Soto Gerabah Solo

This is the food I tried and tasted at the Balkot Festival 2012: Soto Gerabah Solo.,

Soto is the Indonesian traditional soup. There are a lot varieties of it. Many different parts of the country have their own recipes of soto. This one comes from Surakarta or Solo, a regency in the province of Central Java. Hence the name, soto gerabah solo.

The middle word in the name, 'gerabah', means pottery. And that's the uniqueness of it: the soup is served in baked or fired clay bowls. They don't use stainless steel or metal spoon either. Instead, they use a spoon made of coconut shell and wood.

I chose this food among many others offered at the festival because of its uniqueness. I've never seen it in any other events in Bandung before. Besides it was drizzling and a bit cold. A warm soup with delicious spices was best.

Soto is best and is usually served with ground red or green chili paper and squeezed lemon juice (see the above picture).

The owner, with whom I talked while I was eating, said that they did not have any branches of their restaurant outside their hometown yet. Therefore, if you want to try you may have to go to Surakarta. The restaurant is on Jalan Prof. Supomo No. 57, at Pasar Beling area.