Showing posts with label Pork Belly. Show all posts

Monday, August 20, 2018

YummY! - Pork Steaks @ Ante 1-Utama

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Pork Steaks @ Ante 1-Utama

Petaling Jaya, Selangor, Malaysia - August 2018

On a treat outing, the birthday boy got to pick the place for the do; and he picked a place that served pork steaks. Pork steaks? Can pork be cooked as a steak? Yes, I have tried pork chops. But as a steak? Can it be as chewy tender as beef? Yes, he answered. And they have good marbling too. That got to me, marbling - the magic word! Let's go!

We started off with a Polenta, but one that's served uniquely with the cream scooped into a quarter head of fresh cabbage. It came with bacon bits and garnished with thin strips of spring onion. The bacon bits were more than just bits, slightly chunky for a better bite. Overall it was a good dish, with the fresh cabbage balancing the creaminess and the bacon porky salty aroma adding to the flavour.

As an entree to the main, we ordered a plate of grilled pork striploin to share. I am not that good at porky parts, but this one looked like pork belly prepared ala Chinese style, just like one from the corner coffee shop. Well balanced with more fat (the way I like it), and with lean meat that was tender; both slurpingly good. My only complaint, the skin was not crackling crispy and hence had some parts harder to bite into.
It comes with a "classic gravy mix" (meaning soy sauce with some lard oil), with sprinklings of Italian herbs.

A nicely presented diagonal cuts of seared duck breast; a fusion dish with green pea curry and duck sauce garnishing, complemented by peach salsa. Another good starter to share with the breast slightly salty and with good ducky aroma. The green pea curry was just slightly chilly hot, and the salsa a good diet balance.

They do serve pasta here! This one is a good carbonara with small slices of lightly pan-fried bacon.

And here comes the mains..... almost.
I must apologize for this, it's of a cut of 450gms, much bigger than shown above. By the time I got to photo this, the rest of the gang had whacked it! This is a pork shoulder marinated with North African chermoula spices before being grilled.

The cut of dark meat was very tender and the spices had done their job of making it uniquely tasty, with the edges nicely seared.

The meat was also nicely marbled, making it all the more tasty and tender!

This is their chargrilled pork shoulder served with truffled butter sauce. On the menu, it was supposed to be a cut of pork rib-eye but they had run out of rib-eye; but the shoulder cut worked fine too.

I was curious on how well the marbling goes and did a V-transverse cut across the slab. Yes there was marbling, but most of it were nearer the top fat layer.

I had no complains though, as overall it was still very tender and almost a juicy as a rare-done beef steak. The truffled butter sauce was good, not so full as spices as the other piece, and with it's own individual flavour.

Grilling was perfectly done, nicely charred fat and tender leans. Beautiful aren't they?

For desserts, we had a free piece of Salted Caramel Chocolate Cake, compliments of the house to the birthday boy. It was a generous piece good enough for the five of us to share. The caramel was very good and went well with the slightly wet cake full of chocolate flavour.

Okay, okay... we are not cheapskates! We did order another dessert, their home-made waffles (meaning self-made in their kitchen instead of those frozen ones). I love this one too, as it came with a good helping of fresh raspberries and blackberries and a large scoop of honey lavender ice-cream.
We took advantage of their BUY 2 - GET ONE FREE offer, and bought another cake to get another free. Both these other two pieces we took away. Yup, their cakes are that good.

ANTE has upped the ante, let's hope the other eateries will place their bets the right way too!

Below are ANTE's current menu and price list (click on photo for enlarged view) :

ANTE'S Starters menu 1.

ANTE'S Starters menu 2.

ANTE'S Mains menu.

ANTE'S Classic Pasta menu.

ANTE'S Specialty Pasta menu; a fusion of east meets wests.

For the small eaters or even as starters: ANTE'S Small Plates menu.

Back to tradition with ANTE'S Rustic & Hearty menu.

ANTE'S Desserts menu. Do ask for their cakes menu that comes separately.

ANTE'S Drinks menu.

ANTE'S Alcohol menu.

They have a separate wine list, do ask for it.

(Click here for their full menu)

ANTE @ 1-UTAMA

Lot F346, First Floor, Rainforest, New Wing One Utama Shopping centre, Bandar Utama, 47800 Petaling Jaya, Selangor, Malaysia.

