I had Salmon Teriyaki (Rp. 50.000), delicious!


Misoshiru -Miso soup (Rp. 15.000)

One of my ex-colleagues chose Sukiyaki (Rp. 65.000) since she was not really feeling healthy that day.

Chocospoon (Rp. 20.000) was chosen as dessert by my ex-colleagues.


As for me, I ended my meal with a scoop of green tea ice cream.
So smooth and creamy!
Matcha Ice Cream (Rp. 18.000)


All prices are subjected to 10% tax and 5.5% service charge
1 USD = Rp. 9.300

Related post: Sushi Tei, Jakarta

Disclaimer:The review and opinion expressed here are purely according to my personal taste. There's a possibility that the taste of the food might change later on, which could affect the review and opinion here. I also affirm that no monetary or non-monetary compensation has been received from this restaurant for writing this review.

Almond cookies with vegetable shortening

I was pretty tempted to try out to make a new simple cookies recipe using vegetable shortening beside butter in order to make the cookies more crunchy as someone told it to me. Then, I also decided to add almond extract to make these cookies to become almond cookies. I made 2 types of cookies shape, a flower and a bear's head :)



Almond cookies recipe

Ingredients:
250 gram flour
100 gram butter
50 gram vegetable shortening
75 gram sugar powder
20 gram milk powder
1 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon almond extract

Directions:
Pre-heat oven 375 F
Mix all the ingredients until it becomes a dough
Roll out the dough and use cookies cutter
Bake cookies until lightly browned (about 15 minutes)
Leave it cool
Decorate the cookies with icing sugar (optional)



Yup... Approved! These cookies are very crunchy!!! :)

Tukang Susu Kacang Kedelai (Soybean Milk)

I love drinking soybean milk and think that I'm quite lucky that just diagonal across my house, there's a man with his cart selling soybean milk every weekdays from morning till noon. He serves the soybean milk hot but surely, there's ice cubes for those who like to drink cold soybean milk.

Soybean milk in plastic bags for carry-out.

Although it's quite convenient to have a soybean milk vendor near my house, but sometimes I prefer to make soybean milk by my own so I can add pandan leaves in order to have a nice fragrance soybean milk.

Soybean milk recipe
Ingredients:
125 gram soybeans
1 liter water
2 or 3 pandan leaves (depend on how big is the leave)
sugar (to taste)

Direction:
1. Soak the soybeans in water for overnight
2. Drain, rinse and discard the water (I usually don't remove the skin of soybeans)
3. Place soybean and water in a blender and whirl until smooth (the liquid becomes a white frothy milk)
3. Place a strainer over a bowl and pour the liquid into the strainer.
4. Boil the liquid together with pandan leaves and sugar in low heat. Stir frequently.
5. Soybean milk is ready! It can be kept in refrigerator for another 2 days.