Jakarta Trip 2008 -Food-

Posted January 27th, 2009 in Eat out in Jakarta, Jakarta No Comments »

Now I finally have time to look back my trip to Jakarta and write about it on Umeboss 🙂 I was staying in Jakarta for 6 days before flying to Japan (for my Japan trip posts, see here, here, here, here, here, here, here and here. or see photos.)

That was my second visit to Jakarta. The first time was one year ago (2007): I stayed there in Christmas and New Year’s day. I have to admit that I experienced a huge culture shock in the country :p Indonesia (Jakarta) was quite different from what I was imagining in my head. There were actually lots of shopping malls, lots of restaurants (many cuisines: Japanese, Korean, American, Chinese, Indonesian etc) and more! And everything was inexpensive.

Most of the famous franchises (like Krispy Kreme Doughnuts, Burger King, Starbucks, etc etc….) were there. I could even find Beard Papa\’s ! (cream puff franchise started from Osaka Japan) You could get almost anything in Jakarta. That was a surprise!

Since I was in Indonesia, I wanted to try original Indonesian food. Nasi Lemak? Gado Gado? (are they Indonesian?) Unfortunately, however, I was taken to Chinese restaurants most of the time. I’m actually sick of Chinese:( I eat it in Perth all the time! I wanted to try something exotic. So I asked them (in laws) to go to an Indonesian restaurant. Then, they took me to this place called “Java Kitchen”.

It’s a franchise restaurant and this place serves Java food. Nutty peanuts sauce Satay, Tahu Kacang, Sop Buntut (oxtail soup), mixed plates with a few dishes… I had a mixed plate of coconut rice, Ayam Goreng (deep-fried chicken), Kacang (peanuts), Sambal (chili), boiled egg etc. The sambal was really really spicy!! I love spicy food and usually eat sambal at home in Perth too, but chili sauce in Indonesia was much spicier. Do they use different type of chili or something? Anyway, even though I couldn’t finish those sambal, I enjoyed whole dish 🙂 Hot climate, hot food. I love the combination!

Talking about chili sauce, I want to mention about KFC in Indonesia again. (my previous post for KFC is here) Yes we went to KFC again to enjoy those chicken with steamed rice. There were 2 huge bottles of chili sauce at the counter so that customers can pour on their plates as much as they want. According to my observations, the avarage amount of chili sauce people got on their plate was 1/2cup (125ml):1 piece of chicken + chips + steamed rice. :p

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There was a place where I really wanted to go back to on this trip. This cafe sells special coffee, called Kopi Luwak : coffee berries which have been eaten by and passed through the digestive tract of the Indonesian Civet. This process takes place on the islands of Sumatra, Java and Sulawesi in the Indonesian Archipelago. It sounds little gross to drink something came from animal’s droppings, but this coffee is actually very expensive product. (few hundreds buck per pound (450g)!)

When I went to this cafe last time I didn’t try “pure” Kopi Luwak, so I went there again to try one this time. One cup of Kopi Luwak was about AUS$7.00, I think. It had nutty rich flavor. Whilst drinking I was thinking “who came up with this idea??” :p So curious…

You can browse more photos of my trip in Jakarta here