Paradise Inn : The Paradise for Your Buds

Paradise Inn is a second line of Paradise Dynasty. Opened their first outlet in Indonesia at Plaza Indonesia. FYI, Paradise Inn is a franchise from Singapore, brought to Indonesia by Boga Group. The room is decorated with Chinese theme and traditional Chinese song played, felt like I was in Shanghai.

Chinese food is famous of its traditional spices that good for health. Traditional Double Boiled Chicken with Spare Ribs and Ginseng (Rp. 45.000/portion or Rp. 158.000/pot) was my choice as opening dish to tickle my buds. To be honest, I didn’t expect the dish to be super delicious because, well, you know, traditional spices usually taste strange. But out of my expectation, this dish was so tasty. The broth was so rich, made from chicken stock with double boiling way. First they boiled the stock, and then they steam it. That’s why the chicken and pork meat were so soft. Delish!

Traditional Double Boiled Chicken with Spare Ribs and Ginseng (Rp. 45.000/portion or Rp. 158.000/pot) 

This wasn’t my first visit. I used to come with my family, and my mom always orders Hotplate Tofu with Preserved ‘Cai Xin’ and Minced Pork (Rp.48.000 for small size and Rp. 68.000 for medium size). I have to admit it also one of my favorite dishes in Paradise Inn (the other one is Imperial Pork Ribs). I loved the homemade tofu, so soft, mild and felt nice. Very easy to digest but solid enough to give a soft touch in your mouth. Ah, new idea. Someday if I get a toothache, I’ll eat Paradise Inn’s tofu instead of porridge. Lol. Anyway, the sauce went well with the tofu. Tasted savory and salty. 

Hotplate Tofu with Preserved ‘Cai Xin’ and Minced Pork (Rp.48.000 for small size and Rp. 68.000 for medium size)

Who doesn’t like coconut pudding? Paradise Inn made their Coconut Pudding (Rp. 42.000) everyday from a real Thai coconut. Enough said, I had no doubt about this fact, the taste spoke itself. Lemongrass Jelly with  Lemonade (Rp. 25.000) was also a good deal. Refresh my mind and belly, as if I’m ready again for another round. No, I’m kidding. I was full enough, but literally refreshed. Apparently lemonade is a good companion for a jelly. Nice touch.

 Coconut Pudding (Rp. 42.000)-back and Lemongrass Jelly with  Lemonade (Rp. 25.000)-front

Paradise Inn

Plaza Indonesia Level Basement Unit 25-27A

Ph. 021-2992 3848

Fax. 021-2992 3849

Business Hours : 10 am - 10pm (daily)

Twitter : @ParadiseIndo

Facebook : Paradise Inn Jakarta

You may read this post on Farrago Indonesia.

[Food Tasting] Shang Palace: "Tea Wonders" Sensation

I was pretty amazed when I know we could eat alcohol (if you haven't read, you read my post here). Then I found out that we also could eat tea. Yes, tea. Amazing, right? 

Apparently, using tea leaves for cooking is not something new. Chinese people usually use tea leaves as cooking ingredients. Chef Benson Fok, yes he's a chinese too, prepared some delicious tea-infused menus for you to try. Please welcome, Tea Wonders. This menu only available during September. 

Tea Wonders consists of :

• Braised Bo Lei Duck - Rp. 68,000++/portion
• Stir-Fried Phoenix Prawn with Long Jin Tea Leaf - Rp. 98,000++/portion
• Lamb Chop with Golden Phoenix Tea - Rp. 88,000++/portion
• Steamed Bai Ling Mushroom and Seafood with Rain Flower Tea Sauce - Rp. 78,000++/portion
• Glutinous Rice and Fish Cooked with Yellow Treasure Flower - Rp. 58,000++/portion
• Steamed Tomato Stuffed with Assorted Vegetables with Dongding Oolong Sauce - Rp. 58,000++/portion
• Stir-Fried Lotus Root, Water Chesnut, Lily Bud and Pumpkin - Rp. 68,000++/portion
• Chilled Red Tea Jelly with Chinese Pear and Pipa - Rp. 58,000++/portion

I hadn't tried all of them, because part of me insisted to try the regular menu too. :p

Menu that day

Corn and Crab Soup 

Corn and crab soup wasn't part of Tea Wonders. But as it was a good dish to giggle my appetite, it was (actually) a good choice. So bad, due to my allergic to crab, I had no guts to try. Poor poor me. 

