[event & review] Food-blogger Gathering @ Ten Ten, Plaza Indonesia

Casual.
Stylist.

That is my first impression when I arrived in Ten Ten, Tempura House in Plaza Indonesia, 2 weeks ago. I joined the Indonesian Food-Bloggers gathering (again), meeting 20-something friends, having a cooking class, food tasting and non stop chit-chat.

Dominated by natural wood, the restaurant interior is a perfect spot for our casual get-together. Japanese ambiance can be felt by vertical linings of wood as the wall panels to obstruct vistas. Downlights on the ceiling produce 'just enough' light.

Overall, all the elements create a calm and cozy feeling for customer who are looking for a relaxing atmosphere, warm feeling.
That's a good one, since this restaurant is located in one of the famous big shopping malls in center of Jakarta.





Facts about Ten Ten;

* The culinary concept of the restaurant: Tempura House. So ...the specialties menu is...TEMPURA!

* Using premium Black Tiger Prawn, the Tempura is cooked with special technique, using special fryer machine to produce consistent textures and delicious best quality tempura.

* The signature menu in the restaurant is Tendon. 
In that menu tempura (ebi, bisu fish, green beans, pumpkin, sweet potato, and oba leaves) is served as the topping for the dish and served with miso soup.

* Other than tempura, there are also variant menus from salad, small bites, ala carte, donburi, rice dish, noodle, combo selection, dessert and drink.
In total... there are 164 choices of menu in Ten Ten!!

* There are 2 restaurant outlets; one at Plaza Indonesia and another one is at Pondok Indah Mall 1.

* Kids Menus are available...*very good news. It means this restaurant is 'family friendly' place. High Tea program is available on weekdays, 2-5pm

* Ten Ten is owned by Boga Group.





The Gathering ...
After a nice opening by our friend Tika Hapsari, followed with a welcome speech by Rika Fardani, the marketing manager of Boga Group, we began to learn something interesting.

...We had a Cooking Class,
conducted by Chef Dian Kusyanto, we learned how to prepare and cook good tempura, also to make delicious omurice, the Japanese omelette rice.

Making Tempura

Making Omurice

...Preparing, cutting, 'massaging' the prawn... continue by coating with a 'special flour'.
Then... frying the prawns and all the vegetables that cut with same thickness.
The keys for crunchy, non-greasy tempura are the proper technique and the best ingredients. Interesting.

Then we learned how to prepared the tantalizing omurice. Same thing; ingredients, technique and the cooking time is the key *it's not difficult :). Finally, the fried rice covered by 'thin' omelette, served with tomato sauce, crunchy tempura and demi-glace sauce (rich brown sauce).

...At the end of cooking class, we divided to group of 4-5, and had a cooking competition!
See the pictures below; it is our team so called "The Dream Team" and our "Dreaming Omurise".

L-R, me, Sefa Firdaus, Tika Hapsari, Elsye Suranto

It's always nice to enjoy good food together with friends, sit down together, took pictures, chit-chat...
Oow... there was a 'Pannacotta' cooking demo before lunch :)
for sure I'll try to make it at home *looks easy*



It was lunch time already, we started to grab up our omurise when our order came to our table.
Starting with Ebi Yose Katsu, the appetizer. Probably it'll be easier to understand when I call it 'Shrimp Nuggets', served with some chopped vegetable and mayonnaise. It was slightly too dry, since we ate it after watching 'Panna cotta cooking demo'.



And finally, the main course was coming.
There were 3 choices of meals that available during the food tasting.
I confidently ordered Spicy Beef Kinoko Don. I thought we had enough frying food during the cooking class, so let's try other dishes that is prepared with different cooking method.





Spicy Beef Kinoko Don, is a bowl of rice that is served with 'saute' spicy beef and mushroom, and some sliced/chopped vegetables. So happy, I made a right choice. The beef was soft enough, and the spices absorbed nicely into the beef and mushroom. Perfect.
Miso Soup, gave a refreshing tasty warm liquid to the mouth.
My problem is, for me the rice is too much :))



I got a chance to try my friend's Tenbara. A bowl of rice covered by frying chopped chicken and mushroom, with sauce and chopped nori. It's quite good. The size of the topping is perfect for accompanying one spoonful of rice. The combination of all the flavor is very harmonized.



The sweet ending...
they served 2 different dessert cups.
Foret Noir cup and Cookie and Cheese cup. Our sweet tooth started to be busy.
I decided to share the dessert with Elsye, so we can try half of each dessert. Clever!




Foret Noire actually is a kind of chocolate cake that popular in French and Germany. Probably it's like Black Forest. But this cups, contain creamy, mousse texture, dark chocolate dessert. If you like some thing dark, deep, and not too sweet, this one is a good choice.

Me? I prefer Cookie and Cheese Cup. 
Not too sweet, have a creamy texture combined perfectly with crunchy cookie.
A very beautiful ending for our lunch and gathering.

One thing that I really want to mention, I do like all the cutlery. It's very Japanese :)



Once again, thank you to 'Boga Group' for arranging our gathering.
It's always nice to meet many new friends, enjoying a very good lunch together, ... full of laugh.
--------------------
TEN TEN outlets
Plaza Indonesia, Level B.
Pondok Indah Mall 1, Level 2.