Indonesian Food Festival at Cerenti Restaurant Grand Zury BSD City Hotel Tangerang

Indonesian Food Festival at Cerenti Restaurant Grand Zury BSD City Hotel.

In saturday night (15/08) i had an invitation to join the Nusantara (Indonesian) Food Festival  in Grand Zury Hotel BSD City. Actually i was invited by the event coordinator Arie from Catatan si Goiq, after some weekend brunch at Signature Restaurant Kempinski Hotel Indonesia we rushed our cab to meet at FX Sudirman where the Luxury shuttle van picked us. Me and several food blogger then had a one our drive to BSD City.

Celebrating the 70th Indonesian Independence day on 17 Agust 2015, Cerenty restaurant bring the authentic Indonesian dishes into their buffet menu. The restaurant interior also decorated with red and white and many Indonesian Flag to remember the fallen heroes.

We are kindly welcomed byGrand Zury BSD Hotel Executive Chef Roby Mardeta. He is such a humble and warm person, expertised for years or experience in proffessional kitchen, he kindly explained all the Nusantara Food Festival Buffet menu to the starving and curious foodies attended at the event.

Lets begin to explore the Menu of Cerenti Restaurant Indonesian Food Festival!

The Appetizer

Chef Roby served Tahu Gimbal and Pecel as the appetizers. Tahu Gimbal is an Indonesian street food from Semarang, Central Java. Tahu gimbal is consist of shrinp fritter that cut down into bite pieces, tofu, beansprout and then drizzled with sweet savoury peanut sauce. Pecel is a mix of vegetables that dressed with the same peanut sauce just like Tahu Gimbal

The Main Course:

Chef Roby Had a Nasi Kuning Tumpeng. Tumpeng is a Cone shaped yellowish rice mountain that served with  vegetables and meat in the bottom. The rice is basically colored and flavoured with turmeric based seasoning and cooked with or without coconut cream.

The other rice dish is plain steamed rice and Nasi Goreng Kampung. A spicy kind of fried rice that resembles of Mother’s home cooking to let the Hotel’s guesses felt comfort & homey while staying and dinning at the hotel. The spices and the hotness of the kampung fried rice is quite kicking with generous ammount of chopped chilies, my Indonesian licking very lovin it!

This is Mie Goreng Yogya, a stir fry noodle with kecap manis or Indonesian sweet soy sauce. I recently had 2 Days 3 Night culinary adventure in Yogyakarta and i pretty sure this Mie Goreng Yogya is quite authentic; kids and those who can’t handle spicy food must be lovin. A little bit attention is the amount of oil using to stir fry the the noodle, it’s a little bit oily or greasy for my licking.

Beef Rendang Daging from the Sumatra Island, this is the highlight of the whole menu for me, the beef is cooked for 4 hours until the spices and the coconut milk caramelized until dark brown and rich rendang spices. I guess it’s worthed since Chef Roby invited the native rendang cook from the Minangkabau Land in West Sumatrab to get the authenticity of the rendang.  Check Dentist Chef Indonesian Beef Rendang for the authentic recipe.

 Terik Ayam  from Semarang, a yellowish kind of Opor or thick chicken curry. Terik Ayam is cooked in so rich spices and coconut broth and usually shredded into ieces over nasi uduk or coconut milk enriched steamed rice, but today the chicken cut into individual pieces.

Tahu Aci Tegal, a lovely side dich made of deep fried tofu stuffed with tapioca and fish paste batter. Lovin it hot and fresh from the deep fryer, never served it cold unless you had a hard and very chewy piece of tahu aci.

Tunis Genjer Oncom Pedas. Genjer (Limnocharis flava), yellow sawah lettuce  or yellow burr head lettuce is not a common veggies served in a Hotels restaurant bufffet so i appreciate the effort of Chef Roby and team to represent the Indonesian culinary treasure. The tumis genjer is cooked into perfection with nice charred shallots, garlic and green chilli flavour on it.

Ikan Bakar Woku Menado from the Sulawesi Island is a lovely rich spicy dish from Minahasa Descent Culinary.  The fish fillet mixed with rich and spicy seasoning with fragrance kemangi or lemon basil leaves on it. The spices for woku ikan in authentic menado or Minahasa cuisine  is used to be sauteed until a little bit undercooked with pungent raw chilies flavour (local called “langu”) but the Woku ikan by chef roby spices is tad overcooked or sauteed until well done, maybe he adjust the flavour to the common Indonesian licking that didn’t like “langu” flavour. Chef Roby using gindara fish or Pacific black cod fish fillet for this recipe, i wish he used our local fish instead to support our local firsherman. To get the authentic recipe; ypu can check Dentist Chef Ikan Woku Belanga Recipe.

