Street vibe: Australian chef Luke Nguyen visits the Gloria Alley on Jl. Pancoran, Grogol, West Jakarta. The area, known as Jakarta’s Chinatown, is where the street food features a unique blend of Chinese, Betawi and European cultures.

One of the best ways to learn about a society is through its local cuisine and Australian chef Luke Nguyen lives by this principle.

For Luke Nguyen, the best way to learn a place is through its street food and not from dishes served in local restaurants or hotels. Therefore, tasting food that is being locally made is not enough for him to learn about a country or a society. He also needs them to be authentically raw and honest.

“I want to understand how local people live, their cultures and so on. For me, to get that experience, I need to eat the street food. There is no point travelling all the way to another country just to eat in a restaurant or a hotel. That’s not the real food. I want authenticity,” Nguyen said during a recent interview.

Nguyen said that venturing through the street food in a city located in a foreign country would force him to actively interact with the locals and to break language barriers using the passionate languages of one food enthusiast to another. This is why, Nguyen believes, exploring street food is the best way to learn about a local society and its culture.

“When you are in a foreign country and want to know where the best street foods are, the first thing you want to do is follow the locals and then ask them for information,” Nguyen said.

In Nguyen’s recent street food adventure, he has visited Jakarta to try out some of the best food the city has to offer.

Nguyen visited 10 local street food vendors in the western, southern and central parts of Jakarta.

Nguyen’s journey began on Jl. Pancoran in Glodok, West Jakarta, an area known as the Chinatown of Jakarta. In this area, the food is a fusion of various cultures from China, the Betawi people, the Javanese and Europe.

“I think I spent three hours there [in Pancoran] just eating different kinds of food and all the different influences,” Nguyen said.

One of the most memorable street dishes that Nguyen enjoyed in the Chinatown area was Soto Betawi Afung. Nguyen found the food so amazing because it managed to blend in some uncommon mixtures of ingredients, such as mixing tomatoes with milk, turning them into a delicious and tasty cuisine.

Then as Nguyen travelled south to the central part of Jakarta, he encountered different kinds of martabak (Indonesia’s traditional stuffed pancakes).

“Trying a lot of different martabak was another great experience. I love the savory ones of them,” Nguyen said.

What Nguyen also enjoyed from the martabak was not only eating them but watching the cooks skillfully flipping the dough to create them. In addition, he also found it amazing how Indonesians could regularly eat martabak, a street food that is full of sin, yet a delicious treat.

“I don’t know how you guys eat that all the time,” Nguyen said.

When Nguyen continued his street food quest to Menteng, Central Jakarta, where the infamous Nasi Goreng Kambing Kebon Sirih (Lamb Fried Rice in Kebon Sirih) is located, he experienced more than just enjoying the dish after watching the cooks prepare it.

Coming to the vicinity of Nasi Goreng Kambing Kebon Sirih a few hours before it opened its doors for its customers, Nguyen managed to meet with some of its staff members as they prepared boxes of rice, ingredients and sauce.

“I just came up to them and through the communication of food, I was invited to their kitchen to cook,” Nguyen said.

“I put all the rice and the sauce and everything else into the wok and cooked them. Just being able to be involved in this street food dish was quiet an experience,” he added.

In total, Nguyen said he probably enjoyed dozens of different street foods in Jakarta. His favorite ones were then documented on his foodie program called Street Food Asia, which premiered on Aug. 22 on TLC.

Nguyen said that the street food in Jakarta really represented the diversity of the city’s society. Other than Jakarta, Nguyen also tried street food in Vietnam, Malaysia and Thailand in the program.

“Every day in Jakarta was so exciting. The street food is really special cuisine and that is why I want to share it with the world,” he said.

— All photos courtesy of Discovery

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