Spanky's Ribs and Martinis: Appropriate for children, teens and adults!

Among the variegated Kemang's illimitable selections of F&B,  comes a place called Spanky's. Specializing in American BBQ dishes and big gulps of martinis (it comes in triple jumbo size!), this place is the perfect place to catch a gluttonous bite, to fill your tummy, to enjoy a drink, or simply to gobble the mouthwatering desserts. Yes, this is one of the places in Kemang which is suitable for both kids and adults..

The restaurant bar concept's interior was inspired by the 1920's children's TV series called "Little Rascals". The iconic cast from the show appears in cartoon characters, spread all over the restaurant and even the menu, making it suitable for children (let alone the selections of food). Spanky, which is the name of restaurant, was also a character from the show. Not only that, there are also eye catchy, funny quotes and vintage photos hanged all over the wall. It definitely enlivens the clean melancholy wall. Minus the bar, the place completely has the appearance of a family place to dine in.

Cartoon characters from the show

One of the quotes that I found most captivating...

High ceiling and wood furniture. Vintage, much?

Looking at the menu, you'll find yourself variety selections of bites. Though it's American food they're mainly serving, there are also some fusion dishes such as Mexican and Hawaiian food. The choices of meat itself varied with accompanies of pork in each sections. Their specialty is ribs, but one dish meals for individual portion can also be found. 

Mexican Pork Chile Verde (69k). Slow cooked ample of pork chunks in jalapeno stew served with crispy flour tortilla. 

The soupy meal just has the right amount of mildness and warmth. Can also be enjoyed by kids because it has very little touch of heat. Overall, it's very subtle, yet the jalapeno scent was well erupted in every spoonful intake. However, considering the portion and the fact that it's considered more of an appetizer than a main course, I personally think this is a bit overpriced as I can get other meals with more satisfying portion which almost cost the same. For example, the dish below.. (scroll down at own cost)

Slow Roasted Pork Belly (79k). Served with mashed, caramelized apple cabbage and rosemary mushrooms.  

Each element was really well put together and it complimented one another. The savory pork has the right amount of fat, making the dish not too overwhelming. The flavor contrasted with the sweet apple cabbage, which only enriched the whole plate as a union. The only downfall was the lack of crispiness on the skin (though it looked crispy). If they can make it happen, this dish is definitely a two thumbs up dish!

Spank Me! Sandwich (79k). A Hawaiian pulled pork sandwich served with fried potatoes and BBQ sauce.

 Also available with pulled chicken, but being the number one pork fan that I am, no way I am substituting this with chicken. It was surprisingly huge and generous in portion. The sesame buns was pan toasted and as you can see from the picture, it has that slightly burnt mark, which resulting a rather crispier texture to accompany the tender smoky pulled pork.

Spicy Mac and Cheese (69k)

Going all the way with American classic, a bowl of heart mac and cheese can't never go wrong. This one has no meat but they also serve the ones with bacon and mushrooms or beef and jalapeno. This ultimate bowl of comfort food was creamy enough to make my day. Though the spiciness only came from the chili powder, I think they served enough justice. I am curios about the jalapeno one, though. Gonna try it in my next visit. Warning to those who can't handle creamy sauces, you might find this a bit too heavy.

Making it obvious for the stranger, Spanky's ribs and martinis must be specializing in ribs and martinis. Though I didn't order their two essential features, I still found myself very much happy and satisfied. It may have one or two downfall but I was more captivated with the successful deliverance of each meals.

SPANKY'S RIBS AND MARTINIS
Jl. Kemang Raya No. 24A
Jakarta 12730
021-7182876
https://www.facebook.com/SpankysRibs

LIN Artisan Ice Cream: Frozen in Less than 5 minutes

I guess the first simplest thing that I love about LIN Artisan Ice Cream is the fact that you can walk in anytime of the day to have your own little teenie tiny experience of Molecular Gastronomy. Though it's old news to some other countries, Molecular Gastronomy still sounded peculiar to most of Indonesians' ears. Remembering that there is only one Indonesian MolGas chef in Indonesia, it is still considered pretty new.

How many Indonesian people that you know have tried MolGas dishes? Mine was less than 10. I, myself, find it difficult and also, expensive, to have a MolGas experience (Though I have tasted a plate of MolGas dessert by Chef Bodin for free ;p). The most troublesome problem, according to me, is that you can't just have a walk in for a full dining experience. You have to arrange a group reservation for the chef to serve you.