Braised Bo Lei Duck

Ms. Agnes - manager of Shang Palace - said Bo Lei was a type of tea. Bo Lei had similar taste with Pu-Erh, but they're definitely different. To be honest, I'm not a big fan of duck, but I do eat one slice, so I tried one and........one more, and.......one more. This was one of the best duck dish I ever met. Nice sweet savory sauce, juicy and well cooked duck meat. Apparently the chef really knows how to cook duck. 

Lamb Chop with Golden Phoenix Tea

Have I ever mentioned that I can't stand of lamb? If not, now you get it. 
I tried for some times, but my sense of smell was just too strong. Nah, lets talk about this one. To be honest, it was well-spiced. I didn't know how the chef cook it, but he succeeded to reduce the lamb-smell. This dish came with scrambled white egg and yummy sauce. I guess there's a tea ingredient in the sauce. The scrambled white egg was magnificent. Absolutely love it. :)

Steamed Bai Ling Mushroom and Seafood with Rain Flower Tea Sauce

Steamed scallop and prawn plated with Bai Ling Mushroom was nice. I am a big fan of prawn, and prawn never goes wrong with anything. :p
The sauce was mild. Actually i was hoping for stronger sauce because the scallop-prawn-mushroom need to be highlighted. 

Glutinous Rice and Fish Cooked with Yellow Treasure Flower

This dish looked similar with Lo Mai Kai, glutinous rice with meat that wrapped in lotus leaf. And I wasn't wrong. They tasted similar too. The difference was the presentation and additional ingredients. Lo Mai Kai didn't use bamboo bowl. Glutinous Rice and Fish Cooked with Yellow Treasure Flower had a 2x2cm piece of fish on the top. I assumed it was snapper fish. The glutinous rice was sticky and tasteful. I found little fiber appeared in the glutinous rice, and thought it was coconut until Mrs. Jajan asked the waiter and the waiter asked the chef and we found out that it was CRAB. Oh, crab! (As I told you I am allergic to crab)
The good news is there was no symptom of allergy later on. Fiuh. Am I crab-immuned already?  Maybe I am. I was a little regret that I didn't eat the corn and crab soup. :p

Chef’s Special Stewed Pork Rib served with Chinese Bread 

When I asked about what are their recommendation, Joris (Digital Marketing Manager) and Felicia (Marcom) said this stewed pork ribs, then we agreed to order. And none of us regret! The stewed pork ribs was soooooo tender and no pork-smell at all (that's my main consideration of ordering pork in a restaurant). The sauce was also perfect and joyful. So when I put the ribs' meat in the bread, it was heaven! (I'm drooling now)
Love the texture and taste combination. Good job chef! Hats off! ;)

Chilled Red Tea Jelly with Chinese Pear and Pipa

Back to Tea Wonders, here was the only dessert of the series. I watched how to make this pear in Masterchef US and was amazed and confuse at the same time. It's pretty hard for me.:p First you must peel the pear, then make a big hole in the middle where the seed and core are there. No worries, here you can enjoy the pear effortless. The dessert wasn't sweet, more in to plain and pipa taste. Good dessert to finish the dinner. To be honest, I didn't know what is pipa. But as we talked about it, the taste reminds us with one of cough syrup, and we assumed pipa was a kind of chinese herb that also used to make cough syrup. I did some small research and got some endorsement for our "theory". lol

Anyhow, the conclusion was this dessert was healthy. ;)

Psssttt.. they also have dimsum menu available everyday until 2.30pm, and all you can eat dimsum also available on weekend at IDR 188,000++. Will try that soon! 

Shang Palace 
Shangrila Hotel Jakarta
Kota BNI, Jl. Jend. Sudirman kav 1, Central Jakarta
Ph. (62 21) 2922 9999
Fax. (62 21) 2922 9900
http://www.shangri-la.com/jakarta/shangrila/
http://www.shangri-la.com/jakarta/shangrila/dining/restaurants/shang-palace/
Twitter : @ShangrilaJKT
Facebook : Shangrila Jakarta
Instagran : @ShangrilaJKT

Mountain of Food Explorace Part 2: The World Club Lounge, Coffee Terrace, Chin Swee Vegetarian Restaurant

Heyho, everyone! I'm back with my Genting trip story. This time is my second day, and I was so exhausted and fun at once. Where should I start? Hmmm.. Breakfast seems a good start. We had our breakfast at The World Club Lounge. The place wasn't spacious but neat and comfort. Plus, we could enjoy the beautiful view while breakfast.

