Sari Bundo, Jakarta

What trip to Jakarta is complete without some kickass padang food? Our last meal in Jakarta had to be our most memorable one.

Padang food is quite rampant in Jakarta but few come close to the selection and reputation of Sari Bundo.

The padang concept of dining is almost communal because it consists of many many small little plates of food that'll they place on your table. You take what you want and that which you don't consume, they er.. recycle. So it's better to have padang food as a late breakfast or an early lunch because that's when the food is the most fresh!

Ok... we started with sup buntut and some satays but obviously this could not satiate us.

Another soup, some boiled chicken and a plate of curried chicken. Ok it was getting abit better but this is not what padang food is about. We had to call the man in to fix this.

Alright, here's the man. This guy is actually a trainee, the more seasoned waiters would carry twice the amount of dishes.

Now, this is what I call real padang style dining! Everything was so good we actually finished it all.

A special mention has to be said for two of their dishes. This is the ayam goreng (fried chicken) and this was so crunchy that you could just chomp down even some of the smaller bones.

The beef rendang here is famous or should I say "infamous" because the secret ingredient in this is rumored to be marijuana! It was very tasty though, but I'm not sure if it really got me addicted. I don't think I'm craving any right now... or am I? Argh... need marijuana-laced rendang.... need... cold turkey isn't fun haha.

All of this good food was washed down with a chocolate avocado smoothie. Just the thing to quench my thirst after all this spices and chilli. Since this is my last post for this Jakarta trip, I'll like to express a big big "thank you" to JA and his family for being such excellent hosts and extending their hospitality towards me.

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Bali Hai, Jakarta

I was feeling rather warm and felt the weather getting to me abit. I was really craving a glass of ice-cold water. Well, since we didn't have any water chilled at home, I went for the next closest thing, Indonesian beer haha! This stuff is so light it's practically like a soft drink. Still, it was very much welcomed on this warm day.

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Bakmi Asiong, Jakarta

Yet another Bakmi (noodle) joint. I seem to be trying a new bakmi joint every morning with the grand old dame of Bakmi Orpa on the first morning to Bakmi Tan on the second and now this new kid on the block Asiong.

Bakmi Asiong claims to serve a special type of noodle from Surabaya but it's essentially the same style of shredded chicken noodle.

Started off with a serve of the faux meatballs and the ridiculously huge wantons that had like more skin than meat. These weren't too bad, the oil that was used tasted quite fresh.

They didn't have the fried crispy bits like Bakmi Tan here but they did top it off with some crispy shallots which added a nice fragrant touch. The vegetables were in a separate soup bowl and there was another bowl which had some rather processed meatballs. There were also straw mushrooms in this which is a plus because I love mushrooms. The texture of the noodle was also quite good but the big downside to this place was everything was just way too salty. If they weren't so heavy-handed with the salt, I reckon this would be very delicious. Then again, what this young couple produces is very promising and I'll definitely give them another shot the next time I'm back.

Here's my somewhat skewed, subjective and biased verdict on the Bakmi joints that I've tried.
1. Bakmi Tan - This won Bakmi Orpa by a very close margin because of the crispy bits, larger serves and the far less outrageous price.
2. Bakmi Orpa - The original with such a long history, this definitely tasted good but such indulgences are rather dear even by Singapore's standards, let alone Jakarta's.
3. Bakmi Asiong - Very promising joint run by a young couple, too bad a bit of excess sodium chloride dampened what could have been an excellent dish.

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Singapore Franchises, Jakarta

Just some interesting Singaporean franchises that I chanced upon whilst I was in Jakarta. Indonesians make up a rather large fraction of our tourist population and as such it's not surprising that some of them have acquired a palate for some of our local fare.

Teck Kee Tanglin Pau, funny how I was almost tempted to buy something here although I've never ever bought anything from their Singapore branch.


Ya Kun Kaya Toast, at least it's heartening to some Singaporean expatriates that still they can get their coffee and egg jam with toast fixes in Jakarta.

Quite alot of franchises have come and gone over the years, apparently Boon Tong Kee was quite popular at some point but has pretty much fizzled out. I think the current rage now is Breadtalk. Starting a franchise is definitely a good way to make some cash but a lot has to be done on the research component to ensure that it'll not only be profitable but wouldn't just turn out to be another fad as well.

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Bumbu Den, Jakarta

Just an interesting random aside before we go to the food part. I saw this sign as I was exiting a mall, it was right next to the "No Smoking" and "No Pets" sign. I don't know if this was supposed to reassure me or not but a good thing I left my Smith and Wesson at home haha.

Bumbu Den serves grilled seafood North Sulawesian style and their specialty here is charcoal grilled grouper (as seen on their card) in a spicy chilli salsa.

The orangy chilli salsa in the foreground is the one used with their grilled fish. It may look quite mild but it's really quite potent and very tasty when mixed with freshly steamed white rice. The other salsa in the background is more like a salad and is rather mild.

