Hey Hey!
Before I start can I just say that you know you have a problem when people come up to you to tell you where they had really good sate the night before and that I should try it for the blog. Or if I think about it the other way, I guess I have some really great people who support Hey hey It’s Sate-Day (not that I actually believe that because people give me this look whenever I mention Sate but hey, whatever floats your boat right?)
I guess the one good thing is that I have so many places to try now that I don’t need to research into what’s good around town. This week’s Sate was a recommendation from a guy named Matthew that came with these instructions “It’s on the corner but its kind of not on the corner… you’ll figure it out.”
So with that undefined location in mind, my Thursday afternoon adventure consisted of finding what he said was ‘really, really good Sate’. I hopped in a cab with my friend Jane and was dropped off just before the corner and understood what he meant.
Source: The Event Spot
Pondok Sate is a chain Sate restaurant in Jakarta (from research they have around 4 restaurants across Kota Jakarta). Situated on Jl. Penjernihan, Pondok Sate is down an alley way on the corner of the street and seemed to be bustling with Indonesians.
Upon walking down, the street was filled with motorbikes on one side and a team of men ‘man-ing’ the grill on the other. Thin, black smoke wafted up from the grill and the turnover for cooked meat was under a minute; and to see that meant that we would be served fresh satay.
When we entered the restaurant it was full of Indonesian’s of all ages and seemed to be thriving. It took us 30 seconds or so to be seated as when we entered the waiter asked us what we were doing as if he never thought a ‘bule’ (white foreigner) would ever eat there! I guess he could be right to say that they may not see a lot of foreigners but that just adds to the Indonesian experience!
The menu was extensive, a lot more than what is shown online, but the sate ayam (chicken satay) and sate kambing (satay goat) seemed to be the most popular choice. We each ordered rice and a plate of ayam sate (10 kebabs came with each serving which was 15000 Rupiah or $1.50 AUD) and waited no less than 5 minutes before our meals came out.
I guess what I thought was the coolest thing was that everything was separated from each other. A plate with white rice, a plate with chicken kebabs and a plate with sate sauce which, for any sate lover like myself, I could have just eaten that!
Upon tasting the food, I was a little let down with a few things. There wasn’t any spice to the sate sauce at all, in fact, Jane’s rice had more spice than the Sate did. It didn’t have a strong taste of peanuts either, but just a mild, pleasant blend that was neither here nor there. Personally, I prefer my sate to have a little kick and to be able to taste the peanuts and so this sauce didn’t really do it for me.
However, I would say that for anyone who doesn’t like spice, who isn’t a big fan of Sate or for any child or person starting out with their experience of trying Sate for the first time then this would be the perfect introduction. For that alone, it would get a 6/10 but for me personally, I would have to give it a 4.
And so with that, my search of the best sate continues and I must say, I’ve got to find some really, really good sate this week to boost up the ratings from the past two weeks! I’m thinking I’ll try some warungs (street food vendors) this week as they often have really, REALLY good food at a really, REALLY cheap price! Also, I tend to leave eating sate until the end of the week and get frustrated at myself for having to eat it two nights in a row. So next week’s goal: eat sate at a local warung earlier in the week (except for Tuesday because its Taco Tuesday with half price margaritas and your girl is ready to get her Mexican on!)
Sampai waktu Sabtu,
Teesh
Adventures of a Blonde 