But once again, that's not how it goes in LIN Artisan Ice Cream cafe. The first Indonesian cafe that uses liquid nitrogen to freeze their ice cream. Not only it is made fresh by order, you get to watch the freezing process, which took less than 5 minutes..

That little corner is where all the scientific magic happens!

Minimalist furniture with an industrial urban touch to it..

The outdoor space is definitely more masculine compared to the indoor area.

See? I still think it's a bit cute and chic inside...

Now, now.. Let's get to business. The process :

1. Blend all the natural ingredients into a batter. This one below was the banana sorbet and they really use fresh bananas.

2. LIN is the short form of Liquid Nitrogen. It is basically way cooler than ice. It freezes at -210 degrees and boils at -196 degrees Celsius, how about that? It was kept inside this tank because as soon as it's released to open air, it will immediately boil and evaporate. 

3. The earlier batter was later put in this food processor and in go the liquid nitrogen while the machine is still on. All that smoke is actually the liquid nitro evaporating due the room temperature. Less than 2 minutes later, it has frozen completely. They only have to make sure that it's all mixed together and repeat the process for a little bit while.

"My formula is soon to be perfect.. MUWAHAHAHAHAHAHA!"

The banana sorbet(36k). No food coloring so it's not yellow. It really tasted and smelled like real bananas. Although this one is supposed to be a sorbet, it tasted a bit creamy. 

Lemon Sorbet (36k) with little bit of lemon zest. Compared to the banana flavor, this tasted more like a sorbet. Better hurry gobble this one up cause it melts easily!

Smiley Baileys (69k). If you are a fan of baileys, well here you go. It's creamy, dense, and the best part, it has that baileys scent and after taste! 

All of the ice creams were much smoother compared to traditional ice creams, as liquid nitro makes smaller crystallization process. It contains less air than the store bought ice cream which definitely makes it more dense, squishy in a way, a little more chewy I guess. It's a no wonder that the price is significantly different if you compared the store bought ones with these. Also the fact that they use real fresh ingredients for each flavors. I just hope they make new flavors to come!

Note on safety issues : As long as the vapor is gone, it's safe to be eaten. However, I happened to feel a little frostbite sensation on my tongue. It's like having the sensation of drinking soda, but only concentrated on one focused area. I believed that it was resulted from a part of the ice cream which was not properly mixed. I remembered it was a little bit paler compared to the other parts. It was gone after a while and my tongue was unharmed. This means :

I will definitely come back to try out the other flavors. I am very intrigued with Vanilla Choc Rice, Frozen Expresso and the Beer Pong flavors! At least this can be my start before having Heston Blumenthal's bacon ice cream. (Yeah, right *roll eyes for my wishful thinking*)

Flashback :
Remember 10 years ago, when mobile phones were as thick as soap bars? When the only way connecting to the internet was through the phone line? When having a box of floppy disc actually meant something?

Present time:
Now look at what we have. Smart phones with touch screen features in different shape and sizes, WiFi in cafes is a must, and that little teenie tiny SD card which can store up a few gigs of data. It took only 10 years for us to make such vast progresses and human's continuous inventions never stop us from being awed.

This has a lot more to do with not just technology, but also other subject such as MolGas itself. I guess human's curiosity won't just limit themselves to stop there. For another 10 years ahead, for another 10 years of innovation, for another 10 years of food appreciation!

Lin Artisan Ice Cream
Jl. Taman Kemang 1 No. 6
021-71794393
Opening hrs : 11.00-23.00
www.linicecream.com
@linicecream

Antipodean Kemang : Healthy Brunch

This is a postponed post, in fact it is a too long postponed post! I went to Antipodean with my siblings, just the four of us before I went for my China trip. So.. it's before this year's Eid holidays. I was just browsing through my photo album and found the pictures. I gotta stop suffocating my photo album and keep burying these food photos! So I made the decision to revive them..

My siblings and I are brunch maniacs. We really love breakfast menus  but we are too lazy to wake up early.. Brunch is our ideal meal of the day. It is like a habit for us to randomly go for a brunch on Sundays, trying new places. I always think that these little habits that my siblings and I have are just precious.. Time flies so fast, who knows till when we can keep doing this habit? Before we know it, BAM, we have our own families and children, or maybe we're just too busy and tired for Sunday brunches.. Maybe I am over-dramatizing it, but just having the thought of it bumps me a bit. Okay enough with this out of topic wanderings..

