Indonesia - Interesting encounters of an Indonesian-Chinese kind

[klyeoh]

Djangkrik is a popular Chinese restaurant in Malang, East Java, offering hard-to-find non-halal pork dishes like its popular "sio bak" (roast pork), Chinese-style "nasi goreng" (which has a more pronounced "wok hei" aroma than Indonesian nasi goreng), "bakmie goreng" (fried noodles), "cap jay" (a mixed vegetable dish with vague Hokkien-Chinese origins, think "loh hon chye"/ 羅漢齋), and "fu yung hai" (crabmeat omelette).

The Indon word for wheat noodles "bakmie" is made up of two Hokkien-Chinese words, literally translated to English as "meat noodles" (肉麵). The one at Djangkrik has a softer texture which Indons and local Chinese preferred, as compared to the "al dente" texture which Westerners look for.

I was told by a local Indon colleague that Djangkrik is famous for its "pangsit mie ayam", which is blanched egg noodles & wanton dumplings tossed in a tasty sauce of sauteed chicken & vegetables, flavored with soysauce, sesame oil & dark soysauce.

I opted for the "cwie mie polos" served with "bakso campur' (mixed pork balls) - where one gets a substantial bowl of plain egg noodles flavored with pork lard, golden-brown shallots & soysauce alongside a bowl of soup where a huge pork ball with the texture of a matzoh ball lurked alongside the largest wanton dumpling I'd ever seen, and a pair of bouncy, springy porkmeat balls (not quite to my taste). An innocent-looking little chilli dip served alongside really (and I do mean REALLY) packed a punch - probably off-the-charts on the Scoville meter.

We also ordered a "mie sapo" (Chinese: "Sar Po Mein"/砂煲麵) - where thick, fat udon-like Hokkien noodles were braised with pork, seafood & vegetables, then served bubbling in a hot fresh-off-the-fire earthenware claypot. That claypot was still seething with heat even after we'd finished off the noodles.

Amazing culinary adventure! My first encounter with Indonesian-Chinese food and am looking forward for more :-)

Address details
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Depot Gang Djangkrik
Jl. Letjen Sutoyo 136
Malang Utara/Blimbing
East Java
Tel: [phone]

[klyeoh]

Another restaurant which justified a return visit, this time I had:

- "Cwi Mie Spesial". No one has yet been able to tell me what's the difference between the wanton noodle-like "cwi mie" and other types of noodles used in "bakmie" dishes. This one was served with "cha-siu" (BBQ pork, called "jasio" here), "sio-bak" (roast pork), poached chicken (very stringy & chewy, so probably free-range), fish balls & poached ox-tongue. The noodles were a bit salty, not really memorable. And that little bowl of soup with two wanton dumplings on the side were not very good either;

- "Pangsit Goreng" or deep-fried wantons. These ones fared better – but you can’t really go wrong with something crisp & deep-fried. The filling’s quite disappointing though – the bland 80% cornstarch & 20% meat sort which was prevalent amongst all eateries I’ve tried on this trip;

- Stir-fried fresh, green ginseng leaves. My first time to have these and it’s good.

[huiray]

That's too bad, about the non-greenstuff things. Y'know, they even faintly resemble stuff that one might get at a C-A "chow mein that has no mein" takeout place in the US...

[klyeoh]

Finally, after 2 months of asking around, an elderly Indonesian-Chinese man at Djangkrik restaurant today finally solved the mystery of the origin of the term "Cwi Mie" when he told me that it was a literal translation from Fujianese and meant "Water Noodles", referring to the original soup form of the noodle dish. "Cwi Mie" is a Malang specialty, as you don't find that in any other town in Indonesian.

Anyway, I was back at Djangkrik again today for lunch, and had more interesting Indonesian-Chinese food discoveries:

- "Ote-ote", which was basically the deep-fried Fuzhou oyster cake. The version here was very tasty, replete with minced pork and shallots, delicately spiced. But I didn't know if any oyster went into this - I couldn't taste any;

- "Bakmie Ulang Tahun", which I think was their take on the Chinese "birthday noodles" ("sang yaht mein") or "longevity noodles" ( 长寿面), although a literal translation from the Indonesian menu item was "Anniversary Meat Noodles". Their version here was basically braised egg noodles with pork, chicken, eggs, shrimp & vegetables, garnished with little hard-boiled quail's eggs which had been dyed red. In Malaysia/Singapore, hard-boiled chicken's eggs would have red-dyed shells to denote auspicious occasions, e.g. birthdays, weddings, baby's one-month celebration, etc. But to have de-shelled eggs then dyed red was something new to me. The noodle dish was outrageously delicious though - my Hong Kong colleague raved about it, as she thought it was different from anything she'd ever tasted in HK or China, yet tasty in its own way.

