Pinangsia is an area in West Jakarta in Indonesia. It sounds more like the name of an exotic bird to me. I’d heard that Pinangsia Noodle House has some rather strange opening hours, just Wednesday and the weekends. I thought surely not, how on earth can they remain competitive with hours like that? So I rang them on a Wednesday night and sure enough, they’re open Wednesday and the weekends but with Friday throw in as well. I ask the friendly voice on the other end whether it’s cash only or credit card and she says that it’s cash only. “Our meals are usually $7 to $8 so they wouldn’t meet the credit card minimum anyway!”. Being on Anzac Parade, Kingsford, it caters for Indonesian students from the nearby UNSW as well as the occasional food loving non Indonesian.
Walking in, we see that there is a large central share table as well as side tables seating 4. There’s a self serve fridge of drinks and a section with help yourself condiments and water. There are small gold framed pictures of the dishes high up on the wall and of course, tissues boxes on every table to serve as napkins. It’s about half full at 7pm this Wednesday night and we choose a table and sit down. Our menus are quickly brought to us, with 2 pages of pictures and the rest in Indonesian with English translations underneath. It’s a little confusing but I am guided by the helpful “thumbs up” icon designating which dishes are recommended.
We order the Mie Ayam karet thick (or thin) chicken egg noodles with meatball soup (or fishball) $8, the Ayam Goreng Bumbu Bali (grilled chicken Bali style) $7.50 and 2 fried meatballs ($1.60 each). They ask us whether we want white or dark meat and while I usually like white meat, dark meat is much more moist so we choose dark as I find that chicken can sometimes be dry in Indonesian cuisine. We also order a Murtabak to share with the peanut, chocolate and cheese filling ($5.80).
Mie Ayam Karet thick (or thin) chicken egg noodles with meatball soup (or fishball) $8
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Would you believe me, Dear Reader, when I told you that the humble sausage roll had broken the $7 price barrier? You might be even more surprised when I tell you that at $7 it was worth every lip smackin’, finger lickin’, slowly savoured bite. The sausage roll in question is from Justin North’s “Plan B”, the tiny hole in the wall cafe next to Bécasse. I was put onto it by Y from Lemonpi who had visited earlier and told me about their fantastic Wagyu burger and $7 sausage roll. The most expensive sausage roll I’d had was the sausage roll at Bourke Street Bakery and even that was hardly what you’d call expensive at $4, and a lovely sausage roll it was. But I wasn’t too fussed about trying this one as it was almost double the price. I had no idea that Plan B existed, so tiny hole in the wall it was, I even dined at Bécasse right next to it without knowing of its existence and that it has been there for as long as the restaurant has, for 3 whole years.
Cake selection $3.50-$4 each
There are 3 tables outside that seat 2 people each, so it’s definitely more of a takeaway your lunch back to the office and read blogs during your lunch-hour kind of place. Apparently the new logo’d umbrellas call out its existence a bit better to passing trade. It’s small but it is stylishly outfitted of course. You’d expect no less from Becasse. I’ve rung ahead to pick up my lunch as we’re stopping through the city. I ordered a Wagyu burger (made with 600 day grain fed Wagyu beef) and a sandwich with pork and apple. The crisp pork belly, hoisin sauce and spring onion was out unfortunately so I made do with the pork and apple although I did toss up between that and the coronation chicken. I’d decide on a cake when I got there and I could see them up close.
Sandwich selection, $8 each
My wagyu burger was lost, apparently there was a miscommunication between the cafe and kitchen and my burger was just put on the grill when I arrived to collect it. Two suits who are standing up inside having finished their burgers get up to leave. I see the range of prepacked sandwiches and a plate of cakes and biscuits as well as designer drinks (I don’t think they even had Coke). The cakes look particularly good. The menu on the website seems to have changed slightly for the seasons. Whilst they had a caramelised mango tart, now it’s caramelised apple.
My burger is still running late and a man comes in from an outside table asking for a paper napkin. He happily declares “I’m covered in crumbs but it was all worth it, that was the best sausage roll ever! Worth every crumb!” and wipes the imaginary crumbs off himself and exits. I need no more convincing and I add a sausage roll to the order. I also buy a caramelised apple tart and a candied lemon and vanilla cookie for good measure. I get a coffee takeaway and it is fantastically good, one of the best coffees I’ve ever had (if not the best). It eventually all comes together in a brown handled paper bag and the lovely girl behind the counter apologises profusely for the delay.
