What the Locals Love - Beppu Ekimae

I've tried this place once a long time ago, and I only remember that I wasn't impressed.
Seeing how mad the queue in front of this place every time I passed by, I started to wonder if I have to give casual Japanese food resto another chance.

Judging from the mad queue, it can't be that bad, right? The locals love it, will I?
Let's see ;)

The Beef Shoulder with Spicy Peppercorn Jigoku Ramen. The soup is pretty interesting, a combination of pork bone soup base with Sichuan-esque hot ma lak flavors. Not bad. The few pieces of beef, although tender, they tasted a little too...corn starchy? As for the ramen, it was ok when it arrived, we wished we consumed it quickly as the ramen lost its chewiness a little too quickly.


The Spicy Assorted Meat with Cold Ramen...the "assorted meat" includes slices of sweet omelette, slices of ham, and a piece of imitation crab meat :S The spicy sauce was neither spicy nor flavorful. I am not a big fan of this dish :(


The stuffed chicken wings...in terms of textures, the dish wasn't that bad. Crispy on the outside, with fragrant stuffing of spring onions and crunchy chicken gristle. In terms of flavors, the dish could use a lot more seasoning, the sauce it was served with didn't help much either.



The crispy tofu, which was served swimming in a pool of oil (ugh), had nice textures. Crispy on the outside and soft on the inside. However, again, the dish was flavorless. I may not have a sophisticated palate, but this was rather hard to accept. We had to dip these pieces of tofu in soy sauce to make the it more bearable.

The drink on promo was Iced Green Tea with Red Bean. It's nice, not too sweet, perfectly creamy and the best part is...buy one get one free :)

At the end of the meal, our server knocked over a bottle of soy sauce, spilling soy sauce on SC's iPhone, left leg and foot. His sandal was thoroughly soaked in soy sauce. The service team apologized repeatedly and helped him wiping his sandal clean with wet tissues. Since they were apologetic and the phone was ok, we were fine with it. They also gave us a 10% discount...the bill came up to HK$195 (after 10% discount) for the meal.

Overall, the meal isn't exactly an experience I'd like to repeat any time soon.
I have to remind myself that long queue =/= value for money =/= good food.
Maybe only when I'm desperate for ramen and there's no other choice.
:S

Naughty Weekend Breakfast - Corned Beef, Egg, & Cheese English Muffin

One of the things that I love about weekends is...the luxury to enjoy sinful breakfasts.
Right.
As if my weekday breakfasts aren't sinful enough...

One breakfast that I have been missing is..good old McDonDon breakfast.
Sausage egg McMuffin, hash brown, and coffee. Hmmm~
Obviously, my taste, my palate...not so sophisticated after all! :D

Unfortunately, there's no McDonald's near my place.

Dammit!

To solve this lack of McDonDon-ness, I bought a pack of Garden's English muffins, and whipped up this super sinful brekkie last weekend.

"Recipe"
Slice an English muffin into two, slather generously with butter...and place it butter side down on a non stick pan, let it brown a little, take 'em off the pan, set aside.
...and then, let's crank it up a notch.
Slather mayo and ketchup generously on both sides. Yum. Good enough to eat already, but don't!
Not yet.

Since I don't have those artificial, chemically flavored "sausages" that McDonDon serves...I used some leftover corned beef instead. Equally unhealthy, equally sinful, and probably more delicious ;)

I love corned beef the best when it's fried with a bit of oil until you get some of crispy bits...yum! After frying, dump a generous amount of it on the buttered, mayoed, ketchuped muffin.

Then fry an egg...I like mine over easy with some crispy white bits. So heat up quite a bit of oil (I've already mentioned that this is gonna be unhealthy and sinful, right? :D)...crack the egg, let some parts get crispy, and flip. Almost immediately, transfer the egg on the other side of the muffin, we want runny egg yolk, my friend :D

Top the egg up with a slice of cheddar cheese...and the rest...is history.

Is there anything sexier than biting into this tower of sin, including the runny egg yolk?

Well, I can tell you that it's not sexy when the yolk's dripping all over your white sofa.
So, handle with care, folks!

This is only Wednesday but I'm looking forward to the weekend already :)

Banana, Chocolate, Cheese & Condensed Milk Pratha Pizza - Pizza PisCoKe

There's one Indonesian flavor combo that I haven't seen in Hong Kong so far.
It's PisCoKe, aka. Pisang (Banana), Coklat (Chocolate), Keju (Cheese).
That's right.
Banana, Chocolate and Cheese, all in one.
This combo is typically used as a filling for buns or spring rolls; on top of toasts; or as a dessert on its own (grilled banana topped with chocolate and cheese).

Since I can't make no buns...I thought, why not make a sweet pizza?
However, the last time I checked, I can't make my own pizza crust too.
So let's cheat again and use frozen roti pratha as a base.

