Category: Food and Drink

Satay is very important to me when I travel to Indonesia.  It is one of the best foods that Indonesia has to offer–very small chunks of tender meat skewed onto bamboo sticks and grilled over an open flame, basted with a salty sweet marinade and served with a tasty peanut sauce.  However, I have yet to find the best version of satay in the local area where I spend most of my time, Menteng.  There is a rather upscale restaurant named Sate Khas Senayan (Special Senayan Satay) which has very good meat served in air-conditioned comfort.  This place as outlets all over Jakarta, and is popular with the businessman/politician crowd.  But the sauce there is too bland, too smooth and refined and processed for my tastes.  On the other hand, there are two little roadside stalls, Pondok Sate Pak Heri and Rumah Makan Jaya Agung that have the perfect sauces, a bit more chunky and thick with sweet soy sauce, nice little roughly-chopped shallots and pickle on the side, but the meat is not as good.  They are certainly more authentic, given that they use whatever part of the goat/cow/chicken that they can, but the meat is undoubtedly tougher and chewier.

So I’m asking the internet.  Internet people, what is the best place in Menteng (preferably in the Jalan Sabang area) for satay?  Remember, my two real goals for satay are (1) tender juicy meat and (2) authentic, not-too-processed sauce.  I like all types of satay, including beef, lamb/goat, chicken, and "parts."  Suggestions appreciated in the comments below.

(I have put the title in this post in Indonesian to attract Indonesians googling randomly who can advise me properly on this question.  Saya menerjemahkan judul post ini ke bahasa Indonesia untuk menerima pengunjung Indonesia yang nasehatnya amat diperlu.  Orang internet, restoran/rumah makan mana yang menyediakan sate yang paling enak di Menteng (khususnya dekat wilayah Sabang)?  Yang paling penting adalah: (1) dagingnya lunak, dan (2) saos kacangnya sedap dan agak kasar, tidak diproses hingga halus-halus.  Bisa sate kambing, sapi, ayam, apa saja.)

JMP Update: Everything is going swimmingly in Tangerang.  JMP is having a great time with her students, teaching pianists and violinists how to play the recorder and teaching her three flute students how to become better flutists.  She reports that her students are friendly and quite musically talented–much better than she even expected.  She is the envy of all other faculty at JISMF because she understands Indonesian and can identify unusual foods (e.g., "that’s not a potato, it’s a fish ball" or "this savory pancake is called martabak").

Food Mistake: Every once in awhile I will order something I’ve never had before at a restaurant so that I can have something new to taste.  Usually it goes well, sometimes not at all.  Yesterday was a "not at all" moment.  I ordered something called sop kikil, which I guess you might translate as ox shank soup.  Ox shanks sound good, I figured it would be a fatty shank bone with some meat on it, sort of like oxtail soup.  What arrived at my table was a bowl full of very spicy and meaty, very delicious broth with fried potatoes and chopped tomatoes and herbs floating on top.  Yum.  When I put my spoon in it, though, I learned that I had the main ingredient was bite-sized pieces of knee joint cartilage, accompanied by some soft fat and marrow.  The fat and marrow were good, but the knee joint cartilage (which you were clearly supposed to eat) not so much.  Fortunately, with all that great broth and a plate of rice, I was happy.

Found in Translation: I was at a Chinese restaurant the other day called The Grand Duck King.  It’s specialty was fresh fish (of course).  The restaurant was my very favorite kind of Chinese fish restaurant, with a a good fish tank full of living things.  I found some colorful translations of non-native creatures.

Kepiting laba-laba ("spider crab") = King crab
Kepiting telur ("Egg crab") = blue crab
Kepiting banci ("Shemale crab") = I’m not sure what this is, looked like a plain old crab to me
Kerang gajah ("Elephant clam") = geoduck
Kerang bambu ("Bamboo clam") = razor clam (this makes sense when you look at one)
Ikan malas ("Lazy fish") = freshwater bass