Soto Betawi is the only soup dish we had tonight. Soto Betawi is  Jakarta’s treasure of mild spiced beef soup with fresh milk dressed broth. Authentic Soto Betawi using Minyak Samin or ghee butter for the soup but Chef Roby decided not because he want the soup healthier and taste lighter.

The Soto Betawi served inthe soup station with variety of condiment; cubed potato’ tomato, scallion, bawang goreng deep fried shallots, and kaffir limes wedges. You can choose the beef for the soup, either the lean topside or fatty brisket, i choose both for my soto betawi and i let the staff prepare the soup for me.

Cerenti Restaurant in Grand Zury Hotel also had outdoor dining area for the smokers. The restaurant barbeque and grill station also located in the outdoor area, you can choose your selection of fresh beef, chicken and fish  to cooked and the staffs gladly prepare it for you!

Sate Maranggi is the highligh of the barbeque station tonight. Sate Maranggi is skewered beef satay from Purwakarta, West Java. Sate Maranggi made of cubed beef of mutton meat marinated in kecap manis (sweet soy sauce) and cuka lahang or traditional rice vinegar that made it taste sweet and tangy. Sate Maranggi drizzled kecap manis, chopped green bird eye chili & red shallots.

The Sate Maranggi is well marinated and spiced with nice beefy flavour on it. Chef Roby using local breed cattle for this recipe so the  beef meat is quite chewy even the overall rate is still nice.

The chicken and the dory fish fillet is also grilled into perfection, nice, tender and not overcooked. The grilled chicken called ayam unglep bakar, the chicken is cooked priorly  with it’s natural juices and spices, so the grilling is basically to reheat it before ready to be served and eaten. The grilled dory fish fillet goes well with Sambal Colo-Colo.

Moving to the sambal station; Chef Roby present variety of Sambals from all over the Indonesian Archipelago. The sambal galore consist of Sambal Cabe Ijo (green chili) from West Sumatra, Sambal Terasi (Fermented shrimp) from West Java. Sambal Matah (Shallots & Chili) from Bali Island, Sambal Colo-Colo (Chopped Sambal with Kecap manis) from Molluccas Island,  and Acar (Pickled Cucumber with Green Bird Eye Chilies). They all taste really good!!!

The Sambal Cabe Ijo caught my attention because it’s using udang rebon or tiny little dry shrimp on it. It’s very lovely and unique because the sambal taste briney and had the natural sweetness of the sea.

This is my plate, a little bit of this and that ended with a lot !!! This damn delicious dishes is worthed the effort of one hell of 30 minutes cardio workout thou, lol

 The Dessert;

Chef Roby bring the Jajanan Pasar or selection of Indonesian sweet bites that used to be sold in the Traditional market, hence the jajan pasar or literrary translated as market snack name derived. Jajan pasar started from variety of pudding, cake and beyond.

This is Wedang, a Javanesehot and sweet beverage native to the Sundanese people of West Java, Indonesia. Wedang Bajigur made of coconut milk and Palm sugar  with a little bit hint of of ginger and pandan for flavouring and some a small pinch of salt to improved the taste. The wedang served with deep fried peanut and sliced kolang-kaling or arenga palm fruit.

Colenak, a traditional dessert made of tape or fermented cassava that grilled or pan fried until a little bit charred or had brown caramelized skin served with unti or palm sugar swetened dessicated coconut tat cooked slowly until a little bit caramelized too. The colenak is beautifully plated with dots of strawberry syrup.

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Cerenti Restaurant Grand Zury BSD City Hotel also served several kind or western and International sweet bites at the event, otherwise you can choose fresh tropical fruit to finished your damn delicious Cerenti Restaurant Grand Zury BSD Hotel buffet dinner!!!

Indonesian Food Festival Buffet IDR 150.000/nettCerenti Restaurant – Grand Zuri BSD City

Jl Pahlawan Seribu Kavling Ocean Walk

Blok CBD Lot.6 BSD City. Serpong

Tangerang Selatan 15322, Banten- Indonesia

Phone : +62 21 2940 4955