Soto ikan (Fish soup), a lot of people would be more familiar with soto ayam which is the chicken equivalent but I was quite surprised that this fish variant tasted very good too. It uses similar spices to soto ayam and somehow that complemented the chunks of fish meat very well.

We ordered the extra-large version for their grilled spicy fish. Despite being a large fish, it was still grilled to perfection. The flesh was flakingly smooth and supple and it was fully cooked as well without being too dry. Now I can understand why every table here has at least one of these as well.

A side-dish of corn fritters. Freshly fried, these savory crackers went very well with the rest of the spicier dishes. Although the batter was crispy the corn kernals still remained rather juicy, not bad.

We ordered their crab specialty and was quite surprised to see that it was cooked in some sort of chilli sauce. We assumed that a North Sulawesian specialty would be grilled as well, I guess we should have enquired first before ordering. This tasted only pretty average, I still prefer the sort we get locally. Now I can understand why we were the only table with this as well haha.

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Nasi Udok, Jakarta

Apparently, nasi udok is another must-try in Indonesia. When it was first described to me, I thought this sounded like our local nasi lemak but it's actually really quite different.

There's a spread of semi-cooked food where you select what you want. Most of the ingredients seem to be soaking in some sort of brine-like liquid.

They had fresh petai here, so in the basket it definitely went. Petai is also known as "smelly bean" (臭豆) but it has nothing to do with smelly beancurd which is essentially made from soybeans. If it's of any use for clarification, its scientific name is Parkia speciosa. These were to be fried with beef.

Our little selection from the massive spread.

So all the food is thrown into a wok of oil for deep-frying. In this way, your food is always guaranteed freshly cooked since they're only cooked after you select your choice.

The sambal is freshly grounded here. Those mini chillies are extremely potent!

The man making swift work of the sambal.

Served just in time for the food.

The rice in nasi udok is very much like the rice in nasi lemak except it's just slightly more savory but alot more fluffy. Coconut milk is the base of its fragrance here as well.

Fried chicken and beancurd. The local chicken which has such a good bite and seasoned in that brine-like liquid was crisp without any need for any flour or batter. The crispy fried beancurd went very well with the sambal.

Beef fried with the petai. This dish is a clear winner, the beef although lean and deep-fried was still very tender and the petai exuded this unique fragrance and flavor. Very tasty.

Freshly stir-fried morning glory is always welcomed. It's good to have an obligatory vegetable dish in most meals but it's even better when it tastes as kickass as the meats as well!

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Cendol Elizabeth, Jakarta

I have no idea why this stall is called "Cendol Elizabeth" because it seems that it has always been this guy running it. Maybe his wife/sister/mother/girl friend is Elizabeth? Maybe he was Elizabeth haha! But the origin of the name didn't really matter because I was told he made a really kickass es cendol.

Whilst waiting for the cendol to be served, we had some teh botol. Teh botol is essentially a bottled sweet tea and is ridiculously popular in Indonesia. It's drank almost as a water substitute here.

Now this is what I call es cendol. It was way better than the one I had at Pondok Laguna. The coconut milk was very rich and thick, I could taste pandan in the cendol bits i.e. it wasn't just colored jelly. As a bonus, there were also slivers of young coconut flesh and jackfruit in it. Very refreshing on a hot Jakarta afternoon.

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Indonesian Street Food, Jakarta

After breakfast at Bakmi Tan, we took a walk down a nearby street that sells quite a lot of food in the morning. Even though the serve at Bakmi Tan was slightly larger than Bakmi Orpa's, one bowl of noodles is still hardly enough for breakfast so we thought it was a good idea to fuel up some more. Cakes are very popular for breakfast here and most stalls sell a mix of both traditional and Westernized cakes.

More cakes, it's always advisable to buy the stuff fresh because coconut cream goes off pretty quick.

More of those flour based Indonesian shumais.

If you're up for something more hearty for breakfast, there are some stalls selling mixed rice. Most people actually buy this to-go as a packed lunch.

Sate babi (Indonesian pork satay), bought some of this to-go as well.

I thought this inquisitive kid looked rather amusing as he was quite fascinated with my taking photographs of food that I decided to snap a shot of him as well heh.

Smelled the fragrance of this soto tangkar stall from a distance and decided to order a bowl.

It's primarily a beef-based soup, here's the man slicing up the ingredients before pouring the piping hot soup over it in a bowl.

Topped off with some emping, the slightly sweetish and savory taste of this was quite good indeed. It wasn't too spicy but in that way at least its original flavor wasn't overpowered.

The sate babi we bought earlier was really hot but it still tasted pretty good. The strong use of coconut milk in Indonesian sate is perhaps one of the most distinguishing characteristics which makes it different from the satays we get in Singapore.

Of course a meal has to end with some desserts. This is an assortment of Indonesian cakes that we bought home.

Indonesian ondeh ondeh (they call it something else here but I can't recall what it is...), they are slightly smaller than the ones we get in Singapore but the skin is alot thinner and softer and it still had enough sweet brown syrup within to make this most delectable.

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