I is for Indonesia @ Bali Bali

Well this train is back in full swing now, after a long while with no outings, we have two in quick succession.

All in all most of the places we have visited on this mad hop around London have been pretty good, some excellent, some so so. But Bali Bali unfortunately has to be the lowest point so far. I hope none get any lower than this.

I initially tried to get everyone to head to my favourite Pizza Pub in Islington, but this was rejected out right, as I think it was not exotic enough for some people.

So India then. I thought this was a sure thing, but surprisingly most of the others are not particularly keen on Indian food. I mean what is this world coming to.

So after a brief mention of Indonesia at the end of the email. Voila, guess where we were going then.

After more chit chat about the merits of the small band of Indonesian restaurants in London, Bali Bali was chosen and booked.

I was hoping, just hoping that they would have Babi Guling on the menu, but this wasn’t a Balinese (Hindu) restaurant, but more of an Indonesian (Muslim) cum Malay joint. Shame, but oh well. Will just have to head back to Ubud for that. Now, that I would be more than happy to do.

My first impression of Bali Bali as we walked through the door, was that it reminded me of a run of the mill tourist restaurant in Bali. Guess what, the food was the same as well.

Strangely on the menu there are two sections for the starters. The first part containing more run of the mill dishes like, soups and other delights such as prawn crackers and spring rolls.

On the other section are the “Chef Specialities”. Now these beauties were actually the same price as some of the mains. Why this is I do not know. Well makes good business sense, as you make more money on the starters than the mains.

My starter of Sato Ayam (Chicken soup) was bland. The shredded chicken was dry and tasteless, and the supposed coconut base stock for the soup was nowhere to be seen. Very poor.

The large tasteless Indonesian prawn crackers were served with a dull, industrial standard sweet chilli sauce.

The starters form the “Chef’s Specialities” did not look that impressive at all. The deep fried battered prawns, which were served on a giant platter, I guess to try and justify their huge price tag were greasy and not very appetising.

The only thing in Bali Bali’s favour was the Spring Roll, (yes only one) it did look homemade and not brought that morning from a China Town grocer.

As there was no pork on the menu, I went for my old favourite of Rendang Daging. I love this dish, it really is one of my all time loved dishes.

I mean what could be better than a heavenly plate of beef cooked for hours slowly in coconut and spices, to end up with melt in your mouth meat in a thick brown slightly picante sauce. Life is good.

Unfortunately Bali Bali’s version was anything but. The sauce had the right consistency and the meat was soft, but alas it was dry and overcooked. The sauce was sadly lacking any real heat. It was just disappointing big time.

The Nasi Goreng (Indonesia’s National Dish) was basically served as a Chinese style egg fried rice with a few slices of cucumber and tomato on the side. A real poor show.

To be honest I really shouldn’t have expected wonders from Bali Bali, as on our month long visit to a few of the islands of Indonesia, we were not overly impressed with the food there.

There were exceptions of course. Most notably the Babi Guling we had many a time at Ibu Oka in Ubud. This was out of this world, and still rates as one of the best meals I’ve ever had. But this was one of the few exceptions we found.

This is kinda surprising as with the multitude of influences Indonesia has, the food should be up there with the best of them. Or maybe we were very unlucky and just headed into the wrong joints.

I think a return visit is going to have to happen to try and find the best dishes there. Not to Bali Bali, but to Indonesia. 

Cook The Books : Rasa Malaysia - Beef Rendang

I brought this book many years ago in a small bookstore somewhere in Singapore. I know I don’t cook out of it as much as I should, but it’s one of the best cookbooks I own.

The wonderful Betty Saw seems to be the Delia Smith of the Malay/Singapore world, and has written about as many books as Delia herself. Whether she has a lucrative supermarket deal is anyones guess.

The chapters of the book are the States of Malaysia and Borneo, which makes cooking really interesting. But you therefore have so many choices for the same dish. I’m amazed there are so many different versions of the mighty laksa.

My favourite Malaysian dish is Rendang Daging or Beef Rendang. By far the best recipe I have found not only from the book, but on the interweb as well, is the recipe from Pahang. This state has the delights of the Cameron Highlands, plus the bizarre city of Kuanton and my favourite town of Cherating. All these places are within its borders.

