KueKue booth at Lippo Kemang

I'm no macaron connoisseur. Brownies, yes. Macarons, no. To be honest, they are not something that I have ever really felt a deep seated desire for when I'm craving some serious sugar. I'm more of a gigantic slice of cake or a fat brownie than a dainty macaron. Hey, I'm Irish and grew up with a grandmother who believed in doorstep slices of cake, always ate creamy Irish butter, loved her meat and potatoes and lived to be 92. That says something to me. I can't imagine what she would have thought of me putting a bright green macaron in front of her for dessert. She probably would have given a hearty laugh and told me to take it away as that possibly could never be described as a dessert. Yes, her hearty ways are deep in my veins. Hence, I have never inclined towards the dainty macaron simply because I would feel like I needed to eat a dozen of them in order to feel like I'd actually had a regular dessert helping. Me chomping down 12 macarons surely cannot be an attractive sight. However, for some reason while in Lippo Kemang mall, I happened to pass a small booth that had what can only be described as a rainbow of macarons on display. They looked so pretty and so inviting and they seemed to be calling out to me to give them a chance and indulge (yes, food speaks to me - other people are dog whisperers, horse whisperers, I was given the gift of being a food whisperer, the food tells me when it wants to be eaten, it's a terrible burden, really!) So I bought a box of 10 for 100,000. Not cheap. One tiny macaron = 10,000 meaning 4 would be 40,000 and for 40,000 somewhere else I could get a big slice of cake. There was a range of flavours but I opted for Baileys, peanut butter, coconut, red velvet and Oreo. I'm not big into fruity flavours. If I want something that tastes like a banana I will just eat a banana. That's just me. It applies to almost all fruit except lemon and lime, for obvious reasons. Lemon desserts are some of my favourites. So I took home my little box of not so multi-coloured dainty discs and gave them the taste test. Flavours were good and strong. They all tasted the way they should except maybe the Oreo, which I found a bit bland. My favourite was the Baileys, followed by the red velvet, then peanut butter, coconut and finally Oreo. The consistency is still weird for me. There is the crunch on the outside and the softness in the middle which although interesting cannot compare to a beautifully made sponge cake. Will I go back for more? Yes perhaps next time I am there I will break out of the comfort zone and try some fruity flavours. However, nothing compares to a large slice of cake or a fat brownie...

Pretty packaging...

Peanut Butter, Red Velvet, Baileys, Coconut and Oreo

Macaron rainbow...

A great discovery...The Fat Turtle at Petitenget

I was away for Christmas and New Year in Bali and every time I go there seem to be more and more new places to eat opening up. I was very excited to discover one in particular, The Fat Turtle. A newly opened cafe in Petitenget situated next to Deus, you have to look carefully or you might just miss it. If you do you will be missing out on the opportunity to try out some great food, relaxed ambiance and decent coffee. I fell in love with the place so much that I went back three times just because I wanted to try as much as possible on the menu. The interior is very well decorated with brick walls, pipe lighting and sofas covered in a coffee sack type fabric. The place has about 8 tables so it is cosy and intimate. Choices on the menu are excellent and I find it hard to commit to a favourite, but if you twist my arm and force me to I would say the Red Velvet Pancakes won it for me. The pancakes were light and fluffy and sandwiched with a cream cheese sauce and accompanied by honeycomb and chocolate soil. The combination of flavours were delicious and the pancakes not too thick. Next I liked the French Toast Banana Bread, two thick slices of banana bread lightly cooked on one side and accompanied by caramelised bananas, dulce de leche sauce and a crumble topping and of course a big scoop of vanilla ice-cream. I love the combination of soft and crunchy in both the pancakes and banana bread. The Eggs Benedict with pulled pork has a lovely spicy kick with the addition of jalapeños and a nice hollandaise sauce. The Kaffir Lime Corn Fritters were soft and the poached eggs had that nice ooze in the middle when cut into. The Brekky Sandwich was probably my least favourite only because the bottom piece of bread had become slightly soggy by the time I got it. Overall, every visit was very enjoyable and I would highly recommend The Fat Turtle, to anyone looking for a satisfying breakfast, laid back atmosphere, good tunes playing in the background, free wifi and friendly staff.

Cafe interior

Eggs benedict with pulled pork

Kaffir lime corn fritters with egg

Red velvet pancakes with chocolate soil and honeycomb

French toast banana bread with dulce de leche sauce

Brekky Sandwich with Fries

Cappuccino 

Counter

Wall Art

Don't you just love it when...

...someone else is about to have a really bad day!

Uforia Chocolate from Bali

I recently found out about a company making chocolate in Bali called Uforia and just had to try some, especially as they stated that their chocolate gave people a natural high and of course means I can shop local and support Indonesian made products. Yes, I am a chocolate lover, in fact chocolate worshipper. I would cross mountains and valleys in order to seek out delicious chocolate. It might be quite possibly the most incredible food item ever created. Yes, I love it that much. I don't however, love so much what it does to my hips and stomach but we won't dwell too long on that! Even the mere thought of eating chocolate makes me feel giddy and delirious so any chocolate called Uforia and claiming to put me into a state of Euphoria simply must be tasted. It's not available through normal shops here. I had to order it online through one of my organic, health food online suppliers. I ordered four bars because the flavours sounded very enticing. There was Loca Mocha, Sea Salt, 64% Intensity and 75% Intensity. So I ordered one of each. To be honest, even though when I buy chocolate I really just want to stuff the whole lot of it in my mouth at once I try to test my self-restraint by hiding it in a drawer in the fridge and having a couple of squares when I need a pick me up. Sometimes that happens...and lots of times it doesn't. Back to Uforia chocolate, the bars are small, a little bit smaller than I was expecting for 43,000 a bar. However, packaging is very retro which I liked. The bars are well wrapped with foil paper. First up there was the sea salt. The sea salt was crusted along the bottom and there was a lot of it. The taste was very salty, perhaps a tad more than I might have liked. The chocolate itself was bitter, which is to be expected from dark chocolate but there was something else about it that struck me. It tasted dry. Although dark chocolate is less creamy tasting than its milk chocolate counterpart, it still should be moist from the cocoa butter. I tried the rest of the bars, all in the name of culinary  investigations, in the hope that the chocolate would have that moist, melt in your mouth consistency, but alas I didn't get it. I must admit I was a little disappointed and not sure I would fork out the money for more bars. I decided to use some of it up in my brownie recipe and there's still one bar left in the fridge which for a chocolate addict like me, is quite rare...

