Thursday, October 26, 2006

Indonesian food on Post

Born in Holland, you grow up on Indonesian rijsttafel ("rice table") a big meal that has about 20 dishes arrayed around the table - everything from satay to atjar to beans with peanut sauce to nasi goreng to krupuk, and countless other dishes. There's definitely a Dutch twist to this Indonesian food - the spices are not as hot and the food leans more towards sweet than keeping the sourt/salty/sweet/spicy in balance.

It wasn't until I had a chance to travel around Indonesia that I found out how varied Indonesian food is. Sampling dishes in Yogyakarta, Solo, Bali, and Jakarta, you really get a sense of the flavors and ingredients that make up the different types of food.

In San Francisco, there are not a lot of Indonesian restaurants. However, there's a few in the Tenderloin and one in the Inner Richmond. Two are located nearly next door to each other on Post Street (near Jones).

Borobudur is at 700 Post Street and is named after the Buddhist temple near Yogyakarta. See my earlier post from a few years ago about traveling around Java to find out more about this temple. You'll find all your favorites here and some interesting dishes you might not have seen before.

Indonesian food is all about sharing. So first have some krupuk (fried prawn chips) and lumpia (Indonesia's version of an egg roll). You could then take your pick of satays - chicken, pork, or beef. Most of these are served with ketjap (a thicker, sweeter soy sauce) and the ubiquitous peanut sauce. Add the otak-otak (fried fish cake). As you move towards the bigger dishes, note that the beef rendang is done really well here. You can also try some of their chicken (ayam) dishes. For your noodles or rice, look for the mie (noodles) or nasi (rice) sections. I particularly like nasi goreng (fried rice). Make sure to ask for some serundeng (a peanut-coconut mix) and sambal ulek (really spicy chili sauce) to add to your dishes.

Most of all, be willing to experiment!

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