chuka

I found the Japanese equivalent of jellyfish salad that is usually served in dim sum restaurant! The name's chuka kurage.

Apparently Japanese people are known to make chuka out of other ingredients too. Chuka made from baby octopuses and seaweed are equally popular, they are called chuka idako and chuka wakame, respectively.

Chuka kanimayo, as you might have guessed, is crab + mayonaisse. I don't remember the name for chuka made from salmon skin, though.

The sauce they are mixed with are made from sesame oil, vinegar, sugar, chili oil, chili sauce, mirin and sesame seeds. One variation adds mayonnaise to the mixture. Another chopped chili. Another soy sauce. Another chopped shallot. :E Yes. I dislike the one with the shallot.

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putri kendedes

The owner of Putri Kendedes [sic] sure liked Soekarno a lot! He decorated the whole restaurant with Bung Karno's memorabilia.

Soekarno, the first president of Indonesia is known to had been married several times to pretty ladies. While Naoko Nemoto is no doubt the prettiest of them all, Fatmawati bore the most children. There was a picture of Fatmawati's children with their parents. Said picture lacked the youngest sibling, Guruh, because the relationship between Soekarno and Fatmawati went sour following his birth. To the extent that Fatmawati didn't even visit Soekarno on his deathbed. However when they were still all lovey-dovey, they were a cute couple.


This picture of Fatmawati rode behind Soekarno on a bike, for example.

Oh, about what this restaurant sells -- Indonesian food, something in between Sundanese and Javanese. I like its grilled gourami fish with vegetables and rice.

But you absolutely must taste its soursop juice. The sweetness, smoothness, tanginess and coldness are uncomparable! The best soiursop juice I've ever drank!

Location: Mojokerto, East Java, Indonesia.

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bittersweet for the first time

Fishing for 70K++ from my purse, I'd never felt this cheated upon my whole life.

Rice and chicken karage, the chicken tasted bland, the sauce is scarce. Ice cream with such posh name: Lady in White tasted like McDonald's vanilla one. Lemon tea was over-diluted, no taste of lemon or tea whatsoever. Nasi lemak with fried chicken, my tastebud only recognize its hotness, no flavor at all. Top that with longest serving time in Sidoarjo. Definitely not coming back.

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pempek sriwijaya -- part two

I now take away the title of best pempek on earth from Pempek Sriwijaya of Sidoarjo. It is located on Duryat Street, and I will not eat there in the near time.

Indonesia's inflation has taken its toll on this place. Before that, they gave two jar of vinegar -one is hot and spicy, one is sweet- for each customer ordering pempek(s), to have as much as desired with their pempeks. After money is tight, they dilute the vinegars with water! Unacceptable!

Later because of many people protesting, they changed their policy by pouring those vinegars directly on customers' plates, so bye-bye vinegar jars, bye-bye can take as much vinegar as desired.

I mean the price they charge for pempek is already not cheap, why insists on treating customers this way?

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rawon majapahit

Sidoarjo's most popoular rawon maker has a unique policy: whatever dish you're having apart from rice and rawon soup, you pay all the same. Empal (Indonesian beef cuisine) is of the same price with perkedel, omelette, etc. Normally empal costs a lot more than mere perkedel.

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most undelicious rawons in the world

One is at Brangkal Mojokerto, called Maduratna. The other is at Bypass Mojoagung, called Anda.

I was deeply disappointed when I ate rawon at Anda, because their rawon used to be delicious. :(

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lodeh bug for the first time

I ate a bug. No la. I ate lodeh bug by Bug Matira near Malang Train Station. It was a famous place among food tester community people. When my lover and I searched for this place, we almost gave up. The street number is not ascending nor descending, but random!

Well, not all are random. Some houses were lined numerically. But the bug lady's place (lame pun not intended) was not. Just when we were about to leave, I saw name sign of that place.

So, what are the composition of this famous meal? Rice, of course. And lodeh, unripe jackfruits cooked Madura style. Also serundeng. What made the meal unique was serundeng crackers. So they grated coconuts and dried them under the sun, and I dunno what other process done upon them until they became serundeng, and then processed some more to make them crisp.

But someone told me when another people went there, they served wintermelon lodeh instead of jackruit one. Some other time they served lodeh made of unripe papayas.

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gondhol meatball for the first time

Last month I went to Malang. The city was situated on rather high plains, on the slopes of a mountain, so the streets are hilly, naturally. Following a reccomendation from a colleague, I had pork meatball for lunch.

The place was actually named after its owner, Mr. Gondhol, but due to people spelling it wrong all the time, he relented and placed a big banner in front of it, calling the place Gundul's.

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horse meat for the first time

The place belonged to Mr Eksan. He sold all kinds of satay: horse meat, mushroom, escargot. Horse meat there was also found in meatball and krengsengan. There was also deep fried crunchy escargot.

Okay, escargot was not an alien to me, but horse meat was. I ordered horse meat satay. Mr Eksan's had it smothered in soy sauce and peanut-sugar sauce.

So how was it? It tasted so much similar to mutton.

Location? Near 2nd Kandat Junior High School. Price? 19 thousand rupiahs.

Glossary:
satay: Indonesian food. Its spelling varies from satay, sate, to satai. Basically chopped grilled meat on a stick a.k.a skewers.
krengsengan: Indonesian food. Chopped meat cooked in soy sauce and dunno what other ingredients.

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pempek sriwijaya

I now bestow the title of best pempek on earth to Pempek Sriwijaya of Sidoarjo. It is located on Duryat Street, and I eat there everytime possible.

If you happen to visit this city, order their submarine super-dry-fired without shrimp powder, just like I always do. It is heavenly, kid you not. Also there are two kind of sour sauce, the one with chili and the one without. Always go for the one with chili. And while you're there, try their snow ice with peanut. Yummy to the max!

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durian juice with beer

I drank the most delicious beer ever, it was mixed with juiced durian and sugar at Sriwijaya Foodcourt near Dinoyo area. Consequently it was also the most delicious juice I have ever drank. The foodcourt also sells other juices and food such as meatball, soto, barbecue on stick, etc but I didn't manage to taste them.

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kliwon

As shown by its unique name, this new restaurant specializes in Javanese food. Its interior has two man-sized statues of Javanese puppet characters.

I had kliwon rice. It was rice with Javanese tofu curry, grilled chicken, Javanese sauteed vegetables, etc. It was nice and the price was so-so. Cozy place to meet and chat with friends.

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