Kedai Bunda

.. in English, Mother’s Diner. 

I was starving to death last week on my journey from one of Indonesia’s famous national parks, Cibodas. It was cold, dark and drizzling when we found this diner across the street.

We were not expecting much to be honest. The place was overly decorated to my taste. But the ambience from colors displayed indeed gave warmth in a very cold night like such.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

It was a very quiet diner with no servant on spot. We had to wait for 5 min to get a welcome smile and our menu. man who welcomed us was very warm. When I ordered Nasi Bakar Rempah, Grilled Rice with Spices, he pointed out that it is the diner’s specialty. Oh well, isn’t that a good news?

After waiting another 15 to 20 minutes, we finally got our meal. Wow. It looked and smelled surprisingly nice. The rice was mixed with coriander leaves and small anchovies. Then they cover the rice with banana leaves. After that they grilled the rice. So the coriander leaves gave a great smell to the rice and the anchovies a bit of salty taste to the rice. So, when you opened the banana leaves covering the rice, you can tell that a delicious food was served. Yumm!

The platter that accompanied the Nasi Bakar was also a joy to our tongue. For some, including me, the flavors could be too diverse. But it was a great option if you wanted to taste diverse and rich Indonesian flavors.

The soup in the middle definitely the best companion for this Nasi Bakar. It was Indonesian Sour Soup which even though you can find in any Indonesian restaurants, originally came from West Java. Well, actually, the entire dish was West Java cuisine. You can tell from the presence of raw vegetables and Sambal (chili condiment) on the platter. To our please, there were grilled chicken with soya sauce, tempe, tahu (tofu) and anchovy. The grilled chicken was superb! The taste of dark, sweet and thick soya sauce gave another dimension to the salty rice and sour soup. Whenever you felt that you had too much flavors in your mouth, just bite in some tahu or tempe, the side dishes. They had plain flavor to neutralize your mouth. But, if you happen to like more flavors then hop in to the salty anchovy and hot sambal!

We were so delighted that I told my friend that I will write this diner on my blog. I just hope, perhaps, people might read it that whenever they visit Cibodas National Park of Mt. Gede and Mt. Pangrango, they can spend some time to try this diner.

Happy holidays! 🙂