Favorite Indonesian in Greater LA/OC?

Just a thought: Maybe more Indonesians eat at the Indonesian food court than Kasih not because the food court is better, but because it’s cheaper?

I’ve had a couple decent meals at Kasih. Nothing great, but then again, I’ve been to Indonesia twice and didn’t eat anything great there.

I do think Simpang Asia is probably a little better.

And Borneo Kalimantan is certainly flavorful.

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:rofl: :joy: ROFL

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There’s definitely an audience for places like Ma’am Sir, Lasa, Rice Box and Night + Market, Broken Spanish…and Kasih. I think Nightshade was popular because of the pastry chef’s Instagrammable desserts, but that chef is gone now. I’ve visited those kind of places lauded by the food media, but oftentimes leaving disappointed. They are definitely not for me or my palate. It’s gateway food for people who typically won’t visit a more authentic restaurant and those people will pay a premium… double or triple the price for mellowed down (Americanized) flavor, knowing where they source the ingredient, a cool logo, loud music, extra friendly and upbeat service, and a hip scene to people watch.

To say that kind of cooking is “gateway” food is rather nonsensical to me and frankly absurd. If anything, at least some of these restaurants are making food closer to what was once most authentic. Broken Spanish makes better tortillas than every “authentic” Mexican spot in the city, and I guarantee the heirloom corn they are using is a hell of a lot more authentic than the cheap masa stuff everyone else uses.

I’d say every time I’m at Lasa at least half the customers, not to mention the entire staff, are Filipino. I went to Ma’am Sir (which I personally think is overrated) and the entire restaurant except us was Filipino. I think a lot of Filipinos crave those places. Food evolves. Filipinos want Lasa. Mexicans want Broken Spanish or Taco Maria.

It’s fine that you only want super traditional stuff. It’s silly to have an elitist attitude about places that are cooking food how they want to eat it. Also, weird pronoun switch in that “more experience one has eating the more you seek…” sentence.

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To be fair, I’ve only been to Bali and some poor islands (Riau islands) near Singapore, not a big city like Jakarta.

But more realistically, I think there are just certain cuisines I’m not a big fan of. I eat Indonesian food about twice a year and could take it or leave it.

It’s hard to pinpoint why. I loved the food in Singapore and Malaysia, which seems objectively similar.

Everybody has different tastes. After eating Korean food hundreds of times, I still find it tastes more strange than delicious. I spent three weeks in Seoul and don’t have any good food memories (except for Pierre Gagnaire – haha). But at least Korean food has great variety.

Really, I don’t think Nightshade is gateway Chinese cuisine. It is elevated, refined, Chinese-influenced cuisine. My wife is native Chinese and she really likes Nightshade.

Worrying about authenticity is a trap that leads to mediocre eating. Think about what authentic American cuisine consists of. Most people in this world eat authentic mediocre (or worse) food.

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This is my opinion and you have yours – so we’ll agree to disagree. I happen to LOVE Korean food ever since I first tasted it. I am sorry you don’t feel the same way. To me Bistro Na’s is elevated Chinese food while Nightshade is more fusion and Instagram fodder. I won’t rush to eat at Nightshade. I’ve eaten at elevated fine dining Filipino restaurants in the Philippines and it’s just different from than the ones that are opening here… reasoning for “gateway.” I went to Night + Market in Silver Lake and everyone was white – this is their audience. Many Americans perception is that Mexican food is cheap and mediocre… and there needs to be huge basket of chips and salsa before your meal. I’m happy that people are learning that Mexican cuisine can be more complex and interesting dining at Broken Spanish. I’ve eaten upscale Mexican restaurants in CDMX and Valle de Guadalupe, and I just wasn’t impressed with Broken Spanish. Maybe they recommended the wrong dish for me. I’m excited that these modern Filipino restaurants have been successful in introducing Americans to Filipino food. The flavors at these restaurants are more toned down for the American palate. The more I eat and travel, the more my preferences change. I now crave simple food and so do a lot of chefs… they crave street food or tacos and burgers. If you find joy in modern and expensive fine dining restaurants, more power to you.

My recent visit to Ramanyani was not so good. Soup was served at room temperature.

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The Banana Leaf in Temple City? …or are you referring to the Farmer’s Market restaurant known as Singapore’s Banana Leaf?

Be sure to check out Singkawang, Wong Java House and Kalimantan.

Yes, Noodle Stars. They’ve sold Janty Noodle and now just have the Monrovia location. I had the chicken congee (bubur ayam) and another dish there, quite good.

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Hicksvilles…
Denpasar/Population 788,589 (2010)
The population of Bali is 4,292,200 (2018)
Riau/Population 6,835,098 (2019)

I suggest you stop embarrassing yourself as it relates to Indonesian cuisine

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i prefaced my comment as being SGV centic so i assumed folks would understand that i meant the one in temple city.

