Braga Culinary Night

This is what Bandung's most renowned street "Jalan Braga" looks like now every Saturday night. Since 11 January 2014, a weekly event called Braga Culinary Night has been and will be staged here. The event is part of a wide range of new initiatives taken by our new mayor Mr Ridwan Kamil to revive and improve the charm of the city that was once proudly called the Paris of Java (Parijs van Java).

The colorful umbrellas are not a permanent fixture. They are part of the monthly thematic decorations that will be changed on the monthly basis. The umbrellas have probably been chosen because January falls within the rainy season in Bandung.

Bandung Culinary Night (BCN) is held every Saturday evening from 6 PM until 1 AM Sunday. Different food stalls representing a wide range of Bandung's rich culinary traditions are erected here. Visitors can choose whatever foods they like from the variety offered from "jajanan rakyat" (folk snacks/food) to the more classy hotel and restaurant class ones.

Today's photo was contributed by my friend Irvan Ariandi, a photographer and a member of Bandung's creative community forum.

English Notices

English notices at the entrance of Nanny's Pavillion, a French American pancake restaurant, at Sukajadi area in the north of Bandung.

I like the family-like atmosphere of this restaurant. The foods and beverages are also reasonably good.

'Bubur Sumsum'

A street vendor selling 'bubur sumsum' serving a customer at Jalan Geger Kalong Girang in the north of Bandung.

Bubur sumsum literally means bone marrow porridge. However, this local sweet delicacy has nothing to do at all with bone marrow. It is a porridge, yes. But it is entirely made of rice flour and other ingredients derived from plants, like coconut milk, palm sugar, etc. It has no animal ingredients whatsoever. The name was probably given because of its look: white and smooth like marrow.

Bubur sumsum is usually eaten for breakfast or afternoon snack. Because of its savory and sweet taste, however, this light meal is often served as a dessert to fit in the Western style of dining and translated as rice pudding.

If you want to know how it tastes, you may try to make it yourself. Here is the recipe written in English that I found on the web.

Kopi Aroma - Bandung's Coffee Heritage

For a city whose past glory was intimately linked with tea and coffee plantations, Bandung is well known for its cafes and tea and coffee processing plants. One such places that has survived the time and is considered to be a heritage coffee institution is Paberik Kopi Aroma (lit. Aroma Coffee Plant).



Located on 51 Banceuy Street, Paberik Kopi Aroma was established in 1930 by Tan Houw Sian who ran it until 1971 when it was passed to his son Pak Widya Pratama, a friendly guy who would gladly give you a tour of his coffee processing plant, warehouse, and shop and explain the entire process of coffee bean processing.



The whole process begins with the select coffee beans that his shop acquired from local farmers as well as those from many other parts of Indonesia. (He says that he bought his Arabica beans from Aceh, Medan, Tana Toraja, East Nusatenggara, and Java; and Robusta from Central Java and Lampung.)



The already dry beans will be sun-dried for at least one day. They will then be stored in the warehouse for five to eight years depending on the type of the bean. (Robusta coffee beans need longer storage time to get rid of their acidity.)




The 'mature' bean will then be roasted traditional way. Here, Paberik Kopi Aroma only uses red warm fire produced by old rubber tree woods. Pak Widya says that red warm fire is essential in the production process because if the temperature is too high, the beans will get burned and it will destroy the aroma of the coffee.



When the processing is complete, the beans are ready for sale. You can buy them in the form of coffee beans or powder. The store will gladly grind the beans in front of you with its old coffee grinding machines (some of them dated back from the 1900),



And here is a tip about coffee storage that you'll find on Kopi Aroma the packaging:

Wilt U heerlijke Koffei drinken?
aroma en smaak blijven goed, indien U de Koffei van de zak direct in een gesloten stopfles of blik overplaatst.

Niet it de zak laten staan!


Maoe minoem Koffie selamanja enak?
Aromanja dan rasanja tinggal tetep, kaloe ini Koffei soeda di boeka dari kantongnja harep di pindahkeun di stopfles atawa di blik jang tertoetoep rapet.

Djangan tinggal di kantong!

(The top paragraph is in Dutch, the bottom is in old or colonial style Indonesian.)

Translation:
You want to keep/preserve the taste of your coffee?
To preserve the aroma of your coffee, put the coffee in a tightly sealed container once you open the package.

