Portico Terrace and Bistro (Senayan City)

Portico is a restaurant and bar located partly in the open air, in Senayan City's ground floor. It is supposed to be a chic venue, and most of the crowd here is from upper-class Indonesian and Chinese families, with some expats as well. I visited Portico twice, and my two experiences were very different.

The first time, it was in the middle of the afternoon: The venue was empty, and both the outside and inside areas were too hot. Since the walls are made of glass, I guess that when the sun is up, you cannot really avoid it. I also think that their terrace does not have a pleasant view. As you can see on the pictures, all you can look at is the Plaza Senayan mall, and the traffic jam on Jalan Asia-Afrika. If you try the terrace in Union, Loewy or Potato Head, it is much more enjoyable.
View from the terrace in Portico
I came back a second time to Portico, at night, and the atmosphere was nicer, more intimate. ! Instead of cars, you only see their lights passing by, and there was a little wind cooling down the place. It was much more crowded too, with lounge music in the background. I know they have some good events occasionally, in particular guest DJs. You could check their facebook page for more information (see below).

Overall: Avoid Portico during the day (nearby Union is better), and visit it at night only if you like posh places with rather expensive prices. I didn't try the food there unfortunately, no idea what it is worth. They also seem to have a large selection of wines and champagne.
Opening hours:
Everyday from 11am to 1am

Portico Terrace and Bistro
Senayan City, Ground Floor
Jalan Asia-Afrika Lot 19
Jakarta 10270
Phone number: +62 21 7278 1641

Facebook: Portico Jakarta
Twitter: @Porticojkt

Fatburger (fast food burger chain)

Fatburger is a chain of American fast food restaurants, originally from California, with branches in Plaza Senayan and Plaza Indonesia in Jakarta. I decided to try it because they have an ad saying it was voted "number one burger in L.A. and Las Vegas".

I bought a regular Fatburger with cheese, french fries and coke (Rp64,999), which is very expensive considering I was the simplest of their burgers, with one beef patty only (you can have up to four). Verdict? In my opinion: More tasty than McDonald's, not as good as Burger King.

Overall: Not bad but too pricey. If it is true people in LA and Las Vegas consider it their best burger, I feel sorry for them.
Opening hours:
Everyday, from 10am to 10pm

Locations of Fatburger in Jakarta
Plaza Indonesia 5th Fl.
Unit #E03,04,04A
Jakarta, Indonesia
Tel: +62-21-3107584

Plaza Senayan Food Court
3th Fl #339
Jl. Asia Afrika No. 8
Phone number: +62-21 5725277

Facebook: Fatburger Indonesia

Prego, Westin KL Pizza & Pasta Promo Eat All You Can for RM48++

Prego in Westin KL is currently running this marvellous deal for their pizzas & pasta Come As You are, Eat All You Can for RM48++!

Prego

Applicable for lunch from Mon to Saturdays, (Im guessing that it will be packed on Sats!), a total of 13 pasta & 12 pizzas are available for order from this promo.

CHOICE OF PASTAS:

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prego westin kl pasta menu

CHOICES OF PIZZAS:

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All orders of pizzas & pastas are cooked/prepared upon order, ensuring hot tossed ala minute pasta & freshly baked crisp- crusted pizzas delivered to your table .
To sweeten the deal, your dessert is a selection of about 6 gelatos from Pregos made-in-house gelatos.

Strawberry Gelato.

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Mango gelato. To be honest, I had much much better gelato elsewhere. The 2 fruit gelatos I ordered had actual fruits bits in it; which is a good thing but the texture is so weird. Rather than smooth & creamy, Pregos gelatos are gummy & a bit too sweet for both of us. Vernons pistachio gelato (not pictured here) had good flavour but suffers the same fate for texture.

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Between 2 of us, we polished 4 pizzas, 2 pastas and 3 gelatos. :P
Not an impressive record & Im sure we could do better hence we are planning to revisit! Besides, there are so many more variety of pastas & pizzas on the menu that I would like to try.

Freshly baked Westin wheat loaf as starter customary for every Prego meal here in Westin KL.

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Calzone: My favourite pizza that day. Turkey ham, zucchini, artichokes, basil, pesto sauce, tomato, mozarella. All my favourite ingredients!

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Vernon who likes his pizzas simple ordered the Margherita tomato, oregano, mozzarella & basil.

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Prego is famed for their wood fire pizzas & I had high expectations of the pizzas crust. I expect my pizzas to be singed at some areas, smoky-flavoured & with perfect chewy-crispy balance that only a wood-fired oven can deliver.

prego westin KL - wood fire pizzas

Our first 2 pizzas were missing those very elements that I like, hence I specifically requested for our next few pizzas to be left in the oven longer for that lovely smoky flavour & singed crust.

See below? Much better isnt it! icon wink CHEVROLET: TRANSFORMERS 3 SCREENING

Napoletana Anchovies, capers, mozzarella, oregano, tomato sauce.

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Caesar Pizza Special crab meat, chilli, caesar dressing, baby romaine, mozzarella cheese.

