Indonesia: Jakarta/Bogor

JAKARTA
Restaurants:
Bogor Café Hotel Borobudur
Paradise Dynasty

Street Carts:
Popiah Tiong Sim

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BOGOR
Warung Doyong

Xanh Bistro: A Dessert Stop for the Slightly Adventurous

I've gone to Xanh Bistro almost everytime I'm down in the area, thanks to Wandering Chopsticks taking me and inomthings here. That said, I've never had any of their savory food. At all. It's always been a dessert stop for us.

The dessert menu is small yet offers an interesting, asian take on the "classics." Some of them just involves an unsurprising flavor infusion such as the coconut crème brulée, or a chocolate molten cake served with ginger ice cream.
The coconut crème brulée, albeit the simplest, has now turned out to be our favorite.
The molten cake is also good and goes well with the ginger ice cream, but the shot of sweet hibiscus "tea" that comes with it doesn't complement the dish and was too sweet and wholly unnecessary.

On the more interesting and unexpected side was a sticky rice dessert topped with mocha mousse and spicy chocolate sauce.
This dessert had quite an interesting texture which I enjoyed. The chewy sticky rice with the light mocha mousse worked better than I expected.

Go a step beyond people's comfort zone and you can get their Durian "Parfait" (I put that in quotation mark because it really isn't in any way "parfait"). The strong durian aroma is definitely there, though not all that "bad"/overwhelming. If you're unitiated, I advise you to avoid this dessert. If you love durian, then definitely go for it.
A bit of cake is topped with a light and airy durian mousse, served with passionfruit sauce on the bottom. The dominant flavor and aroma is of course the durian though. You've been warned.

The best part of eating dessert there?
Any of them can be enjoyed with a cup of hot lemongrass tea. Distinctly fragrant and warming, it's the best accompaniment to these desserts.





Xanh Bistro
16161 Brookhurst St
Fountain Valley, CA 92708
(714) 531-2030
www.xanhbistro.com

Border Grill Truck: Curbside Ceviche

Food trucks and taco trucks especially are filling up the streets of LA ever since Kogi's success story. But the Border Grill truck rolled out bringing the food of Mary Sue Milliken and Susan Feniger that had already stood the test of customers in the Border Grill restaurants into the streets.

When I approached Ciudad for a donation for Bid and Eat for Haiti, they asked me if I had checked out the Border Grill truck. Why, no, I hadn't. I promised I would so per their invitation I stopped by for lunch en route to work. The truck was parked in front of LA Mart for the day.
I asked them to just give me whatever they want/think is best and ended up with a lot of food for one!

Peruvian ceviche ($5.00) - mahi mahi, lime, ginger, aji amarillo chile, pickled onion, corn, tortilla cone
Ceviche for $5? Nice. This was a good lightly spicy ceviche rendition with generous amount fresh and meaty mahi mahi. Also, being a corn-whore I really liked that extra touch. It was a bit too acidic for me to finish the whole thing though. In the end, I prefer my ceviche with leche de tigre sauce as the one I had at La Mar Cebicheria (in Lima - I thought the SF one was not as great) - a subtle tang and more focus on the fish instead.

Next I had two of their favorite tacos:
Yucatan pork taco ($2.50) - roasted achiote pork, pickled onion, orange salsa
crispy Baja fish taco ($3.00) - chipotle honey, creamy salsa fresca
Both of these tacos were great. The price point for tacos here are higher than other "taco trucks" and the portion smaller yet that higher price is worth it. These tacos weren't simply "put together." The ingredients are fresher, leaner, higher quality and you won't feel like as much as a grease pit as you usually might after a taco run. The condiments are well thought out and complement the main ingredient. I particularly liked the fish taco. The crispy breading held a meaty and juicy piece of fish. With the creamy salsa fresca? It's like fish n chips with a kick.

Dessert options here are still limited. I tried their Churro bites ($3.00) dulce de leche infused churros, cinnamon sugar, whipped cream
Unlike your usual crunchy churro, these infused churro bites are doughy. I liked the dulce de leche infusion but still preferred it crunchy outside like a typical churro.

I'm now a bit bummed about going to the truck before the Gold standard event though, since apparently there they served an amazing avocado and fried quinoa taco that both vegetarians and carnivores alike rave about.

Border Grill Truck
http://www.bordergrill.com/bg_t/bg_twel.htm
Twitter: @BorderGrill