EAT - DRINK - MACET: A JAKARTA FOOD BLOG

Gule Daul was one of our first regular eating spots when we moved to Jakarta back in 2013. We used to go out for a few sneaky drinks at Camden (which is literally a 10m stumble away from Gule Daul), and then in the wee hours of the morning on our walk home, we’d stop off at Gule Daul for several plates of gulai (gule) sapi, a type of soupy beef curry. As we became more responsible adults (ahem!), we stopped going out until the witching hours, which sadly meant no more Gule Daul. It was a unique place that only really opened at about 10pm, much too late for a regular dinner but great for a late night delight.

Until recently.

Since moving from our beloved Radio Dalam in 2015, we now live quite close to Gule Daul, and recently we noticed that they have begun opening much earlier than before. Around 5pm in fact. So we decided we had to give it another go. Would the gulai be as good stone cold sober in the fading light of the evening as it was all those months ago when we should have been fast asleep?

We are pleased to say: yes, yes, it is.

Gule Daul’s gule is simple, but delicious. Offering nothing else except beef gule, portions are small but fantastic. Their gule is essentially chunks of long-cooked beef in a yellow curry sauce, given a squirt of kecap manis (sweet soy sauce) and a handful of fried garlic. All orders come with a side plate of rice, a few pieces of jeruk purut (kaffir lime), and a massive serving of crunchy kerupuk (prawn crackers). That’s all there is to it.

The beef is surprisingly tender, and it’s all good cuts – no offal and little fat. The kuah (sauce) is soupy, as we mentioned, and a deep orangey-yellow in colour. However, it’s the fried garlic that elevates the dish from standard street fare, especially as there are literally tens of places to buy gulai on the streets around Blok M. It adds an extra layer of flavour to the dish that brings everything together.

Es jeruk (iced fresh orange juice) is the best partner for this gulai. It’s fresh and sweet, using real oranges, and cuts through the oiliness of the gule.

Service is quick and friendly, with waiters placing plates of gulai in front of you within a minute of sitting down, and although the warung is on the side of the road, it’s spacious, not too hot, and cutely-decorated. They’ve really spruced up the spot recently, too, adding splashes of colour everywhere and have even hung balloons from the roof. Not to mention an old-school pop soundtrack full of Celine Dion.

It’s quite a unique place, but one that is wonderfully and undeniably Indonesian in the whole experience. If you’re in the Gandaria area, this is must, either for dinner after a long day at work or as a late night post-libation treat. It’s certainly not cheap, but trust us: you won’t be disappointed with the flavour.

Location: Jl. Gandaria Raya No. 336, Kramat Pela, Kebayoran Baru. Between the bengkel (motor mechanics) and Camden

Rating: More expensive than you’d expect, but absolutely scumptious. You’ll probably want to eat more than one bowl.

The lesser-known sibling of udon and ramen, soba noodles are Japanese buckwheat noodles, usually eaten cold with a dipping sauce. Very refreshing on a sweltering day.

But that’s not what Abura Soba Yamatoten does with its soba. The unique dishes at this restaurant, which now has a few branches around Jakarta, instead involve warm soba doused with rice wine vinegar and chilli oil. Sound different? We thought so, too.

The oil and vinegar give the noodles a very interesting mouth feel; kind of sticky, as though a sauce of thin flour has been drizzled over them. It’s a strange sensation, but somehow very enjoyable, especially with the sharpness of the vinegar cutting straight through everything else.

The eating instructions the soba told us to add two swirls of chilli oil and two swirls of vinegar to most dishes. We have to ‘fess up to adding extra chilli oil, which was decidedly not spicy and more of a red colouring, it seemed.

Unlike their soupy cousins, soba noodles are served dry with various toppings. Our selections included menma (pickled bamboo shoots), chopped-up nori (dried seaweed), grated winter radish, finely-chopped spring onions, and chasiu pork (chicken is available as a halal alternative). On our second visit, Abura Soba was sadly out of menma, so they added extra pork instead.

