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Food Festival takes diners on trip down memory lane
JP/Yuliasri Perdani All good food has a story â from secret recipes to past history â that makes diners keep coming back for more
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JP/Yuliasri Perdani
All good food has a story ' from secret recipes to past history ' that makes diners keep coming back for more.
Braga Permai restaurant and bakery in Bandung, West Java, does not only lure visitors with its French, Dutch and Indonesian classical delights but also with its past glory from the Dutch colonial era.
Back in the 1920s, the restaurant ' then called Maison Bogerijen ' was an elite place for the governors general of the Dutch East Indies and high-ranking officials to savor chocolate, bread, cake and ice cream.
Old photos and paintings of Maison Bogerijen's glory days adorn the restaurant's space.
After Indonesia's independence in 1945, the place was taken over by an Indonesian. The name was changed but the building still retains most of its original features, including its old oven.
'Back in the Dutch era, the oven was connected to the city's gas pipe system. Since the city doesn't operate the gas pipe system anymore, we only maintain the casing of the old oven to cover the modern oven,' said the restaurant's general manager, Adi.
Secret recipes do not only make dishes win the hearts of food lovers but help many eating establishments to survive competition.
'We always maintain our cooking style and quality. We only use the best quality peanuts and roast them, instead of frying them. That's the reason why the peanut sauce is not greasy,' Lydia Jo said, sharing the secret of Bandung's popular Lotek Kalipak Apo.
Lotek (boiled vegetables served in peanut sauce) is the 'sister' of Jakarta's gado-gado (vegetable salad with peanut sauce) but lotek boasts a slightly different assortment of vegetables and sweeter peanut sauce.
Named after the store's location on Jl. Kalipah Apo, Lotek Kalipah Apo has been in business since 1953.
In a huge mortar, the cooks mix together blanched bean sprouts, cabbage, watercress and their best-kept secret, the peanut sauce. Then, they add diced ketupat (rice cakes) and shrimp crackers.
Lydia, the storeowner, said her grandmother, Mariana and mother, Vola, started selling lotek after Mariana's husband passed away.
'My mother is the eldest child and she must provide for the family. At first, she rented someone's terrace as the space for the lotek kiosk,' she said.
From the small kiosk, it has expanded into a spacious restaurant, where hundreds of people have lunch every day. Apart from the signature lotek, it now also serves 10 kinds of kolak desserts and rujak banci (fruit salad with a sour and spicy dressing, topped with ground peanuts).
A popular dish among Bandung people is kupat tahu (chopped fried tofu served with rice cakes, blanched bean sprouts and peanut sauce). And the most popular place to have it is at the Kupat Tahu Gempol food stall.
First opened in 1965, the family business runs a humble kiosk on Jl. Gempol, in the heart of Bandung, along with two branches in the city.
The dish may seem simple, but every ingredient is of high quality and cooked to perfection.
The second-generation owner of Kupat Tahu Gempol, 75-year-old Yayah, said she buys tofu only from one particular vendor in Cibuntu, Bandung's tofu industry hub.
And she only uses one rice brand, called Omas, to make the rice cakes, which are wrapped in banana leaves. With the help of her daughter, Nuraini, she blanches the bean sprouts and makes the peanut sauce from scratch.
'We use a special recipe for the peanut sauce. One of the ingredients is coconut milk,' said Nuraini, who flew to Singapore last April to take part in the World Street Food Congress (WSFC) 2015.
Kupat Tahu Gempol was one of four street food establishments chosen by culinary expert William Wongso to represent Indonesia at the event.
Another popular food stall, Soto Ahri, was first introduced in 1943 in Garut, West Java, before it opened its doors in Bandung's Buah Batu area several years ago.
The soto (meat soup) is so popular that hundreds of bowls (each using some 60 grams of veal) can be sold by only 2 p.m. every day.
The stall's soto, the recipe for which was introduced by Haji Ahri, is a mixture of coconut milk and beef-based broth enriched with bits of tender veal. It is garnished with chopped celery, fried soybeans and shallots. Turmeric gives a yellowish color to the soup.
It is best enjoyed with steamed rice, sambal and soy sauce, which is specially bought from a soy sauce producer in Garut.
'In Bandung we only sell veal,' said the owner's grandson, Deden Agustian.
Food lovers do not have to travel far to enjoy signature dishes from these legendary restaurants.
Many of these food stalls are among scores of stalls that will take part in the Kampoeng Legenda culinary festival at Mal Ciputra Jakarta until Aug. 23.
Those who love Cirebon's nasi jamblang (rice wrapped in teak leaves with an assortment of side dishes including fried tempeh, tofu, chicken, omelet, salted fish, meat stew, potato fritters and sambal) or empal gentong (curry-like beef soup usually served with steamed rice) can find these dishes at the festival.
Semarang's popular dishes, from tahu petis (fried tofu stuffed with black shrimp paste), lumpia (spring rolls) to signature snacks, cookies and ice cream from legendary restaurant Toko Oen, can satisfy their appetite.
For coffee lovers, Jakarta's old time coffee shop favorite, Takkie, is joining the festival, offering its signature black coffee and coffee with milk (hot or cold) along with several dishes. The shop also offers packaged coffee for those who want to make their coffee at home.
At least at the festival, one can sip a coffee without having to rush as the coffee shop, located on Gang Gloria in Glodok, usually only opens until 2 p.m.
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The Jakarta Post's Stevie Emilia contributed to this story from Jakarta.
