Photo: Bangkok’s Foodie

The Glorious Stink [2016:EO]

Bangkok’s Street Foods are The Best [2016:EO]

Lek & Rut Seafood in Yaowarat, Bangkok’s Chinatown [2016:EO]

Papaya Salad’s Ingredients [2016:EO]

Yaowarat’s Vegetarian Food Festival [2016:EO]

Sago [2016:EO]

Photo: The Legendary Mbah Lindu

Gudeg is a traditional cuisine from the city of Yogyakarta. Gudeg is a slow cooking spiced young jackfruit which is being cooked in the claypot for hours. Gudeg is normally being served for breakfast with white rice and chicken. Hence, as a traditional food, you can find gudeg in every street corner. One of those seller is Setyo Utomo who is also known as Mbah Lindu. Many believe that Mbah Lindu is the eldest gudeg maker in the town.

Unlike many elderly people who choose to stay at home and take rest, Mbah Lindu choose to continue working at her old age by cooking and selling gudeg.

The 96 years old lady has been cooking and selling gudeg since the 40s before the Japanese troops occupied Indonesia in 1942

Everyday, the mother of five would make 15 kg of gudeg along with other dishes such as areh and sambel goreng krecek which then would be sold in the following day at her street stall in Jalan Sosrowijayan. Her stall opens from 5 a.m to 10 a.m . She is normally being assisted by her youngest daughter Ratiah who acts as a cashier.

Mbah Lindu mentioned that she decided to continue selling gudeg at her old age because she feels healthier for being active. For her, age is just a number. It does not stop her tough yet hard working spirit from working on daily basis. Clearly, she does what she loves, cooking and selling gudeg.

Therefore, if you happen to visit Yogyakarta, you must try gudeg especially gudeg Mbah Lindu. Mbah Lindu stall is located in Jalan Sosrowijayan in Malioboro area.

I personally like it because it is not very sweet. Other than that, it is somewhat a different experience if you have gudeg which is made by the oldest gudeg maker in town.

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Kitchen: Ayam Betutu Gilimanuk

Ayam Betutu Gilimanuk [2016:EO]

One of my favorite chicken dish is Ayam Betutu Gilimanuk, it is a Balinese spiced roasted chicken which is served with boiled spinach water (kangkung), fried peanuts, Balinese raw chili (sambal matah) and plain white rice. I must say that I had it quite regularly when I lived in Jakarta because it is very tasty and filling. When I lived in Jakarta, I normally went to Ayam Betutu Gilimanuk in Jalan Wolter Mongisidi, Kebayoran Baru which was close to both my office as well as my home. I never tried to make one at home. However, since I got pregnant and have been craving for various Indonesian cuisines including Ayam Betutu Gilimanuk, I decided to give a shot and the result is pretty good. It is very easy but it takes sometimes.

Ingredients

1 whole chicken
2 stems of lemon grass (crush)
2 bay leaves
1 large banana leaves to wrap the chicken
aluminium foil
80 ml of vegetable oil
15 chili
4 cm of fresh ginger
4 cm of fresh turmeric (roasted)
4 cm of fresh galangal
2 stems of lemon grass (chopped)
10 shallots
6 garlic
4 candlenut
1 tsp of coriander seed
4 kaffir lime leaves
1/2 tsp black-pepper
2 tsp salt

Ingredients for Sambal Matah

2 garlic (finely chopped)
8 shallot (finely chopped)
1/2 tsp of dried shrimp paste (quickly grilled)
10 red chilli (finely chopped)
2 stems of lemon grass (finely chopped)
2 kaffir lime leaves (finely chopped)
1/2 tbs sugar
1/2 tsp salt
1 tbs lemon juice
3 tbs coconut oil

Directions:

Wash the chicken, pat it dry and place it aside;
Seasoning paste: In food processor, process chili, ginger, turmeric, galangal, lemon grass, shallot, garlic, candlenut, coriander seed, kaffir lime leaves, blackener and salt until finely ground;
In frying pan, heat the vegetable oil over medium heat, add the seasoning paste and cook it for 4 minutes;
Over banana leaves, place the chicken and spread the cooked seasoning paste evenly over the chicken, including inside the chicken;
Wrap in banana leaves and wrap it again in aluminum foil;
Steam the chicken over medium-high heat for 2 hours;
After being steamed, roast the chicken at 185 C for 2 hours.
Sambal Matah: place all sambal matah ingredients into a small bowl and mix it together; heat the coconut oil over medium heat for 3 minutes; pour the heated coconut oil into the mixed ingredients and stir it all the ingredients well.
Serve Ayam Betutu Gilimanuk with plain rice, sambal matah, fried peanuts and boiled spinach water.