Tjap Toean at FX Mall

I love Peranakan cuisine and the food served at Tjap Toean, I would say, is mildly influenced by Peranakan-style cooking. The interior is very quaint and traditional with lots of cute touches like old school bicycle horns on the tables to get waiters attention to menus made to look like old newspapers. I do like attention to detail and efforts to create a whole experience in restaurants. When I looked at the menu my eyes immediately fell to the I Fu Mie, which are crispy noodles topped with seafood and vegetables. It was one of my favourite dishes to eat when I lived in Singapore so I was really excited to see it again. Then my eye continued to the wide selection of toast and I couldn't resist the toast with sunny side up egg and chilli sauce. 

Food came out relatively quickly. The I Fu Mie was good. I would have liked the noodles a tad more crispy so I could really get that crunch when I took the first few bites. However, there were generous helpings of seafood and veggies and a good sauce bringing it all together.

The sunny side up egg toast was delicious. Thick, chunky toast engulfing a fried egg and a generous smearing of chilli sauce. So very good.

Nothing like an iced teh tarik to wash everything down and I must admit I came away feeling very satisfied. 

I will definitely head back here again to try out some of the other varieties of toast, have A Fuk (sorry, couldn't resist!) and honk a horn....don't you think you should too?

Old school menus...

'Can I have A Fuk, please?' Must be one that doesn't get ordered too often!

I Fu Mie, crispy seafood noodles

Sunny side up egg toast

Favourite celebration of the year...

...is almost upon us. If you haven't got your costume ready there is still time. I managed to pick up lots of what I needed at Mangga Dua ITC shopping mall this year at very cheap prices including an electric blue wig for 165k. This year I'll be heading back to JJRoyal Bistro for their Halloween party. I went last year and it was an excellent event with a costume competition, drinking contest and even a cronut eating contest. If you like to get dressed up and scare a few people along the way then I'd suggest booking a table at JJRoyal to get in on the action on October 31st.

Eric Kayser at Plaza Senayan

One thing I've noticed about Jakartans is that they are crazy for fads, definitely more so than Dubliners. I mean, here, when a new restaurant, cafe, bistro, bar, club, whatever opens...there is this buzz that goes around about it. Others pick up on the buzz and start going and it becomes the latest 'in' place to go. I suspect that there might be a group of professional 'buzz creators' paid to bring attention to these new places and create good publicity through social media, word of mouth, etc. If the right kind of buzz is created then you might find yourself actually queueing to get into the place. I remember this happening at Colette and Lola. I actually had to queue to get into a cake shop. It was a first for me. The laid back Dubliners would never do such a thing. You'd just walk around the corner and get a piece of cake at the next shop. 

Anyway, lately I have been hearing a lot of buzz about Eric Kayser, an artisan boulanger. In particular, it was mentioned to me during a conversation about brownies as a place to go for a great brownie. As I am always on the look out for great brownies here (so far the best ones are still my own, snobby but true!) I figured I couldn't miss the opportunity to give the brownies at Eric Kayser a taste test.

The restaurant is located in Plaza Senayan on the third floor. The place itself is fairly modest looking. This doesn't apply to the prices though! When given a menu for food, I was surprised to see pasta dishes costing over 100k! Anyway, I was on a purposeful mission and ordered a cappuccino and a brownie. The cappuccino was very strong to the point that after I finished drinking it my head was buzzing from the caffeine hit. Then came the brownie...at first glance it looked like it had the required crunchy outer exterior and that the interior was soft that epitomises the perfect brownie. I could see walnuts chopped up too which always makes for a good addition to any brownie. However, as I held it, I noticed it left an oily residue on my fingers. Oh dear, oily brownie, tsk tsk, not good. I took my first bite, waiting with bated breath for that crunchy, crackly top to give way to the soft gooey inside and fill my mouth with chocolatey heaven. Yes I have high expectations. I make my brownies to a very high standard so when I'm paying 28k for the pleasure of eating someone else's I expect it to be of a very high standard. Yes 28k! Very expensive! 

Unfortunately this brownie did not deliver. When I took my first bite I was extremely disappointed. Where was my crunchy exterior and soft gooey interior? Where was the explosion of chocolatey bliss? Where was the rich buttery undertone? All not there. What did it taste like? Sweet. That's it. Sweet with some nuts. I could hardly taste a chocolate flavour at all and let's face it, when we eat a brownie it's for the total chocolate hit that comes along with it. The chocolate flavour should be rich and smooth. I'm curious as to how they made these brownies because I don't see how it was possible to get the chocolate colour without having the chocolate flavour. Again, extremely disappointing. It's safe to say that I won't be recommending these brownies to anyone. I hope their other pastries and breads are better. However, I'll have to think about it before I go back and try. For those prices, I would want to be sure that I'm getting a little slice of heaven.