Indonesian Festival 09 Pesta Rakyat

It's the perfect time of the year for outdoor festivals and the next one coming up is the Indonesia Festival 09 - Pesta Rakyat, which is being held at Southbank on 26 September 2009.

Pesta Rakyat features Indonesian music, dance, fashion, games, food and crafts. The day part of the festival is free, but night-time tickets are $45, or $35 if you pre-buy them. I plan on wandering in during the day to try and find some delicious Indonesian food. You'll find more information on the festival website.

Indonesian Festival 09 - Pesta Rakyat
Saturday 26 September 2009, 10am to 10pm
W - http://indonesianfestivalbrisbane.com/

Jakarta Indonesian Restaurant

Its been a while since I've eaten at Jakarta - I haven't been in for dinner since the restaurant moved from Paddington.

Anyway it seems to be going well in New Farm. I went along on a Saturday night with a few friends and the place was pretty much full, which is usually a good sign.

Once I opened the menu, I realised why it was full. The food is cheap. The entrees are between $3.90 & $6.90 and the mains range from $10.50 to $16.90. If the food's good, the place will always be packed at those prices.

Satays are my big weakness when it comes to Indonesian food, and I just couldn't go past them for an entree. If you can resist the call of sweet, tasty satays, then other entree options include Lumpia Sayur (vegetable spring rolls - $3.90), Perkedel Kentang (potato & corned beef fritters - $5.50) and a variety of soups (such as ox-tail - $5.90).

The chicken satays ($12.90 for eight) were absolutely delicious. They were not the biggest satays you've ever seen, but the chicken was tender and perfectly cooked. Once you've covered them in satay sauce, it's pretty hard to stop eating them. Luckily they were gobbled up by the rest of the table pretty quickly. We also had a serve of the Perkedel Kentang and one of the mixed entrees ($6.90).

When it comes to main course, there's a wide selection, covering satay (of course), vegetable & egg dishes, chicken, meat, seafood and rice/noodle dishes. Some of the more interesting sounding ones are Telor Belado (specially cooked eggs in red chilli sauce - $10.50), Ayam Rica Rica (I didn't ask what Rica Rica is, but it sounds good - $14.50), Ikan Bakar (whole sole marinated and char grilled - $19.50) and Semur Sapi (sauteed beef, tomato and fried potato in an Indonesian stew - $14.50).

We had five main courses between us, and some of them were particularly good. The Rendang Sapi (beef rendang - $14.50) was probably the star of the night, with its rich flavours and meltingly tender beef. Knowing how good beef rendang usually is, three of us tried to order the Rendang Sapi, but table rules prevailed and we ordered a few non-rendang dishes instead. The Opor Ayam (marinated chicken cooked in lightly spiced coconut milk - $14.50) was recommended by the waitress and was another distinctively flavoured dish. The Gulai Kambling (Indonesian lamb curry) was fine, but didn't have the wow factor of the beef rendang or Opor Ayam. We also had a serve of the mixed satay ($14.90) which didn't last long (nor did the satay sauce).

Steamed rice is $2 per person, or you can try the Nasi Kuning (yellow rice) instead for $3. If you want a couple of Indonesian side dishes, there's Acar (mixed vegetable pickles - $3), Serundeng Kentang (roasted peanuts and potatoes - $3) and sambal (hot chilli sauce).

By this stage of the night we were struggling to finish off the last few bits of the main courses, so dessert wasn't an option. If you manage to get through mains and are still feeling peckish, then its time for an Indonesian dessert. Some of them sound great - Es Cendol (a drink of tear drop shapes of rice jelly, served with brown sugar syrup, jack fruit and coconut milk - $4) or longan, lychee and rambutan with crushed ice ($4). If you really want to try something new, there's always the Es Cincau - diced grass jelly in cocopandan syrup - $4.

Jakarta also has Indonesian food for sale, in case you get hooked and want to take some home. It's both licenced and BYO wine. Corkage is $2 per person, and there's a bottle shop about 20 metres away, which is pretty handy.

Service throughout the night was friendly and efficient. Our waitresses were happy to make recommendations, which turned out to be delicious. The restaurant is decorated with Indonesian touches, and has a fairly casual, relaxed feel to it.

Jakarta is definitely worth a visit, especially if you've never tried Indonesian food before. The food is not only delicious, but its priced extremely well. We walked out paying $25 each, including corkage, and had loads of food. No complaints from me after a dinner like that.