Phone: +603-7732 5204

Hours:

Sundays to Thursdays: 100:0am to 10:00pm | Fridays & Saturdays: 10:00pm to 10:30pm
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/ANTE1UTAMA/

GPS & Direction Map : 3.15056, 101.61565

(Click here for Google Street View)

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Sunday, May 21, 2017

YummY! - Good Jeju Black Pork (제주흑돼지) @ Halla Pork Restaurant, Sehwa-ri Jeju Island

You are at - Jotaro's Blog / FootSteps / YummY! / Korea 2017 - Korean Food / Good Jeju Black Pork (제주흑돼지) @ Sehwa-ri Jeju Island

YummY!

Jotaro's Food Review

Good Jeju Black Pork (제주흑돼지) @ Halla Pork Restaurant, Sehwa-ri, Jeju Island

Sehwa-ri, Jeju Island, South Korea - March 2017
Jeju is renown for it's Black Pork (제주흑돼지/jeju heuk-doe-ji), pork from the Jeju Black Pigs reared at the farms on the island. These are smallish pigs with black skin and a smooth coat of hair. This domesticated pig is suppose to have a distinct taste with a chewier meat. Traditionally the pork is smoked over burning hay, allowing the smoke to penetrate the meat juices. We did not get to try this hay-smoked version, but while on a cycling tour of Jeju Island we did get to savour barbecued Black Pork. Did it stand up to it's reputation? Let's find out.

Days earlier, we had had some Black Pork at the Black Pork Street in Jeju City. That first impression wasn't a good one of this famous dish. The one we had was from one of the more renown restaurant there; we found it to be tough (almost like wild boar) and not having any particuclarly special taste. Fortunately, later on we perchance tried this dish again, one which was better and definitely representative of good Black Pork.
We were on our last leg of our round-Jeju cycling tour and had stopped for the night at the twin towns of Sehwa-ri and Hado-ri. These towns should not be missed if one is at Jeju Island, they are small yet charming towns and quiet with friendly people.
Sehwa-ri located about thirty kilometres from Jeju City has a nice sea front. On the walls of the beach, enterprising locals have placed cut tables with vases of flowers. These successfully tempt visitors to stop and take memorable photos, which will in turn lead them to patronising those shops.

About another five kilometre away is Hado-ri, a smaller town in a quiet farming hamlet. Here one will find the Jeju Haenyeo Museum (해녀박물관), a museum dedicated to the Haenyeo, the strong lady divers of the island. The museum show their history, their culture and there are even life-sized diorama of their houses, etc.
We were staying at the Manjo House in Hado-ri where they have colourful and very cosy chalets. Come dinner time, we rode fifteen minutes over to the Hala Pork Restaurant (in Sehwa-ri) which is also operated by our homestay owner.

Let's have a look at what we ate. Besides the usual soup, rice and Banchan we ordered some of the house specialty - Jeju Black Pork!
We had two cuts, the above is their pork belly that came in generous half-inch thick with vertical slits sliced half way through, this will make them easier to cook and to cut after cooking.

This is the Pork Neck, coming in thicker slabs with more fat and deeper slice cuts into them. Unlike the pork belly, these have been seasoned with some spices.
WE HAVE BEEN SERVED!

In these modern days restaurant, cooking is not over hay fire but on stainless steel grilles. We put cuts of both meat onto the grille and slowly cooked them, every once a while turning them over with large pincer that were provided.

Now the trick is not to be tempted to over-cook the meat. Probably two minutes on each side would be good. Large scissors are also provided to cut the meat into manageable pieces. At both sides of the grille are elevated flat sections where we could put cooked meat on them to keep them warm and also to drip off any excess oil.

Each of us was provided with large saucers served with a soy-sauce/vinegar sauce mix. Into this we put cuts of large onions peppered with some black sesame. The mix softened the onion slightly and it turned out almost as good as the ones we had at the Gojipbultong Restaurant in Insadong, Seoul.

Now how do we eat Black Pork. Some of us had small cube cuts put into the saucers, dipped them into the sauce and ate them with the onions.

OR have them wrapped up in Pirella leaves together with some rice and Banchan and eat them ssam style; whichever way the meat was savoury and tasty; tender yet chewey.

CHEERS!
It was a good meal which totally changed our opinion of Black Pork; Halla Pork Restaurant is definitely the place to savour Black Pork when in Jeju Island. In fact many drive over from Jeju City to patronise this place, it's that good.