Popular bites: Sate komoh skewers wait to be eaten at Sate House in Taipei. (Courtesy of Sate House)

Chinese Indonesian Iman Yang, known as Yang Man-yun in Mandarin, has operated the two-story Indonesian restaurant since 1992. She was born in Malang, East Java.

The restaurant serves various Indonesian dishes such as the world-famous beef rendang (meat slow cooked in coconut milk and spices), ayam goreng kalasan (Javanese fried chicken), and sate komoh (marinated beef satay).

Last November, Indonesia’s Tourism Ministry named Sate House an official partner in the promotion Indonesian tourism abroad. The restaurant, along with 99 other Indonesian restaurants operating abroad, had been chosen to participate in the partnership. They were invited to attend a gastronomy forum held in Jakarta.

“We were selected as the [only Indonesian] restaurant from Taiwan,” Iman said.

Iman has met both Taiwan’s current president, Tsai Ing-wen, and the previous president, Ma Ying-jeou. She met the former during a lemper (rice roll) cooking demonstration during Taiwan’s 2016 Immigrants’ Day. She accepted Ma’s invitation to Taiwan’s Presidential Office Building in 2012.

Iman decided to run Sate House to cope with the death of her parents. Her mother died about a year before the restaurant opened and her father about seven months later.

“I was so upset,” Iman said.

“I started to think how we had to make our lives a little bit busier, [so we] don’t keep thinking about all the negative things.”

A tribute to mother: Iman Yang established the Sate House restaurant in 1992 in hopes of fulfilling her late mother's wish. (Randy Mulyanto)

Imam moved to Taiwan in 1974 after she finished high school in Indonesia. The youngest of twelve, she decided to relocate to Taiwan for university because her five older siblings, who were already working there, offered to fund her undergraduate studies in Western literature at a university in Taipei.

She married a Taiwanese man in 1988 and had a son and daughter.

The dishes at Sate House are based on Iman’s childhood memories of eating Malang and Javanese traditional cuisine.

To prepare the dishes, two Taiwanese and one Vietnamese cook help Iman with frying, grilling and cutting vegetables. Iman alone is responsible for concocting the seasonings.

One of the restaurant’s signature dishes is beef rendang. The first step in this dish is to boil the beef. The boiled beef is then set aside as the spices are prepared.

Bay leaves, lemongrass and pandan leaves are essential ingredients for Iman’s beef rendang. She also uses coriander, kaffir lime leaves and galangal for the dish.

According to Iman, bay leaves are a natural medication to lower uric acid and cholesterol and lemongrass can prevent the flu.

“In Taiwan, you can’t find bay leaves [...] so I bring them here myself,” Iman said. She sources the bay leaves and meat products from Malang and Taiwan respectively.

Traditional taste: A waiter pours sauce over ikan bakar (grilled fish) at Sate House. (Randy Mulyanto)

Coconut milk is also an important element in Sate House’s beef rendang. Once the coconut milk is partially reduced, the boiled beef is cut into pieces, soaked in the spiced coconut milk and left until it becomes half dry.

“[You] can’t make it too dry because the Taiwanese like a bit of seasoning,” Iman said.

Iman was inspired to bring ayam goreng kalasan to her restaurant when she visited the place that gave the fried chicken its name: Kalasan village, Yogyakarta.

She had the dish during the trip and felt that she could recreate it at Sate House.

To make ayam goreng kalasan, the chicken is first boiled and marinated in coconut water, galangal, bay leaves, salt and other ingredients.

The chicken is then deep-fried and served with sambal (blended spice condiment), kremes (deep-fried rice dough) and sago flour made with chicken marinade and sprinkled on top of the fried chicken.

Iman made sate komoh, a Malang variant of the Indonesian satay dish, when she lived in Malang. The dish uses beef and coconut milk.

First, the beef is cut, threaded onto skewers and soaked in coconut milk. Then, the skewers are grilled.

Sate House also offers ikan bakar [grilled fish]. For this dish, Iman’s restaurant serves snapper. It is fried, then grilled. A saucepan with sweet, sour and mild chili condiments is served alongside the grilled fish.

Nasi kuning (yellow rice) is made with turmeric and coconut milk. It is served as a complement to the other dishes.

Welcome home: The exterior of Sate House restaurant in Taipei's Daan district. (Randy Mulyanto)

Iman said that Indonesians who were traveling to Taipei might get bored of “bland” and “tasteless” Taiwanese foods. Those visitors can dine at Sate House for some Indonesian flavors.

One of Sate House’s regular customers, Bundo “Dewi” Suponok, an Indonesian caretaker in Taipei, first went to Sate House after a friend recommended it to her.

“It has a great taste, it feels like I’m in Indonesia for sure,” she said.

“I made lots of Instagram stories [about the restaurant], so many of my friends got curious and went there.”

Sate House has enchanted more than Indonesians abroad; it has also attracted people of other nationalities, including Jeremy Olivier, an American consultant based in Taipei.

Olivier was looking for a place in Taipei’s Liuzhangli area for dinner with friends one night and found Sate House with a quick Google search. The results showed the restaurant’s high rating.

“All of the dishes were very tasty, but I especially enjoyed the beef satay,” he said.

“That was my first time trying authentic satay, and I really liked the flavors of the sauce. It was so good that I ordered a second plate just for myself.”

Jeremy said he would recommend Sate House and had recommended it to friends and coworkers in the past.

“In addition to the great food, the restaurant is well decorated with interesting items from Indonesia,” he said.

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Address:

No. 15, Leli Road, Daan district, Taipei. The nearest Taipei Metro station to Sate House is Liuzhangli on the Brown Line.

Sate House opens from 11:30 a.m. to 2:30 p.m. and 5:30 p.m. to 9 p.m. It is closed every Monday. Tel: +886 2 2732 5048

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What to eat at Sate House:

1. A portion of beef rendang costs NT$240 (US$7.66).

2. A plate of ayam goreng kalasan costs NT$280

3. A portion of sate komoh costs NT$250

4. A plate of ikan bakar is NT$420

5. A serving of nasi kuning for one person is NT$25