When I stepped into this buzzy restaurant that’s set in a 150-year-old teak joglo (Javanese wooden house), I wasn’t sure what to expect.
A promising opening move would be the calamari in Balinese curry sauce – served with kangkung vegetable and steamed rice which is so appealingly savoury. If you were on vacation, you would order tray after tray of these. The sop buntut – oxtail soup with vegetable and steamed rice is not a dish that is likely to have been stirred by generations of sainted grandmothers since the dawn of time. The broth is rich yet lightened to springtime levels through tactical doses of lemongrass and cilantro. There had better be nasi goreng at any restaurant that is even playing at being Indonesian. There is, in the Nasi goreng special – Indonesian style fried rice served with chicken sate, krupuk, fried egg, the rice fried just until it crackles a bit between your teeth. It has a gentle but genuine spice undercurrent that would be welcome in more of the cooking. Of course there is Mie goreng – fried noodle with chicken and egg.
Few dishes really come forward as the kind of knockout that everybody will talk about later. But if there are few stars on the table, the contrast of flavors, colors, textures and techniques makes the meal into a memorable ensemble piece. This is the true truth as I say it as it is…
PEr FYI 