Our first challenge of the day was making a package of food with "energizing" theme. And we had to eat all the food afterwards. Since this challenge given after we had breakfast and we still had many challenge after this, so we had to be so smart in arranging our dish. Voila! This is what we got. I'm pretty proud of our creation. :') 

We still had some challenges afterwards where we had to go some tenants of the huge mall they had there, and we got free jackets! hihihi. *huge smile*

Just about half past elven (11.30am), we were ready for lunch at Coffee Terrace. Yup, it's their famous buffet dining whose had 6 live kitchen! What did I seek for the first? Of course sweets and desserts! :))

Look what I found!!
Yeah, you're not wrong, and your eyes are find. It's ostrich! I never ate ostrich meat before. So I dared myself to try once. Actually the texture was similar with mutton. I believed it had the same smell like mutton had, but fortunately the spices was sooooo strong that I almost couldn't smell.

Let's take picture with our new jackets! :p

After lunch, we got some more challenges. This time, we got free entrance to theme park! Wohoo!

I was very excited. This challenge was the one I loved the most.  

4pm sharp, we went to Chin Swee Temple. It's a temple located near Resort World Genting. It was such a beautiful temple. The challenge here was we had to find Oprah (the officer), and we had to seek her in the entire temple. The temple had a pagoda, whose 9 level height. The clue was "Oprah is in the highest point of the temple". So when we arrived, we just strike to the highest level. I made it to 8th floor, until a friend told me that Oprah wasn't there (he already reached the 9th floor). What a waste of energy! lol. 
Here's my pict, in order to prove, I had ever reahed 8th floor using stairs in my life! :p
Wait! Every level had a door to outside where we could see a very green and beautiful view. Ah, of course I didn't want to miss it. I enjoyed the view for about 5 minutes before going back to the first floor. 

We found Oprah in the prayer room. Not long after that, it's time for dinner! Yes, we ate that much. :))

There's a vegetarian restaurant here. Chin Swee Vegetarian Restaurant.

Soup of The Day

Sauted Mushroom with Broccoli

Pomfret with Thai Sauce

Salted Fish and Pork in Claypot

Loh Hon Chai in Yam King 

Lamb Curry

Stir Fry Vegetables

My favorite was Loh Hon Chai in Yam King. In ordinary restaurant, we might say it was deep fried prawn with sauce, that placed in a bowl-shaped yam cake. I saw this kind of dish for some times in Medan-ese (Tio Ciu) restaurant. But the difference is, this time was a vegetarian version, so no prawn, no meat, and no garlic. 



Chin Swee Vegetarian Restaurant
Chin Swee Caves Temple  69000 Genting Highlands, 
Pahang, Malaysia
013-333-2348
http://www.chinswee-vegetarianrestaurant.com/


Coffee Terrace
Lobby Floor, Genting Hotel , Genting Highlands Resort , 69000 Genting Highlands Pahang
05- 6101 1118
BUFFET
Breakfast: 5.30am - 10.30am
Lunch: 12.00 noon - 2.30pm
Dinner: 5.00pm - 9.30pm

ALA-CARTE
3.00pm - 5.00pm
10.30pm - 5.30am

Paradise Dynasty

Another food paradise opened in Jakarta last few months ago; Paradise Dynasty. Offers individual chinese dishes, Paradise Dynasty opened their first outlet in Jakarta at Plaza Senayan. Oriental ambience welcoming me as I walked in. Just like another Chinese restaurant, many family came to Paradise Dynasty to have family dinner (I came on Sunday). 

As I mentioned above, they offers individual chinese dishes. Means, the menu is more into la mien, or other chinese dishes that eaten individually. So I guess, their positioning is not family restaurant but more into meeting point restaurant or hang out restaurant for middle executive. But apparently, it's stick in our head that chinese restaurant is family restaurant. So here I was, seeing many families having lunch together. :)

They have open kitchen where we can watch the chef making our lamien/noodle. Their recommended dishes are la mien and xiao long bao. Can't wait to try!

Sliceed Pork Garlic (38K). IMHO, this was great! Out of my expectation. Pardon me if I'm wrong, because I don't really remember exactly what it is. For sure, it was slices of cucumber rolled in (pardon me if I'm wrong) pork slice and covered with minced garlic and sauce. The cucumber was cold, but the pork wasn't. So when I ate it, it was very refreshing. The garlic sauce was very tasty, which went super well to the cucumber and pork. The right choice to tickle my buds.