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Overall all the pizzas were really good.The tomato base sauce was vibrant, sweet and tangy, and absolutely bleeding with fresh flavor. For this promo, all pizzas comes in 7 sizes for sharing but regular sizes are available for bigger group of diners.

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Our pastas orders Aglio Olio e Peperoncino. Tossed with olive oil, chilli flakes, bird eyes chillis, parsley & garlic. One of the simplest pasta to make but tricky to get right. Our little bowl below was satisfactory.

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Orrechiette con Broccolo e salsiccia Orrechiette with broccoli & lamb sausages. Thumbs up for this one!

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Coffee for the addict. The Prego cube is so cute! :P

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The open kitchen.

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Cosy dining area.

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This promo will be on-going til end of September 2011. Im game for another round, anyone up for it?? :P
Leave a comment if you are & lets set a date preferably Sat for the convenience of all.

Westin Kuala Lumpur
199, Jalan Bukit Bintang
+603 -2773 8338
westindining@westin.com

No further discounts appliable Meaning you cant use your Starwood card!!

All pictures are:
Samsung NX11


Rojak Mamak @ SS15 Subang Jaya

Get into the long line if you want to eat this famous rojak at SS15 Subang Jaya. I sensed something good here as I drove by this place and told myself I must try since I was still early for a meeting.The first Mamak would cut the basic fried dough, fritter, tofu, egg and sotong then come this Mamak who would add on the veggies and gravy. He is also the cashier.
Bright & light coloured rojak sauce with finely grated turnip & cucumber. The taste is sweet and good. Cendol stall is just next to it if you care to have cendol.


The Rojak Mamak
SS15/4G
GPS : 3.078485,101.588819

Godiva, Chocolatiers Extraordinaire

Young people of today have it good. I think I was in my mid 30s before I lost my Godiva virginity, and even then, probably only had one miserable truffle, and went ooh and ahhhh. These days, "she's" more readily available. Godiva, the epitome of chocolate decadence. Named after the legendary Lady, who rode on a horse naked, ...for a noble cause, of course, (fun raising), you can read all about the history, and the famous poem by Lord Tennyson, HERE.

Shallow person that I am, I was thrilled to be invited for a Chocolate Event, purely for the sheer pleasure of consuming these little nuggets of paradise. Our host, Yazeed from Godiva, regaled us with tales of the origins of chocolate, the discovery of Cacao, which you can read about HERE, at the Cumidanciki blog. No point reinventing the wheel I say. Is there a more blissful way to spend a lazy Saturday morning? Eating chocolates and drinking coffee.

The Godiva Gallery at Pavilion offers a wide variety of chocolate treats, and I was LITERALLY like a kid in a candy store, drooling at the cakes, the truffles, the bars. Okay, let's face it, you DO need to have deep pockets to afford these, they're not your ordinary Cadbury (no offence) bars that you pick up in the supermarket confectionery aisle. Well, afterall, their logo IS of a ahem, woman in her birthday suit, and I wonder that got through the censors.

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If you observe carefully, the logo is of the Lady Godiva on the horse.

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Just look at the selection! Cakes, iceblended drinks, chocolate bars, ... I was near heaven.

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During Yazeed's briefing, we were given these to fill our stomachs.

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After learning about the Azetcs and Mayans and the aphrodisiac qualities of Cacao, we were then shown how to make our own chocolate lollipops, biscuits dipped in chocolate and corn flakes covered in chocolate. We were divided into groups...wearing the lovely Godiva aprons that kept slipping off like a loose bra.

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The finished products, which we got to wrap with the gorgeous Godiva r! ibbon, a nd bring home.

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We were also amongst them celebrity bloggers.

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Delectable Su, and Ciki.

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Yazeed, our most affable and delightful host, from the Valiram Group that owns the Godiva franchise here in Malaysia.

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And, if you are looking for a great gift for RAYA, Godiva has the most beautiful hampers. I wouldn't mind receiving one.

It was a great morning, and I can honestly say I am so looking forward to the next event hosted by Godiva. Thanks Godiva people.






Simply Brilliant

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When I'm away from Vietnam for a while I tend to forget how truly brilliant Vietnamese street food is, and how such brilliance is often the result of an inspired combination of really very basic ingredients.

In this case: delicious bean curd fried to a crisp-skin state with the interior left soft and almost custard-y. A mound of fresh, crunchy perilla leaves. Bun (rice vermicelli) pressed into a cake. Fish sauce. Chilies. A kalamansi.

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This we ate yesterday in Hanoi, dead tired and ravenously hungry after ten hours of travel. The afternoon air was moist and heavy; a steaming bowl of soupy noodles did not appeal. But this -- a spot of tasty and easily digestible protein, revivingly fragrant fresh herbs, light carbs and the spit, fire and salt of chilies and fish sauce -- did.

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The perfect 3pm meal, with enough substance to carry us through to dinner without spoiling it. A cooked-but-cool combo perfectly suited to Hanoi's wilting summer heat. Perfectly convenient -- easily spotted from the street, eaten leisurely with a serenade of honking horns and sizzling oil.

Accompanied with a glass of iced tea! .

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Fried tofu with accompaniments. Seen all around town in the afternoon, this one eaten in the old quarter, Hanoi.