Garuda Indonesia Colours Magazine March 2018 | Page 72

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Explore | Flavours
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1 Food display at a modern angkringan.
At every angkringan there is a variety of beverages on offer.
The most famous originates from Yogyakarta and is
known as kopi joss lik man.
eaten, and the owner takes you at your
word. According to a friend who was a
regular angkringan customer while a poor
student in Yogyakarta in the early 1990s,
“It’s easy to cheat, if you want to, but at that
price, who wants to?” Indeed, at such
reasonable costs, these meals bring the seller
and his or her customers together just like a
family. And it’s a growing tradition that has
spread beyond the ancient central cities of
Yogyakarta and Solo, west to the capital
Jakarta, and eastwards across the straits
separating Java and Bali. In Jakarta the cost is typically around
Rp 5,000 (that’s around 37 US cents) and it’s
even cheaper in Yogyakarta and Solo. Slightly
more expensive alternatives include rice with
shredded chicken. Or try yellow rice served
with varieties of satay such as quail egg
or chicken intestine, known as sate usus,
as well as chicken livers. Stews of chicken
feet alongside deep-fried chicken heads are
served with fried tempeh, tofu and banana,
at prices ranging from around Rp 1,000 to
Rp 3,000 (7 cents to 22 cents) per
piece or skewer.
Don’t expect big portions at an angkringan.
Servings are modest, similar to tapas.
A typical tasting of nasi kucing or ‘cat’ rice,
which is so named because it is a small
serving, consists of white rice topped with
salted fish and sambal tempeh, a chilli-based
relish with soya cake or spicy shredded tuna. In Yogyakarta, classic Javanese snacks often
feature, such as clorot, a sticky, cone-shaped
cake of rice flour, coconut milk and palm
sugar wrapped in young coconut leaves.
Another, semar mendem, is a glutinous
rice cake wrapped in a thin, soft egg-
and-flour omelette. There is kue lupis, a
triangle-shaped rice cake with freshly
grated coconut and palm-sugar syrup,
and jadah manten, a barbecued version
of semar mendem. In Jakarta, you’ll come
across squid sate, cockles and prawns or
chicken sate rica-rica, influenced by
Manadonese cuisine from North Sulawesi.
At every angkringan there is a variety of
beverages on offer. The most famous
originates from Yogyakarta and is known
as kopi joss lik man. It dates back to the
early 1960s and is still served today, by
the third-generation descendants of the
founder. To prepare this drink, ground
coffee is mixed with hot water and sugar
and two hot charcoal lumps are added,
resulting in a lively hissing and bubbling –
it’s as much a spectacle as a beverage.
Together with local teas, susu jahe (ginger-
flavoured milk) is also popular, as well as