Without further ado, let me present to you.. Antipodean : Coffee - Cafe - Culture.. A place where they serve Australian home cooked meals.. Both healthy and yummy... From the food presentation and the taste of it, I assume they don't use any frozen food and make almost everything by themselves. The food itself is not that fancy, but that's just not what I aim for when I'm having a meal. The home cooked meals that they serve are just simply COMFORTING.. and some are very healthy indeed.. Oh, and it turns out that the Antipodean Cafe in Kemang is their first outlet. They also have another branch in Cilandak Town Square (citos). Now they have Antipodean cafes in Australia and Malaysia as well. The thing that I love most about this place is that they serve breakfast meals all day long, well as long as they are still open. I hate it  when cafes or restaurants give you a curfew for their breakfast meals. It's like as if we have an official rule banning us to have breakfast at lunch or dinner time.

Yes, it's quite small..

The menu is written on this wall of blackboard. The place inside is not big so everybody can easily just look at this wall and choose their drinks and meals.. Practical and time saving 

Cappuccino.. 

Latte

Iced Chocolate

They use special coffee beans with a brand called Merdeka. It's quite good and it's a local brand. The smart ass version of me assume that the owners of the Merdeka coffee bean is the owner of Antipodean.. Go check out their website.. click here..

Sweet paprica chicken with chickpea salad (50k). I love the cold chickpea salad! It's very fresh. The chicken was cooked really well, not too dry.. Its presentation is very simple indeed, very home-cooked style

French toast with bacon and maple syrup (50k). I just can't combine these two. I know it's a common combination between the savory salty bacon and the sweet maple syrup in western breakfast set, BUT I JUST COULDN'T CAN'T WONT be accustom to it.. In spite of my prejudice, it's still yummy.. lol

All day breakfast (60k). Classic combo of grilled tomatoes, sausages, baked beans, toasts, and fluffy scrambled eggs.. My weak spot.. 

Big Breakfast (60k). Another weak spot. Toast, bacon, scrambled egg, sauteed mushrooms, home made hash brown.. YUMMIEHHHH

Scrambled egg salmon on toast (60k). They use generous amount of smoked salmon. If you are a fan of smoked salmon, order this!

Lil sis and big bro..  being narcissistic as always..

Well now I am just being a narcissistic pain in the *beep*

Antipodean Cafe
Kemang Hero Complex
Jalan Kemang Selatan 1
Jakarta
Phone : 7192364
Open from 8 a.m to 8 p.m

Monday Laughs

My college friends and I, we spend a lot of time in the campus but barely outside the campus. Since we have an off day on every Tuesday, we decided to hang out on every Monday night.. The other reason is to avoid traffic and fully booked seats..

We headed off to Kemang, not knowing what to eat.. so we just crashed into the first thing we saw, which was MIYA8I SUSHI.(we have also been craving to eat sushi from days before it, but couldn't get any). Follow their twitter @SUSHI_MIYA8I 

MIYA8I SUSHI KEMANG

I couldn't take pics of the sushi we ordered cause my samsung note ran out of battery. This was taken with Ano's samsung galtab.. The sushi on the left side used spicy mayo with the crunch sprinkled all over it.. The right side is baked tuna with mayo.. I didn't have the picture of another sushi we ordered

Dessert! What's life without a little bit of sweetness?

MIYA8I Sirloin steak with mushroom black pepper sauce. The steaks are surprisingly yummy for quite a low price. I was shocked that even though it didn't look like much, but the meat was so tender and the sauce was yummy, that today, which is Thursday, Ano and I crave for it!

This is the local tenderloin for 39k, the imported one is around 40k if I'm not mistaken..ALSO YUMMY

Then we headed off to Casa, above aksara kemang... We were just looking for a place with air conditioner cause it was bloody hot.. Since it was a Monday, the place was sooo empty compared to the weekends.. Anyway, Lidia and Kevin decided they were gonna order martinis.. while Ano and I, well, we prefer to go with the virgins..

