Dill Gourmet at Plaza Indonesia

This cafe was once Secret Recipe on Lower Basement, same floor as Food Hall. The place is an open space and have many chalk-writing for their menu and promo like other normal coffee shop. As I was on mission to fulfill my randomness, so I did order random food and drink. Hence, for that night I had a cup of cappuccino and for main course, Hutong Duck Sandwich. We might have heard about peking duck, but Hutong Duck, sounds new for most of us. An interesting dish to order I might say. Apparently, Hutong, like the famous- Peking, is also a city in China. Peking is basically Beijing and Hutong, which is, well, Hutong.

Dill Gourmet has a promo of purchasing coffee or tea you will be able to get 50% off for any desserts. I definitely didn't want to miss the chance, so I bought an apple crumble pie to take away. They do not stop there, they also offer a free jumbo cookie if you follow them on twitter or instagram, snap a picture of dish you order and upload it.

Here's how it goes :

1. Follow @dillgourmet on twitter/instagram
2. Buy any food and beverage (or you could buy first then follow later like what I did he.he)
3. Take a picture of those dishes
4. Tweet or upload to instagram with mention their account and put hash-tag #dillgourmetcafe

I followed the rules and sure, I got the cookie. However, I was wondering them not checking their twitter as I could get the giant cookie by telling them that I've done those steps. No clarification and all that. Never mind, customers' gain. Ha..ha.

The cappuccino comes with green tea cookies

I guess all the beverages are complemented with green tea cookies. As for mine, cappuccino nothing to brag about, unless for the latte art which for me it's cool (Sorry, it's my first drink with latter art).

My Complete Dinner

As we can see, there's a label on the sandwich package, I reckon all the sandwiches are labeled, simple thought, so it might not switched. I uploaded this to my twitter, but as I mentioned before, I think it wasn't uploaded properly, yet, I still got the cookie. Yay!

Sorry for the truth that this ugly duckling is awesome!

Finally, I reach this part where I review the yummy duck! You have no idea how exciting I am to exaggerate the awesomeness of this dish. Okay, I am not actually exaggerating because it's truly awesome!

You can see some crackling on the bun which was crispy yet soft inside. I never ever tasted any sandwich bun like this before. The filling? Don't ask. Despite the normal veggies and condiments, the duck, once again I said, delicious. The duck have been marinated and cooked to the perfection, succulent and nicely seasoned. When I take the whole stack in one bite, the flavour and texture just complete. Got crispy and soft at the same time from the bun, salty and more sweetness from the Hutong Duck and tartness from spicy mayo. Honestly, I was surprised, in a good way, on the first bite. The sandwich is no joke.

Free Chocolate Cookie

I just recalled to snap the cookie picture when I was on the way finishing it. Apple's logo still be famous though it's halfway bitten right? LOL.
The taste was okay for me, not so sweet and the dark chocolate was prominent, which is good. I still prefer Subway's soft cookies and I miss it!

As for the apple crumble pie was not good. Maybe due to exposed too much outside fridge, so the pastry was soggy. However, the apple custard didn't wow me either. The chocolate flavour overpowered the apple mixture, while it's supposed to be the star of the dish.

Overall, the sandwich is definitely worth a try, might come back to try another variety. By the way, I only spent IDR 75k for the whole order, which I think it's pretty reasonable.

Dill Gourmet Cafe
Plaza Indonesia
Lower Basement Floor
Jl. M.H. Thamrin Kav. 28-30
Central Jakarta
Operating Hours: 08.00 - 22.00

Telp : 021-2992 4512
Facebook : https://www.facebook.com/pages/Dill-Gourmet-Cafe
Twitter/instagram : @dillgourmet

Union at Plaza Senayan

It's been quite long time I haven't posted anything. I am not an active blogger, yeah I know that. For today's post will be short too as I am still trying to boost my motivation to write more. 

I was at Plaza Senayan with my friends and we happened to move our steps to Union. It was unplanned. Actually we were looking for a cafe to kill our time by chatting for the rest of the day. Well, when we saw it, we have heard several times that Union serves decent dessert, so we decided to give it a try. 

There were many people inside already. It's tea time so the crowd was understandable plus long-waiting list, must be worth the wait. Union is famous for it's red velvet, it can be seen from every slice were on almost every table. Unfortunately, I am not fan of bright color cake such as rainbow cake and velvets. They just do not entice me.

