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Borobudur by the bay
(jakplus
(jakplus.com/Jessica Sallaban)" border="0" height="332" width="500">(jakplus.com/Jessica Sallaban)AN HEROIC PAST AND UNCERTAIN FUTURE FACES SAN FRANCISCOâS ONLY INDONESIAN RESTAURANT
The fog is closing in on the bright lights of San Francisco and Soe Bin and his wife, Yunita, are preparing for another busy night.
Just minutes from the heart of San Franciscoâs bustling Chinatown, their family restaurant, Borobudur, is now said to be the only surviving Indonesian eatery in the city.
It continues to be a favorite of Indonesian expats, tourists and local San Franciscans.
âDinner is always our busiest timeâ says Soe Bin, as he balances plates of gado-gado, soto ayam and sate and greets hungry customers.
Borobodur opened its doors almost 25 years ago and Jakarta-born Soe Bin, 59, and his staff have been serving up traditional Indonesian dishes ever since.
It hasnât been easy. âIndonesian restaurants have come and gone in the city. Itâs very difficult to keep afloat,â he says amid the bustle of the kitchen. âIndonesian cuisine is much more labour intensive than other types of Asian food and running costs in San Francisco have become very high. Our food is all about spices, flavour and preparation -itâs a not low-cost, fast-food, like pizza.â
Born into a Chinese-Indonesian family in 1956, the Soe Bin grew up in the shadow of widespread anti-Chinese sentiment, segregation and discrimination. âWhen I was growing up, people were very afraid of Communism and of Chinese people, so we had to careful.â
By 1984, Soe Bin, now an ambitious young man, had the chance to change the course of his future.
Following in the footsteps of an increasing number of Indonesian students, he travelled to California to study economics. âIt took some getting used to!â he said, remembering the United States in the Reagan era and the year of the Los Angeles summer Olympics.
After graduation, Soe Bin married his long-time love, Yunita, a talented cook. The newlyweds decided to stay in San Francisco and set up a business providing Indonesian meals to homesick Indonesian students the University of San Francisco. This business would be the seed for their renowned restaurant.
âItâs hard work, but Iâm still passionate about creating good food and being creative,â says Soe Bin, now a busy father to three college-student daughters Jessica, Grace and Rosyln. âWe try to keep the food traditional, but certain things have been adapted to US tastes,â he laughs, saying sop buntut (oxtail soup) proved particularly unpopular.
(jakplus.com/Jessica Sallaban) AN HEROIC PAST AND UNCERTAIN FUTURE FACES SAN FRANCISCO'S ONLY INDONESIAN RESTAURANT The fog is closing in on the bright lights of San Francisco and Soe Bin and his wife, Yunita, are preparing for another busy night. But this kind-hearted entrepreneur and passionate foodie is determined to stay as long as possible in the city that has played such a huge part of his life and in the restaurant that represents a living history. 'Indonesian food is still not that well known in the US,' he says, smiling as he makes his way back to the kitchen. 'I enjoy introducing it to new generations of customers.' (+)
Just minutes from the heart of San Francisco's bustling Chinatown, their family restaurant, Borobudur, is now said to be the only surviving Indonesian eatery in the city.
It continues to be a favorite of Indonesian expats, tourists and local San Franciscans.
'Dinner is always our busiest time' says Soe Bin, as he balances plates of gado-gado, soto ayam and sate and greets hungry customers.
Borobodur opened its doors almost 25 years ago and Jakarta-born Soe Bin, 59, and his staff have been serving up traditional Indonesian dishes ever since.
It hasn't been easy. 'Indonesian restaurants have come and gone in the city. It's very difficult to keep afloat,' he says amid the bustle of the kitchen. 'Indonesian cuisine is much more labour intensive than other types of Asian food and running costs in San Francisco have become very high. Our food is all about spices, flavour and preparation -it's a not low-cost, fast-food, like pizza.'
Born into a Chinese-Indonesian family in 1956, the Soe Bin grew up in the shadow of widespread anti-Chinese sentiment, segregation and discrimination. 'When I was growing up, people were very afraid of Communism and of Chinese people, so we had to careful.'
By 1984, Soe Bin, now an ambitious young man, had the chance to change the course of his future.
Following in the footsteps of an increasing number of Indonesian students, he travelled to California to study economics. 'It took some getting used to!' he said, remembering the United States in the Reagan era and the year of the Los Angeles summer Olympics.
After graduation, Soe Bin married his long-time love, Yunita, a talented cook. The newlyweds decided to stay in San Francisco and set up a business providing Indonesian meals to homesick Indonesian students the University of San Francisco. This business would be the seed for their renowned restaurant.
'It's hard work, but I'm still passionate about creating good food and being creative,' says Soe Bin, now a busy father to three college-student daughters Jessica, Grace and Rosyln. 'We try to keep the food traditional, but certain things have been adapted to US tastes,' he laughs, saying sop buntut (oxtail soup) proved particularly unpopular.
It was the Asian Economic Crisis and the fall of Soeharto in 1998 that proved to be momentous for Soe Bin, who was watching news reports almost 14,000 kilometers away in California.
'One day I received a letter,' Soe Bin said. 'The address was handwritten and the postmark from Indonesia.' The letter turned out to be from an ethnic Chinese lady from Jakarta.
Terrified and desperate, she had looked out her holiday photos from the year before, remembering a friendly Chinese-Indonesian man who ran a restaurant in San Francisco.
She was in luck ' the angle of her photo meant the restaurant address and telephone number were visible on the awning.
'At first I couldn't work out who the lady was, but then I remembered she had been part of a tourist group from Jakarta who had eaten at the restaurant last year,' Soe Bin says. 'She had written to me to ask if I would help her family if they came to the US to seek asylum ' and of course we said yes. We were all upset by what was happening to our community. We couldn't just stand by and do nothing.'
In the course of a few months, Soe Bin and Yunita gave moral support, food and shelter to a number of Chinese-Indonesian families who made their way from the unrest in Jakarta to a safer future in the US.
Eventually they would become a few of almost 7,500[U2] Indonesian Chinese who were granted residency after 1998.
'They are all still here and part of our community,' he says, reluctant to talk about the past or recognise his role 'So many people helped me when I first got the States, so we had to play our part and help.'
As the evening winds down and the last customers sip on fresh bowls of cendol, Soe Bin weighs up his future options. 'If we do go back to Indonesia, life would be easy, less red-tape, less tax' he says.
'I love my country but I've built a good life here for my family. My daughters are American, they can speak bahasa, but they can't read it. And they don't like to cook ' they say everything is 'gross',' he laughs.
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