OK Guys, Ready for Another Skirmish in the Great Indonesian Breakfast Wars?
OK Guys, Ready for Another Skirmish in the Great Indonesian Breakfast Wars?
Nasi uduk in Jakarta
“He had a stroke a few years ago, but he can still push a cart,” Bu Zen tells me, pointing a thumb at her husband, who grins widely, showing off a handful of long teeth. “So he can’t walk very well, but we can still sell our nasi uduk.”
The cart in question is the standard wooden food cart found all over Jakarta, Indonesia’s capital city. Three wheels, a wooden bench, and a glass-and-wood display case, filled with large bowls piled up with the side dishes for nasi uduk Betawi or Jakartan coconut rice.
“What do you want with your rice?” Bu Zen asks, waving a hand over what’s on offer. “We’re sold out of chicken,” she notes.
Peering in, I notice telur balado (boiled eggs coated in tomato-chili sambal sauce); bihun goreng (stir-fried vermicelli noodles with spring onions, julienned carrot, and sweet soy sauce); tempe bacem (dark brown tempe, a kind of soybean cake, stewed in coconut water and palm sugar); kari (curry) with eggs, potatoes, tempe, and tofu; a very spicy-looking fish coated in chilies; and telur dadar (omelet with spring onions). I choose a few, and she adds them to a plate of rice, plopping a spoonful of pale orange sambal kacang (peanut sambal) on the side.
Bang Zen, Bu Zen’s husband, smiles at me. “Oh, you like tempe?” He asks excitedly. “Good, good!” Throughout the meal, he will continually offer to top up our glasses of lukewarm, unsweetened jasmine tea, shaking his head about how other warungs or street food stalls don’t offer endless free tea anymore. His does, he says, proudly, “because people need to drink with their meal, right?” Right.
The Zen couple’s version of nasi uduk Betawi does not stray far from the standard: savory coconut rice with both sweet and spicy side dishes, a sprinkling of fried red shallots over the top. It’s an incredibly popular breakfast dish in Jakarta, to the point where 39 percent of votes in a recent R&K poll chose it as the Great Indonesian Breakfast, coming in a close second to bubur ayam (chicken porridge) at 40 percent.
What makes Zen’s nasi uduk Betawi special is the quality of the ingredients and the care with which everything is cooked and served. Bu and Bang Zen have been selling nasi uduk for over 10 years, they tell me; Bu Zen holds up 10 fingers with a proud smile on her face. The stewed tempe is rich and sweet, while the stir-fried vermicelli is savory and vegetable-y. The sambal is mild but moreish, cooked with both peanuts and grated fresh coconut. I eat every last grain of coconut milk-infused rice, scraping my plate clean.
“More tea?” Bang Zen asks. I shake my head and pay up: Rp 15,000 a plate, about US$1.20.
“Come back tomorrow!” Bu Zen encourages me as I make to leave. “We also have ketupat sayur.” This is my other favorite Indonesian breakfast: rice cakes with curry vegetables. Guess I’ll be back tomorrow, then.