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Passion, comfort and legacy in a bowl of noodles
For many Indonesians, noodles have been as ubiquitous to their diet as rice, with noodle communities and bloggers influencing more people to get into the growing culinary trend.
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Warung Lomie’s signature dishes, "lomie" and "bakmi Medan", remain a customer favorite. (JP/Almer Mikhail)
T
he day starts early for Cinthya Hadinata. At 5 a.m., the 59-year-old goes to the market to buy fresh produce. As soon as she’s back home, Cinthya begins preparing for her family’s small lomie (assorted noodles in sticky gravy-like soup) restaurant, simmering the soup for the day and preparing the key ingredients, among other tasks. By 7 a.m., customers start to arrive, ready for an early breakfast.
Tucked in a small street by Bandung’s popular Alun-Alun area in West Java, Warung Lomie — as her family restaurant is called — serves up classic Chinese dishes. Lomie is a Hokkien noodle dish, originally from Zhangzhou.
According to Cinthya, noodles are something that people do not easily get bored of.
“I feel what most Indonesians look for in a dish is its heartiness. It’s difficult to explain, but noodles are very easy for the taste buds. The sensation is different from rice, but the eating experience is similar,” added her daughter, Maria, 35.
Entrepreneur Chandra Arya, 33, feels the same, though his penchant for it is backed by nostalgia. When he was little, Chandra’s mother took him to eat noodles near Bandung’s Lodaya street. The taste left an impression on young Chandra, but because he now lives far away from Lodaya, those noodles are not something that he can have frequently. From there, his appreciation grew with time.
“I’m sure that all noodle enthusiasts have at least once tried [a variant] of noodles they didn’t enjoy,” said Chandra. He said this with certainty as he believes that for true noodle fans, what they see first is the bigger picture: the noodles themselves. Taste can come second.
Today, Chandra runs Bakmi Journal (@bakmi.journal on Instagram), a noodles-review account focused on noodle joints around Bandung, mostly the Chinese variants, from famed classics to random roadside stalls. In his reviews, Chandra primarily rates a noodle dish on its texture, aroma and taste. Other factors such as serving size, value for money and service also play a part in the overall score. And then there’s location.
