Category: Indonesian

Traditionally varies between each region of Indonesia. The majoriy of Indonesian food in Sydney is influenced by Western Java and Padang region.

Dapur Ibu Alya

Dapur Ibu Alya Review:

We went to Dapur Ibu Alya the first time on the 30th December 2017, one week after their grand opening. They were so new that they had not even put down the signboard from the previous restaurant. Dapur Ibu Alya is located on the main street of Lakemba, Haldon.

Dapur Ibu Alya is an Indonesian restaurant that serves food primarily from the Western part of Indonesia, specifically from the city of Padang. Their main dishes were mostly spicy, except probably their fried rice and noodles.

3 Choice – $11 – Rice + 2 meat + 1 vegetables

The hot bar deal is one of the main features of the restaurant. Basically, you choose three things from the bain-marie and have a quick lunch or dinner meal. The menu might differ from time to time but generally speaking, you will find a few curry options, some vegetables and some fried stuff.

Iga Bakar Komplit – $12 – Grilled ribs with rice

The grilled ribs are actually not spicy (unless you choose to add the chilli sauce in the small container that comes with it). The portion was actually not too bad, given that it was only $12.

Gulai Limpa – $12 – Spleen Curry

This is why we visited the restaurant in the first place. We have heard through the grapevine that they have a very nice spleen curry. Spleen is a part of the internal organ of a cow, obviously not everyone’s cup of tea. Unfortunately, this curry is usually the first one to sell out. If you come to the restaurant just for this, I would advise you to call first to avoid disappointment.

Sate Padang – $11 – Beef Skewer with rice cake

Sate Padang is quite an intereting satay from the city of Padang. Instead of the usual peanut sauce, they have the very distinct-looking thick yellow sauce.

Mie Ayam Bakso – $11 – Meatball noodle soup with Chicken

Mie ayam bakso is usually a favourite of the little one.

Mie Goreng Ayam – $10 – Chicken Noodles Stir-fry

An alternative, if you like the noodles stir-fried instead of just boiled.

Es Campur – $5 – Mixed Fruit Punch

Es campur is a traditional Indonesian drink that is pretty refreshing. Especially during a hot day.

Es Duren – $6 – Durian juice

I don’t think it needs an introduction. You either love it or hate it. We are from the ‘love durian’ side.

The final verdict for Dapur Ibu Alya

I have been here quite a few times after that first visit. It is a pretty good option for an Indonesian restaurant around the area. However, don’t expect fine dining quality and service in this restaurant.

Do you think I should go?
I think Indonesians would appreciate this restaurant more as the taste was pretty authentic. It could be a bit challenging for the others (unless if you are familiar with Indonesian cuisine).

Rating for Dapur Ibu Alya:

7.0 / 10

Taste: 7.0 / 10

Price: $10 – $15 main dish

Place: 7.0 / 10

Details:

41 Haldon Street, Lakemba 2195

+61 404 910 060

Dapur Ibu Alya on Facebook

Mar 27, 2018
Sate House Bogowonto

Sate House Bogowonto Review:

This week’s review is from my hometown back in Surabaya, Indonesia. The restaurant is called Sate House Bogowonto. As the name would suggest, their menu heavily involves meat on a skewer.

Sate Kambing Muda (Daging) – Rp 37.5k / 5 skewers – Special lamb satay in Sate House Bogowonto style, most favourite menu

The lamb satay was the hero dish in this restaurant. It comes with either peanut sauce, sweet soy sauce with chilli, or a combination of both.

Sate Kambing Muda (Campur) – Rp 70k / 10 skewers – Special mixed lamb satay consists of meat, served with soya / peanut sauce

Basically this is still the lamb satay. However, instead of just the meat part, you get an assortment of ‘other’ things like liver, kidney, or even lamb fat.

Quite a lot of Indonesians actually enjoy this option more than just the meat, including myself.

Sate Ayam – Rp 37k / 10 skewers – Chicken satay

It’s probably not the best chicken satay in Surabaya. However, it was quite acceptable.