Do not leave it in the package!

Pictures by Myke Jeanneta, a Bandung Daily Photo regular contributor.

Kampung Daun, Culture Gallery and Cafe in The Jungle

Can you really dine in style and enjoy cultural performances in the jungle?

In Bandung, you can.

And here's the place that has received so much rave from critics and cafe connoiseurs: Kampung Daun .

Kampung Daun (lit. leaf kampong), claimed by the owners as culture gallery and cafe, is located on Jalan Sersan Bajuri, about 4.7 kilometers to the northwest of Setiabudhi street in Bandung. It is literally a cafe nested in a valley amidst the jungle. The design of this gallery and cafe is such that it retains much of the natural elements and atmosphere that the valley has.

Let me take you in a visual tour of the place.

Here's the entrance to the place.



And as you enter, here's what you're going to see.



Further inside, you'll see the path branches. These paths lead you to the huts where the visitors are seated like you would in a restaurant.





And here's one of the huts that's located by the stream.



This is what the smaller huts look like inside. As you can see, you won't be sitting on a couch, bench, or chair here. Instead you'll be sitting on mattresses and pillows.



And here's the waterfall creek/stream that's located further inside the this cafe. I took the photo from one of the bridges that crosses it.

Lunch

This is the lunch we had today: a basic set of meals that Sundanese people would typically have.

In the bamboo container and wrapped in banana leaf is rice, our staple food which without which we can't call a meal a proper meal. The side dishes we had were fried tofu and tempe (or tempeh in English), grilled fish (the protein sources), and some vegetables (we had stir-fried labu jipang or chayote shoots). The red and brownish things in the small 'saucers' are sambal (chilly sauces) in which we dip the the chunk of fish before eating it with the rice. We had two types of sambal today: the red one is chili and terasi based called sambal terasi and the deep brownish one is sweet soy sauce based called sambal kecap.

Crisp Chilli Salmon

And this is what I had yesterday at the dinner with our Australian students: Crisp Chilli Salmon.

lighting fixtures (luminaire)

Yesterday night we had a welcome dinner for our new Australian students at Roemah Keboen restaurant on L.R.E. Martadinata (Riau) street. Occupying an old heritage building, it's a cozy restaurant with a very nice interior. This is one of the things I like about it: the lighting fixtures (luminaire).

Sate Maranggi

Here's another culinary specialty that you may want to try if you visit Bandung and its vicinities: Sate Maranggi.

Sate Maranggi is a kind of satay that is originally from the area of Purwakarta, a regency about 80 kilometers north-north west of Bandung. It is typically made from goat meat or beef.

What's special about this sate is its "chunky" and tender meat and the sauce with which it is served. This sauce is made of kecap manis (sweet soy sauce), sugar cane vinegar, and green chili pepper and hence tastes refreshingly sweet, sour, and hot. In addition to the sauce, it is also served with slices of pineapple, shallots, and crushed fresh tomatoes.

I took these photos at Cibungur sate maranggi restaurant near the Sadang exit of Cipularang Toll Road at Purwakarta.

The Salad Bar

This is the salad bar of the Valley Restaurant that I was talking about the day before yesterday. The presentation looks nice, the selection okay, but the supply looks a bit poor. Probably they keep it that way to keep the supply fresh. They don't re-suply until an item in a bowl is running very low.

Colorful Glasses

Colorful giant decorative glasses at The Valley, a restaurant at the top of the hills of the Dago area in the north of Bandung. I think they add a nice touch to the spacious and cozy interior.

Basreng (Baso Goreng)

An Australian student of mine once commented that Bandung's foods seemed to be eclectic. "They are made from this ingredient and that and various mixes and matches from ingredients of the existing recipes."

I didn't realize it then. But I think he's right. And basreng (baso goreng) can be an example. Baso (meat balls) is usually served steamed with noodle soup. Someone must have thought that there must be a new way to serve it. Hence he or she had this idea to fry it and serve it with spicy peanut sauce. And voila, it's basreng, fried meat ball served in or with spicy peanut souce.

Basreng is quite a popular street food. It's usually sold by a street vendor like in these photos.

Ubi Cilembu

Ubi Cilembu is a cultivar of sweet potato that is originated from the Cilembu village of the Tanjung Sari subdistrict, Sumedang, West Java. This cultivar of sweet potato is very special and highly in demand because of its special characteristics.



