I recently reviewed Rasa Rasa Kitchen for Mission Local.
Rasa Rasa started out as a food truck in Parklab Gardens in Mission Bay and opened just as the pandemic hit, but they held on and moved into the Bryant space four months ago.
On my first visit, five of us started out with a trio of sambals – chili sauces - of shrimp paste, tomato, and habanero, and a large bag of house-fried, crispy tapioca chips. All the sambals were flavorful, with varying degrees of heat, but the habanero one really sneaks up on you.
We asked about the family style Tumpeng tray but were told they were out of it. However, Joe (one of the chef/owners) said we could order whatever we liked and he’d make a platter of it for us.
Clockwise, our tray consisted of Gado-gado, padi oat crackers, Gulai greens, turmeric fried chicken, pan fried noodles with tofu, beef Rendang, yellow coconut rice, and another little bowl of sambal.
The Gado-gado here was lettuce, par-cooked cabbage, cucumbers, bean sprouts, carrots, tofu, and tempeh, in a creamy peanut dressing, and came topped with peanuts, a sliced hard-boiled egg, and garlic chips. I understand they usually serve this in a tortilla bowl (a nod to its new Mission home) but not on the platter. The crackers – different from the tapioca ones we were served earlier, were Padi oat crackers, Joe explained, and are made from the seeds of Melinio, a flowering plant native to East Asia, and a typical snack food of Indonesia, with a slightly bitter taste.
The rendang – a slow cooked, “dry” stew,” had great flavor, and though i read some Yelp reviews saying it wasn’t “authentic” (which to me probably means it’s not as spicy as people would like), we loved it. When ordered on its own, the rendang is served in a sourdough bowl, ala Boudin. Instead, we got chunks of sourdough on the side to scoop up any of the juices, but we really didn’t need them - they actually took away from the meal. My only complaint with the rendang was that I found the texture of the beef a little tough/woody.
The fried chicken was fantastic, however, marinated in turmeric and lemongrass, moist and tender, and two large leg quarters were more than enough for the five of us to share.
The pan-fried egg noodles with tofu had a great, springy texture. The fragrant, yellow coconut rice may well have been my favorite thing of the evening. Tied with that rice, however, were the wonderful Gulai greens – collard greens in a curry, slowly stewed with toasted cumin and cardamom, among other things, and had an almost broccoli rabe vibe going, for me.
Rasa Rasa serves no alcohol, but you can pick up anything you’d like to drink from the liquor store across the street - with no corkage fee. A six pack of Racer X IPA went great with these beautiful, complex flavors. We were pleasantly surprised by the bill, too – $126 for dinner for five.
On my second visit at lunch, Joe explained that the afternoon menu is slightly different – no platters are offered – but I really wanted the Rica Rica pork. More coconut rice, and I also ordered the chicken Soto Kediri soup, which came with plain white rice. (There were lots of leftovers to take home.)
Both dishes were extraordinary in their depth of flavor. Rica Rica (pronounced “reesha reesha”) is typically a dish made with chicken, I read, with ground up chilies, garlic, ginger, and shallots. Rasa Rasa’s version uses pork belly (more commonly known as Babi Rica), and was only mildly spicy, with a lovely, sweet tanginess. Again, my only quibble is that some bites of the meat were a bit tough (surprising, for pork belly), but overall, I’d get it again.
The Soto Kediri is a traditional Indonesian chicken soup, flavored with lemongrass, turmeric, ginger, and lime leaves, with raw shredded cabbage, thinly sliced chicken, and a hardboiled egg half floating in the aromatic broth. I’d absolutely have this again as well, but there are a few other items on the menu to explore – fried cassava, chicken satay, Balado (an eggplant and shrimp dish), and on occasion the food truck’s shrimp laksa will be served here as a special, I understand. I really wanted to try the Roti Bakar - a dessert consisting of toasted buttered bread with condensed milk and chocolate sprinkles. There are also pineapple cookies and milk cookies to take home.
Not having had much experience with Indonesian cuisine myself, I love that we have this in the neighborhood.
