10.10 AM
(Supposed to be at…) Main Meeting Point - Galeri Antara Pasar Baru
I was late! Yes yes yes my bad! I shouldn’t be late but I was having this diarrhea that later made me suffer. I called mba Lisa and she sounded like a very nice lady – made me even more guilty -. She told me I should be hurry ( I know, yaiks!) When I finally got there. They already left! Great! Not just that this club actually LIMITING the number of people who can join their trip, but I happened to get the pass for today’s trip for FREE!, plus this trip will take you to ‘secret’ places, you weren’t told to which restaurant you’re going as we supposed to follow the group leader and be surprised to what we found!. So being late to an event like this is close to being late on your 1st day of a new job!.
Not wanting to make the situation getting any worse. I ran to catch-up the group. They went inside Pasar Baru, BUT – as a result of panicking – I went the wrong way. I called up mba Lisa again and they say they’re heading to the first secret stop. Shooooot! if I asked her to meet up in the secret destination, that wouldn’t be a secret anymore!. She told me to wait in Akita Bank across Gereja Ayam (Rooster Church) still around Pasar Baru Area. I got there earlier and when I saw a group of people with sunglasses and cameras crossed the street, I knew that’s the group. As mba Lisa’s name appear on my phone screen, I apologized with the most sincere expression I could ever made.
Here we are at the 1st Secret Stop!
10.35 – 11.00
Bakmie Ayam Kampung – Across Rooster Church
Truly nothing special with this stall, Its located in a busy street, and really, there are thousands of stalls like this in Jakarta. The place was clean, with modest chairs and tables, not so spacious though…but Im very curious about this secret stop number one!. Mbak Lisa who happened to be really nice and passionate about food, explained that we’re having bakmie ayam – kampung style. The noodle were homemade and they served mouth-watering swikiauw (similar to the common boiled pangsit) and other menu which are pork-based. Since I’m in a halal group, we can only eat the chicken swikiauw. First bite on the noodle : I believe that it was homemade, I just knew it, I have a radar for preservatives! The taste was okay, oily and a bit salty, and cooked in a prefect al-dente level. But I have to admit that the swikiauw was the stellar! It was just oh so tasty, fresh, with perfectly seasoned chicken wrap in a pangsit – made out of rice flower, with warm chicken broth (kaldu) and wow, there’ something crunchy inside of the swikiaw, its turnip (lobak)! It perfected the whole taste, adding texture and freshness and I want more!
11.05 – 11.20
Aneka Soto – Jembatan Metro Pasar Baru Blok CKS #13
Climbing up old-rusty disfunctioned escalator from the side of Jalan KH Samanhudi, I thought the second stop was still a long way to go. Surprisingly, just when we got to the bridge mouth, We found our second secret destination. Located in the corner, the food stall served Sop Buntut, Soto Daging (santan/coconut milk) and also sotomie.
Whlist still amazed by how USD could find these places. I spent no time to taste their delicacies. The sotomie was light, fresh and the fried meat were fatty, Yum!. The soto daging santan was perfect, the coconut milk soup wasn’t too thick, I saw them using magic car to heat it, and I think that’s brilliant, since the coconut milk won’t get thickened easily. The taste was slightly sweet but if you add sambal to it, the flavor orchestra would play great music in your mouth!. My favorite (entitled to get 4 thumbs up) would go to their Sop Buntut. It was perfect! Not to ‘herby’ yet you can still slightly taste the nutmeg, cinnamon, cengkeh, etc. Hands down for their use of real ox tails (a lot of them). The oxtails cooked perfectly, made it easy for you to chew! All and all, its better than any 5-star sop buntut elsewhere.
Sotomie available for IDR 14K, whlist Soto Daging Santan starts from IDR 16K – 18K, and the world-class Sop Buntut cost IDR. 30K. They also have a branch in Jalan Batu Tulis Raya.
