Description
First, check Indo Ranch’s Facebook page, which is occasionally updated with what’s available. It is best to come on a Sunday, when the variety of dishes rivals the number of islands in the Indonesian archipelago. Martabak manis has crushed peanuts, cheese and chocolate sprinkles sandwiched between a thick, pancake-like pillow so buttery it sweats yellow grease. Minced chicken and mushroom top egg noodle ribbons of the mie ayam, a meal also served with a sipping broth and the spring-loaded chew of a beef meatball. Nasi kuning, rice rendered yellow by turmeric, is elaborate, complete with scrambled egg; crispy nibbles of sugar-coated, fried anchovies; a piece of chicken slathered in peanut sauce; and a plastic baggie of urap urap, a spicy salad of boiled cabbage and green beans tossed with grated coconut. Nasi uduk, rice steamed to savory with coconut milk, features a tender piece of rendang coated in its own cooked-down spice paste, a hard-boiled egg steeped in a bright-red chile sauce and a bronzed drumstick of fried chicken. If you’re lucky enough to see gudeg, stewed young jackfruit, it will be offered without rice. Aside from that coveted dish, it will be the nasi bungkus that will sell out fastest. A complete meal of rice and meat, nasi bungkus is wrapped inside a banana-leaf parcel that imparts a faintly botanical, almost vanilla-like aroma to everything it touches.
