Chewme

Ah Yat Abalone Restaurant Address: 190 Clemenceau Avenue #01-01/10 SINGAPORE SHOPPING CENTRE Singapore 239924 Suburb: Orchard Road Phone: 6339-0476 Fax: 6339-3075

I'm sure other more experienced "Lugar-heads" will be able to respond more accurately, but I was once told by a waiter that the best cut is the steak for 3. That's all I've ever gotten there so I can't compare - but the steak for 3 has always been great . ← PL waiter told you that ? PL has always been famous for its Steak for Two Porterhouse cut.

hi, i will be going to PL again this Saturday for lunch in a group of 6 guys. this would be my sixth trip to PL in the last three years. i can't wait :) i've been avoiding any red meats and other high cholesterol food all week. i need your suggestion about how we should order our steak 3 portions of Steak of Two OR 2 portions of Steak for Three OR 1 portion of Steak for Four and 1 portion of Steak for Two I always order Steak for Two, but that's because I never go with more than two or three people in the group. I'm taking a Guest from another State this Saturday so I'd like to let him taste PL Steak at its finest. Thanks

Hello Spaghetttti, So you live in Bandung ? Wow... very nice. I love the city of Bandung, Paris of Java. It's been a while since I went to Bandung. Love all the Sundanese food (all the bbq and lalapan) and all the old-style Chinese food in Bandung, not too mention the world famous cream puffs in Jl Merdeka there, I like the fact that they are so old-style, and heavily influenced by the Dutch using a lot of rum. Bandung is a great town to find munchies and snacks, so famous that you can buy them here. Well... I do think the rendang served just about anywhere (with some exception of hole in the wall restaurants in Jakarta and some famous ones) are not quite authentic. Mostly when we are in Jakarta, we either make our own rendang, but these take at least 1-2 days to make, to ensure the right thickness and enough absorption of flavor into the beef cubes and our house will smell, so when we live in Jakarta we normally order them from a Padangnese lady. Yes you right, kalio is somewhere between kalio and rendang. I think we can categorize these coconut oil immersed dishes into 3 main categories: Kari (Curry) ---- Kalio (half-way in between) ---- Rendang The blacker the better yes, but some people prefer the lighter, more tender version found in Jakarta and here in the United States which is understandable. Some of friends although love the black, heavily spiced rendang, can't eat more than one due to the overwhelming spices and aroma after eating it.

The only one I wouldn't have thought that of was rojak. The best satay I ever had was at a little hole-in-the-wall on the outskirts of Jakarta, in 1976. We asked the chef/owner what his secret was, and he smilingly led us to an enclosed yard where he had hung a bunch of goat meat tied in papaya skins. The original meat tenderizer. When you said "tough" I was thinking of kerbau (water buffalo) meat, but you're talking about beef? Fascinating about the several-days cooking. Makes sense, though: Many European stews also taste better the 2nd day (though they're usually reheated rather than cooked continuously). Glad to have you here! Well first of all let's clarify some terms and a quick glimpse of the culinary diversity for further future food discussion. Rojak is spelled Rujak in Bahasa Indonesia (Indonesian language) and satay is spelled Sate in Indonesian In Indonesia, being a huge country with 17,000 islands, and many ethnic groups with different culture, dialects, and obviously cuisines. There are so many different types of rujaks. The most famous rujak is the Eastern Java version, called Rujak Cingur, almost the same as mainstream rujak you find in Jakarta, but here they put cingur. Cingur is cow's nose. Very famous. But other provinces and cities have distinctive rujak version as well. Even in Padang, they have rujak. Satay (or Sate). Again, I might be biased since I grew up eating the Indonesian version. The Thai and the Malaysian version are way too sweet in my opinion, although I've never really explored these two versions further only to the mainstream restaurants in NYC, Kuala Lumpur, Bangkok, and throughout other cities in the US and Asia. But in Indonesia, there are hundreds and hundreds of satay variation in Indonesia. Mostly by the region where it's from. As a general rule, it's divided by the difference in meat. You know whether it's chicken, beef or lamb (well.. actually it's goat, mostly Indonesian eat goats not lamb and baby goat is the best). But there are many famous varieties too, satays made of boiled egg yolks (normally combined with chicken meat into the sticks), rabbits, mussels (very famous), cow's lungs, tendons, cow's tongue, fishes, shrimps, pork, etc etc basically hundreds of varities. There are hundreds of sauces too, but overall it's divided into two kind, peanut sauce and sweet soy sauce (kecap Manis). Satay Padang (Sate Padang) is also famous throughout Indonesia, it's very distinctive than other maisntream sate, because it uses a lot of cow's inside, particularly cow's tongues, in addition to the beef. Intestines are used a lot. But it is the unordinary sauce that makes it popular and unique. The sauce used is the heavily concentrated, thickened yellowish (looks like diarrhea I'm NOT kidding) sauce on top of the satay ... and it's aroma can wake up the entire building, very strong in flavor, very very HOT and full of fat and cholestherol... lol.

