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Scene & Heard: Spots to break fast during Ramadhan
The fasting month means finding the most appropriate place to break the fast, be it a café or hotel restaurant, at home or, pressed for time, at a sidewalk food stall
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he fasting month means finding the most appropriate place to break the fast, be it a café or hotel restaurant, at home or, pressed for time, at a sidewalk food stall.
One of the many places to find sweet and savory snacks for breaking the fast in Jakarta is Bendungan Hilir market on Jl. Bendungan Hilir, Central Jakarta. The special attraction is that the market is only open during Ramadhan and vendors sell from their carts from 10 a.m. to the time to break the fast in the early evening.
There are various types of food available, from local snacks, like fritters, fruit ice and a holy month-mainstay of kolak pisang (banana stewed in coconut milk) to special dishes which hark from the respective vendor’s birthplace. Sumatran food vendors offer bubur kampiun (a mix of cooked coconut milk, sticky rice and colorful glutinous sweets), lemang tapai (sticky rice cooked in bamboo served with fermented cassava) and lupis (sticky rice cake).
Madurese vendors from East Java have soto Madura (Madura style beef soup); Makassar vendors have pallu butung (banana rolled in steamed glutinous rice with coconut milk) and Yogyakarta vendors have gudeg (jackfruit stewed in coconut milk served with savory side dishes).
Another strategic place to break the fast is bustling Jl. Sabang, right behind the CBD. There are many eateries on both sides of the street, from Sundanese cuisine at Ampera restaurant, Manado cuisine at Woku Blanga restaurant as well as cakes and cookies at The Baked Goods. Besides the permanent restaurants, the street also has temporary food stalls which are in operation in the evening or a few hours before the breaking of the fast until around 10 p.m.
The restaurant-packed Kemang area in South Jakarta is another suitable destination, with restaurants offering various kinds of servings, from Indonesian to international cuisines, from fast-food chain restaurants to restaurants serving home-made food.
Traffic in all these popular areas will inevitably be congested after 5 p.m. If you want to eat in peace, come a little earlier and get takeaway; otherwise get ready to rub elbows with fellow diners. +Tifa Asrianti
