Kambing Guling (Grilled Goat)

A grilled goat being prepared for our office year-end gathering in December 2012. We did not have a gathering last year (2013). Grilled goat is called "kambing guling" in Indonesian. It literally means rolling goat to describe how it is prepared, i.e. by rolling it over the cinder.

Pancake at Cafe Kupu-Kupu

The pancake, served with a scoop of ice cream and slices of banana, I had sometime ago at Cafe Kupu-Kupu. Cafe Kupu-Kupu is located on Kolonel Masturi street, in the scenic northern hills of Cimahi. I like this cafe because it's a reading cafe with plenty of books and magazines that we can borrow and read while we're enjoying the beverages and foods. It's pretty close to where I live too.

Kue panekuk disajikan dengan es krim dan potongan pisang yang saya pesan di Kafe Kupu-Kupu di Jalan Kolonel Masturi, Cimahi utara, beberapa waktu yang lalu. Saya suka ke kafe ini karena di kafe ini menyediakan banyak buku dan majalah yang bisa dipinjam dan dibaca sambil kita menikmati makanan dan minuman.

Kerak Telor

Photo caption: A kerak telor seller in at Lapangan Gasibu (Gasibu Square), Bandung.

In addition to food stalls, the Gasibu Square also attracts different kinds of 'mobile' food and beverage sellers like this in the evening.

This man sells kerak telor, a traditional food from Betawi.

I call him a 'mobile' food seller because he uses pikulan (a bamboo carrying pole like the one you see in the picture) to carry all the equipment and ingredients he needs to make the food he's selling.

Night Food Stalls at Gasibu

Photo caption: Night food stalls lining Jalan Diponegoro at Gasibu Square in front of Gedung Sate, the West Java Gubernatorial Office Mansion.

These food stalls, which operate only in the evening, sell different kinds of traditional foods and drinks. Many Bandung people love to hang out here, especially during the weekend nights when the place sees more visitors than any other nights.

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.

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.

Caramel Grilled Banana

This 'sumptuous' photo of caramel grilled banana served with roasted peanuts and fresh strawberry has been sitting in my hard drive for quite a while. I remember having it as a dessert in a restaurant in the north of Bandung.

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.

Banana Caramel

Thank God it's Friday evening! Time to stretch legs, enjoy a personal time with a cup of coffee and a good book. And this delectable banana caramel served with a scoop of vanilla ice cream is an extra treat. Have a good weekend, everyone!

Crisp Chilli Salmon

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

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.

How Do You Like Your Hot Dog?

How do you like your hot dog?

Do you like it big or small? With a lot ketchup, mayonnaise, or mustard? With pickle, coleslaw, sauerkraut, onion, lettuce, tomato, cheese or chili peppers? And the bun, how do you like it to be?

I am not usually a fast food eater. But at the Bandung World Jazz Fest last week, this hot dog looked so tempting and I couldn't help myself to try it. And with the jazzy atmosphere around, it tasted yummy!

The stall that sold this hot dog is called Lekker. I think it's a local franchise.

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.

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.

Peuyeum Bandung

The word Bandung is part of quite a few collocations when it comes to food and beverage naming. Here are some examples: siomay or baso tahu Bandung, mie kocok Bandung, soto Bandung, bakmie Bandung, brownies Bandung. For our Malay friends in Singapore, Malaysia, and Brunei the phrase air Bandung may also be a familiar phrase although we don't have a beverage by that name here.

Of all those names, none is probably more closely associated with Bandung than peyeum, the Sundanese word for tapai or tape.

Tapai or tape as some of you may know is a kind of fermented food made of carbohydrate food source such as cassava or glutinous rice. It tastes sweet with a little bit sour flavor. As you can see in the picture, Peyeum Bandung is typically made of cassava.

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.