Saturday, August 8, 2009

Restaurant Soto Madura khas Surabaya

Yesterday, I had lunch together with my ex-colleagues at a restaurant that serves East Java food. Their speciality is the Soto Madura (Madura is an island near East Java - Indonesia which is famous for their satay food and also salt production).

The restaurant was very crowded, not just because it's lunch time but of its famous reputation. It has been opened since 1980.

Inside the restaurant.

A lot of celebrities have been eating here. Their pictures, signatures and comments are framed and hang all over the walls in the restaurant.
As soon as I ordered my food to the waitress which is a portion of Rujak Cingur and a glass of es soda pala, I directly followed the waitress to the back area where I could snap pictures of the making of Rujak Cingur *grin*

Rujak Cingur is a special dish originally from Surabaya - East Java. A combination between rujak (Indonesian fruit salad) and gado-gado (Indonesian vegetable salad with peanut sauce).

So what is special about this salad? *wink*

"Cingur" means nose in Javanese dialect language. So... Rujak Cingur means "Nose salad" and no doubt there're slices of nose in the salad! Oops... does it sound creepy? Hahaha....

Don't be scare! It's only the buffalo or cow's nose! :D

Grind it altogether on a stone mortar.
Add tamarind water, brown sugar and the black shrimp paste.
Place fried beancurd, fried soybean cake, morning glory, cucumber, jicama, ambarella, young mango and also the slices of buffalo or cow's nose.


Wondering how does the Rujak Cingur tasted? Well, actually, people will either love or hate it. Frankly speaking, I would not recommend this dish if you are not an adventurous eater because it smells and tasted quite pungent of the putrid black shrimp paste, then follow with the salty, sweet, sour and hot taste. As for the nose, it's tasteless and feels like eating a rubber ;)


My ex-colleagues ordered Soto Daging (stewed beef).
They ate the Soto Daging with white rice wrapped in banana leaf.

The "kitchen" of the Soto (stewed beef) is in front of the restaurant's entrance door .

We also ordered chicken satay. It's delicious, smokey tender meat being dipped into sweet soy sauce and a bit peanut sauce plus carrot & cucumber pickles on the side of the plate.

I drank es soda pala (nutmeg soda juice). The sweet and sour taste mixed with the club soda tasted pretty tangy and refreshing.

One of my ex-colleagues ordered Es Belewah (I'm not sure what's the name in English. The fruit "Belewah" looks like a small pumpkin but on the inside is like cantaloupe/ musk melon).

Interesting that the restaurant produce their own water bottle.

Restaurant Soto Madura Khas Surabaya
Address:
Jl. Ir. H. Juanda No. 16
Jakarta Pusat
Tel: 3505673

Open daily: 7 am - 10 pm

Disclaimer:The review and opinion expressed here are purely according to my personal taste. There's a possibility that the taste of the food might change later on, which could affect the review and opinion here. I also affirm that no monetary or non-monetary compensation has been received from this restaurant for writing this review.

46 comments:

  1. Oh my gosh darling, I think I'll go with the yummy looking chicken satays and soda ;O.

    You are so adventurous!

    Take care,
    xxxx

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  2. Mmm, I love chicken satay...and anything wrapped in a banana life! Yum!

    Nose salad though? Not sure about that one...

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  3. DA: Hahaha... a bit adventurous but not totally actually ;) You wont disappointed with chicken satays, it's really yummy!

    mica: eh.. you meant banana leaf, right? hehehe :D

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  4. I love the banana leaves. Chicken satay looks great too. Sounds like you had a lovely day. Great photos as always.
    Sam

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  5. MCK: Yes, it's a lovely day, Sam :) Thanks!

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  6. OK, No nose salad for me please. I'll start with the soda and go from there.:)

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  7. Those chicken satay with peanut dipping sauce look delicious!

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  8. marta: Yes, you are so right! It's delicious :)

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  9. I love everything that is wrapped in a banana leaf. It brings a nice aroma to the food. Yum!

    Jackie at PhamFatale.com

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  10. I'm pretty adventurous, so I'd try the nose. But from your description, I probably wouldn't like it. The skewers look delicious.

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  11. looks yummy! would love to try them! :)

    kyh @ http://soleilian.com

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  12. Slices of nose in salad? That's so special but none for me please.

