Jalan Rumbia is Penangโs โLittle Indonesiaโ district. Itโs only 15 minutesโ drive from my place here, but the last time I was in that area was back in 2005, during a business trip to Penang from Singapore.
Somehow, because there is always so much to see or do elsewhere in Penang, it never occurred to me to back there to explore the genuine Indonesian cuisine there ever since I moved to Penang 3 years ago. Until today, that is, when a friend suggested we have a look at what โLittle Indonesiaโ has to offer in terms of dining options.
The whole place โfeelsโ Indonesian the moment we stepped out of our car. Indonesians who work in the manufacturing and logistics hubs here in Bayan Baru, one of Penangโs industrial free trade zones, live in this area, so there are numerous regional Indonesian eateries catering to their food preferences. Local Malay cuisine, although it โlookedโ rather similar to Indonesian, tastes very different, so Indonesians tend to gravitate towards their own types of eating places, if given the choice.
Minang cuisine from Nasi Padang Uni Sari. Minang or Padang food is usually rice, served with a plethora of curried dishes.
Batak cuisine from Lince Br Simamora Toba Food.
Besides restaurants, there are also kerb-side food stands where customers queue up to pick-and-choose their lunch options. The whole place gets busy at lunch-time as factory workers streamed out to get their sustenance.
We opted to eat at the the popular Medan eatery, ๐๐๐ฎ๐บ ๐๐ถ๐ป๐ด๐ธ๐ฟ๐ฎ๐ธ ๐ ๐ฏ๐ฎ๐
๐๐ฟ๐ฑ๐ถ๐น๐น๐ฎ. The busy eatery offers a good choice of rice and noodle dishes, paired with either Indonesian-style batter-fried chicken or beef meatballs (โbaksoโ).
Our lunch options today consisted of:
- ๐๐๐ฎ๐บ ๐๐ถ๐ป๐ด๐ธ๐ฟ๐ฎ๐ธ - crisp-fried chicken, with tempe and eggplant. A really explosively-spicy traditional chili dip, prepared using Mbak Ardillaโs family recipe, was served on the side.
The Medanese are not too big into greens, or raw salads, so a lunch plate here would typically look like this - fried morsels, steamed white rice, and a dollop of immolate-your-own-tongue chili paste.
The fried chicken was okay (Iโd had better in a Kentucky Fried Chicken outlet!)
- ๐๐๐ฎ๐บ ๐๐ฒ๐ฝ๐ฟ๐ฒ๐ธ ๐๐ฒ๐ท๐ - shredded chicken, slathered with extra-spicy chili paste and melted cheese. Served with rice and fresh cucumber.
If we thought the chili dip served on the side for our Ayam Jingkrak dish was Hellishly-hot, that same dip mustโve been ladled into the Ayam Geprek (in copious amounts) when the shredded chicken was griddle-cooked, then topped with shredded cheese, which would then be tossed into the whole ensemble until the whole thing looked like some lava flow from a volcanic eruption.
Then, they served it to us with white rice, and a token serving of exactly two cucumber slices. The dish was so spicy, we left most of it uneaten.
- ๐๐ฎ๐ธ๐๐ผ ๐๐ฒ๐ฟ๐ฎ๐ป๐ฎ๐ - giant beef meatball with hard-boiled egg filling, with small beef-balls and โsemur ayamโ (soy-braised chicken pieces) in a spiced chicken broth.
The large meatball was typical of Indonesian cooking - very toothsome texture. The Indonesians adopted the meatball concept from early Chinese emigrants, hence the name โbaksoโ, which is Fujianese for โround meatballsโ. The Chinese have been settling places like Java for 700 years, so many of Indonesiaโs dishes have Chinese origins.
The bakso geranat - I think โgeranatโ is a reference to the meatballโs โgrenadeโ size! I Googled, but thereโs nothing on the Web, except this restaurantโs menu listing, which used that term. But there are lots of Indonesian eateries with โbakso bola tenisโ (โtennis-ballโ meatballs).
The โBakso geranatโ here, or any of those โbakso bola tenisโ, are essentially Indonesian Scotch eggs, with hard-boiled egg centres, but inadvertently served in a lightly-spiced (cinnamon, nutmeg, cloves) broth.
The version here is very tasty, and intense beef-chicken broth. The bowl also contained smaller beef balls on the side, a tofu puff stuffed with minced beef, and small, bony pieces of chopped soy-braised chicken, then topped off with chopped scallions & shallots.
The eatery is halal, as their clientele would be mostly Muslims, so no beer or any alcoholic drinks. W ordered the ๐๐ ๐๐น๐ฝ๐ผ๐ธ๐ฎ๐ (avocado-chocolate shake), ๐๐ ๐๐ฎ๐ถ๐ฐ๐ถ (iced lychee juice), and ๐๐ ๐ฆ๐ถ๐ฟ๐ฎ๐ฝ ๐๐ถ๐บ๐ฎ๐ (iced rose syrup with lime).
Dishing out the meatball soup options:
Meatballs of various shapes and sizes. Indonesian meatballs tend to be rather hard & chewy, as their recipes called for tendon & other parts of the animals to be minced with the meat, and with copious amounts of cornstarch added to the mix. If your meatballs donโt turn out tough and rubbery/bouncy, then itโs NOT authentically-Indonesian!
I had a culture shock when I had my first Indonesian โbaksoโ - in Jakarta back in 1997. Iโd sworn itโll be the last time I am having one. Turned out, Iโd gotten used to it, but wonโt order it out of choice. I want my meatballs to actually taste of meat!
Address
Ayam Jingkrak Mbax Ardilla
6L-G, Jalan Rumbia, 11900 Bayan Lepas, Penang, Malaysia
Opening hours: 11am to 8pm daily
Tel: +60 17-891 3404