Do you live in the United States ? I am not sure how easy it is find all the right ingridients to cook authentic Padang rendang in your local area. I live in New York City, and although these days my taste bud is not exactly Indonesian or South East Asian anymore, with all the good restaurants here. Hey... I mean after you've tasted Daniel, Jean Georges, Babbo, Peter Luger, Sushi Yasuda, not to mention over the years, I've travelled to great cities all around the world offering the best culinary arts of their kind, I try to look at food or cuisines in may different ways and I value authenticity but also creativity. But yes, I do sometimes crave about food I ate back home, a quick trip to LA or San Francisco, where there are much better (and authentic) Indonesian restaurants could resolve that impulse burst of appetite. From Indonesian families (some from West Sumatra), I've talked to here in NYC, you can get some ingridients here but not all of them. In fact, they have import some of them themselves through mail or when their families are visiting over. Nevertheless, some ingridients you buy here in the US just doesn't taste the same as the original one. Some familes here even planted them in their apartments (houses). I know that for a fact. Somehow the chillies and spices planted from Padang soil seems to taste very distinct and stronger and more intense than any other areas in Indonesia, therefore EVEN if you are in Indonesia, chances are it's very hard to find great Padang Restaurants outside West Sumatra. The most popular and famous mainstream Padang restaurant in Jakarta (with some branches throughout the country now) is called SARI BUNDO. Remember to eat at these restaurants when you want to try a good, authentic Indonesian restaurants when you visit Jakarta. But I'll see if I can steal you some authentic secret recipes, if I do I'll post them. :)

Not sure what which type of rendang are you guys referring to, but being from Indonesia (I might be biased), we always claimed that satay, rendang, gado gado, and rujak are originated in Indonesia. I don't like to eat Malaysian rendang since the taste is not my cup of tea at all, I much prefer the original rendang from Indonesia. But then I again, I might be biased since I'm from Indonesia. Even in Indonesia, there are so many type of rendang. Although the super world famous Padang (West Sumatra, traditionally called Minangkabau) rendang is the one that's associated the most, in Padang itself there are many varieties of rendang, some are very thicked and concentrated, and the most common attributes is the heavy heavy spices used, and a good rendang has to be very chewy, tough to eat... the tougher it is the better it taste. It's thicked black and intense in flavor lasting for hours in your mouth upon chewing and spices, chillies, and other ingridients will give you an unforgettable breath for while. But this is what rendang is supposed to be. When cooked, it has be cooked at least 1-2 days, I think my Mom cooked it for 4-5 days before and the flavor really comes out and the more you cook it the better it tastes, contrary to Western cookings where freshness is the key most of time. The rendang in other areas of West Sumatra (province in Indonesia) are different too, other areas might use different parts of the beef, and sauce varies, sometimes red due to less coconut oil used and sometimes rather greenish from using the super hot green chillies. The people in other parts of Sumatra island, however, develop their own ways and version of beef rendang as well. Again varies, and it's just matter of how much certain spices/ingridients are used or not used. In Jakarta, the capital city of Indonesia, the beef rendang are very mild in nature, in comparison to the Padang version. The beef is more tender and less concentrated (with less coconut oil) and not as spicy since it caters to the Javanese and entire Indonesian population, which depending where they are from in the country don't eat as much spices, chillies or coconut oil as those Padangnese from West Sumatra province. I tried some Padang restaurants in Singapore on a number of occasions there, and found none of them are even close to the original Beef Rendang in Padang, or some of the authentic Padang restaurants found in Jakarta. I tried some in Malaysia, although thicker and sometimes quite intense, it is a slightly different version than the Padang one. I have also tried several other Malaysian version in LA, San Francisco, Seattle, New York, Boston, and Chicago. In NYC, I probably try just about all Malaysian restaurants there are, from Penang, Jaya, Nyonya, Baba (now closed), Taste Good, Sentosa... etc etc... first of all, these restaurants are NOT even pure Malay owned, they are all Chinese owned and although the rendang are passable for New York, they are not even closed (although quite satisfying if you are longing for it) to the original one. The beef rendang in Bali Nusa Indah is actually quite resemble to original Indonesian style rendang (Padang or Non-Padang) found in Indonesia, however, it is closer to the Jakarta (or Javanese) version which is not as tough... Well. I don't think Americans will like to chew on rubber (which is how it's supposed to be), obviously less less intense and not as spicy. That's coming from someone who grew up eating the original rendang in Padang, West Sumatra, Indonesia.