The two dishes we tried – original abura soba (top of page), and shio sudachi abura soba (above) – were similar, except one had winter radish where the other had menma (or was supposed to have, in the case of our second visit). The second dish was also served with advice not to add chilli, although we weren’t entirely sure why. Portions are on the small side.

Abura Soba also offers several side dishes to round out your meal. The menma is the same as the one served with the noodles, but has the pleasingly crunchy addition of white sesame seeds on top. The gyoza (pan-fried dumplings; below) have a brilliant, chewy crust on the bottoms, and while decent, were lacking in spring onion/garlic chives, leaving them a bit plain in terms of taste.

There isn’t anything very exciting in terms of drinks, with the usual ocha (green tea) and iced tea being the most popular choices.

Service is slow and the manager could do with adding a few extra staff, but fortunately meals are cooked quickly. And eaten just as quickly, if you’re anything like us.

 Location: Lower Ground Floor, Senayan City.

Rating: Good for something different, but we wouldn’t come to Senayan City just to eat here. If we were already there, though, we’d definitely drop by.

After attending an event in Kemang with friends on the weekend, Kate dropped by Lippo Kemang Village’s new Vietnamese restaurant, Saigon Delight. Apparently, it opened back in September 2016, but we rarely visit Kemang Village (for reasons we won’t go into here), so its existence was a pleasing discovery.

The group shared some vegetable cha gio (fried spring rolls) to begin with, which were decent but not mind-blowing. The filling was primarily mushroom, carrot, and vermicelli noodles, while the dipping sauce was a thin but delicious chilli and fish sauce combination.

One major positive at Saigon Delight is the wide range of vegetarian options available. Almost all of the dishes have a vegetable or tofu option, even the pho, banh mi, salads, and porridges.

Kate ordered her standard taste test for Vietnamese restaurants – bun bo xao, a lemongrass beef salad bowl with vermicelli and raw vegetables, plus a chopped up fried spring roll on the side. The reason Kate likes to order bun bo xao – aside from the fact that it is generally delicious – is that it shows the quality of the restaurant’s meat, the flavour of their dipping/pouring sauce, and the freshness of their vegetables. It’s an easy way to see how well the restaurant understands each of the individual elements.

Saigon Delight puts together a great bun bo xao. The meat is beautifully flavoured with lemongrass and fish sauce, and is neither too tender nor too tough. The pouring sauce appears to be the same as the dipping sauce for the spring rolls, but this is a good thing, because it is well-suited to Vietnamese salads, coating everything without being too sticky or thick. The vegetables are fresh and crisp, although the small amount of herbs is a bit stingy and could be increased.

To drink, the iced fresh kumquat was literally an eye-opener: sour and sharp, and wonderfully refreshing. It comes complete with a kiamboy or dried sour plum, and a sprig of mint, and was more like a slushy than juice. Perfect for humid Jakarta.

Saigon Delight offers a large selection of both vegetarian and non-veg food, and everything the group tried was deemed ‘pretty good’, in the words of one of Kate’s friends. Service was fast and helpful with explanations, although the prices are a little high (it is Kemang, after all). In the end, though? Our favourite Vietnamese in town remains Do An (which we’ve hilariously just realised we’ve never reviewed for Eat Drink Macet. We’ll fix that soon!).

 Location: Avenue of the Stars, Upper Ground, Lippo Kemang Village, Jl. Pangeran Antasari.

Rating: Excellent Vietnamese food, if a little expensive.

It’s not often we’d focus on a street stall selling was is essentially just a snack, but the rujak (fruit salad with sweet-spicy dipping sauce) at Rujak Asli Aroma Muaro Padang is so good that we’re willing to break the routine for it.

Ibu Nova is the owner of this special rujak business; she’s been selling the dish out of the back of a pick-up van at Pasar Mayestik for almost thirty years.

