Last year we heard a rumours about this lovely Sunday roast, the best on the island some says, and what's even more intriguing is that the roast can be found in a Jewellery turned into restaurant, named Jemme in Petitenget.

Luckily, Epicurina Bali Food Adventure Blog got invited into this amazing establishment before it undertake a renovation earlier this month, and here's the story of our dining experience in Jemme Bali.

Jemme, finally

It was already late in the afternoon when we finally made it to Jemme, thanks to the traffic and all the hassles of reaching Petitenget during its afternoon rush hour, which at times could create a gridlock.

We quickly entered the smaller door on the right of the Jemme Jewellry shop to meet our host for the afternoon. After the greetings and menu browsing, I then got a chance to look around and experience Jemme atmosphere before our meal arrived.

As you can see from the picture, the place is already packed, and there's live music show in the main dining room. On overall there are two main sections of Jemme that you can have dinner at: the main dining room inside, and the smaller more intimate quarter near the entrance door. The jewellery shop next door, unfortunately, does not cater for dinner despite its extraordinary view.

Despite its lavish atmosphere though, as you can see from the guest's attire Jemme is a casual dining place so dress moderately, since this is Bali anyway.

Meal

The star of our early dinner, was definitely, the Sunday Roast. It was served with Yorkshire Puddings, chunks of roasted potatoes and gravy, and ours also come with three kind of sides: coleslaw, steamed vegetables, and cauliflower cheese gratin. There was three options of meat available: beef, lamb, or pork.

Our order came in a reddish brown color, which matched the color of the wooden board it was presented. Soo #foodporn. As with the taste, it's succulent, velvety, and full of juice. It's already good even without the accompanying gravy, definitely something memorable.

While the Rosemary looks more like a garnish, when used sparingly this aromatic herb provide a nice shot of piney aroma to the meaty roast. Eaten without the gravy, this way you can appreciate the quality of the meat without too much distraction.

Depends to your liking though, you can also go full-force on the side dishes and create your own prefered combo.

Extra Yorkshire Pudding

I have to admit it's been a while since I last encountered Yorkshire pudding. The puffy savory baked dough that got me wondered "Where's the pudding?" the first time I seen it in Lawry's Jakarta, a long long time ago.

Eaten with the meaty brown gravy, Yorkshire pudding produce a wonderful savory spongy bites to accompany the succulent roast, so no wonder the couple at the table next to us ordered extra Yorkshire pudding for their meal.

Being in their early 50s, the Australian couple looks energetic and have been visiting Bali since the 80s. They also revealed that since Jemme opened, it has been their must go place every time they visited Bali, and Jemme's Sunday roast (with extra Yorkshire pudding) is their mandatory order here. "Best on the island!" they claimed, and after trying it out myself I can understand why.

Sweet Closing

As if we haven't feel satisfied with the roast, our host kept on coming with yummy treats for us to sample, and here's another one of Jemme's best: Tasting for Two, which comprising of their most popular desserts, in mini portions.

While they're all well executed, my favorite goes with the Coconut Creme Brulee which sits halfway between a regular Creme Brulee and Sarikaya, with addition of the fragrant roasted coconuts.

As with two other significant members of Epicurina (wife and kid), they surely picked the Moist Chocolate Mud Pudding, and this Dark Chocolate Mousse pictured below.

The Drinks

Last but not least, here's three of Jemme's best Mocktails to accompany your Sunday Roast: the pinchy Drylander that contains chili and ginger, among other ingredients, the refreshing zesty Berrylicious which mixes berries with orang, and the rustic Ginger Lime Lemongrass (GLL) as the lightest of the three. Which one you'd pick? I definitely like my Drylander but resort to the GLL for a best match of our roast.

Thank you Jemme for introducing your delicious Sunday Roast to our Epicurina readers. (byms)

Jemme Jewellery and Dinner
Address: Jalan Petitenget No. 28, Seminyak, Kuta, Badung, Bali 80361
Phone: +62 361 4732392
Hours: 10:00 am – 11:00 pm

What's next?

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One of the biggest pleasure I have as a food blogger in Bali, is when I can present you dear readers, something new and uniquely Bali, and last week we found something perfectly fit that description named Warung Basang.

Located near the Krishna gift shop in Tuban, Kuta, Warung Basang serves quality Balinese food with affordable prices, and authentic home cooking Balinese dishes.

Warung Basang itself was born out of passion to preserve Balinese cuisine tradition, which contains many wonderful delicious dishes, including those less known to people outside Bali. That's why on the menu you'd find lots of interesting selections like Lawar Klungah which uses very young coconut shells (yes its shells!), with a crunchy rubbery texture. Or Tum Ares which uses young banana stalks, beside of the well known Bebek Betutu, or Sate Lilit Ikan Laut. 

For a modern and easy to like alternative, Warung Basang also serves creations like Nasi Goreng Bongkot which uses fragrant torch ginger root and white fish meat.

Aiming for authenticity, Warung Basang ensure they only minimally adjust the flavors to match domestic tourists' palate, including toning down the spiciness standard to better fit non-Balinese heat tolerance level. And we have testimonies from our fellow Balinese foodies in #Mekulicious to certify its authenticity.

