Neighbors' delicacy and Balinese suckling pigs

The Jakarta Post ,  Jakarta   |  Sat, 07/04/2009 12:59 PM  |  City

Kelapa Gading has been a food haven for more than a decade. But the place keeps evolving with new culinary trends. The past few years have seen Kelapa Gading welcoming several eateries with unique certain character.

Eat & Eat, located on the third floor of Kelapa Gading Mall 5, has wooden walled shops; the place looks like an olden-day traditional food street in some Chinatowns.

There, you will find tempting dishes of noodles, roast pork, chicken rice, fish porridge, fried duck, vegetable martabak (a type of egg roll), and even carrot cake.

Outside the mall, the famous boulevard has also seen newcomers.

They are also restaurants serve up Balinese suckling pigs (babi guling, popularly known by the abbreviation bigul).

Several of these joints have been inviting crowds in the past months. They serve the thigh or shoulder meat of the little pig, roasted or grilled.

Two of these food outlets are Warung Babi Tengil (where tengil means naughty) and Ken Ken Babi Guling. These two outlets are often the most talked about over the Internet, in discussions about suckling pigs.

They both use Balinese spices, which - as with other recipes from most regions across the country - are rich in taste.

Ken Ken cooks up at least 25 kilograms of pork each day, and double that on weekends. They also offer dishes with no pork, such as Balinese hot chilli chicken rice, chicken betutu and fish dishes for those not hankering for the other white meat.

The outlet's Nasi Campur Ken Ken (rice with meat and condiments) gives you extras: Balinese sate, sauteed peas (lawar), cassava leaves cooked in coconut milk, fried pig skin, pork chips, peanuts and chilli, beside of course the thick slices of suckling pig, piled high with spices. For less than Rp 30,000, the dish will keep your belly happy. (iwp)

Eateries at Eat & Eat

- Singapore Hainanese Chicken Rice

- Aloy Palembang noodles

- Hokkien Mee

- Mi Lumen

- Mi Kacang Hijau (green bean noodles)

- Nasi Bakmoy (pork rice)

- Bihun Bebek (thin rice noodles with duck)

- Babi Goeling (suckling pig)

- Sate Babi & Kuo Tieh Enyak (pork shashlik)

- Sekba & Bak Kut Teh Babe (roast pig)

- Bakso Akiow 99 (meatball soup)

- Nasi Langgi (rice with colorful condiments)

- Raja Gurame (fried fish)

- Babat Gongso (Javanese tripe dish)

- Gudeg (Javanese sweet jackfruit dish)

- Nasi Ayam Semarang (Javanese chicken rice)

- Bebek Goreng Surabaya (fried duck)

- Lumpia Semarang (spring rolls)

- Lumpia Vietnam (spring rolls)

- Pindang Palembang (Sumatran cuisine)

- Soto Ambengan (Javanese chicken soup)

- Nasi Bakar (grilled rice)

- Pempek Palembang (Sumatrane fish meatballs with chilli, garlic, vinegar and brown sugar sauce)

- Rumah Rempah or "spice house" (Arabic yellow rice, Indian bread, vegetable martabak)

- Omah Tjilik (grilled chicken rice)

- Bubur Ayam Benteng Tangerang (chicken porridge)

- Gado-gado Ayam Kremes AA (fried chicken, vegetables with peanut sauce)

- Bubur Ikan Singapore Geylang (fish porridge)

- Nasi Lemak Katong Singapore (coconut milk rice)

- Carrot Cake Singapore

- Nasi Goreng Udang (fried rice with shrimp)

- Dapur Enak Siska Suwitomo (a food expert's kitchen)

- Rames Medan (rice dish)

- Sapo Chilli Frog Geylang Lor 9 Singapore

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