Cooking Demo With Openrice at Picnic Over Tribeca, Central Park

Hi Eaters.

We are beginning to enter the rainy season, right? Usually I love the rainy season, not including the flood though. Well since Jakarta tends to get pretty hot the last couple of months, it's a delight to get some breeze air once in a while.
But last Sunday (16/11) I really hoped it won't rain all day. Why? Because I got invited by Openrice Indonesia to attend the cooking demo at the Picnic Over Tribeca event.


What or who is Openrice Indonesia?
Well, it's the pioneer in Indonesia for website that provides culinary informations. They can be restaurant reviews, restaurant infos and details, and also interesting culinary articles.
I, myself, has been a frequent Openricer (Openrice user) who often seek infos about culinaries in the Openrice website since 2011. And since then have been fond of writing reviews also in the website. Most recently, I have been chosen as their Openricer Of The Month (thank you for that).
Openrice itself also frequently held gatherings or even participated in events such as this Picnic Over Tribeca at Central Park Mall. I was so delighted to be invited along with several foodbloggers, and so this is going to be my review about the whole event.

For this event, Openrice held cooking demos which involved two restaurants. One of them is Hog's Breath Cafe, a chain restaurant from the infamous steakhouse with the same name in Australia. 

If you haven't ever heard of the brand, let me tell you that they are huge in Australia with more than 80 branches alone. Their specialty is the prime ribs steak, but with the coming years they added more delish menus to compliment their signature dish.

The Prime Ribs

Check out that juicy ribs on the picture above. They're not messing up with those ribs. Marinated and grilled to perfection. As the main star, it received the best treatment ever.

The executive chef of Hog's Breath is Chef Anto. Having experience in the kitchen since 1991, I trusted my whole dining moment that day in his hands. So let see what he had delivered.

Aussie Burger - IDR 89K

Hog's home-made all beef patty topped with sliced cheese, lettuce, tomato, red onion rings, crispy bacon, fried egg, pineapple ring, beetroot, BBQ sauce, and served with curly fries and salad garnish.
Visually speaking, it's breath-taking. Beautiful and so appetizing. The beef patty along with the BBQ sauce were killers. It's just spoiling my taste buds. All of the components of the burger were just nice and delicious. I was quite confused at first with the use of beetroot in this dish. But after I tasted it, well it gave a nice addition, though I would say the beetroot was quite hard to be cleaved with my knife. And also the use of pineapple I think is brilliant. It gave a juiciness and tartness to the dish and balanced the savoriness nicely.
Personally, I loved the curly fries. I prefer this kind of fries compared to the common french fries since it is usually more seasoned. And yes, it was. Salted nicely, and crunchy too.

Prime Rib Steak Sandwich - IDR 149K

Tender Prime Rib char-grilled steak with cheese, beetroot, tomato, lettuce, onions, and Hickory BBQ sauce on a toasted Vienna loaf, served with curly fries and salad garnish.
I am really loving the prime rib. It's juicy and succulent. Bloody delicious. Again, all the components combined nicely to form a great dish. And they served the same delicious curly fries here too! Yeayy!! Overall, this is a dish you've gotta try, especially the prime ribs.

Classic Virgin Mojito - IDR 40K

These are non-alcohol mojitos, so no need to worry to order them. Do take in mind that this is not the actual serving glass.
By the way, I always loved mojito after a steak break. And this one was very refreshing. A well balanced combination of lemon and mint. It's got that good level of sourness too.

Strawberry Mixed Smoothies - IDR 38K

Again, I remind you, this is not the actual glass serving. This strawberry smoothie is refreshing. I loved the smooth texture of the smoothie. It's not gravy and the density was just perfect. And also loving the good sugary level too.


It didn't seem to look that the fun is going to be over. I was indulged by another great dishes. This time they came from VMAD Vegetarian Madness. It's a vegetarian restaurant which serves mainly Indian cuisines.

I've had my moments with vegan dishes. Can't say that I'm fond of it, since most vegan dishes I tried either tasteless or perfectly bland. So for all my life I'm a devoted carnivor :D. But the fact that VMAD is an Indian restaurant tickles my taste buds. You know how Indian cuisines are just very very bold in using spices. I'm just curious on how those vegan dishes will come out.
Here goes.

Hakka Bakka Noodle - IDR 49K

Yellow noodles mixed with sauteed vegetarian chicken, fresh vegetables, and then gently mixed with black pepper sauce, vegetarian oyster sauce, and sesame oil.
The fact that they cooked this dish using sesame oil is an important factor regarding health. And this dish itself was insanely delicious although I didn't pretty much like the overpowering black pepper sauce. For me, it kinda drowned the other flavors of the spices. But it's delicious though. Very bold flavor indeed.

Murtabak Ceylon - IDR 29K

Some of the foodbloggers were given a chance to try and make their own murtabak. It's actually pretty fun flipping and flattening the dough, but it turns out not to be as easy as it looks. Well it is best to leave it to the pro.

Thin crust stuffed pancake with spicy minced vegetarian chicken filling, served with curry sauce. The crust is fried to get the crunchiest layer outside.

For my palate, the murtabak itself was really good. The filling was awesome. Delicious and savory too. Too bad though for the curry sauce. It lacked flavor. I felt as an Indian restaurant, they could've made this curry sauce more shining, more outstanding. At the end of the day, I just found myself munching the murtabak without the curry sauce. But hey, everyone has their own palate right?

Green Fantasy - IDR 35K

One of the few drinks served by VMAD and absolutely my favourite that day was the Green Fantasy.

This juice is a mix between pineapple, mountain farm chicory, pure lime extract, and sugar syrup. The pineapple really shined here. And the overall taste was an enjoyment for me. I'm just loving this juice.

Jamaican Cooler - IDR 36K

Aromatic mocha flavored beverage blended together with vanilla ice cream, fresh farm milk, sugar syrup and roasted cashew nuts.
This one is more creamy due to the use of milk and ice cream. Flavorwise it's nice too. The sweetness was fine and not overwhelming. And the thickness was just right.

Overall, I'm having a blast in the event. So happy to be invited. 
I would like to thank Openrice Indonesia for inviting me to this event. Can't wait for more awesome events from Openrice Indonesia. 
In the end, you can check my full review which will be coming out on Openrice Indonesia soon. You can also follow my Openrice account or also follow my Opensnap account, where you can check my food pics album and even have your own and start uploading mouth-watering food pics to win cool prizes from Openrice!

Keep on chewing!


Jazzy Dee
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Hog's Breath Cafe
Central Park, Tribeca Park, GF, Unit 15 
Phone: (021) 29200114
Jl. Letjen. S. Parman Kav. 28, Jakarta Barat
 

VMAD Vegetarian Madness
Jl. Danau Sunter Utara Raya Blok R No. 46 - 47 - 48, 
Phone: (021) 6516075
Sunter, Jakarta Utara

Sarinah Building, Jl. MH Thamrin no. 11
Phone: (021) 3903533
Jakarta Pusat