That being said, I personally find the heat level of food in Warung Basang still sits on the top end of my heat tolerance range, however my lovely spouse think the spiciness level was just standard and fits her appetite really well.

For you spicy food lovers though, Warung Basang serves six different kind of Balinese sambal to please your appetite.

Outside of the heat factor, I found Warung Basang cooking is flavorful, rich, and memorable. Something I'd happily recommend even to my most reserved, judgmental, annoyingly truthful friends.

Halal Balinese 

What's even more interesting from Warung Basang though, it's something that's very rare in Balinese eateries: a halal standard.

Therefore if you've been wondering how Lawar taste, but was hesitant as you're following a no-pork dietary like majority of muslim are, here's your chance.

Upon asked why choosing halal Balinese concept, Warung Basang's owner Anindya Mantik (Indy) revealed that the decision was come after a thorough research, and her wish to preserve a family's culinary tradition:

The Tuban area was chosen since its close to the Ngurah Rai Airport, and quickly becoming a prominent destination for domestic tourists, especially with the development of new budget hotels in this stretch of street, not to mention the famous shops already residing in this street: Krishna souvenir shop, Joger Bali, and Nasi Ayam Ibu Andika.

While there's already some Balinese eateries in the area, Indy figured none caters a fully fledged Balinese menu yet. On the other hand, one of her fondest memory of childhood was the cooking of her grandmother from Tabanan, which despite her experience living abroad, kept lingering in her mind. 

Her decision to go Halal was further fueled by the fact that most domestic travelers are muslim, and they rarely touch Balinese dishes for fear that it contains pork, while in truth Balinese cuisine is not always about pork. That's why it's becoming her passion also to introduce the halal side of Balinese cookings.  

To ensure the Halal standard, Warung Basang employs a muslim female chef, and source their ingredients from muslim sellers in the nearby traditional market.

Lending her passion in fashion design, Indy ensures that your visit in Warung Basang creates a lasting impression with its comfy atmosphere, that's ornamented with snapshots from the past.

Warung Basang (@warungbasang) 

Jalan Raya Tuban 58A (next to Rahayu), 

Tuban, Kuta, Bali, 

Indonesia. 

Phone: +62 812 3632 0603

With image or without image? Should the menu in a restaurant includes image of the food they served? Gordon Ramsay in one of his Kitchen Nightmare episode criticized a restaurant he revitalized for providing images of the food; he thinks it misleads, makes you look cheap, and prefer to steer clear of it.

Beside of the chance of getting sued if the image portrayed misleads customer from the appearance of the real food, good image costs; it requires careful planning and a good food photographer which might not comes cheap.

Bad image on the other hand, instead of attracting could instead degrade the level of confidence your customers has on you. Hence with using image on your menu, you might encounter more trouble than advantages. So then, is image really important? Is it worth to go through all the challenges in having a good food photographs?

Frankly speaking the answer can be Yes, and No, it depends on some considerations; here's why:

Yes it is important! to those that dominantly processes information by visual sense. These are the type of customers that relies on their visionary senses to capture and discern the qualities a food can potentially delivers. Though you are still exposed to the risks of misleading your customers, a good and ethical food photography of a restaurant's cooking displayed up front, or outside your restaurant is a modern day maneki neko, or "welcoming cat" that attracts customer. This is due to the famous proverb that says "a picture speaks a thousand words". A good food photography is also universal; it can be easily understandable by people from different or foreign origins. Some premises are taking this image providing thing even more seriously by providing the dummy version of their menus (usually made from wax and resin) and display them in a showcase with tilted stands.

No it's not (that) important; to those that dominantly processes information by any other means; either by their hearing sense (listening to explanation or narration from the restaurant staffs), or by textual reference (reading the menu description). In fact many good restaurants are able to attract their customers without providing even a single picture of their meal; this is what usually happens in a high-class or more classical themed restaurants.

However it would require either a very good reputation, a highly famous status, a spreading delicious fragrant of what's cooking inside (KFC and J Co is famous for doing this), or by providing other point of interests that might attract customers in any other possible ways; e.g. create an open kitchen where the visitors could watch the happenings inside the kitchen and hopefully getting attracted to it, or displaying the live fishes in aquarium outside the restaurant.

However as you might have guessed, it's a good practice to combine several different elements to create the holistic effort to both inform and attracts customers to further engaged in the kind of experience a restaurant offers.

Hence without a doubt, the concern about using or not using images in a restaurant's menu or other informational vessels, should not be born out of what you think you want to do, but from what you think your customers would value, then you caters to that need.

Because if you focus on your customers' need to discern the information, then you're on the right path to create the good eating experience for them. (byms)

Reposted from http://www.epicurina.com/articles/14-customer-experience/101-should-a-menu-contain-images

Just find this picture on my old folders, I think this is from the first food and travel bloggers gathering in Romeos Grillery, Ossotel Legian, and it was sponsored by our generous friends from Cious Magazine. There are even some friends from the hospitality industry, and also festival organizers. Recognized anyone? (byms)