Gule Kikil Kambing – Rp 56k – Lamb leg Gulai cooked with special recipe from Bogowonto served with Mlinjo crackers

When you are eating a lamb satay in Surabaya, gule is usually its pairing. Gule is a kind of Indonesian curry with a consistency in between a clear soup and a thick curry paste. Seriously, warm rice + satay + gule = happiness!

Jamur Tiram Goreng Crispy – Rp 22k – Deep fried oyster mushroom with chilli sauce

I must say this is quite an unusual dish to be served at a satay house. However it’s a welcome addition for me as it added the crunchy element to my dining experience.

The final verdict for Sate House Bogowonto

Sate House Bogowonto serves quite a nice chicken and lamb skewers. However, their price is more on the expensive scale for a satay in Surabaya.

Did you know?

There were two items on the menu that we were really interested in ordering: oven-baked lamb and goat head curry. Unfortunately (or probably fortunately for you), they were not available at that time.

Rating for Sate House Bogowonto:

7.0 / 10

Taste: 7.5 / 10

Price: Rp 37k / 10 skewers for chicken and Rp 70k / 10 skewers for lamb

Place: 7.0 / 10

Details:

Jalan Musi No 37, Surabaya

+62 31 9901 4963

Sate House Bogowonto on Facebook

Jul 18, 2017
Remboelan

Remboelan Review:

This week’s post is from our trip to Indonesia earlier this year. It is an Indonesian restaurant in Jakarta called Remboelan. We went to the one in Plaza Senayan. The venue is a bit tricky to reach and there are no elevators going up to its level. So, it is quite a battle if you have your grandparents or disabled person dining with you. Also, given that it is located in one of the best malls in Jakarta, you could expect hefty price tags (by Indonesian standards).

The menu is like the who’s who list of famous food around the country. They have a lot of different kinds of food. You might want to take your time browsing through them. On this occasion, we went with a gazillion of people ordering gazillion of food. So, I might not be talking about each of them individually as this post would look more like an essay.

Hors d’oeuvre
In Indonesia, the appetizers look more like desserts than savoury dishes. Remboelan can do this assortment of snacks, or locally known as ‘jajan pasar‘, served before all guests arrive.

Soup

We ordered two soups from Central Java: asem-asem iga and tongseng sapi. They were both beef soup. I wasn’t really paying attention to them.

Asem-asem iga Putri Solo – 79k – Sour Beef Ribs Soup

Tongseng Sapi Telaga Sarangan – 60k – Curry-like beef soup

Meat

The strength of Indonesian food is in the meat and fish departments. Beef Balado from Padang and Javanese Beef Steak (known as Selat) from Solo are probably two of the most prominent dishes in Indonesia.

Balado is pretty spicy, so please make sure you are well equipped to eat it!

Balado Dendeng Hijau Padang Panjang – 65k – Dried beef with spicy balado sauce

Bistik sapi Jawa (Selat Solo) – 68k – Javanese beef steak

Ayam Krispi Saus Mangga Muda Midodari – 58k – Crispy Chicken with young mango sauce

Fish

Indonesians (read: my family) love grilled fish. We are blessed with overabundance of fish in the region. On this occasion, we chose gourami and snapper. The snapper had a spicy flavour native to the Eastern part of Indonesia, Manado.

Ikan Gurami bumbu kemiri – 95k – Grilled Gourami

Kakap utuh Woku Belanga Bunaken – 225k – Spicy Snapper

Kakap utuh Woku Belanga Bunaken – 225k

Vegetables and Noodles

These two vegetables, along with eggplant, are probably three of the most ordered by us. In addition to that, we love our noodles too!

Kangkung Bumbu Terasi – 42k – Water spinach with shrimp paste

Cah Taoge Jambal – 42k – stir-fried bean sprouts

Mie Goreng Remboelan – 43k – Remboelan Noodles

Drinks

Indonesians usually drink black coffee. Drinking with condensed milk, a la Vietnamese coffee, is probably the only other way.

Kopi Tubruk – Black coffee

Es Delima Larasati – 33k

The final verdict for Remboelan

I know the price seems to be quite excessive by Indonesian standards. However, Remboelan presented a collection of wonderful dishes that you would otherwise need to travel 1,000 kms for them.

Did you know?

Similar to other well-known restaurants, Remboelan has plenty branches all over Jakarta. They are mostly located in high-end malls.

