HAPPY BIRTHDAY NOMZ JAKARTA - NOMZ 1ST ANNIVERSARY DINNER!

It’s almost unrealistic that Nomz is turning 1 today!

I remember vividly the day I visited Nomz on the third day of its opening last year, and I had a weekend brunch with some food blogger friends! Wrote a review about it that you can read here.

I attended Nomz first anniversary bloggers’ dinner a week ago and short to say, Nomz is aging gracefully, but you gotta keep on reading to know why.

Over a year, I saw Nomz as a more and more creative establishment. They continuously push and drive themselves to create something different, unique and out of the box, but still mostly delicious and palate friendly, some of them include the dessert omakase by Chef Kim Pangestu, and collaboration with local and international cooks. I might not join each and every event of theirs but I did pay attention or at least notice, as mostly their events were talked about by many.

As youcan read more of Nomz on the review that I wrote last year, I am just going to focus more on last weeks’ dinner gathering. We had so many food (when are we not?) and that was such a generous move of them. The meals came consecutively from starters to main courses and sweet endings a.k.a desserts.

STARTERS
Seafood Chowder
A heartwarming and enjoyable dish! Cream based soup with salmon, barramundi, potato, carrot, celery, mussels and corn salsa served with crunchy garlic bread. The texture was thick (but not like really thick) and creamy. They managed to cook a seafood soup dish that didn’t smell nor taste fishy, the condiments were generous and altogether the soup dish with beautiful savory and salty flavor, and a good one to warm up your palate before heading to the next dishes.

Prawn Linguine
Tom yum oil, linguine and tiger prawns
Aglio olio style linguine with chunky tiger prawns, when you actually looked at the dish, the ingredients that they’re using were simple, but there’s something about the execution that must be really good because this was a tasty dish, I like the texture of the linguine, it was honestly a little more firm than ala carte, but because they’re using this style of cooking and drizzle everything with the tom yum oil, I like it even more that way. The tiger prawn was fresh and chunky, and seasoned lightly with a little salt.

Hamachi (yellowtail fish)
Miso butter, rice crisp and quail eggs

Out of the the three appetizers delivered to our table, this was my favorite. I like the play of texture on the presentation, it’s almost like when you look at it you know this dish was going to be exciting. Pan seared Hamachi served on rice crisp, chilli pepper and quail eggs. The fish had this smooth texture and lightly seasoned. You need to have everything together for that fun texture play. Overall, I got salty, but fun salty!

MAIN COURSES

Crispy Skin Salmon Crudo

Barley risotto, salmon, wakame salad, and tentsuyu broth

I was skeptical about this as they wrote “crispy skin” on the title, but I noticed that they provide tentsuyu broth to pour over and not to mention, the salmon did not look crispy, but they proved me wrong as after all the broth pouring and stuff, the skin still had that crispiness to it, even though it’s not like very crispy. The barley risotto was to me, the highlight of this dish. It really elevate the texture of the dish and add in something special. The tentsuyu broth was tasty and complement the whole element of the dish nicely.

Coq Au Vin
Chicken in red wine sauce with buttered vegetables
I honestly can’t really remember anything about this dish, so it’s either just decent or nothing special, but it looks pretty tho.

Glazed Pork Belly
Pork belly, caramel glaze, pomme puree, witled spinach, cauliflower florets and apple caramel sauce

OMG THIS WAS THE BOMB!!! For me, this was – flavor and quality wise - the best dish served that night! If not, one of the best pork dishes you can find in town! I hope this is not only for the bloggers’ dinner, but the consistently cook the pork belly this good! The pork belly was very tender, along with juicy fatty parts of the pork belly which made this dish even more wonderful to me. The apple caramel sauce fits like glove to the pork belly, it’s sweet, fruity without tasting awkward. What I thought was a sticky mashed potato was infact a pomme (apple) puree. Short to say, this is SEX! Must order.

DESSERTS
Valentino
Chocolate cake, chocolate soil, hazelnut cream, caramelized macadamia and mint
This is what you should order if you’re an avid chocolate and hazelnut fan. As usual, when you have hazelnut as one of the ingredients of your dessert, it will dominate the flavor *ahem* graciously. This was an enjoyable dish, the texture was good, it’s just slightly sweet to me, but however, it’s very safe, you know chocolate and hazelnut, it’s almost you can’t go wrong. If you need something more adventurous and different, then go for this following...

BOMB
Mascarpone mousse, coconut sago, mango jelly, soaked savoiardi in mango sauce, chocolate soil, yellow meringue and coconut flakes

The name said it all, this is THE BOMB! First glance and I appreciate the effort put on this dessert, as they have to “hand-glued” the mini meringue one by one to create the “durian” like texture  - no actually they aimed for the explosion look, only this is pretty and yum -. The texture and flavor of this cake was amazing. Just when you think you only get the texture play from the mini meringue, that doesn’t stop there. You need to slice the cake to notice the layers of ingredients (sadly I didn’t snap a pic), a little lighter in contrast but beatiful. The ingredients complemented each other very well, you might know that I am not big with cheese, but their mascarpone was very light. I literally have nothing negative to say about this unless a friendly warning for you to try it!

Strawberry Pavlova
Crispy meringue nest, lemon cream, strawberry salsa and yogurt sorbet
A pretty looking dish, and a good one too, but this was my least favorite, but don’t get me wrong, being “least favorite” doesn’t necesarrily mean that this was bad, but comparing to the previous two, this was a little “been there done that”, and the yogurt sorbet was a little milky for my liking.

Happy birthday Nomz! Back when I told you Nomz is aging gracefully, it somehow reflected well on the food I had on the dinner. It was like way better than my last dinner there, and it keeps getting better, dinner after dinner! Applause.

BTW they’re running a contest where two lucky people can grab the chance to win two tickets to Sydney and be the special guests at Chef Arnold’s soon-to-open dessert bar! Follow their Instagram @nomzjakarta for more details!

Nomz Kitchen and Pastry
Central Department Store G Fl.
Grand Indonesia Shopping Town East Mall
Jl. M.H. Thamrin No. 1
Jakarta Pusat 10310
021 - 2358 1211
Opening Hours: 11 AM - 10 PM (closed on 12 AM on weekends)
Pricing: $$
Dresscode: Casual
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email: eatandtreatsindo@gmail.com

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