Recipe
- 1 x frozen roti pratha
- 1/2 super ripe emperor banana or 1 mini banana, sliced and caramelize in a pan with a bit of butter and lots of sugar
- chocolate jimmies
- grated cheddar cheese
- sweet condensed milk
- butter, sugar

Preheat oven to 180C/350F. Place frozen roti pratha in a lightly buttered pan, bake for a few minutes until fluffy, take it out, butter the top, add chocolate jimmies, caramelized bananas, drizzle with condensed milk, bake again for a few minutes until the chocolate jimmies get softened (they won't fully melt). Take it out, add generous amount of grated cheddar cheese, drizzle with condensed milk, serve hot.


Fold it, cut it, bite it, have it the way you want it.
You can top this with some ice cream, peanut butter, crushed toasted peanuts/almonds etc, but trust me, it is already very sinful as it is :)

Eggplant & Minced Meat in XO Sauce

Another favorite ingredients combo of mine...hearty minced meat with soft, sauce-thirsty, fibre-rich eggplants. Yum! Don't we all love one-dish weekday dinners?

This time, I'm using the free XO sauce I got as a souvenir from my dinner at Satay King. You can slather anything with XO sauce, and it should taste fan-bloody-tastic.

Recipe
- 1 eggplant, cut into long pieces
- 0.5 lb minced meat
- 1 clove garlic, crushed
- 1 cm ginger, crushed
- 2 clove shallot, sliced thinly
- 1 tbsp xo sauce (try to include as little oil as possible)
- olive oil, soy sauce, fish sauce, sugar, pepper, hot water, crispy shallot (optional)

Saute garlic, ginger and shallot in olive oil, add minced meat, season a bit with fish sauce, let cook until the color changed. Add eggplant pieces, cook until they change color, add sauces, add hot water and cook until the eggplants are deliciously soft. Adjust seasonings if necessary, garnish and serve with steamed rice.

Hearty, spicy, savoury, and most importantly, as always, easy ;)

Solo Indonesian Restaurant - Sheung Wan, Hong Kong

Born and raised in Indonesia, I am always on the lookout for a good Indonesian food in Hong Kong. There are many Indonesian restaurants in Hong Kong, I've tried the good, the bad, the ugly, and I know which dishes I like from which place. However, there are so many of them...it could not have possibly tried all of them.

When I heard about this place on twitter, I just had to visit (literally the next day ^_^) and give it a try.

I've ordered a few dishes I've been missing and normally won't cook at home. The best dish of the night was the sate ayam (chicken sate). Tender, juicy, flavorful, beautifully charred, reasonably authentic. The sate kambing (lamb sate) were unfortunately a little chewy. The peanut sauce on the side wasn't exactly authentic, I could live without it.

Overall, the sate dish and the peanut sauce could use a bit more spices, kecap manis, acid (from kalamansi or lime or lemon), and serving them with slices of raw shallot, chopped fresh chilli would totally help.


The lodeh (mixed vegetables cooked in coconut milk) was decent. It was creamy, the flavors were pretty authentic, and the vegetables have absorbed all of the flavors there were. Despite its pale colors (lodeh is supposed to be pale), it was tasty. Absolutely perfect with rice :)


The tahu telor (tofu fried with eggs, served with mixed vegetable salad, peanut sauce, and prawn crackers) was decent.


The tofu and egg part was crispy on the outside and fluffy on the inside; the beansprouts, lettuce and cucumber gave the dish freshness and crunch. The peanut sauce could be a little sweeter (Is it my Javanese tongue? I wanted kecap manis on everything!) and the prawn crackers they used were a bit too garlicky instead of prawny (I am sure this is not even a word, but you get what I mean).


For dessert, I've ordered Es Shanghai (cendol, red bean, fruits, kolang kaling, herbal jelly with crushed ice and syrup). Although it wasn't exactly authentic, it's closer to es marem than es shanghai, with the presence of cendol...it was pretty refreshing nonetheless.

The decor of the place has bits and pieces of Indonesia, which I love (too bad I didn't photograph it). Every dish was served in a Hong Kong style speedy manner, the aunties can still speak Bahasa Indonesia, which I love...and they happily gave me iced tea and cranked up the air conditioning when I mentioned that I was feeling a bit hot. Lovely service!

The meal costs us HK$261 (for two, and we were stuffed to our eyeballs ^_^).

Note. Indonesian food in Hong Kong. It's not supposed to be "cheap". Indonesian dishes, although they may look humble and not too fine-dining-esque, they generally are rather complicated to prepare, involving lots of exotic ingredients, spices, and manpower, most of which may have to be imported all the way from Indonesia :)

Solo Indonesian Restaurant
1/F, San Toi Building, 137-139 Connaught Road Central, Sheung Wan
Hong Kong
上環干諾道中137-139 號三台商業大廈1樓
Tel: +852 2541 0995