Went to an Indonesian restaurant recently and ordered the rice with mutton, rice with beef and Indonesian salad or Gado Gado.
The chilli and the chilli paste that accompany the rice ( nasi ) was very spicy, sweet and at times sour. There are a few varieties of chilli paste to choose.
I always enjoyed eating Indonesian food especially the Gado Gado which is basically a salad full of vegetables, eggs and covered with sweet peanut sauce.
After eating a bowl of noodles and drink for lunch, I decided to tried out the famous Red Mango Yogurt which my friend is so crazy about. There were a few customers at the shop even during lunch hour as compared to the Es Teler 77 outlet where I had my lunch. The shop signage states that it is USA’s best non fat frozen yogurt, so hopefully it taste good. My first reaction when I saw the prices listed on the menu board was that the food here are really expensive.
I ordered the green Avocado yogurt with fruit and nuts toppings. The cost of this yogurt ( see photos ) was nearly RP60,000 for a cup of yogurt. The yogurt taste creamy and it is in fact quite solid and firm; unlike some yogurts that melts in your mouth the minute you eat it. I liked the yogurt taste but I felt that it is too little. Perhaps for the price of nearly RP60,000, they should give a bigger portion of yogurt – perhaps 2 scoops served in a better cup. The toppings was nice but nothing fantastic about it.
The Red Mango store which I visited was a small outlet with limited seating capacity if you compared it with KFC or MacDonald. But it was sufficient because really there were not many customers even during lunch hour. In fact, there were still many empty seats available. Perhaps that goes to show that not many people would want to pay such a high price for this food. In fact, the noodles and drink that I had in Es Teler 77 was almost the same price as this cup of yogurt. Well if Red Mango can do a promotion on one flavor each month with a lower price for their yogurt, I would definitely com back for more.
While I was shopping with my friend at Sun Plaza. we decided to try out the Ayam Penyet Ria restaurant at LT4 ( which is Level 4 ). There were numerous food outlets in this shopping mall and it would take me days if I wanted to try them all. The Ayam Penyet Ria has a few restaurants located in Singapore and many of my friends are crazy over this food. Personally, I am not so keen on deep fried food, be it chicken, beef or seafood. But my friend had never eaten Ayam Penyet or smashed fried chicken before, so I decided to let her have a go on this food. By the way, Sun Plaza is the most modern and popular shopping mall in Medan. If you are a food lover or enjoy shopping, this is the place to visit while you are in Medan. I will be writing a blog on this shopping mall later on.
My order for that day was 2 Ayam Penyet – Rp29,000/2 sets, 2 Nasi putih ( white rice ) – Rp13.636/2 sets, 2 Teh Botol ( Indonesia No. 1 Ice Tea ) Rp10,908 for 2 bottles and lastly one bowl of Soto Ayam Ria – Rp 13.636 So the total cost of this meal for 2 persons inclusive of tax was Rp68,999 or US$7.80 which was reasonable. The same meal if you ordered it in Singapore would definitely cost much more. The food arrived at our table in about 10 minutes and the restaurant was not crowded at that time. The staff were courteous and efficient and overall the restaurant was clean and spacious.
The ayam penyet was placed on a round bowl on top of a banana leaf. Included was a slice of deep fried beancurd ( tahu goreng ) and fermented beancurd ( tempeh ) raw peppermint leaves, a slice of cucumber, small portion of boiled cabbage and not forgetting the blacan chilli. There is also a small serving of a slice of lemon with another type of strong, pungent spicy chilli. The ayam penyet was covered with layers of fried batter bits which actually taste good.
The chicken was non oily and slightly dry and it was a small chicken drumstick/ thigh. The chicken serving was rather small as compared to the chicken portion in KFC. Separating the meat from the bones was an easy task and when I dipped the chicken meat onto the blacan chilli, it was a mouth watering sensation – delicious. The other chilli that was served with a slice of lemon was really too strong for me – it had a very strong spicy, tangy and bitter flavor. The soto ayam was good – it consists of vermicelli, eggs, vegetables and thin slices of chicken. The gravy of this soto ayam was not too sweet, not oily and not so spicy; and it goes well with the white rice.
On my next try to Medan, I will come back Ayam Penyet Ria restaurant again to try their gado gado and oxtail soup as well. As for the ayam penyet – smash fried chicken, it was delicious but the chicken portion was rather small. Well, there are many other food in the menu that I can order if I am still hungry. To be fair, for the price of less than Rp15,000 for a set of ayam penyet, the serving was reasonable.
