Adem Ayem Restaurant

I went together with my friend to Adem Ayem restaurant for lunch. This restaurant is famous for their Gudeg dish and also other authentic Central Java dishes.

It was quite full during lunch time.

Nasi Gudeg Adem Ayem - Rp. 41.000

Rice, Krecek (beef skin cooked with coconut milk and chili), Gudeg (young Jack fruit cooked with coconut milk), boiled egg and shredder chicken.

Ayam Goreng - Rp. 27.000

I really recommend this fried chicken with Kremes (crispy flakes). It's very tasty!

All prices are subjected to 10% tax.

Current currency:

1 USD = Rp. 14.635

Location:
Adem Ayem Restaurant
Jl. A.M. Sangaji No. 27, Petojo
Central Jakarta

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.

Waroeng SS, Tanjung Duren

A "treat" lunch together with some colleagues at Waroeng SS in Tanjung Duren area. Waroenng SS served affordable Javanese dishes and is quite famous for the 33 variant of hot chili sauces (sambal).

Sambal Bawang - Rp. 1.500

Sambal Terasi Matang - Rp. 2.500

Sambal Bajak - Rp. 2.500

Tahu Goreng - Rp. 3.500

Tempe Goreng - Rp. 4.500

Bebek Goreng (paha) - Rp. 17.000

Tumis Kangkung - Rp. 5.000

Telur Dadar - Rp. 4.500

Ikan Gurame Bakar - Rp. 35.000

Sayur Asem - Rp. 4.000

Plencing Jawa - Rp. 3.500

Belut Goreng - Rp. 8.000

Ayam Goreng (paha) - Rp. 11.000

Current currency:

1 USD = Rp. 13.320

Location:
Waroeng SS
Jl. Tanjung Duren Utara 4 no.224
West Jakarta

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.

TeSate Restaurant, Menteng

Mom and I had lunch at TeSaTe in Menteng area. This restaurant is a contemporary style restaurant that serves authentic Indonesia cuisine. 

Tahu Udang Berontak - Rp. 58.000

Prawn and mushroom inside the tofu.

Rujak Penganti Salad - Rp. 38.000

Tasty fresh salad with egg, tomato, carrots, egg, tofu, pineapple, noodle and sour sweet peanut sauce.

Nasi Tutug - Rp. 86.000

Tutug rice is served with seafood, poultry and vegetable dishes of West Java

Nasi Merah Ikan Roa - Rp. 88.000

Indonesian red rice, made into a fried rice and paired with the Celebes tuna fish and red chili.

Sate Ayam Madura - Rp. 59.000

Chicken in rustic marinade, served with sweet peanut sauce.

Sate Ayam Makassar - Rp. 95.000

Beef with sour starfruit sauce.

Sate Ayam Ponorogo - Rp. 59.000

Chicken in sweet marinade, served with buttery peanut sauce.

Tumis Pucuk Labu - Rp. 47.000

A simple fresh vegetable dish of young chayote leaf buds with red chili slices and sweet shallots.

Tahu Telur - Rp. 55.000

Fried egg and silky soft white tofu with sweet soy sauce and peanuts sprinkles.

Ongseng Kecipir - Rp. 47.000

Crunchy Kecipir combined with beef tendon.

The beef tendon was really soft and chewy.

Iga Sapi Paniki - Rp. 98.000

Beef ribs slow cooked in a rustic style and grilled to caramelize, combine with sweet plump shallots and chilies and lime leaves.

Es Campur - Rp. 37.000

A combination of sweet jelly and fruit with condensed milk and flavoured syrup, served on crushed ice.

Es Tape Hijau - Rp. 31.000

Frgrant, fermented green sticky rice and cassava, served over crushed ice and coconut cream.

Serabi Solo - Rp. 31.000

Yeast raised traditional pancake, a popular snack icon of Central Java.

Kopyor Siam - Rp. 58.000

Kedongdong juice - Rp. 35.000

Kopyor

Black Tea and Ginger Tea

Es Puter - Rp. 28.000

Smooth, creamy, coconute ice cream served with bread and red jelly.

All prices are subjected to tax and service charge.

Current currency:

1 USD = Rp. 11.350

Location:
TeSate Restaurant
JL. Sam Ratulangi No. 39
Menteng, Central Jakarta
Tel: 3193 1250

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.

Telur Asin Brebes (Salted Duck Egg from Brebes)

During my trip to Bandung, I saw a street vendor selling boiled salted duck eggs from Brebes.

Brebes is a small city in Central Java with population less than 2 millions people is very well known for producing salted duck eggs in Indonesia. The salted duck eggs from Brebes are the best. The way of making the salted duck egg is by packing each duck egg in damp salted charcoal and leave it for 7 to 10 days. Some vendors are selling their salted duck eggs unboiled with the salted charcoal paste still wrapping the eggs and some other vendors are selling the boiled and clean with a stamp on each egg.

