Tucked away from the peering eyes on Broadway is a little family joint dishing up humble Indonesian food to it’s devoted uni students and apartment-dwelling urbanites. From the laneway it looks like nothing more than a takeaway but if you enter the door and take yourself up the stairs to the mezzanine level, you’ll find a besser brick bunker-like dining room decked out in different shades of grey. As lively as this place may get with its locals slurping on delicious bowls of bakmi or crunching on ayam goreng, you can’t help but get the sense of what the decor may be like in a correctional facility. The only colour in this place comes from the food, tissue boxes and bottles of sambal oelek so as oppressive as the surroundings may be, there’s definitely nothing grey about the food.
A quick lunch has us ordering a few small bites such as fiery ayam goreng penyet, your choice of breast or thigh, fried to perfect crispness and lathered with a vibrant and lip-numbing Javanese chilli sauce. At first glimpse it looks like it’ll knock your head off but the immediate slap of chilli mellows down to a slightly bitter sweetness, allowing the fried goodness of the chicken meat to come out and say hello.
As the resident Indonesian nanna hobbles up and down the stairs delivering food to the hungry mouths her son sends frantic echoes of his wok-tossing from the open kitchen downstairs, making you wonder whether your meal is coming out next. The only particular order the dishes are brought out is basically when they’re ready. Forget starters and mains, you’ll get it when you get it.
The sate babi is nothing more than delicious pieces of grilled pork on bamboo skewers, slapped on a slick of sweet kecap manis. A little sliced cucumber, some lettuce and a wedge of lemon round things off in the presentation stakes. And yes, they’re very good.
The bakmi komplit babi panggang may sound like a bit of a mouthful to those that don’t speak the tongue, but all we’re really talking about is cooked minced pork over egg noodles topped with a couple of crispy wontons and a bit of greenery. There’s a side of highly-seasoned broth and a couple of tender beef balls where you can choose to have it on its own or pour it over your noodles. Go for the latter, you’ll love it.
{ 13 comments… read them below or add one }
The bakmi and babi typifies my experience with Indonesian and Malaysian restaurants in Sydney. It is also the thing that annoys me most.
The biggest problem I have with Indonesian (and Malaysian, for that matter) food in Sydney is that it is disproportionately run by Chinese-Indonesians and Chinese-Malaysians. That’s great if you want babi in everything but not so great if you want authenticity. I’m wondering if most Australians think that Indonesia and Malaysia are mostly inhabited by Chinese people that sometimes speak a funny language that isn’t Chinese. For example, the pasar malam behind the state theatre for example – if it weren’t for Aida’s crew at Kaki Lima, I’m pretty sure it would be a Chinese-Malaysian only affair.
What do you think? Are we getting 100% of the real deal when it comes to Indonesian and Malaysian food in Sydney?
Hi Adam, very interesting point and I’m sure there is validity in there. To be honest the last time I was in Indonesia was almost twenty years ago so my memories of the food there compared with what we have here is are beyond hazy. I think dilution of cuisines is inevitable when you have such mixtures of ethnicities. I’ve talked to Malaysians that now live in Sydney and many of them struggle to find true Malaysian food in this town. I guess if you want the real deal you need to book yourself a ticket! “You” meaning me, as I always look forward to food at any overseas destination
i’m liking the look of that ayam goreng penyet. looks like plenty of flavour. on my wish list now. adam, i tried a beef rendang today from Kaki Lima at Malaysia Kitchen today. hoping to check out that restaurant in due course as it’s the first time i’ve heard about it
I bet they don’t get food this good served at the correctional facilities….looks lovely.
That Javanese chilli sauce looks fiery ….
come on out and say hello! HAHAHA best line ever
John, you always find the places I never even knew existed! I’m afraid I wouldn’t be able to tell if the food was authentic or not
Thanks for the post, I’ve been eating lots of Indo food in Kingsford/Kensington lately and I was thinking Ultimo must have some good Malay/Indo options, but I wasn’t sure where to begin. This looks like a good starting point, and that ayam goreng penyet looks delish!
Indonesian cuisine is almost completely unknown for me, ordering dishes with such names would be a really daunting task if it wasn’t for posts like this. Whether it’s authentic or not, I’m grateful we have a wide variety of cuisines to at least have a glimpse of what each country has to offer.
I think we are all lucky that you are here to do the investigative work, John. Besides the beautiful photography, I feel you always do justice to the cuisine regardless of the origin. I’m a big fan!
Adam, speaking as a Malaysian I would like to point out the following -
- your contention that the use of pork somehow makes Malaysian food non-authentic is incorrect; Malaysian food is not exclusively Malay food; we’re a multi-racial country and lots of Malaysian dishes do contain pork – case in point – Char Kway Teow with chinese sausage and pork crisps, and Har Meen with pork slices etc. etc.
- Having said that, I’m Chinese-Malaysian and I happen NOT to eat pork (so I do sympathize with your lament) – I also run a restaurant that does not use it nor its by-products in any of my dishes, hence my Char Kway Teow omits chinese sausage and my Popiah contains no pork crisps – for which I’m occasionally accused of lacking authenticity.
It’s really a case of damned if I do and damned if I don’t.
Love noodles which are served dry with soup to mix in yourself. Somehow a little DIY provides a huge novelty factor as I work out the best soup/noodle ratio, plus I’m more likely to sip the soup on its own this way too.
Interesting reading the comments, Malay or other cuisines may not be as authentic here as in their country of origin, but wow we are blessed so much more than other countries on the fantastic diversity of Asian cuisine we can get here.
Travel to Europe or even the majority of the USA and you find yourself craving for a decent Asian meal, be it Malay, Indonesian, Chinese, the list goes on.