So, what’s so special about this rujak? For starters, there are two different varieties at Ibu Nova’s stall: rujak potong (fruit cut into bite-size pieces with the sauce on the side) and rujak cacah (shredded fruit pre-mixed with the sauce). Secondly, the fruit itself is superb – fresh, under-ripe (as fruit in rujak should be), and an excellent variety. In one pack, you’ll find green mango, kedondong (ambarella), pineapple, bengkoang (jicama), jambu air (Java apple), papaya, sweet potato, and cucumber.

And finally, the sauce, or the bumbu rujak as it is called in Indonesia. Oh, the sauce! Ibu Nova’s bumbu is simply phenomenal, and is served in little cups on the side of the rujak potong. It’s a much sourer, tamarind-heavy sauce than we usually encounter on the streets of Jakarta, and perfect for a hot day, especially after wandering around the busy streets of Pasar Mayestik. What’s interesting is that she makes it without any chili at all, then asks if you would like some added. We highly recommend you do, as rujak isn’t quite the same without a bit of spice.

Ibu Nova, who is often assisted by her husband and daughter, also sells kripik balado (spicy-sweet cassava crisps), for those who haven’t quite had enough chili yet.

 Location: Jl Tebah III, Pasar Mayestik. The truck is located towards the back end of the complex (further away from Jl Kyai Maja). Look for the yellow canvas sign with Rujak Asli Aroma Muaro Padang on it.

Rating: Our favourite rujak in the whole of Jakarta. Sour, sweet, spicy, and fresh; you couldn’t improve on her recipe if you tried.

Often times, the best discoveries are the unexpected ones.

That was Kate’s reaction this morning on discovering a section of food stalls in Pasar Mayestik that she had never come across before. Located in Basement 2, near the vegetable sellers, there are a group of women selling rice-based meals (urap, Padang, warteg, etc), including one of Kate’s favourites: gudeg.

We’ve written about gudeg before (see Gudeg Echo) but that’s not going to stop us from doing it again! I mean, just look at the chillies in the bowls below:

So tempting! How could you walk past this and not buy something?

Bu Tris’ gudeg is the Yogyakarta-style deep purple-red stewed jackfruit. She serves it up with krecek (spicy buffalo skin) and bits of tempe, and you can choose your add-ons: opor ayam (a very mild chicken curry), tahu bacem (tofu cooked in coconut water), or anything else you feel like.

Kate went for the basics: gudeg, krecek, tahu bacem, and sambal. All were delicious - the gudeg was fairly sweet but not as sweet as some other versions we’ve tried, while the krecek was firey and well-cooked, not at all rubbery. The tahu bacem was also slightly sweet thanks to the coconut water it was cooked in. Everything came together very well and balanced perfectly - the sweetness of the gudeg and tofu was cut through by the spiciness of the krecek and sambal.

Location: Pasar Mayestik, Lantai Basement 2, near the vegetable sellers. Pasar Mayestik is in Kebayoran Baru.

Rating: Highly recommended. Balanced and satisfying.

Occasionally, we skip the main course and go straight to dessert. If this sounds like something up your alley, then we suggest you make your way to Hong Tang, a Taiwanese dessert café. Hong Tang landed in Jakarta a couple of years ago and has spread to a number of the malls throughout the city. These kinds of desserts – the ones with lots of chewy, silky or crunchy bits with ice or ice cream – have become incredibly popular across town, with Taiwanese, Japanese and Korean dessert joints popping up everyone. 

But in our opinion, the Taiwanese-originating Hong Tang is one of the best.

When you sit down at Hong Tang, the first thing you notice is the variety. There are so many choices on offer, and all quite different. All of the combinations are put together to create something different with each dessert; it’s not just the endless adding of extras. However, if adding extras is what you want, you can add whatever you like. Go for one of their combinations or build your own. It is incredibly difficult to choose. Incredibly difficult.

