TEMPO.CO, Jakarta - What will you go through to get a bite of a tart? for Meliana Darmawan, the answer is a 900-kilometer flight trip from Batam to Jakarta.
Tempo met with her, who is a college student at Singapore, when queuing for Pablo, a Japanese cheese tart, at the Gandaria City mall, South Jakarta, yesterday. "I'm so curious, a Singapore food blooger reviewed the cake so ravishingly," said 20-year-old Meliana.
The Pablo cheese tart is priced Rp169,000 per 20-centimeter large pan. The mix of cheese cake and egg tart has become a favorite for many. The custard cheese filled the crunchy edges of the cake, similar to a filo pastry skin. The top of the cheese cream is covered by apricot jam. If you eat it fresh from the oven, the cheese at the center of the cake will melt. A mix of savory sensation from cheese and apricot will be revealed inside your mouth. In addition to cheese, there are also variant of chocolate and matcha, also known as green tea.
Besides tart, Pablo also has a smaller version, which is named Pablo Mini, and it is priced Rp45,000. This variant is only measuring down the size, but still the same in quality and taste. In Japan, Pablo Mini is usually eaten after being stored in the fridge. So the texture becomes denser, just like an ice cream.
Aji Firdaus, Manager of Pablo Operational in Indonesia, said that the process of making the cake is the same with the one in Japan. The concept of an `open kitchen` in Pablo Gandaria helps uncovering the process of making the tart.
First of all, the skin is baked until crispy, and then the cheese cream, which was made from Australian cheese, poured into the tart skin. Then the tart is put into the oven for a few minutes, stamped with Pablo's logo, then covered by apricot cream.
Because of the intense hype, buyers have to struggle just to get a piece of it. They have to queue up a 30-meter queue line across the stall. It needs at least 15-20 minutes to get a queue number coupon. The coupon has to be traded in front of the ordering counter. Tempo recorded that buyers need to spend at least 30-to-45 minutes of their time to get a Pablo tart.
For those of you who want to get a taste of Pablo, make sure you arrive since early morning to get a complete variant. When Tempo arrived at around 11:00 in the morning, the Mini Pablo were almost sold out. That is why, The manager restrict the purchase of the tart a maximum of one pan per person to maintain the product's quality. "We maintain the freshly baked principal," said Aji, who claimed that the stall could sell 800 tarts and 1,000 Mini Pablos everyday.
KORAN TEMPO
