Food Cult: Bebek Kaleyo, Tebet, Jakarta

…or Kaleyo Duck in English.

Indonesia has a very varied cuisine spread in all areas. And Jakarta as its capital city is a place to find some culinary taste from all over Indonesia. One of them is this duck cuisine.

Here in Asia, we do not grow turkey and lamb. Yes, we have them, of course. But they are not one of our favourite proteins. We farm in chicken, ducks, cow, goat in most areas of  Indonesia with only few of them farm in pigs. Bebek Kaleyo just like many other restaurants in Jakarta serves most of our main proteins with duck as its specialty. Its famous menu is its deep fried duck with mango codiment. The duck is crispy and very tender. Its white meat is rich in flavour. This menu is served with plain hot rice and mango codiment to make sure you can feel the whole sensation. The mango sambal, in Bahasa, is very tongue-talizing. There’s a mixture of hot from chili, sour from mango with some sweet from sugar. I usually add a tiny drop of sweet soya sauce to make even richer in flavour.

This restaurants has a number of branches across Jakarta. I dine in at Bebek Kaleyo Tebet. They have a modest furniture with live music. Their place is spacious with lots of tables and benches made from wood. Their main room is a semi outdoor room with only fans on ceilings. But they also provide a room with AC. Just pick your choice. For me, this is a place to eat duck cuisine in Jakarta. I like it. I recommend it! 🙂 But it’s not a place to meet old friends or to have some events because the live music is too loud for my ears.

So, whenever you can excuse yourself for a deep fried food, try this one! Bon apetite!