Each of the Hong Tang desserts focuses around one key ingredient. Pudding, grass jelly, soy pudding, q-balls (chewy sweet potato/taro balls), nata de coco (coconut jelly), and so on. To these bases, you can have an assortment of extras: chewy boba pearls, cake bits, red bean, mocha, egg puddings, nuts, fruit, the list goes on. These end up sitting on Ice cream (vanilla, chocolate, red bean, or green tea) or milky ice (taro, vanilla, or soy), or some just a splash of milk. You’ll also get a side of sugar syrup, which changes the flavours all over again. This bowl below is a good example: pudding with shaved ice, mochi, pearls, q-balls, and red beans.

Everything we’ve just listed is on the first four pages of a 10-page menu. We’ve never really moved beyond these first few pages, and only once tried a hot dessert (soy milk soup with tangyuan [sticky rice balls with crushed peanuts and palm sugar inside]).

We weren’t joking when we said it was hard to choose.

One thing that really stands out at Hong Tang is the sheer flavour. All of the flavours are natural, nothing fake here. Everything seems to be made from natural ingredients, and you can really taste it. The smoothness of the sweet potato, the nuttiness of the soy milk, the earthiness in the grass jelly - in each of their desserts, there is a wonderfully natural flavour. 

There’s almost certainly something for everyone at Hong Tang, but it is a dream for those who love texture in their food. Something chewy, something crunchy, and something icey (or hot!). Our favourite element is the q-balls, by the way.

Location: Upper Ground floor, Gandaria City, Jakarta Selatan.

Rating: When you wonder what to have for dessert, and your brain immediately supplies ‘Hong Tang?’, you know it’s a winner.

It probably won’t come as a surprise to readers that we are huge fans of Padang food. The coconutty curries, the rich spices, the never-ending plates of rice, the sambal ijo (green chilli and tomato sambal)... we could go on and on.

One of the Padang restaurants that is most frequently-recommended to us is Restoran Kebayoran Baru Masakan Padang, located right in the middle of Jl Gandaria Raya on the intersection with Jl Gandaria Tengah III. Numerous friends have suggested we venture from our usual haunts to try their rendang (long-cooked beef curry) – some have even claimed it to be the best in South Jakarta. How could we refuse that temptation?

Restoran Kebayoran Baru Masakan Padang has one of the largest and most varied selections of Padang food that we have ever seen. The array at the front counter is simply astonishing, with upwards of 20 different dishes, including multiple versions of eggs, chicken, and beef.

Having not eaten there before, we asked for everything to be dihidangkan, served in bowls on the table in front of us, so we could select what looked most appetising.

To make the best comparison with other Padang restaurants, we stuck to the basics: sayur nangka (jackfruit, cabbage, and long beans), daun singkong rebus (boiled cassava leaves), rendang, pergedel kentang (potato fritter), and the untraditional urap (vegetables with grated coconut and spices).

We’re pleased to say that our friend’s recommendations were correct. The rendang was probably one of the best we’ve had – tender but still chewy, with an incredibly rich, thick sauce. The jackfruit was well-cooked but still firm and full of flavour, and the coconut milk used to cook the vegetables was strong and clearly freshly-pressed. The urap was, surprisingly, very good, as urap is an unusual dish to find at a Padang restaurants, the pergedel was peppery, and the sambal ijo was delightful – just the right level of spicy.

Not only was the food delicious, but the prices are incredibly reasonable for good-quality Padang food. Restoran Kebayoran Baru Masakan Padang is a winner all-round.

 Address: Jl Gandaria Tengah III no. 23, Kebayoran Baru, Jakarta Selatan.

Rating: Very well-priced, very delicious. Beats Sederhana hands down.

Is this the cutest-named warung in Jakarta or what? We think it may well be, and fortunately the food is good, too. Specialising in nasi uduk (rice cooked with spices and coconut milk), Warung Mas Fairy offers the usual deep-fried suspects with its rice - chicken, catfish, tempe, and tofu.

