It’s about time I continued on with my pursuit to review the strip of restaurants on Anzac Parade. If you haven’t read or simply forgotten the last place we tried; feel free to check out the link: Tropicana. Anyway, onto Ayam Goreng 99! This is an Indonesian restaurant that specialises in…yep…ayam goreng (which translates to ‘Fried Chicken’); as a regular customer here before I started the blog, I can state with certainty that they do ‘it’ best compared to most eateries in Sydney that prophetically advertise their takes on this particular dish.

As one of the three indonesian restaurants (Ratu Sari and Shalom) that are lined-up next to each other, Ayam Goreng 99 doesn’t really stand out from the exterior – a simple and snug restaurant that can be easily overlooked without notice by a casual on-walker. But does a customer that knows of its quality and authentic cuisine really care for the exterior and atmosphere that is perceived? not really – there are some things that can slide. The same can be said about the interior – simple and clean; which means all the attention is on the food.

Here Comes The Food (no playing with it this time)

Nasi Uduk: the coconut’s flagrance as it’s a key ingredient in the preparation of this dish is euphoric as it wafers – causing our palate to salivate in anticipation. The rice is at room temperature and isn’t soggy or hard. On its own, you could describe it is repetitive and needing something a bit more to make it perfect – that’s why you need to order ayam goreng

Top Left: Ayam Goreng (Deep fried Marinated Chicken) – we ordered the Breast (Dada); Bottom Right: Ayam Bakar (Charcoal Grilled Marinated Chicken) – once again it’s the breast (Dada). If I were to choose the favourite, it would be Dada Bakar, there’s just something enjoyable and very guilty about eating the burnt bits. You know you shouldn’t do it – but it’s that good. A combination of: the faint taste of teriyaki, aromatic herbs are aromatic and tender chicken makes this a great dish to be enjoyed by all (or even smugly by yourself!).

Beef Rendang: it’s a bit different from what I usually see at other Indonesian places – I’m normally use to eating it a bit more dry and with less oil. The meat is tender and the sauce is a bit over-powering when eaten on its own. I should have saved some rice!

Ayam Goreng 99
Address: 464 Anzac Parade, Kingsford
Opening Days/Hours: Wed-Sun, 11:30am-4pm and 6-9pm (Closed Mon&Tues!)
Ph: 9697 0030

Yesterday was a full on day due to 2 HUGE events happening on the same day, one after the other. I was up early again and very excited about dance events Shadow Wars III and Looze Control finals so I had a sudden urge to bake some brownies. This recipe is courtesy of Anna from Cookies Madness (such a good blog with heaps and heaps of recipes ^^) so another big thanks to her for this One Bowl Cocoa Brownies which I noticed due to one of her Top 10 lists.

This recipe is exactly as she described it: simple, inexpensive, portable and taste very good but alas my brownies turned out to be a little too dry but that was probably due to me either adding not enough butter/too much flour or baked a bit too long. I still recommend this recipe for anyone who loves brownies though but I would melt some chocolate into it as well instead of just using cocoa powder. Anna also very kindly sent me another recipe which I shall make when I have the time so thanks to her again!

Enough rant here comes the ingredients.
176g butter
1 2/3c granulated sugar
3/4c cocoa powder
1 1/2 teaspoons vanilla extract (I did not have any so mine did not include)
3 large eggs
pinch of salt
1/2 teaspoon baking powder
1 1/3 plain flour
12 walnut halves (optional)

Preheat oven to 170 degrees C. I used a smaller pan as I wanted thicker brownies but Anna used a 13 x 9 inch pan.

Melt butter in microwave-safe mixing bowl and whisk in the sugar, cocoa powder, vanilla extract and the eggs. Whisk until mixture is smooth and then add the salt and baking powder and whisk thoroughly. Make sure there are no lumps from the baking powder and that it is distributed throughout the whole mixture.

Stir in the flour (do not beat) and then pour into the pan making sure to spread it as evenly as possible. Arrange the walnuts if you have opted to include them.

Bake in the oven for about 20-25 minutes or until a toothpick comes out with moist crumbs. Cool before cutting into 12 or 16 or even 20 pieces depending on how big you want them.

This brownie did make a good start to the day and the dryness is easily solved by serving these with a nice glass of milk ^^!

Enjoyyyyyy!

Now I cannot resist putting up some photos of the International LEGENDS that came to judge Shadow Wars III.

Benny (Republic of South Africa), Pelezino (Brazil) and Physicx (Korea)

Lilou (France), Roxrite (USA) and Hong 10 (Korea)

The battles and judge showcases were awesommmmeeee!!! Wish I could watch them perform live again… absolutely inspirational!!!
Too bad my camera battery died for Looze Control as I had friends showcasing and performing but I was unable to take photos or videos and also was unable to take photos of our supper at Mamak. But I am sure we will end up going to Mamak again soon.

FFichiban

After our celebratory dinner at Bavarian Bier Cafe we had the choice of either Max Brenner or Copenhagen for dessert since we did not get any back there. We ended up going to Copenhagen and left Max for another night since going to Max meant getting a hot drink, a cold drink, souffle, waffles, ice cream and pizza A simple ice cream seemed like the perfect way to finish off our meaty dinner without us bursting out of our pants.

We went to the one closest to us, naturally, since there are 2 Copenhagen eateries on The Corso at Manly. This one has pretty ice cream wallpaper on one wall with some plastic cows. There used to one humongous brown cow but that disappeared a while back We miss moomoo.

The other wall is lined with goodies to put on our ice creams ^^…. I think I like this wall better even though the other one looks tasty too.

Scooping the ice cream yayyy! Quite a few flavours to choose from too.

Hundreds and Thousands (Top) and Cookies and Cream (bottom). The top choice may not have been the wisest since the wall allows dispensation of hundreds and thousands but as this was my first time seeing this flavour in the cabinet I got a bit giddy with excitement and ordered it. The Cookies and Cream on the other hand is always a winner choice. The soft chunks of cookies mixed with the creamy ice cream is a match made in heaven.

Cookies and Cream (Top) and Boysenberry? (Bottom). Taaastttyy no matter the flavour haha.

Fudging up our ice creams with the chocolate and caramel fudges. A good tip is to order the waffle sundae which serves as a mini container where you can pile up as much fudge as possible.

Cool chocolate racing stripes on my ice cream whheeeee. Other flavours I recommend are Royal Copenhagen (butterscotchy), coconut and mint choc chip but all of them are good and worth trying. Mmmmm ice cream in winter is the best ^^!

FFichiban