Peranakan Food

We drove around Jakarta, from the Silalahi House, to Pondok Indah Mall, to Dapur Babah Restaurant in the evening. Do enjoy the picture of the food here!

We went to Silalahi’s house to pay a visit to tante Sondang. We haven’t met her since her husband passed away. On the way to her house, we were a bit lost because Jakarta had changed a lot since the last time we were there.

Opung Sondang was really thrilled to see Noe. It is her first time meeting Noe. She said Noe seems to become a really smart boy, judging from his physical appearance (such as high forehead). Amen, we sincerely hope that what she said is true.

What a nice surprise that Ester and Danny also came to Opung Sondang’s house. She also brought a lot of fried chicken from Mbok Berek. As I’m still breastfeeding, I won’t refuse the offer to have such an exquisite lunch. I think I haven’t eaten Mbok Berek Chicken since eons ago.

Ester was pregnant with a baby boy, and due anytime soon. They’ve prepared a name too, Tio Lumban Tobing.

We spent quite a long time at Silalahi House, we even met their relatives, who works in ITB as professor in the planning school. No wonder Noe was a bit tired and slept on Rani’s belly. Actually ever since we arrived in Jakarta, Noe had become clingier to us. Noe wouldn’t sleep if not on Rani’s or Indi’s chest or belly. He’d cry if he’s left in bed alone. Well we think it’s just a phase he needed to go through. Yep, it is the separation anxiety thingy.

Meanwhile, Priscilla is getting really big now. She can sing together with the daddy. She is also well prepared to greet the arrival of her little brother.

On our way home, we saw this funny sign.

It seems that people just deliberately ignore the fine. Or, they just bribe the officer for $300. That’s why, Indonesia can never get the law enforced. I personally don’t think higher salary would result in cleaner government. The corruption mentality is just embedded into the Indonesian culture, I think those officials would never be satisfied with whatever salary they’re paid for. They would just ask for more, and corruption opportunities are just rampant, so why not becoming corrupt? After all, everybody here are corrupt.

For dinner, we went to Dapur Babah in Jalan Veteran, a new restaurant decorated in old peranakan style. They serve colonial peranakan food, from the Dutch-style colonial food, to Chinese peranakan food, and native Javanese food as well. Please enjoy the visual food feast.

For appetizer, we had rujak cingur, a traditional east Javanese dish which consists of vegetable salad with cow’s facial muscle (a.k.a. cow’s lips, cut into small cubes) with spicy chili shrimp paste sauce. The round orange thing at the left side is traditional fish crackers. Yes, eating it is basically similar to French kissing the cow.

Then came the main course. We ordered varieties of it. First is Gurame Goreng. Observing the fish’s curling shape, it seemed that the poor fish was being deep fried alive into hot oil. Nevertheless it was really delicious!

Then we also had Bebek Goreng Lengkuas, which is deep fried duck with galangal seasoning. It is accompanied with rice and fresh raw vegetable, and spicy chili sauce.

We also had Nasi Campur: Rice with varieties of small dishes in one plate. The rice was green in colour and had a nice pandan aroma. You can see fried chicken, peanut rempeyek, and also sambel krecek (spicy stir fried cow skin stew).

We also ordered a bastardized Dutch salad. It is basically cut vegetable and some apple, pineapple, eaten with mayo.

One of the most challenging foods was the Botok Tawon: Bee larvae a.k.a. maggots cooked in coconut milk wrapped in banana leaves. You can see the small larvae retain their shape. It was really delicious. The larvae popped in your mouth and gave a burst of nutty flavor.

For dessert, we went to the old-style ice cream parlour: Ragusa, along the same street, which has been around since the last century.

This peddler has been selling his food outside Ragusa for the longest time. He sells Rujak Juhi (fruit salad with pieces of salted dried cuttlefish and crackers) and Asinan (salted pickled fruit salad).

We ordered Spaghetti Ice Cream. No, there were no spaghetti pieces inside it. The name came from the shape of the ice cream: strands of vanilla ice cream that looks like spaghetti with chocolate syrup and peanut crumbles.

Indi ordered this Neapolitan piece, a combination of chocolate, strawberry, and vanilla.

I ordered “Coupe de la Maison”, which is basically nougat ice cream (too nutty for me :<) on top of vanilla ice cream.

Having gone all around Jakarta, Noe fell asleep right after having his tiny spoon of ice cream and bottled Gerber peach.

On our way home, we observed that our national phallic symbol, the national monument, has been washed with gay colour. We hope that this was a sign that gay community become more accepted and not discriminated against in Indonesia.