The food is simple but re-fried to order, so it comes to your table hot enough to burn your fingers when you tear into your protein of choice. Each dish is served with cucumber, a handful of kemangi (lemon basil), and a tomato-based sambal. It’s this sambal that makes Warung Mas Fairy so worth visiting - it is fresh and rich, reasonably spicy, and delicately sweet thanks to the use of red shallots cooked down to a silky paste with tomatoes and chillies.

The nasi uduk itself is also an excellent example of the dish. Lightly spiced and just the right amount of oiliness, it comes with a sprinkling of fried shallots on top that rounds out the flavours.

All in all, Warung Mas Fairy offers simple, satisfying food, but it’s the sambal that keeps us going back again and again. Washed down with a fresh es jeruk, you can’t ask for much more.

Address: Opens in the evening on the corner of  Jl Bumi and Jl Kyai Maja, Kebayoran Baru. Near Blenger Burger.

Rating: Highly recommended.

Waking up late on a drizzly Saturday morning, we wondered where we could find some good breakfast to celebrate Chinese New Year. Figuring all the brunch buffets would be long booked out, we headed instead down to the southern-most edge of Kemang to Komunal88.

James had had breakfast there before, while Kate had only ever had a pastry and some tea – why not choose today to have a proper breakfast? After all, the rain wasn’t going anywhere.

Service is incredibly prompt and efficient at Komunal88. The staff are smiley and clearly well-trained, and even the owner came out during our meal to ask how everything was. These folks know how to keep their customers happy, and the obvious repeat customers who popped in and out all morning are a testament to this.

With a number of dishes on the menu being listed as ‘this week only’, we went for some of the dishes we thought we might miss out on another day. Poached egg-lover James chose the Porchettina, a mound of thinly-sliced porchetta and mushrooms with sun-dried tomatoes, two poached eggs, and paprika hollandaise on a slice of bread. The portion size was surprisingly generous, and although the flavours were simple, the different elements worked well together – the salty porchetta, the oily sun-dried tomatoes, the soft mushrooms. Everything was on the same page, and seemed to have been chosen to emphasise the delicacy of the porchetta. The eggs were marginally under-cooked but only just. A great dish nonetheless.

Kate’s Easy Peasy, despite the name, did not include any peas, but rather featured three deliciously chewy bread slices covered in mashed avocado with a sprinkling of feta cheese and three falafels. (A sunny side up egg was supposed to be part of this dish, but Kate does not generally eat eggs, mostly due to the texture she cannot stand.) The mashed avocado was more like guacamole, with tomatoes, garlic, and lemon juice, and offset the strong herbiness of the deep green falafels. They could have been a bit more generous with the feta, but it’s a small quibble.

We’d been eyeing off the impressive selection of tarts and pastries all morning, so snuck in an apricot and pistachio tart while waiting for the rain to end (guess what? It didn’t!). Perfect pastry – crunchy without being impossible to cut through – with thick custard and an almond frangipane base, the tart was the best way to finish up the morning, especially when washed down with a well-made coffee or two.

Komunal88 seem to change their menu regularly to keep things fresh, so it’s worth keeping an eye out every few months to see what’s being dished up. Unlike many coffee joints, they are also open from 7am – just early enough to grab a coffee on the way to work if you’re in the area.

 Address: Jl Ampera Raya no. 6, Kemang, Jakarta Selatan.

Rating: If you’ve just got a raise, or are happy to pay ‘the Kemang tax’, Komunal88 is a great spot for breakfast. Otherwise, it’s very good, but just on the too-expensive side to become a regular hangout.

Hidden away in the back streets of Kebayoran Baru on Jl Patiunus (running parallel to Jl Sisingamangaraja), nestled next to a well-worn sports complex, is a shipping container that’s been converted into a stylish café: Walking Drums. We noticed it spot pop up around six months ago, on our trips to and from work. It took us a while to realise what it was – there is no signboard, not much indication as to what’s inside, and aside from the sport facilities, its neighbouring buildings are all fancy houses. Anyway, we began hearing good things about it, so we visited on 1 January 2017 to start off our year with a strong coffee.

