Garuda Indonesia Colours Magazine October 2013 | Page 96

94 Explore | Flavours Explore | Flavours © Suzanty Sitorus FEEDING THE NATION ‘Eating around Surabaya’ 95 Photography by Suzanty Sitorus Surabaya is a short flight from Bali. Board the plane, buckle up, read a mag (this one!) and you’re there. Indonesia’s second-largest city is a thriving metropolis, but apart from eating, the reason you should book a ticket there right now is to enjoy Surabaya’s new lease of life. Surabaya dapat dicapai hanya dengan penerbangan singkat dari Bali. Baru sebentar membaca majalah ini, tak terasa Anda sudah sampai di kota tujuan. Selain daya tarik kulinernya, Anda sebaiknya memesan tiket dari sekarang, untuk menikmati suasana baru Kota Surabaya. Once upon a time, Surabaya was known for its high crime rate, which often goes hand-in-hand with a bustling port city, but with Surabaya’s first female mayor, Tri Rismaharini, running the place with a proverbial iron fist, Surabaya is now sparkling and its citizens well behaved. The town is resplendent with clean, well-swept roads, pristine rivers, manicured, tree-lined boulevards, well-cared-for government buildings and obvious affluence. Business is booming. Dahulu Surabaya terkenal dengan angka kejahatannya yang tinggi, hal yang memang biasa didapati pada kota dekat pelabuhan. Tetapi dengan terpilihnya Wali Kota wanita pertama, Tri Rismaharini, yang memerintah dengan tegas, Surabaya tampil bersinar dengan angka kejahatan yang menurun. Kota ini tampak indah dengan jalanan dan sungainya yang bersih, deretan pohon dan gedung-gedung pemerintahan yang terawat. Berbagai bisnis pun mengalami kemajuan pesat. Janet DeNeefe In 2004 Janet created the international Ubud Writers & Readers Festival. It has been named by Harper’s Bazaar, UK, as ‘one of the top festivals in the world’ and by ABC’s Asia-Pacific network as ‘the next Edinburgh Festival of Asia’. In 2011, her cookbook Bali: The Food of My Island Home was released and includes her favourite recipes. Bali, Indonesia I’m here for the business of eating, and Surabaya does this supremely well. But I’m here for the business of eating, and Surabaya does this supremely well. The streets are lined with eateries, from swanky air-conditioned establishments and cafés called ‘depots’, to food carts and breezy makeshift roadside food stalls that sell anything from bakso, tofu and martabak to grilled fish, curries and rice porridge until the wee hours. Let’s face it, part of the pleasure of travelling is food, and I am here to eat as much as my waistline will allow. I arrive at dinnertime and head for Bon Ami Restaurant in an area known as Surabaya’s golden triangle. It is a spacious, old Dutch colonial-style home-turned-restaurant where neat, uniformed staff serve local specialities and European dishes to a packed house. I feel like I am eating in someone’s dining room, and if the walls could talk there would be great stories to tell. The menu features a curious mix of European and Indonesian classics along with steak, ice cream and baked goods. It is here that my gastronomic food tour begins, and we tuck into some of my perennial favourites: urap, a healthy mix of sprouts, vegetables and grated coconut with chilli and lime leaves; lontong cap gomeh, compressed rice cake lathered in galangal-scented chicken curry with Siamese squash and trimmings; tahu gunting, deep-fried scissor-sliced tofu; and pecel, a gado-gadostyle dish of blanched vegetables with homemade peanut sauce; and chicken satay, Madura style. Surprisingly delicious and a great way to start a weekend of eating! The town is resplendent with clean, well-swept roads, pristine rivers, manicured, tree-lined boulevards, wellcared-for government buildings and obvious affluence. The next day begins with a visit to the local market, Pasar Turi. Before entering, I head for the sticky-rice cake sellers perched outside for some sweet sustenance to start the day, all drizzled with palm sugar syrup. An abundance of different types of fish paste and ready-made spice pastes marks Surabaya’s culinary style. I buy the special paste for wok-fried kangkung (water spinach) to test at home. Our visit ends with a turmeric tonic from the herbal tonic man outside. “I’ve been selling jamu, or herbal tonics, for 40 years,” he tells me proudly, “and the money I have made has helped me put all my children through university.” Bu Rudy is one of Surabaya’s great celebrity chefs. Her sambal is claimed to be the best in the world (according to Bu Rudy herself) and I’m here to verify this fact. The entrance of this thriving restaurant is filled with row upon row of packaged cakes, krupuk, dried meats, rice snacks, candy and small packagedrice meals; you name it, they sell it. Bu Rudy is proud of her achievements – there’s no doubt about it. The restaurant walls are lined with framed photos of Bu Rudy, in evening attire, taken with well-known Indonesian movie stars, rock stars, ambassadors and politicians. And if that’s not enough, there is also a flat-screen TV projecting large images of Bu Rudy rubbing shoulders with even more celebrities, one after another after another. And in case you somehow miss the photos, a large banner with her smiling, earnest face hangs inside and outside the restaurant. I can think of no other country where a condiment is elevated to star status, in this case, shrimp sambal. And the place is packed, with constant turnover. We manage to secure a table amidst the crowds and dine on Bu Rudy’s tempe penyet, one of the best I have eaten, along with a serving of her winning sambal: a bold flavour with the elegant presence of shrimp. I leave the establishment envious of Bu Rudy’s astute marketing skills and business acumen in cornering the national market to frenzied capacity. Should I also hang my photo in my restaurants? Grinding fresh peanut sauce. Ikan bandeng asap – smoked milk fish in coconut coating. Fresh chili sambal. Tahu gunting with sambal kecap. Smoked milk fish, known as Ikan Bandeng.