Satay-Mu

This Indonesian/Malaysian restaurant opened its door few month ago, and I recently had a chance to try their food.  ”Satay Mu” means “your satay” in Indonesian

The name of the restaurant says “Satay”, so I thought they just specialize in satay dish (skewered chicken/beef/lamb/etc, with peanut chili sauce).   However, I noticed their menu actually has a wide variety of other Indonesian/Malay food.

Barbecued Pork Rice, Curry Chicken/Beef Rice, Wan Ton Mee, Wat Tan Ho etc..  My husband had Spicy Chicken Rice and I had Wat Tan Ho.  I really like noodle dish with wet saucy thing…

The price was reasonable and tasted ok, I will come back here again

Address:  356 Marmion Street, Melville WA 6156

Phone:  08 9317 1162

Food in Jakarta

<Bakmi Ayam>

We had bakmi (noodle soup) many times during this stay.  Bakmi is not really a special food, and people eat it quite often over there.  (it’s like “ramen” in Japan)  The photo is Bakmi Ayam (chicken noodle soup) at Grand Kelinci.

<Gado Gado>

We had this gad-gado at the food court in Kelapa Gading Mall.  It was supposed to be my snack, but the portion was pretty big and it came with rice. (you could chose either nasi (steamed rice) or lontong (sticky rice cubes)  I told the shop staff not to add too much chili, but it was quite spicy…

<Hainan and Roasted Chicken Rice>

My brother-in-low took us to Plaza Senayan (a mall in CBD area) and we had lunch at a Singapore restaurant there.  I had Hainan Chicken Rice, and brother-in-low had roasted chicken rice.

<Kwe Tiau>

At the Singapore restaurant my husband had stir-fried kwe tiau.

<Satay Ikan Bali>

I had this satay ikan Bali (Bali style fish satay dish) at a food court “Food Connection” in Kelapa Gading Mall.  The fish was spicy, and nicely crusted.  Very nice!

<Satay Ayam>

Satay is one of my favorite Indonesian side dish!  Satay actually can be a main meal when you order it with nasi (steamed rice) or lontong (sticky rice cubes).  My husband likes satay kambing (lamb satay) but I prefer satay ayam (chicken satay).

Home Made Asian Sweets

My mother-in-law (M) cooks everyday.  She sometimes cook Indonesian sweets for us and they are really nice.  Since the parents came to Perth I haven’t cooked any food at home. :p   She is always in the kitchen doing something, so there is no space for me!

Here are some of Indonesian sweets she made…

<Ketan Hitam>

Ketan = glutinous rice, hitam = black in Indonesian (according to M)

If you browse on internet you’ll see various forms of this dish, but M always make like this ↓↓↓

Like porridge.

On the photo it looks like azuki beans, but the texture is totally different.  This black rice is very chewy and juicy.  I love the texture!

• 400g black glutinous rice
• 1300ml water
• 2 pandan leaves
• 125ml palm sugar syrup (dissolve palm sugar with hot water)

You can buy a small packet of black glutinous rice from Asian grocery shops.

1. Wash rice.  Soak the rice in water for few hours (to soften up).
2. Place rice in a sauce pan with water and pandan leaves.  Bring to boil, then reduce the heat to low.  Cook for about 40 minutes.  You’ll need to stir constantly.
3. Add palm sugar syrup, and stir until the liquid almost evaporates.  Add a pinch of salt.
4. Remove from the heat and let it cool down.

They usually eat this Ketan Hitam with coconut milk.