Walking Drums makes a lovely first impression: lots of greenery, a shaded outdoor space, modern indoor space, and friendly, attentive staff. Despite being located on a relatively busy road, it was quiet, save for the background chatter of its patrons. It’s a counter ordering system here, so head inside first before grabbing a table.

Our first meal of 2017: a couple of bao sandwiches, which seems to be their signature dish, some nasi goreng, and coffee (a flat white for James, an iced coffee for new-coffee-drinker Kate). Local coffee subscription service Gordi curates the coffee at Walking Drums, which was a good sign – James gets their fortnightly packet delivered to our kost, and so far their selections have been delightful.

Our bao were two: a Korean bulgogi bao with kimchi salad (above), and a Vietnamese lemongrass bhicken Bao with pickled vegetable salad. Both were highly scrumptious, with succulent meat and sharp salads. The bao buns were just as they should be – soft, chewy, and only slightly sweet. Of the two, we preferred the bulgogi bao, but both were great dishes.

We don’t usually order nasi goreng at restaurants, but having seen a few photos of Walking Drum’s nasi goreng kampoeng with ayam goreng galangal (traditional fried rice with galangal fried chicken; above), we caved and were pleasantly surprised. The rice was a perfect texture and had a great combination of spices, while the chicken was full of flavour and not at all dry. The portion was also very generous.

Finally, the coffees. The new wave of milk-based coffee can be a bit hit and miss at some coffee shops, but thankfully the partnership between Gordi and Walking Drums doesn’t disappoint. We can safely say that if you want a good cup of coffee in the vicinity of Senayan or Kebayoran Baru, stop by Walking Drums.  

The strange location aside, Walking Drums is a great addition to the café scene in South Jakarta.

Address: Jl Patiunus F4, Kebayoran Baru, Jakarta Selatan.

Rating: Strong all-round performer: food, coffee, and atmosphere.

Move over Panglima Polim, the Gandaria/Kramat Pela area in South Jakarta is fast becoming the new spot for great coffee and food. The area once dominated by 1/15 Coffee has recently seen a number of new branches of old Jakarta favourites popping up, such as Tanamerah on Jl Ahmad Dahlan and Anomali on Jl Pakubuwono, but there’s one place in particular that has become our favourite haunt.

Walking into Gentle Ben feels like walking in your local neighbourhood’s café in Melbourne. It’s open and bright with large tables and mix and match furniture. Friendly staff smile and say ‘good morning’ the moment you open the door, and who even remember your name after just one visit. There’s even a selection of locally-made jewellery and clothing for sale in the corner. Not to mention numerous power points for all your laptop and phone charging needs.

We began frequenting Gentle Ben in late 2016 before their official launch, and have quickly become regulars. Their coffee probably isn’t quite as good as 1/15’s, but it’s damn close, offering two different blends – their own signature Gentle Ben blend and a different single origin blend every couple of weeks. The ‘Gentle Blend’ is smooth and easy to drink, while the single origins we’ve tried have all been well worth trying.

The meals on offer are largely modern Western, and often quite creative. Our favourite is the buttermilk corncakes from the breakfast menu (available until 11am) – two large corncakes with guacamole, spicy chili jam, dots of sour cream, lemon, a side salad, and a poached egg and bacon if you want. We’ll admit it sounds and looks like a strange combination, but somehow it works – really well. No flavours overpower the others, and the decision to use buttermilk in the corncakes is an excellent one.

Kate also loves the double-cooked French toast with vanilla mascarpone, fresh mango, and berries, while James will vouch for the sirloin steak sandwich, complete with bacon, egg, and lightly-toasted sourdough.

