Indonesian Beef Soup (Soto Betawi)

My personal favourite recipe of Soto Betawi! I hope you guys try it!
This is my first cooking of mixing so many different spices and it turns out very delicious!
I'm so excited that I can share this with you guys!!

• 300 gram of beef (preferably chuck meat)
• 500 ml of coconut milk
• 600 ml of water
• 3 bay leaf
• 1 cinnamon stick
• 1/2 teaspoon of nutmeg
• 3 spring onion
• 3 tablespoon of sweet soy sauce
• 3 tomatoes
• 1 lime
• 4 kaffir lime leaf
• 2 lemongrass
• 1 teaspoon of fried shallot 

Blended Spices:

• 1 teaspoon of coriander
• 1/2 teaspoon of cumin
• 8 candlenut
• 3 red chilli
• 10 cloves of shallot
• 6 cloves of garlic
• 2 teaspoon of ginger
• 2 teaspoon of galangga
• 1/2 teaspoon of pepper
• 1/2 teaspoon of salt
• 1/4 teaspoon of sugar
• 1/2 teaspoon of cloves

Additional Ingredients:

• 1 pan-fried potato
• 2 or 3 boiled eggs

Directions

1. Put the meat inside the boiling water in low heat
2. Put all the blended spices in the food processor. Heat the oil in a pan and stir-fry the blended spices until you can smell the fragrant.
3. Pour the mixed spices into the soup.
4. Don't forget to put in bay leaf, cinnamon stick, nutmeg, kaffir lime and lemon grass.
5. After boiling in low heat for an hour, start pouring coconut milk and wait for another 2 hours.
6. Prepare the additional ingredients on the bowl. When the beef is tender, you can take it out and start cutting it into small cubes or pieces.
7. Also, cut the tomatoes to put inside the bowl.
8. Pour in the beef coconut soup into the bowl.
9. You can start to sprinkle some spring onion ad fried shallots on it. Lime juice and sweet soy sauce are optional.

Red Cray Seafood & Grill Restaurant

I went to this restaurant on my brother-in-law's birthday. I was expecting a great seafood experience but I think it was just an average place.

The place was big and cozy. The waiters were really friendly and nice as well. I was really excited when I first see the menu. I was there pretty early which is why there is not much people. But then, later that night, you can see people start coming in.

You will see a giant art piece on the wall of the restaurant. I think it looks really artsy and it really add that feeling that you are in red cray restaurant.

We ordered the executive seafood platter. The difference of the ordinary seafood platter and this one is that it has 1 crayfish in it. Also, the price is more expensive by $40

This giant platter will cost you like 120 bucks. It can actually only serves 2 people but we come in 3 but still hardly manage to finish it.

The first food that came out was the seafood chowder. For me, it is too creamy and cheesy. I am not a big fan of chowder so I don't really quite like it.

 The oysters were really fresh and yummy. With some drops of lemon juice it was just perfect.

 The chips are cooked perfectly. It was crispy and golden with sprinkles of salt and pepper

 The garlic prawn was okay. To me, the sauce is too creamy somehow. The grilled fish was nice with mash potato on the bottom. I love the tartare sauce. It was the perfect texture and taste.

 The crayfish was fine. A little bit overcooked to me but it was okay. The sauce on the top of it just made it perfect.

 The scallops was tasty and juicy with some basil pesto on top. I love it.

This is the least favourite out of all the dishes on the platter. The chilli mussels just tasted odd to me. I can really taste the wine like it is just poured out of the bottle into the mussels. I was not very satisfied.

Overall, I think this is a good restaurant. It was not too classy but it is also not too mediocre. I am not sure I am going to come here again. But I might give it a try again on their crayfish.