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Indonesia Restaurant - San Francisco, California

Now that we no longer have an Indonesian restaurant in Hawaii, I just had to come back here.  This second visit was just as good as the first, and I'll definitely be stopping by here everytime I'm in San Francisco.

Gado gado (US$6.25).

Nasi padang (US$7.95).

Nasi goreng (US$7.50).

Es chendol (US$3.50).

Indonesia Restaurant
678-680 Post Street
San Francisco, California
Telephone:  415.474.4026

Perkedel Jagung (Indonesian corn fritters)

Here is a recipe for perkedel jagung (corn fritters) that was passed to me by an Indonesian friend's mother.  There is one ingredient missing from this recipe as I could not decipher a few words on the handwritten recipe card.  If anyone spots a glaring omission in the recipe, please let me know (I am not too sure, but I think it could be galangal).  To me, this version is a lot more flavorful than the version that I had at the Taste of Honolulu earlier in the year.  This is easy to make and is an excellent appetizer.

Perkedel Jagung (Indonesian corn fritters)
(makes betwen 8-10 "fritters")

3 ears fresh corn, kernels removed from the cob
1 tablespoon chopped Chinese leeks (garlic chives)
1 egg, beaten
2 tablespoons rice flour
vegetable oil for frying

Spice paste

1 teaspoon coriander seeds, lightly toasted
1 teaspoon black peppercorns
6 shallots, minced
3 cloves garlic, minced
1 teaspoon rock salt
1 tablespoon granulated sugar

Combine the coriander seeds, black peppercorns, shallots, garlic, rock salt and sugar in a mortar and pound until a smooth paste is formed.  Set aside.

In a bowl, lightly pound corn, then add in spice paste mixing until well combined.  Add in Chinese leeks, then add in the rice flour and toss to coat evenly.  Add in beaten egg and stir until well blended.

Drop by the spoonful into hot oil and fry until golden brown, about 2-3 minutes.  Remove and drain well.

Enjoy!

Indonesia Restaurant - San Francisco, California

After the walk, or should I say hike, from the hotel to Lombard Street, I was famished.  Since my friend agreed to accompany me on my trek, I decided that a free meal was in order.  We headed towards Naan-N-Curry on O'Farrell at the recommendation of Amy.  At the corner of Taylor and Post, we came across Borobudur an Indonesian restaurant.  Peeking inside, I didn't see anyone dining there.  As I turned around and headed back towards the corner, I saw the sign for Indonesia Restaurant across the street.  Since we only have one Indonesian restaurant here in Hawaii, I decided that I would forgo my craving for Indian food and have Indonesian food instead.

Upon entering Indonesia Restaurant, I saw that it was a small shop that was not elaborately decorated -- a hole-in-the-wall.  There were quite a few tables occupied, so I was hopeful that I made a good decision in coming here.

After looking over the menu, there were so many things that I wanted to try, but since I had to settle on just a few, I decided on a salad and a main dish.  To start, I decided to have the gado gado (US$5.95).

This Indonesian mixed salad had green beans, potatoes, bean sprouts, tofu, hard boiled eggs, cabbage and krupuk (prawn crackers).  It was all topped with a lot of peanut sauce.  The only thing this was missing was the fried tempe (soybean cake).  The ingredients were fresh and the peanut sauce was as authentic as any I had every tasted.  It was slightly sweet with just a hint of shrimp paste and just the slightest amount of spiciness to it.  Excellent!

My friend had the nasi padang (US$7.95).

This one was served with some spicy coconut beef (similar to rendang daging), a hard boiled egg in sambal sauce, some cabbage, some peanuts and sambal ikan billis (anchovies), coconut rice which was topped with fried shallots and more krupuk.  I was told that this was very good.

I ordered the nasi lemak (US$8.25).

A huge mountain of nasi lemak (coconut rice) was topped with fried shallots and garnished with slices of tomato and cucumber.  It was served with one piece of ayam panggang (barbecued chicken), one stick of satay ayam (chicken satay), two pieces perkedel, some peanuts and sambal ikan billis and some krupuk. 

I thoroughly enjoyed both the satay and the ayam panggang.  The satay was nicely barbecued and had the right amount of seasoning.  The ayam panggang was tender, with the meat just falling off the bone.  The sauce was just a little sweeter than I would have licked, but it was still delicious.  The perkedel, which is a fried potato "cake" that has some minced meat in it was good as well.  I was pleasantly surprised to see quite a bit of meat in there especially since most often times the amount of meat used to make these "cakes" is minimal at best.

After all that food, we had dessert.  I really wanted the es kacang with durian, but was told that they weren't serving es kacang that day.  So instead, we both decided to have the es cendol.

This looked like homemade cendol to me.  The cendol (green worm-like stuff) is made from green bean flour.  The dessert is finished off with some condensed milk and lots of gula melaka (palm sugar).  This was delicious and wonderfully refreshing.

I'm glad I decided to stop here.  The service was excellent and the food arrived quickly at our table.  The tasty, delicious food was quite authentic and in my opinion, reasonably priced.  I will definitely come back here on my next trip to San Francisco, and I will definitely recommend this place to all my friends who travel here.

Indonesia Restaurant
678-680 Post Street
San Francisco, California
Telephone:  415.474.4026
Indonesia Restaurant Menu.pdf
(Requires Adobe Acrobat)

Bali Indonesia Restaurant

UPDATE:  November 2005
Bali Indonesia Restaurant has closed.
Kapiolani Asian Cuisine now occupies this space.