Ubi Cilembu has granular/crumbly and fluffier flesh texture and tastes typically sweet - some say it tastes like honey, therefore it is also called "ubi si madu" (honey sweet potato). Because of these characteristics, ubi Cilembu is best served roasted.

Ubi Cilembu is very popular among locals and visitors alike here and as such is highly in demand. Unfortunately, this cultivar has not been successfully cultivated anywhere else but in its native area. The yields of those cultivated elsewhere do not taste as good as those grown in their area of origin. Some say it has to do with the soil condition and characteristics. Ubi Cilembu is best grown on dry land. Therefore, it is available in abundance typically only during the dry season, between June and September.

If you happen to visit Bandung, you may want to taste it. It is usually sold in small roadside vendors like that on the above photo.



This is what the flesh of ubi Cilembu looks like when roasted.

High Angle View of Street Life

A baso tahu vendor walking Asia Afrika street in the city center.

This photo is part of my Bandung street photography collection and project that I keep at my other blog Bandung Street [Photography]. Plese follow the link to see a bigger photo and more of my street photography collections.

Wall of Mementoes

These momentoes are the wall decoration at the Katjapiring restaurant that I was talking about yesterday. You can see there items that may remind you of your parents or grandparents' time: Old scale, china porcelain, 'grandpa's wall clock, antique telephone box, etc.

Nasi Lemak and Teh Poci

A few weeks ago, I went to Katjapiring, a restaurant at Paris van Java specializing in peranakan cuisine, and had nasi lemak and Teh Poci.

Peranakan is the term used to refer to the descendants of the 15th - 16th century Chinese immigrants to Nusantara (what is now the Indonesian archipelago, Malaysia, and Singapore).

Nasi lemak is a Malay rice dish consisting of fried anchovy, chicken or beef curry, etc. (See the top picture and check the link above.)

Teh poci is fragrant Javanese jasmine tea served hot with lump sugar in a small clay teapot (called poci). Teh poci is originally from the areas of Tegal, Pemalang, and Pekalongan in the northern coast of Central Java.

The nasi lemak I had was not as good as the one I once tasted in Malaysia, but the the teh poci was as good as I had expected.

Nasi Tetenong

The annual Braga Festival is taking place now. It was opened on the 27 and will be ongoing till tomorrow (12/30). I went there on the first day and was a bit disappointed to see that the flow of events and performances didn't seem to be as well organized as the previous years'. The food stands still look good and very tempting though. I tried Nasi Tetenong.



Nasi is the Indonesian word for cooked rice, and tetenong is the Sundanese word for the bamboo basket/container like the one in the photo below. So nasi tetenong means rice with a variety of side dish choices offered/contained in the bamboo container. This Nasi Tetenong, however, is the name of a restaurant. Did you see what I had? See the top photo. It's delicious and inexpensive.

Ketan Bakar Lembang

Ketan Bakar Lembang is a tasty little dish made of sticky rice (ketan). The rice is cooked, shaped like a block, barbecued, and served with peanut sauce, oncom souce, and/or sarundeng (toasted and spiced grated coconut).

Because it is barbecued, the rice is crispy on the outside but still soft on the inside. Eaten with peanut and/or oncom souce, it's yummy!

The word Lembang in the name of this dish is the name of a small high land town about 12 kilometers north of Bandung where this dish is said to have originated from.

Oleh-oleh Bandung: Keripik Tempe

Literally translated, "oleh-oleh" means souvernirs or gift that one brings home from a trip. It can be in the form of food or souvenirs. Keripik tempe can be literally translated as tempe chips.

Kiripik tempe is a popular oleh-oleh from Bandung.



It can be found in small road-side shops like this one in many different parts of the city, such as Pasar Baru, Cihampelas, Stasion Bandung, and Kosambi.



This is how they fry it: in a huge wok.



And this is how it looks when cooked and ready to be packaged.

Mie Sumpit

Mie Sumpit (lit. noodle chopsticks) is a local restaurant specializing in noodle dishes. Recently it opened an outlet at Pasteur (kilometer 1) rest area of Padaleunyi toll road. The tent-shaped roof of this road side restaurant looks interesting.

I took this photo one late and rainy afternoon a few days ago when I stopped by and had a meal at a restaurant next to it.