Finally we got a table after about 15 minutes wait and a guy with a really nice suits came and served our order. He told us that we only have 2 hours to spend there. I supposed it's because of the crowd. We ordered the beverage from the menu list and the guy suggest to take a look at the cake counter to help us decide what cake to order. Thus, we went to the counter and we decided that we want everything. Yeah, cause the cakes looked really appetizing. But we could not be greedy as we had to save some space for our dinner. 

Banana Carrot Cake

All the sliced cake were in big portion, so we thought ordered 3 slices will do. This was what we chose, Banana Carrot Cake. I did actually, cos it's been a long time since I had it and it's in Singapore! Union's rendition of this cake was excellent. Creamy cheese cake on top did not make us sick of it. The cake was not too dense and we could taste the carrot and banana in balance. So good! It actually tasted like my homemade banana bread. Yeah, I do bake, believe me and it means that my banana bread works well right? ha. ha.

Tripple Chocolate Cake

We also ordered Tripple Chocolate Cake that afternoon. Honestly, it was big, chocolaty, bitter-sweet and ordinary. Nothing special on that cake. So, we decided we prefer the carrot cake. Unanimous. 

Last one we also had their peach danish, which was good I may say. It was kind of crispy outside and fluffy inside, good pastry. The peach itself got sweet and sour taste so it's balanced and combined well with the pastry. But still, the carrot cake was the winner.

It's been a long time since I had this and me and my friends agreed that we crave for it and hope can go back there again. Well, seems one of my friends could not resist her craving so she went for the second time and tried the red velvet. She told me that it is recommended! Even a lot nicer than the carrot cake. It tempts me really bad. So, apparently we should  go back there again for the red velvet. SOON.

Plaza Senayan Courtyard Ground Floor

Jl. Asia Afrika No. 8

Jakarta
Open at 11.00am til late

http://www.unionjkt.com/

Are You Mad for Garlic?

My answer is yes! I like all kind of root veggies including garlic and all types of onion even in raw form. But it will be quite tricky to serve food that feature those as the main ingredients; could be yay or nay . 

Become the inspiration of this post, Mad for Garlic, the restaurant originated in Korea dare to take the risk. And I must say, they nail it. I have become their admirer right after my first experience tasting their food, but then I became their fan after I paid another visit, especially for their pizza range. Yea, instead of serving traditional Korean dishes, such as kimchi, jap chae etc, they offer wide variety of Italian food; fusion to be exact.

Left : Spicy Meat Dipping Pizza (Meat Dipping at bottom) Right : Garlic Snowing Pizza

When I first was recommended to give a try the garlic snowing pizza, I was quite skeptical that would be a smart choice, but I accepted the challenge and crossed my finger that the dish would no be a disaster. Well, it was definitely not, on the other hand, my personal opinion, it was phenomenal. I tasted the flavour that never existed in my mouth. It might be quite debated, as the garlic itself is not universally acceptable. However, I can say that this dish is a must try, especially for those who enjoy or even just moderately like garlic. But for those who really cannot take garlic, might give contrast results, either they suddenly find the hidden admire to it or would stay on their firm dislike behavior towards the ingredients. 

Garlic Snowing Pizza

The garlic snowing pizza is a decent food with sweet taste from the spread of deep-fried garlic and pineapple dice and a hint of not-so-salty cheese on top. The sweet and salty flavour was well balanced, and every topping compliment each other. You actually can ask for more cheese anytime as they freshly grated in front of you right after they serve it on the table. The deep-fried garlic really does not produce very strong garlic smell and bitter, rather it's sweet, fragrant and crispy. The pizza crust is made thin so it's crisp and I think it's suitable with the topping taste. This dish is awarded with my respect, the-weirdest-yet-best-and-nicest pizza I have ever eaten. I was so impressed till the extent of missing the taste in my palate when I was having an authentic Italian pizza at Pepenero. 

Garlicholic Fried Rice

Enough about the snow pizza, I believe I would not stop bragging about it and it's time this unique fried rice to take the spot, Garlicholic Fried Rice. It was like any other normal fried rice, nicely seasoned but nothing special; just normal fried rice but with whole-roasted garlic.

This restaurant offers many decent food, and the price tags picture them well. Money talks. Well, if you look for new food experience and do not mind to spend extra, this restaurant can cover all.

Try the garlic snowing pizza, it's a must.

Mad for Garlic

Grand Indonesia Shopping Town

West Mall- Ground Floor 20A

Jl. MH Thamrin No. 1 Jakarta 10310
Open at 11.00 am - 12.00 midnight
(last order 11.00 pm)

www.madforgarlic.co.id