Over the weekend not too long ago, I went to have lunch at Bali Indonesia Restaurant.

I previously had dinner here, and it was OK, with some dishes being much better than others.  Not the best Indonesian food that I've had, but since this is the only game in town, it was good enough to satisfy a need.  Besides, with the price of an all-you-can-eat lunch buffet at US$6.95, how could I resist.

On display outside the restaurant are two becaks (bicycle "rickshaws" which I believe are still banned in Indonesia).  I'll be needing someone to give me a ride in one of them after I finish eating.

Once inside, you're greeted ever so graciously by a wooden statuette.

Since it's quite empty, I think there were a couple of Indian men sitting at one table in back, I pretty much have a run of the place.

The interior is plain and dimly lit.  The tables and chairs are teak and are covered with white tablecloths and plastic sheets.

There were a number of items available on the buffet.  In addition to nasi putih (steamed rice), there are about 10 items offered, which change on a daily basis. 

To keep prices low, food is served on styrofoam plates and in styrofoam bowls.  Your utensils?  Plastic forks and knives, and wooden chopsticks.  Today, some of the menu items included sayur asam (hot and sour soup), nasi goreng (Indonesian fried rice), gado gado (Indonesian mixed salad), ayam goreng kuning (Indonesian style fried chicken) and beef rendang (spicy beef with coconut).  The beef rendang was possibly the best item on today's buffet.

The beef was very lean and tender.  It was only mildly spicy and had the faintest hint of coconut.  I actually would have liked this to be a lot spicier.  There was also a bit more gravy than I was used to.  Most times when I've had beef rendang, it's been much drier, but all in all, this was a fairly authentic rendition of a classic Indonesian dish.

Here's the plate of food that I started with (clockwise from top left):  bakmi goreng (Indonesian fried egg noodle with meat and vegetables), fried eggplant, deep fried fish cake(?), nasi goreng (Indonesian fried rice) and beef rendang.

Dessert was young coconut and jackfruit in iced coconut milk (es teler).

It was a wonderfully refreshing end to a decent meal.  If you've never had Indonesian food before, this is a great place to start.  For those of you who have had Indonesian food before, you may find this to be somewhat of a disappointment.

Bali Indonesia Restaurant
1901 Kapiolani Boulevard Suite 110
Telephone:  808.949.2254

Gado-Gado (Indonesian Mixed Salad)

A couple of months ago, I went to have Indonesian food.  They served a salad called gado-gado and I thought it was quite good.  Well, I was wanting to eat this again, but was too tired to go out for dinner.  Besides, I wanted to see if I could make this at home.  That's when I started looking through all the cook books that I had.    

I found a recipe for this salad in a book called "Spicy Salads" with recipes by Lee Goek Boi.

Gado-Gado (Indonesian Mixed Salad)

2 cups potatoes, peeled and cubed
1 cup beansprouts
1 cup coarsely shredded Chinese cabbage
1 cup long beans
1 3/4 ounces tempeh (soya bean cake)
1 cup firm bean curd (tofu)
1/2 cup cucumber, sliced into finger lengths
5 leaves Chinese lettuce, washed and dried
2 hard-boiled eggs, peeled and halved
12 fried prawn crackers, kerupuk or kerupuk emping

The changes that I made are listed here:

-  I used head cabbage instead of Chinese cabbage.
-  I omitted the Chinese lettuce.

1.  Boil the potatoes until firm and tender, then drain.  Cube and divide between four serving bowls.
2.  Blanche the beansprouts for 10 seconds, remove and plunge them briefly in ice cold water.  Repeat for the cabbage.  Drain both well and divide between each bowl.
3.  Cut long beans to finger lengths then boil until tender and place in each bowl.
4.  Heat the oil in a pan or wok and fry the tempeh on both sides until brown.  Remove and drain on kitchen towel, cube then place in each bowl.
5.  Pat the beancurd dry with paper towel and fry in the oil until brown on both sides.  Remove and cut into cubes and divide between the four bowls.
6.  Divide the remaining vegetables into each bowl and top with half an egg.
7.  Prepare the dressing and pour over vegetables.  Garnish with kerupuk.

Dressing

3 tablespoons ground dried red chillies
1 cup shallots
7 cloves of garlic
1 teaspoon shrimp paste (belacan)
2 tablespoons water
2 tablespoons oil
2 cups water
2 tablespoons rice vinegar
1 1/4 teaspoons salt
5 tablespoons sugar
2 cups roasted peanuts, crushed

Here are the changes I made to the dressing:

-  I used 3 tablespoons of fresh, chopped garlic.
-  I eliminated the salt.
-  I reduced sugar from 5 tablespoons to 3.
-  I used 1 1/2 cups unsalted, chunky peanut butter.

1.  Blend the dried chillies, shallots, garlic and shrimp paste with 2 tablespoons water until smooth.
2.  Heat the oil and sauté the blended ingredients until fragrant.
3.  Add the water, vinegar, salt, sugar and peanuts and bring to a boil.  Reduce the heat and simmer for another 10 minutes.

Serves 4.

So how did it taste?  I thought it turned out quite well, but there are a couple of other changes that I'd probably like to make when I make this the next time. 

First, I'd like to further reduce the amount of sugar used (perhaps by another half tablespoon).  Second, I would probably be able to cut the amount of oil used to fry the spice mixture in half (to one tablespoon).  And last, instead of using chunky peanut butter alone, I'd probably use a combination of crushed peanuts and chunky peanut butter (probably a cup of each).