Happy cooking!

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Kitchen: Soto Ayam

Soto Ayam [2016:EO]

Soto is one of Indonesian version of soup with spiced chicken or beef broth. It is normally served with hard boiled egg, rice, thin vermicelli noodle, fried shallot, chopped celery leaves, lime and sambal. There are many version of Indonesian soto, it depends on the place of origin. The differences normally can be seen through the type of broth, coconut milk broth or clear broth, as well as the type of meat which can be chicken, beef as well as offal.

I believe that there are more than 10 type of Indonesian soto. Those are including Soto Betawi with beef and coconut milk based broth, Soto Lamongan, Soto Kudus, Soto Mie Bogor, Soto Sulung Surabaya and also Soto Banjar. And today, I would like to share the recipe of Soto Ayam Yogya.

Ingredients:

2 stalks of fresh lemon grass – crush
6 pieces of kefir lime leaves
3 pieces of bay leaves
5 pieces of candlenut (kemiri)
5 pieces of garlic
6 pieces of shallot
5 cm of turmeric
5 cm of ginger (crush)
5 cm of galangal (crush)
1 tsp of ground black pepper
1 tsp of coriander seeds
2 tbs of salt
1 tbs of sugar
1 chicken breast with bone
1 thin vermicelli noodle
1 cup of chopped celery celery
1.5 L of water
3 pieces of hard boiled egg
2 cup of bean sprout
2 cup of chopped white cabbage
1 lime (slice it)
2 tomato (slice it)
Chopped chilli

Soto’s spices and herbs [2016:EO]

Steps

Place chicken in a saucepan. Add water, lemon grass, kefir lime leave, bay leaves, galangal and coriander seed. Boil the chicken over medium-high heat. Reduce to medium-low heat. Cover and simmer it for 15 minutes;
Place turmeric, ginger, shallot, garlic and candle nut into food processor and pulse them into thick paste;
Add spiced paste, salt, sugar and ground black pepper into the boiled chicken and continue to boil it for 20 minutes. Remove the chicken and shred it;
Steam the bean sprout and white cabbage;
Soak the vermicelli noodle into hot water for 5 minutes. Drain and pat it dry

How Serve Soto Ayam

Place vermicelli noodle into a bowl. Add shredded chicken, bean sprout, white cabbage and slice tomato;
Add filtered spiced chicken broth into the bowl;
Add sliced hard boiled egg, chopped celery and fried shallot as topping;
Serve it with chopped chili and lime.

Ride the bus

Review: Han Gang

Han Gang Waltermongisi [2014: E O]

Lately I have been hearing many people saying how delicious Korean food are especially the barbecue one. Honestly, I have never been really interested to try it until few weeks ago I was writing about Korean restaurants and look at the Korean food image at the website. It looks so tasty and tempting.

So here I was… going to Han Gang restaurant in Jalan Walter Mongisidi, South Jakarta to try my first Korean barbecue. As I never tried Korean barbecue before, the waitress suggested me to order modeum gogi, an assorted beef. My ooo my… what a big menu?! I even felt so full to the next day!

I was really glad that finally I had the Korean food after craving for it for few days and it was super good. However I would not have it so often as it is so filling! It is not that expensive for that big menu, my friend and I spent nearly Rp 700,000 (68 USD) for a good quality Korean barbecue. It’s worth!

Anyway, I was wondering who the owner of Han Gang Mongisidi is because on the ground floor of the restaurant is a luxury car showroom called “Leo Auto Cars” 😀