Rating for Remboelan:

8.0 / 10

Taste: 7.5 / 10

Price: Rp 40k – Rp 225k ~ $4 – $20

Place: 8.5 / 10

Details:

Plaza Senayan, Lantai 4, Jl. Asia Afrika No 8, Jakarta

+62 21 5725088

www.remboelan.com

Jun 20, 2017
Naughty Nuri’s Warung

Naughty Nuri’s Warung Review:

During our visit to Melbourne at the end of last month, we went to eat at an Indonesian restaurant with our friends from Melbourne. Historically speaking, Indonesian restaurants in Melbourne are never on par with Sydney ones. So, I did not put any expectations to this week’s restaurant, Naughty Nuri’s Warung.

A lot of the dishes in Naughty Nuri’s Warung are spicy… like really spicy by non-Indonesian standard (and by my standard). So, please be mindful of the two chilis icon.

Naughty Nuri’s 1995 signature BBQ pork ribs – $29 half rack – Nuri’s signature marinated pork ribs with Balinese spice, grilled to perfection.

BBQ pork ribs is the signature dish for Naughty Nuri’s. The difference with all of the other pork ribs in Australia is that this one was very spicy.

Ikan Bakar Jimbaran – $28 – Grilled barramundi fillet topped with Makassar hot sauce (made from ginger flower, lemongrass, shallot and chilli), served with placing kangkung, sambal hijau teri asin and sambal matah.

The grilled fish was also quite spicy. Somehow I could still eat it. It is wise to order the optional steam rice $2 or Coconut rice $3. Rice lessens the spice level.

Nuri’s Dirty Duck (half duck) – $29 – Nuri’s signature duck marinated then simmered in traditional Balinese spices, then deep fried until crispy.

Along with the BBQ pork ribs, this duck is why people visit Naughty Nuri. Please be mindful that this dish is for half a duck. So, it is quite a big dish!

This dish along with the next two also came with three chilli sauces and a choice of vegetables: plecing kangkung, Balinese lawar and plecing terong goreng.

Crispy pork belly with rice – $16 – Pork belly steamed and coated in our secret marinade. Served with pork crackling.

One of our friends ordered the pork belly dish. It looked quite small when compared to the ribs, fish and dirty duck.

Ayam betutu gilimanuk – $14 – Whole chicken maryland marinated in traditional Balinese spice, braised till tender and full of flavours.

My friend commented that the chicken in the Australian version was quite large when compared to Indonesian chickens.

Monster Bakso – $8 – Giant beef ball in traditional pepperish clear soup served with a side of sambal tomat terasi.

The monster bakso was my son’s order. Unfortunately they came in last and was probably forgotten until we asked them. It was quite different when compared to our usual Indonesian bakso.

Truffle fries served with sweet chilli mayo – $6

We ordered some fries to appease the little guy because of the monster ball fiasco.

Es Teler – $9 – The classic Indonesian fruit cocktail of avocado, coconut, nata de coco and jackfruit.

Es teler is probably an all-time favourite dessert for Indonesian people. Its literal translation to English is ‘Drunken Ice’.

The final verdict for Naughty Nuri’s Warung

Naughty Nuri’s Warung is one of the best Indonesian restaurants I have every tried in Australia. They could probably be amongst one of the best in my list. Unfortunately, their service is letting them down considerably.

Did you know?

Naughy Nuri’s Warung is originated from a small warung in Ubud, Bali. I have been to its original site, but I ironically I enjoyed the one in Melbourne better. It just lacks the Balinese scenery.

Rating for Naughty Nuri’s Warung:

8.0 / 10

Taste: 8.0 / 10

Price: $14 – $59 per main dish

Place: 8.0 / 10

Details:

Shop 317, Level 3, Melbourne Central

+61 3 9650 6828

http://www.naughtynuris.com.au/

Apr 10, 2017
Grilled Beef Tongue Recipe

This week we will be writing about an Indonesian recipe with a little twist, Japanese-style. The recipe is for Grilled Beef Tongue with miso butter sauce.

To be perfectly honest, we weren’t planning to make the Japanese version of it. However, we ran out of the Indonesian ingredients and had to make a little adjustment. Eventually, it worked out brilliantly!