Gentle Ben’s coffee is marginally more expensive than other cafes nearby, but the food is cheaper (and better), so it easily balances out. One of the stand-out elements is that even though Gentle Ben is already doing a great job, their chef and their owner frequently pop out into the café to ask customers what they think of their food and how they can improve. Now that’s how to be the best.

 Address: Jl. Ahmad Dahlan no. 32, Kebayoran Baru. Next to Soto Kudus Blok M.

Rating: Scumptious food and coffee, with a very comfortable setting. Ideal for meetings, catching up with friends, or writing that novel you’ve always meant to finish.

One of Kate’s favourite food discoveries of 2016 was ketupat sayur. She somehow had never had it until 'round about the middle of last year, and has seen become obsessed with it, trying it whether she finds it on a menu.

Ketupat is a kind of packed rice that can replace normal steamed or boiled rice in dishes. It is cooked in a woven leaf packet like this:

Ketupat is most commonly eaten at Lebaran or Idul Fitri in Indonesia, to celebrate the end of the fasting month of Ramadan. During Idul Fitri, people will usually make ketupat to eat with rendang (beef curry) or opor ayam (chicken curry).

It’s not so easily found these days outside of the days around Lebaran, and many vendors now use lontong or pressed rice made inside banana leaves instead, as it is easier and quicker to make than ketupat.

Ketupat sayur is literally ‘ketupat with vegetables’, but our favourite version of this is the Padang version with gulai pakis or fern-tip curry, which can be found in Jakarta on Jl Gandaria Raya, near the intersection that leads to Gandaria City. There is a small stall on the side of the road, conveniently sheltered from wind, rain and sun, that looks like this:

The stall doesn’t seem to even have a proper name (hence why we had to take a picture of the flag!), but its ketupat sayur is simply phenomenal. The woman who runs the stall makes up a bowl with ketupat, gulai pakis, gulai nangka (jackfruit curry), and orange curry soup, and adds on whatever extras you would like: rendang, hard-boiled egg, tofu, tempe, fried chicken, or opor ayam. You also get a bowl of pink krupuk (crackers) to go with it.

We recommended the rendang, which is seriously excellent, but her tempe and tofu are also good. We’re yet to try the opor ayam or the ayam goreng, but the man at the table behind us this morning seemed to enjoy his ayam goreng so much that he ordered two pieces!

The woman in charge has run the stall in the same place for 15 years, having been born just around the corner in the kampung that has now been torn down to make way for new apartments. Her father was also used to run a famous sate padang (Padang-style sate with curry sauce) in the Gandaria area beginning in the 1970s until his death in the 1990s. Ibu uses her family’s recipe for her ketupat sayur, and says people who used to buy sate from her dad still visit her stall today.

Ibu normally sells out around midday.

Address: Jl Gandaria Raya, at the Villa Merah architecture school, near the intersection heading towards Gandaria City.

Rating: Superb.

The Panglima Polim area of South Jakarta has been through some ups and downs recently. A number of old staples – Taco Local, Coffeebeerian, and Mama Goose, for example – have either closed up or moved on, and the district seems to be undergoing a change in direction. The old Common House building that hosted Mama Goose seems somehow to have been taken over by the Anies-Sandiaga campaign, while the Sate and Nasi Goreng Apjay corner is undergoing major alterations. We hope the area finds its feet again soon, as things seem to be shifting south to Dharmawangsa or north to Senopati, leaving Pangpol something of a relic of times past.

One new spot of brightness in Pangpol is Kedai Makan Lumpang Emas, a branch of the restaurant’s first location in Kemang’s Colony Building. Located opposite Martabak Boss, Lumpang Emas serves traditional Indonesian food on banana leaves, commonly referred to as nasi daun. There are several sets available, or you can choose your own dishes and share with friends.

We went for the pre-designed sets so that we could sample a wider range of Lumpang Emas’ food.