- "Babi Hong" - another amazing Indonesian-Chinese interpretation of the Hokkien "Hong Bak" which was found in Peranakan-Nyonya cooking in Penang and Kelantan (Malaysia). The Indonesian-Chinese version more closely resembled Shanghainese braised pork, with its meltingly soft meat and sweet, brownish-red sauce. Very nice!

[mikey8811]

It looks quite good - so no need to worry about it being a culinary wasteland after all ;)

[klyeoh]

:-)
Unfortunately, Malang ain't no Madrid, mate!

[mikey8811]

But then it's mango season and you get the best harum manis and lapis Surabaya on top of that ;)

[klyeoh]

Yes, according to the locals, the mangoes are extra-sweet this year due to the unusually hot & dry weather.

[klyeoh]

More items sampled at Djangkrik today:

- "Kakap asem manis" - sweet-sour seabass. The fish was nice & fresh, battered & fried till crisp, then covered with a very reddish-tinted sweet-sour sauce. I wished that they'd do away with the fake food-coloring though, but that's Indonesia for you;

- "Bakchang" - Chinese glutinous rice dumpling with minced pork filling. Very authentic-tasting dumpling here, but nowhere approaching the quality of those you'd get in Singapore, Malaysia or even Bangkok (Thailand) here in South-East Asia.

- "Cwie mie bakso" - mincedp pork noodles with pork balls. Very popular local noodle dish, but did nothing for me, unfortunately - maybe I'm spoilt for choice back in Singapore/Malaysia.

- "Nasi Goreng Hong Kong", i.e. it's called Hong Kong-style fried rice here in Indonesia. Outside Indonesia, it'd be called Yangzhou fried rice - i.e. fried rice with shrimps, eggs & char-siu (BBQ pork). Tasty.

- Mixed vegetable dish with broccoli, carrots, cauliflower, Chinese white cabbage, mushrooms & black fungus. Classic Chinese stir-fry - okay, but lacked the subtlety of versions you'd find in HK or Singapore.

[huiray]

Interesting to read about, thanks.

One thing I've noticed in your reports here and on other threads is that "meatballs" (of pork or other meats) tend to be somewhat LARGE in size in Indonesia. Would that be correct? If true, why do you think it is so?

[klyeoh]

One thing you'd realise here, huiray, is that Indonesian meatballs have perhaps 80% flour and very little actual meat (yech!). I also wondered why the size of their meatballs were so large - it couldn't have been for ease of transportation, as they mostly have their meatballs in soups. But a clue was given yesterday when an Indonesian-Chinese colleague here told me that the top bakso makers in town were mainly "Hokchiu" (Hakka) Chinese, and the Hakkas in China, Singapore and Malaysia do make meatballs which are larger than those the other Chinese dialect groups have. It's just that here in Indonesia, the meatballs seemed to have morphed into even larger forms!

[FourSeasons]

Your description is actually very strange to me. Though I can only say that I am familiar with the dining scene in Jakarta and Central Jawa areas rather than East Jawa. But most Indonesian meatballs are quite average in size, huge is not the norm. And 80% flour contents are mostly because they need to control the cost, but if you have the chance to go for more refined noodle places in Jakarta or other areas. that certainly is not the case.

[klyeoh]

FourSeasons - I need to take photos of those gigantic baksos which were literally the size of tennis balls!! They usually serve 2 balls per portion - I could hardly finish one on my own. Come to think of it, I'd never seen anything like those in Jakarta (or in Yogyakarta & Solo last weekend).

[FourSeasons]

I have seen and eaten those gigantic bakso you mentioned. There is one chain that is right in the Jakarta airport (I forgot the name...) And sometimes it is wrapped inside a bean curd, so they called it "tahu bakso".