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  13. talat: Yup, banana leaf gives a wonderful aroma to the food :)

    palidor: Hehehe... great to know that you are an adventurous eater :)

    kyh: you sure all? ;)

    tummythoz: Hahaha... yup slices of nose!

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  14. I love chicken satay, so yummy! The nutmeg soda juice sounds delicious!

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  15. faith: I like the nutmeg juice, first time for me to try with the club soda :)

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  16. Fabulous lunch! I would love to try these delicious specialties!

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  17. 5 stars foodie: sounds like that you are an adventurous eater, great! ;)

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  18. Who doesn't love rubber nose?!

    ha! ha!

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  19. monica: We all love rubber nose, eh? Hahahaha....

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  20. So u hv black shrimp paste in indo too!
    Our chinese rojak here w fruits uses that! Nto sure if it taste the same tho!

    Err..nose? hhmm.. can can, i will try ;p

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  21. TNG: Yay... Cool! Then I can bring you to try other "interesting" food to try when you come and visit me in Indonesia ;)

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  22. oh dear, buffalo's nose?? I'll skip that one. Others looks great!

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  23. thanks a lot for introducing such great restaurant. i will surely give it a try when i visit jakarta in the future!

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  24. buzzingbee: hehehe... the others tasted yummy :)

    MTH: hope that you will give it a try :)

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  25. I have to use banana leaves, I hear so many good things about them. I have never tried.

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  26. donna-ffw: banana leaves give a nice aroma to the food :)

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  27. As I have said before, I would so love to try some of these things you try...I am an adventurous eater!

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  28. Wow, look at all those people! I can see why this place is such a big deal. I was a little intriqued by the noses, but cows, nose? Sure, why not! We can fry up just about anything and it'll be great :)

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  29. nose rujak-yak! but i love shrimp paste.

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  30. I would've loved to try the nose salad!

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  31. selby, you are getting so good at these food blog posts. congratulations!

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  32. hmm.... if i have the chance i would like to try the rujak.

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  33. chef e: Great! I can bring you around to try all kind of food when you visit Jakarta :)

    adam: Hehehe... so you are also an adventurous eater? Fry up all and probably we can invent a new recipe with the cow's nose, ya? ;)

    foodbin: Hehehe... I actually not really fond of shrimp paste but it's OK to eat it :)

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  34. peachkins: Great! Is there any Philippine dish that also use cow's nose?

    mistipurple: thank you so much for your very kind compliment, Misti :)

    food paradise: Great! Hopefully, you have the chance ;)

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  35. This is fabulous. Your food is so different.

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  36. aiks! the cow nose thing sounds scary. but i do eat rujak in Malaysia and it's served with prawn paste too.. so, think i may like this too :p

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  37. Darling, I just stopped by to let you know that I have returned and that I had a great time. I missed you too much to stay away longer!! Have a beautiful Monday.

    Duchess xx

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  38. helene: hehehe.. yeah, sometimes the food can be so "different" than the normal food ;)

    sc: LOL, yeah... must be sounds scary. If you can try it, let me know how you think about it, ok :)

    DoT: Hello Duchess, so nice to hear from you again and it's so marvelous to know that you had a great time. I missed you too especially your lovely posts and sweet comments :) Hope that you have a beautiful day too!

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  39. come to think of it we have never tasted a nose before ( or have we )
    maybe kiss but not eat
    LOL !

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  40. BSG: Errrr..... you've kissed a cow or buffalo's nose before? That cow or buffalo must be so lucky! LOL

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  41. What is stone banana in Malay? I luv satay ayam. It reminds me of our famous Kajang satay. Yummy!

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  42. Thanks for taking us to this popular restaurant and to the kitchen to see how that 'special' dish is made ~ what a variety of ingredients, tastes and smells (nose and all!) A very interesting and colourful post ~ Thanks :)

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  43. wow what w lovely spread of delicious food . . . i am adventerous person and would love to try them soon!

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  44. FFT: Stone banana is pisang batu :) It looks the same as banana but it has seeds/stones inside it. And the banana doesn't taste sweet instead it has a bitter flavor.

    glo: It's my pleasure to post about this restaurant, Glo :)

    BBO: Cool! Good toknow that you are and adventurous person ;)

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