<Biji Salak>

This is also a chewy sweet ♪

• sweet potatoes
• tapioca flour
• palm sugar syrup

1. Steam (or microwave) sweet potatoes.  (as much as you like)  Mash up.
2. Add tapioca flour, 1 tbs at a time, and mix well.  Continue until you can roll up the mixture into a long stick shape.  Chop up  into 2~3 cm length.
3. Boil water in a sauce pan, and add the sweet potato dumplings.  (not too much at a time)  Once the dumplings float to the surface, scoop them out.
4. Serve with palm sugar syrup.  (and coconut milk)

They are very easy to make, but to me they are “foreign food”.  In Japan we don’t eat coconut milk/cream (now maybe they do) as well as palm sugar, tapioca flour etc.  These food are all foreign things in Japan, and the food contained these ingredients are called “Asian food”.  Japanese food is pretty different from other “Asian” food.  :)

Indonesian/Malay Food

I’m so lucky to have a chance to eat many kinds of Asian food. While I was in Japan I didn’t get to eat any Middle Eastern/Eastern/Sough Asian food, except for satay and Nasi Goreng at Izakaya. Of course, they didn’t taste like how they should taste, as they changed the recipe to suit Japanese people’s mouth. Since I came to Perth I’ve had so many food that I’d never eaten.

One of them is Chinese food. There are many Chinese people in Perth so I could try eating more real Chinese food here. In Japan we have lots of Chinese restaurants too, but those food are made for Japanese people, I think. When I asked my friend (Chinese) about some Chinese dish I know, she had no clue what I was talking about. In Japan, typical Chinese dish is “Happo-sai (八宝菜)”, “Hoi-Ko-lo(回鍋肉)”, “Chin-jao-lo-su(青椒肉絲)”, “Ebi Chili (chili prawn), “gyoza (dumplings) etc. For instance, if you order Hoi-Ko-lo(回鍋肉) you will get exact same dish from any restaurants in Japan, it’s always a thinly-sliced pork and cabbage dish stir-fried with some miso paste and other sauces. But, I believe that this Hoi-Ko-lo(回鍋肉) means just “stir-fried meat dish” in Chinese.(according to these Chinese characters) We just call this dish as Hoi-Ko-lo(回鍋肉) and believe this is the name of this dish, but I think it can be any meat dish and with any sauces. If you go to China and order “Hoi-Ko-lo(回鍋肉)” in a restaurant I don’t think I can get the exact Hoi-Ko-lo(回鍋肉) dish as I know. (or maybe they don’t even understand it)

I’d never eaten “san choi bow”, “Japanese tofu”, “Peking ribs” etc before, and now they are my favorites.

Now, about Indonesian food. My mother-in-law (to be in one month) cooks lots of Indonesian/Chinese food for us, and I love them! Some people think Japanese can not eat spicy food, but I do. I always keep fresh chili in my garden!

Every time she fly to Perth, she cooks beef rendang, siew mai (chewy steamed dumplings with peanuts sauce. She always coat boiled eggs, tofu and boiled potatoes with mince meat and then steam. Different from what I knew as siew mai in Japan), gado-gado (mixture of blanched vegetables with peanuts sauce), bak mee (soup noodle), oxtail soup, ayam goreng (deep-fried chicken), sayur asem (sour soup with vegetables), bachang (triangular-shaped glutinous rice dumplings wrapped with bamboo leaves. She stuff mixture of mince meat inside) etc etc …

She also cooks some desserts, I will up-date it later…

I had rendang last night. RIght after I opened the door I knew she was cooking rendang. Smells so nice… Beef is very soft and melts in your mouth, so you don’t even need to chew. She usually accompany rendang with hard boiled eggs.

I’m now waiting for her cooking some siew mai… very yummy.

Cheesy Toast with Condensed Milk

The combination of condensed milk and cheese was actually little shocking to me at first.  To me, toasted bread with cheese is supposed to be savory, not sweet.  I was told this recipe from my hubby.  He said this dish is very common in Indonesia…  I tried it anyway, and it tasted actually good!  Nice snack when you feel like some sweet stuff.

To make this is very easy…

<peanut butter version>

1. Toast 2 slices of bread
2. Spread peanut butter on one slice, and sandwich.
3. Top with grated tasty cheese, and drizzle condensed milk over.  Melt the cheese in oven toaster or microwave.