Black Truffle Xiao Long Bao  (108K).  They have a lot of xiao long bao variants. Some people says, the worst looking food has the best taste. Remembering that quote, I chose a black color xiao long bao. :p I never ate this type of xiao long bao, I usually only eat the ordinary ones. Well, let me finish my review about this black truffle xiao long bao. It contained pork, of course. Xiao long bao without pork is like sky without cloud. lol. As a black xiao long bao, nothing special in it. But as a ordinary xiao long bao, it tasted so good. The water (which was broth) was perfect, savory and not too salty. The pork was simple-seasoned and went well with the broth. The skin a bit thick, but that's okay. Not a big deal, since the filling was good. :)

Lamien Poach Marble Beef (58K).  What surprised me in this is the broth (which was thick and condensed) contained a lot of black pepper. So when I tried to swallow, it felt like my throat burning. Lol.  On the other hand, I was hooked. It was addictive. Even I've been sweaty like hell, a part of me want some more. :p
Anyway this is their noodle. Thin and silky. 

Lamien Pork Belly (58K). The broth reminded me of Ikkousha. It was thick and rich. It had half done egg too, which gave me sensation of heaven when it stirred to the broth. 

Lamien Pork Dumpling Chili Sauce (45K). Aha! This is my fave. Imagine sour and spicy in one bite of noodle and dumplings. Yeah, that's exact how it tasted like. The sourness was more into vinegar or somewhat, but for sure it wasn't lemon or lime. The noodle had the clear broth separated, but it was already flooded by some tasty water (I usually call it as cep. It is few thick broth). 

Rice Ball Peanut (25K). It was like a hot mochi, with black sesame filling and peanut topping. It was nice. Me loved it though. The mochi wasn't too thick and wasn't too thin. As it was hot, the black sesame filling turned liquid. 


Overall, I loved all the foods I ordered. The quality was great, the portion was big enough, even for me. The taste also awed me well.  I promise I will make another visit.  :)




Paradise Dynasty
Plaza Senayan, Lt.5, Jl. Asia Afrika No. 8
(021) 57900146

Collage - Pullman Jakarta

Hi people! 

This time, my owner were invited to a buffet dining at Collage, Pullman Hotel Jakarta. Pullman Hotel had just opened their first hotel ini Jakarta (they have one in Bali). Located at Central Park, this hotel has direct access to Central Park Mall. 

So bad my owners came late because one of them was in a big matter. Please don't ask what's that. Oh no. Stop asking. I said don't ask! ;)

Anyway, as my owners are in major addiction of Instagram , so today's photos are provided via instragram. I mean, edited with instagram. :) ---> Hey, please feel free to follow them : @rozelina & @ANTZL33

Back to Collage. Collage is an all-day dining at Pullman. Ssssttt. They also had a bar named Bunk. 

Collage provides many kind of foods, they had some blocks of stall. One block for Indian, one block for Chinese, Japanese, Indonesian, etc. All the menu change everyday but still sticks to theme of each block. Each blocks had some chefs cooking, and we could watch them making food. 

The foods was average. I mean, what do you expect from an international buffet? The main point of being international food buffet is provide food as much as you can. Not to make something that would become their signature. Well, even it would be better if they had one. But who cares? As long as the food wasn't bad, they're good. 

The place was so comfy, and they also had outdoor seat too. The interior design still sticks with the whole building design, which very similar to art gallery. So bold and different with another five stars hotels. And FYI, I love love love the concept and design of the whole interior. (as much as i saw)

Overall, I enjoyed the dishes. They were good. I saw sushi, sashimi, curry, dimsum, pasta, etc. The also provide cocktails and mocktails if you ask. I heard the price is about 190,000++ IDR/person during weekdays, and 228.000 IDR++/person for weekend. (exclude beverage) 

If you asked about it is worth the price or not, maybe it will come back to you. How much can you eat?  ;)

You have to see their desserts stall! So drooling. 

By the way, most of the photos below are desserts. Yeah, I love dessert. But it doesn't mean I didn't eat the maincourse. It's just I haven't upload the other photos, because they're still in another camera. I will upload them soon. Promise. ;)

Colorful Macaroons. They had different flavor for each color. Yum!

 

Croissant Pudding. Yeah, it's not bread pudding. It's Croissant Pudding. Extremely yummy!!! And i'm craving for this now. Somebody please bring me one! 

Foie Gras Cream Brulee. - Well, I'm not a fan of foie gras. Don't ask me. ;p

Cold misoba. slurp!

COLLAGE

Pullman Jakarta Central Park Hotel

Podomoro City
Jl. Let. Jend S Parman Kav 28
Jakarta Barat
Tel: (+62 21)29200088