11.25 – 12.00
Metro Atom Basement
From the bridge we moved underground and stopped at a Chinese herb stall. The shop owner was 83 years old couple, who made their own ‘arak’ (Chinese rice wine) from ‘angkak’ and ‘ketan hitam’. They’d been there forever and yet still managed to run the daily routine in that shop. I saw Mba Lisa drew two boxes filled with fried emping melinjo (gnetum gnemon crackers) there are two kinds, we were asked to taste both emping and guessed which has the best quality. The first emping was quite common, We all should’ve been familiar. But the second one, my tongue would express it as somewhat soft, it didn’t explode right away in your mouth, and there’s a deep-flavor and unique aroma of melinjo, burst-up my mouth. Lisa then asked which one we liked. Some said that the 1st is better, but in my judgment the second one is definitely a killer. I was right : Lisa told us that the second emping was had to be the best quality emping made of roasted – not boiled – gnetum gnemon originated from Labuan, Serang (near Anyer beach) where they produce this export-quality crackers.
Fascinated by her broad understanding about food, Lisa then chatted with si Om the shop owner and took me in dazzled with their lectures about sop ayam obat (chicken soup made for recovering sick people), and some really new things I haven’t heard about Chinese herbs. No wonder the couple looked very healthy, they never buy medicine, they create their own from those Chinese herbs!
12.10 – 12.30
Soen Yoe Eatery
Filled with foods, and knowledge, we strolled along Pasar Baru lane to our last stop. All of a sudden Lisa turn right into a narrow alley ( I love surprises like this) and kept us in what I called “an exciting-curiousity”. We arrived in an eatery. They sell bakmie and other Chinese menu like nasi tim, cap cay, etc. But the reason we were there was for a drink called Es Lobi-lobi. I never had an Es Lobi-lobi before, and on this first attempt sipping this drink, I was speechless. Took a while to really ‘understand’ the sweet sour (and salty too) syrup filled with ice and a few sweetened lobi-lobi on the bottom of the glass. But as I try to figure out, the glass was nearly empty! Hahaa…It was addictive and soothing, totally fresh and its sourness is simply mind-blowing. It’s like when you’re not sure about something at the first place but ended up really liking it a lot (I don’t know if there’s any ‘term’ for that). Lobi-lobi (Flacourita inermi) is a sweet-sour fruit, well…strong sour flavor and just slightly sweet to be exact. Mostly grown in beach side in Jawa Barat area. People consume this as one of the member of rujak fruits or to reduce the sourness some processed it into lobi-lobi jam. Sincethe lobi-lobi in our drinks were sweetend, I’m curious about it real taste!.
12.30 – 15.30
Galeri Foto Antara for Ted X presentation
We headed to Galeri Foro Antara, and were still excited about what’s going to happen next!. Lisa told us that are going to watch a special presentation. Whilst waiting for the other group to come we got a package of crispy tofu-skin crackers, product of Sumedang. It was rich in taste and very crispy! As a souvenir, USD gave us a bag of Emping Melinjo from Labuan, Serang. I couldn’t wait ‘til I get home and bragged about this emping story to my Mom!!!
Ted X presentation
I had a loooot of new experiences, and got a looooot of knowledge as well, and Ted X was really the highlight of the day. Well for those of you who don’t what TED is please check www.ted.com ( pls go and check it right know, not that I’m lazy to explain what TED is, but you all should check it, and go amazed by it). Now that you know what TED is? TED X is an independently organized showing of TED’s presentation from people who have brilliant thing worth sharing. And for USD event, the Indonesia TED X team had prepared a presentation about foie gras. I tell you the conclusion : Some farmers are doing force-feeding to their geese so that the foie gras could pumped up 8th times of its original size! But, there are a farmer in Spain name Eduardo, who practice sustainable farming, by simply letting his geese live happily, eat whatever they want, no force-feeding, in fact, everything went very natural. The result : the best foie gras in the world (according to the speaker)…The second video is about the miss-leading in education and truly about how education should support your passion, rather than being suffocated learning things you don’t like.
Never in my life, I went home smiling with how many things I’ve learned today. Things I really liked : foods and the presentation from TED X was absolutely opened-up my mind. There are way too many monotonousness and superficiality in our daily lives. There are many miss-leading and neglect ion. Its heart-warming that there are people behind USD (with TED X) that really helped us not to get lost at least in two things : Pasar Baru (since it’s a huge and confusing place) second, not get lost in what we want. They encouraged us to embrace and live up our passion, and leave the worn-out perspective that may against our passion!!!
I hope this writing is ‘edible’ to your brain!. If you have passion for foods, clubs like Underground Secret Dining is a perfect container to hold your passion. Where excitement is never-ending and curiosity is deliciously feed!