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He told me to try Banana Leaf in Temple City one.

I’ve been to Night + Market Song in Silver Lake many, many times, and the crowd is insanely diverse there. Not just white people.

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It’s been a while since this thread came up… maybe it’s time for a re-examination of Indonesian Food as I love it.

To be honestly, I haven’t explored it much recently either. I have been more than happy with the occasional Fooda stops that Simpang Asia has been doing to our office park (It’s such a deal!). Further I was spoiled by having an old co-worker’s wife being Indonesian. She loved to cook for us (We were a tight knit bunch) and she always made sure she had a an extra container of her Randang, coconut rice and gado gado for me whenever our paths would cross. Her cooking wasn’t gourmet or refined… but it was delicious none the less…

So last week Hubs was watching some YouTube travel videos and one of the guys was in Kuala Lampur and they had this sticky coconut rice cooked in bamboo tubes which looked amazing. So when I crossed paths with a post from SoCal Indo Food and they had a similar looking item, I had to order! Since it was a at home delivery situation, I had to order additional foods… so I also got…

Nasi Goreg with Fried Chicken

Now, we got our delivery right at lunch time. The items were touch warm. But not super warm enough to eat. They were well packaged (as you can see cling film), mostly to keep the items warm but also to keep them from spilling in the nice BMW the guys were driving around with. The guys communicated really well and were VERY sweet. For what we paid all in, we felt the portions were generous…

This dish was very good. Again, we reheated it and it did fine in the microwave. It was flavorful and SPICY. The chicken was also a large leg, very meaty and the batter was still slightly crisp. But it did suffer from being pre-cooked and packed up.

Lemper Ayam

As you can see, it’s not in Bamboo tubes but in a packet. In Indonesia they are wrapped in leaves almost like a Musubi. Also they are much more interesting because they are stuffed with shredded chicken!

I reheated these in a steamer for a five minutes and they came back to life really nicely. Now, was it worth the effort to get these… yes. Would I order again… maybe… It has a flavor profile that always gets me, sweet and then savory. Believe me, I like sweet meat dishes like Char Siu and chicken and waffles. But this was like eating a spoonful of curry and chasing it with a cookie. I can TOTALLY see how this would be a comfort dish for some folks… it hits all the right notes and it was delicious. Just not exactly what I expecting…

I also ordered the curry, Kare Ayam. I was sad that they didn’t offer Randang so I ordered it in hopes it would scratch that itch… sadly… it did not. The curry was thin and honestly quite greasy (I had to skim quite a bit of fat from the top). There was a good amount of chicken in it, but the egg was over cooked to oblivion. Would pass.

Finally, to get a sense of the menu, we ordered the cream puffs.

In the menu picture, they looked more like Pate Choux. But they were a more cakey… The bake was nice, and the pastry cream decent. It wasn’t too sweet, it kinda reminded of tres leches cake more than coconut though. Very lovely with Jasmine Tea.

Overall, I am glad I tried it. I waited to post this today as a full 24 hours have passed and I’m still standing (just to alay some worries about ordering from a home kitchen). If you haven’t check it out… here’s an article from a month or so ago from the LATimes talking about the growth of these home kitchen enterprises. I had no problem with it since I had a lot of co-workers before all this went down ordering Keto Lunches from these types of outfits… but now they have expanded to way beyond that.

Re: @TheCookie @hungryhungryhippos

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I’m a regular customer of SoCal Indo. Never had any food safety issues from them before. Come to think of it, none of the home kitchens I’ve ordered from have been problematic in terms of cleanliness/safety, in my experience.

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Yeah. I can’t imagine that there would be many purposeful lapses with a home kitchen enterprise. People forget what kinda complete up ENDING cooking at this scale can bring to a home kitchen. You invest a lot… in ingredients, in supplies (Take out containers and such) and TIME. When word of mouth is your only way to grow… I’d imagine you try to be up and up as much as possible (Also, some of the services mentioned in the article actively train their home cooks). In addition, my cousin runs also home kitchen baking enterprise so I’m apt support these little guys bringing something new to the table.

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Y’all are slipping on here; apparently Kasih closed back in early March, and this is the most recent thread with any mention of them. Too bad, I liked them (didn’t love them, didn’t try enough of their food to go that far), but it was a nice enough place and the cocktails were on point.

https://www.instagram.com/p/B9mOTciBm8y/?utm_source=ig_web_button_share_sheet

Yeah, that space changed to this, right?
https://www.yelp.com/biz/lokels-only-los-angeles?osq=local

I walked by it early in the pandemic and was curious what they were about. After some cursory research they seem like worthwhile business.

I just passed it this morning and they’re currently building out a patio out front. All signage for Kasih is down though. Looks like Lokels Only is gone too, because that corner has been unoccupied for a few weeks.

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