If you are only going to cook one recipe from Malaysia, then it should be this one.

Ingredients

600g Beef, cut into 2 ½ cm cubes

1 tsp salt

1 tsp ground black peppercorns

1 ¼ litre of coconut milk

1 piece of dried sour fruit (asam gelugur)

2 Lemon grass stalks, lightly bruised

2 turmeric leaves

Salt to taste

Ground Ingredients

15 Dried chillis – soaked

15 birds eye chillis

2½ cms piece of galangal

2½ cms piece of Turmeric

2½ cms piece of Ginger

15 Thai shallots, peeled

5 garlic cloves

1. Season the beef with the salt and ground black pepper. Leave for 30 minutes.
2. Heat a pan and add a tad of oil. Add the ground ingredients and fry until it becomes fragrant. Add the coconut milk and bring to a simmer.
3. Add the meat, sour fruit, lemon grass and the turmeric leaves. Simmer for about an hour and a half or until the meat is tender and the gravy thick and oily.
4. If the meat is tender but the gravy is still a tad too loose, then remove the meat and boil the sauce hard until the gravy is nice and thick.
5. Remove the lemon grass and turmeric leaves. Season with the salt and serve with rice.

It’s that easy. It’s thick, coconuty, spicy and totally bloody unxious. I’d advise you all to give this a try. You can of course reduce the amount of chillis but the coconut milk will reduce the kick of them. But each to his own. Enjoy.

When in New York, it's Nyonya Time .....

After nearly 10 months of eating too much bland food in Colombia. We were in the need for some spice. As we were in New York, and staying in China Town. Why not have some good Asian food with some spice.

For some reason the restaurants in China Town did not tempt us at all. In fact they repelled us. Too many restaurants selling pre cooked buffet food. Yuck, yuck, yuck. Last time I was in a Chinese buffet eatery (Mr Wu), I was sick as a dog for several days afterwards. All that bacteria in all that food. My body never stood a chance.

After doing a bit of research on where to eat in NYC. I heard off a website about a website about someone who ate at Nyonya. So did some research and thought, well I love Malay food. Malay folk said it was good, so why not give it a try.

Quite a trendy joint, strangely enough in Little Italy (although that seems to have shrunk to one street nowadays) which baffled us, but hey ho. Nice lighting, nice colours, nice vibe.

I already knew what I wanted and Lina the same. Only took us enough time to read the menu and make sure they were on it. Voila. Beef Rendang, and Nasi Lemak were ordered. Two Tsing Tao beers were to accompany our curry delite.

A rushed off his feet waiter tried to give us a Hainan chicken, which I like but even in Singapore I found it kinda bland. Well it is only poached chicken after all. Now I’m on every Singaporeans hit list. Sorry, but it’s true.

First up was the Roti Canai. We love Roti. We have walked all around Penang sampling Roti’s to find the best. We are quite sad I know. The Roti here was a little dry and not as greasy as I love it. It was def pre made and left lying around till ordered. Shame. The portion of chicken curry however was heaven sent. God I had missed a good curry sauce. Nice taste, nice thickness. NICE.

The mains arrived. My Beef Rendang was nice in colour, texture and taste. The meat was succulent as it should be, the sauce as thick as I know it to be. It was great but lacked one essential thing. HEAT. Beef Rendang contains a bucket full of chilli’s. Obviously one thing the Malay’s think the American market can’t handle. Maybe true. As I know a lot of English folk brag they like heat, but they really don’t. I know it had no heat, as eating in the land of no-chilli Colombia. My body was craving that pain of the chilli. It did not come. 

Lina’s Nasi Lemak was nye on perfect, a few different twists on the norm, like the dried fish being in a sauce (good but different), and a veggie side containing bits of pineapple (different but not so good). Where did that come from, but Malaysia is a diverse country, so maybe the chef’s region uses pineapple. Only thing to bitch about was the non inclusion of peanuts. Where’s the texture man. We missed the peanuts.

All in all after nearly a year of no spice it was a good meal. But I wonder if we’d just come from England if it would’ve been good or just OK. We shall never know. But good on the night.