Grilled beef tongue is one of my favourite Indonesian dishes. It takes quite a long time to prepare and very quick to devour.

What do we need to make Grilled Beef Tongue?

1. Whole Beef Tongue – it can be pretty intimidating
2. Onions
3. Garlic
4. Miso paste – you can get any packaged miso paste from grocery shop
5. Butter – same proportion to the miso paste

I did not put a specific number because you may add or reduce according to your need.

The preparation for making Grilled Beef Tongue

The hardest part in the making of this is waiting. You will need to boil the whole beef tongue with onions and garlic in a stockpot/saucepan for more than 3 hours.

After 3 hours of boiling, remove the beef tongue from the stockpot. You will need to peel off the outer layer of the tongue. If you boil the tongue long enough, you will be able to peel it off easily. Otherwise, add an extra hour in the stockpot.

How do we make the Grilled Beef Tongue?

1. After peeling off its outer layer, slice the tongue around 0.5 – 1 cm thick.
2. Melt the butter. 20 seconds in the microwave should be enough.
3. Mix the miso paste with melted butter.
4. Brush the miso butter sauce onto the beef tongue.
5. Grill the beef tongue on both sides.

A little tips to make your perfect Grilled Beef Tongue

1. Like I mentioned earlier, you need to boil the beef tongue long enough so that you can easily peel off the outer layer.
2. Serve the beef tongue over rice!
3. For the Indonesian recipe, we usually use the ‘satay padang‘ paste from Munik. You can also substitute the sauce with your favourite basting sauce.

Apr 3, 2017
Bebek Tepi Sawah

Bebek Tepi Sawah Review:

Our review this week came from a now-franchised restaurant in Indonesia. Bebek tepi sawah is literally translated in English to ‘edge-of-a-rice-field duck’. The first Bebek Tepi Sawah restaurant was opened in Ubud, Bali. On this occasion, we went to one of its branches in Pondok Indah Mall in Jakarta. The menu is quite similar to the one in Bali, but with more emphasise on the Indonesian dishes.

Duck restaurant in Indonesia is usually famous because of its chili sauces. In Bebek tepi sawah, you get three different chilli sauces: red chilli, fried chilli, and Balinese’s special sambal matah. Each and every one of them is above my spicy threshold.

Tepi sawah crispy duck or grilled duck – 109 – Our signature traditional duck with choices of deep fried or grilled served with Balinese vegetable, rice, and three types of sambal (merah, matah, goreng)

Their signature duck came in either grilled with soy sauce or deep fried. The grilled version is more on the sweet side and the deep fried is savoury.

Bebek Betutu – 102k – One of all-time favourite dishes in Bali, the duck is stuffed with banana leaf and traditional balinese spices, then grilled. Served together with lawar, rice, and sambal.

Betutu is the traditional steamed-version of the duck. Betutu spice is notoriously spicy. I wouldn’t recommend you touching it unless you are an avid chilli lover.

Iga bakar tepi sawah – 109k – A set of grilled beef short ribs marinated with soy sauce, served with lawar and rice

This was the dish that I ordered. The ribs portion was quite small when compared to the ones in Sydney.

Sup Iga Garang Asam – 99k – Braised short ribs beef soup with special sour herbs and served with our special chili

Sate Bangli – 65k – Marinated chicken skewers with soy sauce, grilled, and served with sambal pelalah

The final verdict for Bebek Tepi Sawah

When your restaurant is called ‘edge-of-a-rice-field duck’, eating in a giant mall in Jakarta somewhat diminished its value. The duck itself did not manage to beat my favourite duck restaurant in Indonesia. I quite enjoyed the beef ribs I ordered.

Did you know?

Bebek Tepi Sawah has four outlets in Jakarta – the same number of outlets they have in Bali!

Rating for Bebek Tepi Sawah:

7.0 / 10

Taste: 7.0 / 10

Price: Rp. 100k+ per main dish

Place: 7.0 / 10

Details:

Pondok Indah Mall 2, Lantai 3, Jl Metro Pondok Indah, Jakarta Selatan

+62 21 7592 0667

http://www.bebektepisawahrestaurant.com/

Mar 29, 2017