The most wonderful part of the salted duck egg is the dark orange fatty yolk! Yes, I love it so much! Oh.. and I don't bother at all with the white egg part which is too salty and sharp for my tastebuds ;)

1 telur asin Brebes costs Rp. 3.000 (about 30 cents US)

Soto Kudus (Chicken/ Buffalo stew from Kudus)

Kudus is a small city in Central Java. One of the most popular dish from that city is the Soto Kudus (stew). There are 2 choices of meat - chicken or buffalo. Probably you might question why buffalo, not beef? Well, the information that I heard is that most people in Kudus don't eat beef because they don't believe in killing cows.

This Soto Kudus restaurant is serving only the chicken stew. You probably will find that the chicken meat is not tender, a bit harder to bite because it's free range chicken which we called it as ayam kampung (trans: ayam = chicken; kampung = village).

I like eating Soto Kudus because it's consider light stew, savory and also flavorful because of the spices.

Soto Kudus Recipe
Source: Fatmah B.

Ingredients:
1 kg free range chicken
2 litters water
2 tsp salt
3 Indonesian bay leaves/laurel
200 gr bean sprout (only pour with hot water and then drain)
2 tbsp leek/ green onion (chopped)
2 tbsp fried shallots
1 tbsp fried garlic

Ground ingredients:
10 pcs shallots
5 pcs garlic
5 pcs nutmeg
2 cm tumeric
2 cm ginger
1 tbsp white pepper
½ tsp salt
½ tsp sugar
1 tsp MSG (optional, I prefer not to use it)

Chili sauce ingredients:
10 pcs small red chili
50 ml sweet soy bean sauce
1 tbsp lime juice
1 tbsp fried garlic

Directions:
- Boil water, put the chicken and salt. Let it boil again, then simmer it until becomes broth.
- Take out the chicken, fry in hot oil until golden. Then use hands to tear the chicken into small pieces.
- Fry the ground ingredients with vegetable oil until fragrance, add the Indonesian bay leaves then pour into the chicken broth.

How to prepare the Soto Kudus:

Put the bean sprout on the little bowl first.
Follow with the pieces of torn chicken.

And then, put fried garlic and then fried shallots

On top, put the chopped green onion,
and then pour the chicken broth in the bowl.

Soto Kudus

Usually, when you eat at a Soto Kudus restaurant, they will also provide a plate of quail eggs on skewers, chicken gizzards on skewers, scrambled eggs and croquette as a side dish.


I always love to add the fresh lime juice by squeezing the lime directly to the Soto Kudus.

The perfect companion of Soto Kudus is a plate of warm white rice :)

Kue Leker and A Monkey Dancer

To find kue lekker on the street in Jakarta isn’t easy, only certain places that have this vendors, but for sure, it’s very easy to find them in Semarang and Solo (cities in Central Java). According to the vendor, Kue Leker is originally from Lamongan (a small city in East Java).

The cart is on the bicycle.

More or less, kue lekker is like crepes/thin pancake.

I’m not sure whether literally kue leker means “Yummy cake”.

In Indonesian language, kue means cake.
Well there’s no word “leker” in Indonesian language, however Indonesia was colonized by Dutch for about 300 years and lekker means yummy/delicious in Dutch. A big possibility that the word that the leker word refers to lekker? ;)

Same ingredients as crepes/pancake.

The mini pan rotates on the fire and the vendor has to spin it manually with a handle tool.

The fire under the mini pan

For topping, you can ask for sugar, chocolate or strawberry condensed milk, cheese, chocolate sprinkles or banana, it's your choice! *wink*

The local bananas.

Fold the kue leker.

In a plastic bag.

Not really recommended actually to put in a plastic bag because kue leker has crispy texture at the beginning when taken out directly from the mini pan, so the yummiest way to eat kue leker is right away :)

Doger Monyet
While I was waiting for the kue leker being made, I saw 4 men with a monkey walking into our direction.


They stopped directly across the kue leker vendor and started to let the monkey to do a performance. 2 men were in charge to play "music" ( hitting small drums), 1 man handled the monkey by pulling and pushing with a long chain then the other man started to walk around with a bowl in order to beg for some money from the people who were watching.

This performance called “Doger monyet” and has been performed more than 100 years in West Java.

Doger (in Sundanese - West Java language) means a female dancer; usually in a people's theater, and Monyet (in Indonesian language) means monkey.

Anyway, looking this kind of performance broke my heart. I feel so sorry for this little monkey that must work for these 4 healthy men.


I donated some money but then in my mind, I got a feeling that the monkey might not receive her "right" of the income share. Just imagine, how much money actually would be earned everyday from this kind of performance, not much that's for sure and need to be divided to those 4 men for their living :(

Good thing, I remembered that the kue leker vendor provides bananas for topping, so I asked him for a banana (of course, the banana wasn’t free).


Look how the little monkey enjoyed her banana. She must be feeling very hungry *sobs*

I wish I could give the little monkey a hug or at least a pat on her head.