Kate went for the Nasi Lombok (above): lime leaf rice, shredded stewed beef, peanuts and anchovies, cassava leaf curry, corn fritter, and Lombok-style sambal. The beef was a sweet semur (stew) that had been shredded into small strips, and matched well with the spiciness of the lime leaf-flavoured sambal and the saltiness of the peanuts and anchovies. The corn fritter or pergedel jagung was to die for – crispy and chewy, with sweet morsels of fresh corn. It was so good we ordered one more each, especially as it paired so perfectly with the sambal.

James chose Nasi Kampar (above): red rice, shredded chicken, anchovies and peanuts, stir-fried papaya leaves, hard-boiled egg in chili, and sambal with garlic and red shallots. A great mixture of flavours, with nothing overwhelming anything else. The papaya leaves were not at all bitter, while the sambal was full of whole garlic cloves – we could have eaten it all day. The chicken was not at all dry, unlike many shredded chicken dishes, and the red rice was well-cooked and nutty.

The restaurant itself is very ‘old Jakarta’ in style. The walls are covered in maps of Batavia, old promotional tourist posters of Indonesia, and black-and-white photographs. The furniture is all wood, and the feeling is very homey. Service is reasonably fast, but there is plenty to look at during the wait anyway.

We’re keen to go back to Lumpang Emas and try a few more of their dishes, as what we sampled on this first visit was tantalisingly good. Check out their website for the full menu.

 Address: Jl Panglima Polim IX no.22, Kebayoran Baru, Jakarta Selatan.

Rating: Great Indonesian comfort food, and good value.

Update: Bakmi Boy is temporarily closed for renovation. Hopefully they will re-open soon!

Buried deep within the heart of the Pasar Mayestik complex in South Jakarta, in a nondescript house with no sign, is Bakmi Boy. It’s a no fuss, no frills, sold-out-of-the-good-stuff-by-1pm-we’re-so-popular kind of place. A place that requires you to line up for a while to get a seat kind of place, hovering awkwardly next to tables and staring at people to make them finish faster. Essentially it’s a Mayestik institution and it’s a must if you’re in the area.

We'll be honest: Bakmi Boy doesn’t look like much from the outside. No sign, no advertising, nothing. It even looks a little derelict. The inside is styled somewhere between a prison and a hospital canteen, where the decorator really loves their white tiles. It’s stark, it’s always busy, and it can be a little overwhelming. Trust us though, ignore it all, battle through, because it's worth it.

The menu isn’t extensive; it’s pretty much just bakmi (egg noodles with chicken) but it’s damn good. We’ve been a few times over the last few months (since finally working out which building it was [the no sign thing somewhat complicated matters]), and we’ve had most of the combinations and it’s all been spectacular. The basic bakmi comes with a healthy serving of wilted sawi (mustard greens), a light chicken soup, and diced chicken that’s a little sweet and a little savoury.

The noodles are the real heart of this dish. Made on site, they are always perfectly cooked, and deliciously thick and chewy.

The basic version is good, but why have the basic when you can have so much more! You can add surprisingly tasty basko (meatballs), pangsit rebus (boiled chicken dumplings) or pangsit goreng (fried chicken dumplings) to your bowl of bakmi. All of these add slightly different tastes to the bakmi: the bakso adds a meatier flavor, the pangsit goreng delivers a crunch, and the pangsit rebus heightens the chicken taste even more. Interestingly, aside from the seasoning on the diced chicken, they don’t add any extra spices or chili to the meal; it’s all on the table and up to you.

Wash it down with an es jeruk, a lovely and sweet fresh orange juice drink. Bakmi Boy’s es jeruk is what Indonesians call murni or pure - sweet without needed any added sugar. Lovely.

Bakmi Boy may only do bakmi, but they do it very well. They are constantly busy and sell out early most days, so make sure you head in by 12pm at the latest. Any later and you run the risk of missing out.

Address: Pasar Mayestik complex, Jl. Tebah, Blok M, Jakarta. 

Rating: Don't miss out. When you're hungry and it's 1pm and they're all out of pangsit goreng, it's one of the worst feelings in the world.