Yo' Panino

So here is a story ... a big pig and a somewhat smaller pig was caught in a dilemma. Two of them had lunch around 2 hours ago and it's still 3 hours to dinner time. Both trying to loose weight, both even skip on dessert after lunch meal, they also managed to not have rice during lunch! But as mentioned, they're pigs! So both of those pigs did what they do best, snack up and eat. Well, that smaller pig is me :p hahaha. We're waiting for dinner time in Plaza Indonesia and after much contemplation, we gave up to ourselves and surrender to Yo' Panino! I must be honest, it was one of the most satisfying sandwich ever !! Felt guilty but who cares ... diet starts tomorrow... or never ... hahahaha ! 

 

So the concept here pretty much simple. You choose on the filling and then craft your own sandwich. There is 21 types to choose from and divided into 4 pricing. Rp 35.000, Rp 43.000, Rp 53.000, Rp 63.000 ++. After deciding your kind of sandwich, you choose your type of bread. A selection of 4 ; Multigrain, Turkish Pide, Brioche, Framhouse White. Next station would be on the extra fillings (extra cost), you can have more chicken, or beef, additional bacon bits or egg and cheese. Then, you may go crazy on the unlimited veggies and toppings. The selection of veggies and toppings is massive and thus be smart when constructing your masterpiece. Don't try to have everything, too much may turn out to be a disaster. And to finish off, choose your sauces! Upon that, go take a sit while they stuff everything in and toast your sandwich to perfection. In around 10 minutes, they'll be serving it to you.

Note : They have vegetarian selection.

BBQ Chicken Club : Rp 53.000 ++ (Score : 8.5 / 10)

 >> As mentioned above, I wasn't experiencing great hunger and thus I was in my choosy and picky mode on food. Anyways, I had the BBQ Chicken Club, which originally consist of hickory smoked chicken, turkey bacon, Monterrey cheese and their very own Yo' Barbie-O sauce (which I'm sure is BBQ sauce).  I opt for the Turkish Pide, had no extra fillings. Then I choose paprika, lettuce, cucumber and onions for the veggies. I had extra spicy sauce slabbed in between too. Nothing too hot about the sauce, everything just seemed right.

It was DELICIOUS !! I didn't expect it to be good at all and honestly this is what people mean by 'do not judge a book by it's cover'. The place has simple decor, the seating area wasn't great either, in fact they're situated below escalator (superstitious Chinese people thinks it's bad luck, because people are trampling over you). But hey, the taste buds never lie. I will definitely be a regular. The pricing was reasonable, the service was pleasant, the ingredients were fresh and the end product was certainly yummy !!

Yo' Panino

Plaza Indonesia Extension, 4th Floor (Replacing Dante Coffee)

Phone : +62 21 2992 4019

Lin Artisan Ice Cream

I don't normally talk about dessert in particular. Well yes as apart of a complete dinner or lunch, but not a review on itself. But I wanna mention about this particular place ; 'Lin'. Food gastronomy is a common term in the States, Europe or even Singapore but Jakarta is always two steps behind. Finally, someone actually introduced liquid nitrogen ice cream to here! It's situated in Kemang which was exactly the right place to introduce this product. I supposed that the target market that visits Kemang somehow are a bunch of more open minded people. Liquid Nitrogen and ice cream? Hell yeah !!

If you love ice cream, then there is nothing like making your own. But the problem is, it is too long to freeze and some things just don't like to freeze. So now, there's a process using liquid nitrogen to freeze everything up in an instant. As you all know Nitrogen is 78% of the volume of the atmosphere and the boiling point of -185 Degree Celsius (wikipedia). In plain simple English, it is cold.

Well that's the chemistry lesson. Next is the 'cooking' part. Choose your flavor from the menu Lin provide (quite a variety of them) and their 'scientist' will mix all the sugar, milk, cream, fruit, chocolate, liquor (if you like) into the mixing bowl. When the sugar has dissolved into the solution, the liquid nitrogen would be poured into the mixing bowl slowly until completely frozen. The damage time would only cost 10 minutes!

Rum & Raisin With Alcohol  :  RP 69,000  ( Score : 6.75 / 10 )

Strawberry & Cheese  :  RP 39,000  ( Score 8.0 / 10 )

And so, how does liquid nitrogen ice cream actually taste?? Well, I must say it was your average ice cream with a twist. Meaning there is this sensation at the end of your tongue. It's a feeling that 'sting' but not in a painful or awful way, but more to a 'numb' feeling. I suppose it was due to the nature of liquid nitrogen itself, it is an insanely cold solution to begin with and thus able to cut so much time in the process of 'freezing'. It's little bit like having a dry ice swirl on you tongue for a little while, pretty much the same numbing sensation. As for the portion, it's big. More than enough for one person. If you're not much of a share food person, you'll still be able to finish one by yourself.

I had the strawberry and cheese and liked it. I can taste the freshness of the strawberry fruit bits and the cheese was subtle. It didn't overthrow the entire dessert. As for the sugar level, it was the right amount. As for the rum & raisin with alcohol, I thought it was slightly plain. I can't taste much of the alcohol but well obviously it must have evaporated during the 'freezing' process. But the rum and raisin flavor didn't came up to my senses either. But on a whole, it still taste pretty good.

Bottom line, I love the idea of having fresh ingredient ice cream without too much food additives to prolong their shelf life. This idea is encouraging fresh eating in a way. The product Lin made not only broadens the Jakartan's community by introducing cooking with chemistry but most importantly made a good tasting ice cream with that process. And thus a conclusion that yes I'll come back again to the parlor.

Lin Artisan Ice Cream
Jl. Taman Kemang 1 No 6. Jakarta Selatan (Below Umbra, Across Parc 19)
Phone : +62 21 71794393