Eat Your Medicine

The Jakarta Post   |  Wed, 01/23/2008 10:12 AM  |  Street Eats

Exotic, delicious --  and curative? A wander through Chinese food stalls in Glodok.

The sign catches our eye as we emerge from what we think of as the Tunnel of Food, a beguiling alley of snack and produce stalls in the heart of Glodok, North Jakarta.

Ayam Tim Obat, it reads: Medicinal Chicken Rice. But what could it mean?  We peer over the edge of the stall at what looks like a pot of ordinary chicken soup. The man with the ladle starts explaining, but we quickly tell him we can’t eat now. We are too full from our stroll through the tunnel. We promise to come back.

The Tunnel of Food is tucked next to the Gloria building on Jl. Pancoran, just a block from the permanent traffic jam known as Jl. Hayam Waruk.  It is the holiday season, and the tunnel entrance is dominated by festive, rather scary stacks of fireworks. A few steps further on, the food takes over: crispy, reddish Peking ducks hanging from hooks, freshly made bakso (meatballs), New Year’s cakes, and brightly colored dragonfruit.

In the middle of the tunnel are some shiny, steaming food carts selling turtle, frog and the innards of pigs. A Chinese warung owner down the street has told us to try the Pi Oh, or turtle.

"Pi Oh!" the vendors call, poking into cauldrons of stewing mystery meat.
We order a portion from Ko Ayong, who tells us he’s been selling soup here for thirty years. His version is made with tauco, salted soybeans that are similar to the Japanese miso.

He brings us a small bowl of red-brown soup chunky with bits of meat – some white and fibrous, some black and curly, plus longer shards ofsomething clear and wiggly. An island of chopped cilantro floats on top.
The broth is fantastic. It's sour-salty with a bite of something gamey. The meat is sweet but pretty tough; hearty but not really delectable.
After a few filling bites, we take a break. But Ko Ayong won't have it. He comes to the bench, fishes in our bowl with chopsticks, and tells us we really should finish it. It is clear that otherwise, his pride will be damaged.
We wince down the dark bits; the innards. The clear parts are soft cartilage and pretty flavorless.
He visits two more times before we finish. But in the end, he is right. The best part is at the bottom. That's where the fermented yellow beans settle, and all the strange flavors of the soup magically converge.
When we ask about the dish’s special properties, he says it is good for the blood and skin.
"Makes you hot," say other people in the tunnel. One man winks suggestively and says, "Good for life."

Further down, we order nasi campur (mixed rice), or rice with several small dishes, which is always an easy way to get a survey of local offerings.  This one is heavy on the pork: delicious slices of sweetish red roast pork and a sausage that tastes like mapley American breakfast sausage.

We regret all this eating once we glimpse the Ayam Tim Obat. But after a long walk, we are ready to split a bowl. We order it without rice, to make it lighter.

The man behind the counter puts a leg of chicken into a pot of broth and adds several mysterious objects that look like nuts and berries.

The resulting soup is complex and delicious. It has slightly bitter, herby overtones and a tongue-tingling quality that feels … well, medicinal, but in a good way. The woman who owns the stand explains that, among other things, it contains dong quai, a Chinese herb used to treat problems from menstrual disorders to certain cancers.

What is Ayam Tim Obat good for, we ask? “Everything!” comes the reply.

While we can’t vouch for that, we will say it made for excellent eating.

+ Trish Anderton and Chad Bouchard

Is it Okay to Eat Turtles?

After our day of eating out, we began to wonder whether consuming turtle was a good idea, environmentally. A little research suggested that the turtles used in Pi Oh are most likely Pelodiscus sinensis or Amyda sinensis, river turtles which can be farmed or caught in the wild. The wild ones fetch a higher price and are threatened in much of Southeast Asia. There are turtle farms all over the region, but the world's hunger for turtle soup, especially in China, is much bigger than farmers can satisfy.

Some people even think the turtle farming industry does more harm than good. And all sea turtles, as opposed to river turtles, are endangered or threatened and should not be eaten. Our recommendation: be careful and ask where your soup turtles come from.

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