Casa's all time favorites

Sherman posing a pose

Casa Strawberry and Lychee martini

My virgin mojito.. Tasted like colgate, in a good way

Baba the wise

Casa cocktail book.. I think it's adorable they have a separate menu just for cocktails..very detailed indeed

Kevin was really thinking what to order

NARCISSISTIC MIRROR PICTURE TIME 

 Each of us has a reason to go out on that day. We all have our personal problems and we shared it with each other. Somehow, the things that you think are sooo bad in your life, could turn out to be quite funny when you share it with the right people.. Instead of feeling sad, I went home feeling contented with my life, including with whatever things that are in my life, good or bad.. When I share my problems with them, somehow it turned out funny.


We laughed to it, we laughed about it, we laughed for it..

So yeah, that phrase when they say, when you share your sadness it will be lessen, and when you share your happiness it will be multiplied.. I think that's totally true.. well, if you have the right people to share it with..

In another ten years, there's no guarantee that we still going to hang out with one another, but I sure feel glad I met these people in my life right now.. :)

Ristorante Italiano~

Last weekend, I was having a sisters night out with both of my sisters. We went to this humble Italian restaurant in Kemang called Toscana. It was a very decent place, both the food and the atmosphere, with reasonable prices. I love the ambiance there, having a Sunday dinner with my loved ones. It was cozy and homy. You can tell that the house is old but they have renovated it so it's very decent.The food there is totally awesomeeeee..

I got an epiphany while I was eating there.. Here it goes..

I am much more closer to my bigger sister and sometimes I get annoyed easily with my little sister. In my mind, she will always be a little girl who has the power of the what-so-called "Mom's Protection". Whenever I got annoyed, I just tend to ignore her, be silent and leave the room. This has been interpreted that she is immune to my authority as an older sister or whatsoever she wants to interpret it as. On a normal basis, yes I do love her but when we are caught up in a "situation", Oh God! I wish she could be struck by a lightning. Okay that was a psychotic metaphor.  In other words, I will always see her as an elementary student, not mattering the fact that she's now in high school.

When we were there, laughing at silly stuffs, sharing stories, I realized that there are just too many beautiful things to be mad at this world. I've never felt so blessed. I consider myself happy at that moment. Really, we are nothing without our loved ones in this world. And it's great to know that they love us just as sincere. And  it came to me. She love me as much as I love her.. I don't know it's because of the place, the food, or we're just high on sugar.. But I'm glad it striked me.

Proof that my little sister still love me the way I love her : she ordered the mushroom risotto that I love, cherish ohhhh so much, she was willing to trade her dish with mine cause I asked for it.. See.. Love..

I always thought that she's more egoistic and put very little care towards other's interest. Maybe I was WRONG, maybe she's growing up, but my vision is just blocked by her little sister image.. (FYI, after I finished typing that last sentence, it literally starts to rain and raindrops are all over my room's windows in front of me. Is this so a drama movie or whatttttt)

Okay enough foolish talking, PICTURE TIMEEEE

I was trying this app on my Samsung note, it's called action snap.. The lightning on the place that we sat is very little, so here are the results.. 

Moving on to the food..

Free Fresh Homemade breads, with garlic cream and balsamic vinegar with olive oil.. Always a catch, especially when you're starving and the food hasn't been served yet..

We're trying to be healthy so this is our appetizer, a Caesar Salad

I ordered this Fettuccine Parmigiana. The pasta there are all HOMEMADE PASTAS. You can definitely taste the difference between instant and homemade pastas. The texture especially. The meatballs are chicken and it tastes really good! 

This was what my big sis ordered, it was Dipolpette. Basically, it was eggplant in a form of a lasagna. It was very nice as well

Maybe I'm crazy about  mushroom risottos. But mother of dear God, this is goodddd.. Yes it looked mundane, but I wouldn't left a single bit of that risotto on the plate..

This is a hot chocolate cake, Fondente Gelato, a bit like molten cake. The insides are gooey and warm.. Nyummy 

They say they have the best tiramisu, and yes, they do.. We were so full, but we couldn't help scooping out creamy tiramisu till it's totally finished..

This place is a definite 'must-go-back-and-eat-more-food' restaurant. The service is excellent, with a fine dining touch.. They even put individual napkins on your lap, and we are served with free iced lemon water.. The price is pretty cheap, I say.. Yep, definitely must go back to this place..