Wagyu burger made with 600 day grain fed Wagyu $10
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Working this hard has some benefits. Let me think of one if I try really hard…. oh ok yes weeknight dinners out when I just can’t be bothered cooking and washing up (and I’ve yet to train my husband to do the dishes). So whilst we are housesitting I am taking full advantage of the numerous cheap eats nearby and tonight we’re dining at Chinese Dumpling Noodle House at Kingsford.
My husband is what people call an egg, white on the outside, yellow on the inside. That is to mean that whilst he might look like “white” on the outside, inside he is Chinese for all intents and purposes. And we’ve managed to figure out that not only is he Chinese but he is Northern Chinese. He adores the dumplings and noodle soups associated with this colder Chinese climate much more than anyone else that I know. The place that he asked to be taken to for his birthday is Shanghai Night at Ashfield. So when I gave him a choice of places to go, his finger pointed straight at Chinese Dumpling Noodle House.
We’re early this evening having skived off work a bit early and there are a few tables occupied. We’re issued with out laminated menus (surprisngly new looking) and it looks to be a range of dumplings and hand made noodles as well as other asian food including laksas. We’d been warned to stick to the dumplings and noodles and to reinforce the point, the SMH article featuring Kylie Kwong beams at us from the window where she recommends this particular place for the dumplings and hand made noodles. So we choose the mega dumpling feast - 18 boiled Northern Style dumplings for $7.80; 8 pan fried meat buns $7.80 and a bowl of shredded pork and pickled vegetables with handmade noodles $7.60.
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“Whaaat cuisine?” My friends ask when I tell them of our next proposed eating adventure. I’m talking to Queen Viv and Miss America and telling them about the restaurant I’ve pegged for our next outing. They’ve never heard of it and to be honest I hardly knew about it, which only added to it its allure. We’re told that stuffed lungs and tongue are on the menu so on that tenuous basis, we book. We also have Michael and Terri along for the ride. Michael is excited about the idea of trying lung, Terri decidedly less so.
We’re booked in for 7pm this Saturday night and the place is packed. There is a table of 6 next to us that fits on a table of 4. A man at the table is wearing a patterned jumper in a most …unusual pattern, which catches Queen Viv’s eye. “Look at his jumper!” she whispers. Yes it is indeed an eyesore. The restaurant has the requisite grapevines with bunches of grapes on the ceiling as well as tapestries on the walls and pictures of people that we’re not sure the identity of.
Prune drink $2.50
There’s a self serve fridge where Michael brings back a bottle of Coke for Terri and a Prune drink for himself, not for any dietary need but because the bottle looked so interesting. It’s not like a typical prune juice, the scent of sweet Osmanthus giving it a peachy or apricoty scent.
We’re searching the huge double sided menu for the lungs and there don’t seem to be any. We’re out of luck apparently, it’s not on the menu anymore so we order what seems to be a lot of dishes but we’re fascinated by so many of them and the kitchen delivers these literally within minutes.
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When I was growing up, my best friend lived at Bondi Beach so I know all about the fantastic Jewish delis and the Paris cake shop (the place to go for cakes way back then and probably still is). I have an affinity for Jewish food, I am not sure why but perhaps it’s because her mum was so lovely to me that I felt like I was part of the family. Glick’s, founded by Mendel Glick, operating since the 1960s in Melbourne turns out some of the best real bagels (filled or unfilled), as well as an assortment of cakes, pizza, ready made foods and pastries. Reportedly turning out about 70,000 boiled bagels a week, it was a business built on the humble bread. Mendel Glick is in his 80s but still works at his business 6 days a week. I’ve made real boiled bagels before and they were absolutely the real deal - there is no comparison to a real boiled bagel to the bagel imposters out there, you know the ones I mean, that are merely round rolls with a hole in the centre.
Walking through the plastic PVC strip panels in the entranceway we see that on the right there is a display of various types of biscuits which you help yourself to with the tongs and pay per weight. I came in merely to perv and buy a bagel today but am lured by the selection of Jewish food on offer. Your Honour, I didn’t mean to purchase but if you show me Gefilte fish, cheese blintzes and salmon patties you know I’m going to have to buy some. Indeed my husband who thinks I have just popped in to buy a couple of bagels simply rolls his eyes. I choose a few things and they pack them up for me. Things are ludicrously cheap with bagels at 90c-$1 each, gefilte fish patties for $1.60 up to a massive cabbage roll for the princely sum of $5.
Spicy salmon patty ($2.25)
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