Bandung

Went down to Bandung for the weekend, because Jakarta was driving me nuts.  I didn’t do much… just wandered around, enjoying the usable footpaths, quieter pace and cooler mountain temperatures.  Most people go for the outlet shopping, but I wasn’t really in the mood for braving the hordes.

But I ate some of the good local food.

I went to a Sundanese restaurant called Resep Dapurku on Jalan Lembong and got a tasty mix of dishes, all served with steamed nasi merah (red rice), which is my favorite kind of rice!!  Singkong, delicious types of tempe, corn fritter and grilled chicken… and really beautiful freshly made sambals to spice it up, including sambal tempe, which was just OMG.  I’ve never had it before, and I am a huge tempe fan, and it was so delicious — not too hot, with fresh chili, garlic smashed up with tempe.  It’s on the right side of the sambal bowl below. mmmmmm.

I still don’t have much of an appetite after being sick, but this got me eating… the only meal I ate during the day haha. But I couldn’t finish it all. I even had to leave behind some of the delicious sauteed tempe and beans and red rice .

Also ate a few snacks off the street on Sunday, cos didn’t feel like a full meal.  These are called Serabi, and they are little pancakes made with pandan flour.  They are subtly sweet, and I buy them sometimes in Jakarta around the place too.  They are really delicious.  But interestingly, they have another name in the Betawi language (Betawi people are the people native to Jakarta)… they are called kue ape, which one of my coworkers told me translates to “boob cakes”… they do kinda look like boobs!!

These, bought from a kaki lima (foot cart) near the alun alun (community square) in Bandung were really tasty.  Because I’ve been sick lately I’m being more careful about what I eat, so I asked the guy to cook me two fresh ones rather than the prepared ones, so they were hot and doughy in the centre and super crispy on the outside and just yummmm.

I also saw a new kind of cake type thing being cooked in Bandung that I hadn’t tried before.  I asked the guy if they were sweet, and he said “no, salty” (salty is generally used to describe savoury food).  But they were sweet!  Maybe just not by Indonesia’s super sweet standards.  A subtle sweet, just like the serabi.

Only trouble is that for the life of me I can’t remember what they were called.  Damn.  If anyone knows, please post!  Anyway, they were prepared by running a liquidy dough over a rather unusual grill, then doubled over.  That’s what gives them the odd shape.  They are a bit hollow inside, crispy on the outside, but doughy in the middle.  I think the dough mix contains shredded coconut.  They were tasty, especially once again prepared piping hot.  I walked along the street in Bandung eating this out of a paper bag that had been made from scrap paper that contained someone’s bank account details.  Note to self- always tear up important documents, or someone might salvage them and turn them into a food package with just a couple of staples.

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