What does all this mean? Tasty and interesting Indonesian food at crazy prices, with relaxed, friendly service.

food bling ratings
Food - Great
Service - Good
Ambience - Casual, with Indonesian touches
Value for Money - Top Shelf
Wine - Licensed & BYO
Vegetarian - Good

Jakarta Indonesian Restaurant
2/702 Brunswick Street
New Farm 4005
P - 07 3358 5715
W - http://www.jakarta.com.au/

Satay Hut

Satay Hut is one of the newer eateries on Little Stanley Street at Southbank. It was set up by the owner and chef of Ginga, Patrick Ip.

We checked out the menu for Satay Hut on a stroll around Southbank one day and thought we should head back for dinner. We eventually made it back here for a quick pre-opera dinner. The place looks pretty impressive from the street, and you can either sit either inside or in their fairly large outside dining area.

The main reason we wanted to try Satay Hut was because of the menu, which has quite a few dishes that you don't see very often. The menu has pictures of many of the dishes, and also has a chilli rating system to give you an idea of how hot to expect the food.

Anyway I wimped out in the adventurous stakes for entree and instead went for one of my favourite starters, chicken satay sticks with rice cakes ($9.90). These were served with cucumber and peanut satay sauce. They weren't the best satay sticks I've ever had, but were fine nevertheless. I hadn't tried the rice cakes before, which were basically a little blob of sticky rice (which tasted better than my description of them). The sauce was good, and got completely cleaned up between the rice cakes and the chicken satays. The rice cakes make this a fairly filling starter.

We also had the vegetarian spring rolls ($6.90) for entree, which are described on the menu as containing cabbage, onion, carrots, mushroom and bamboo shoots, served with plum & sweet chilli dip. I didn't try one of these, as I was too busy munching away on my satay sticks, but I'm told they were fresh and very tasty. The plum & sweet chilli dipping sauce wasn't as tasty as the satay sauce. Needless to say, there was no satay sauce left.

A number of the other entrees were usual suspects, such as prawn spring rolls ($9.90), Thai fish cakes ($6.90), yum cha platter ($24.90 for 2) or you could go for the Malaysian style fried tofu ($7.90) if you're looking for a vegetarian option. There are also a few soups if you're in need of something to slurp all over your shirt to kick off the night.

On to mains. This is where the menu gets interesting - it's a pretty wide ranging one, covering Indonesian, Malaysian, Singaporean and Thai food. Dishes that caught my eye were the sambal stir fry (chicken $16.90, fish $17.90 or prawn $24.90), seafood bird nest ($29.90), coconut seafood bake ($29.90), scallop with tofu ($18.90 - the picture of this looked really good) and the kapitan chicken rice ($18.90).

Anyway, we were in a hurry, so I had to decide and went for the beef nasi lemak ($19.90). Wikipedia calls this the "unofficial national dish of Malaysia". Apparently it's a breakfast dish in Malaysia. The main reason I picked it was because it was a platter, and was the best way of trying a few new meals all in one go. The plate consisted of some Malaysian beef curry, hard boiled egg, ikan belis (dried anchovies), kacang (salted peanuts), achar (pickled vegetables) and coconut rice. Although the curry itself wasn't mind blowing, the combination of all the small dishes was great (although I don't know if anyone could eat all the anchovies). The coconut rice was also delicious. It turned out to be a good choice.

We also had the tofu with satay sauce and cashew nuts ($9.90). This was a bargain and was very good. It was little rounds of silken tofu with some tasty satay sauce. Once again, we couldn't get enough of the satay sauce, which is addictive stuff.

There is a compact, reasonably priced wine list, and you should be able to find something to accompany whatever takes your fancy off the menu.

We only had a limited time at Satay Hut, and the staff were excellent in making sure that all the food came out quickly, so we could head off to the opera.

All up, Satay Hut is a welcome addition to the eateries at South Bank. It's not the cheapest Asian food in town, but its comparably priced with many of the places along Little Stanley Street, and is by no means expensive. Satay Hut is definitely worth a try, especially if you're looking for a few dishes you might not have seen before.

What does all this mean? An interesting range of Asian food at decent prices, with loads of options to keep everyone happy.

food bling ratings
Food - Good
Service - Great
Ambience - Impressive modern Asian surroundings
Value for Money - Good
Wine - OK
Vegetarian - Good

Satay Hut
Shop 3, Little Stanley Street
Southbank 4101
P - 07 3846 6600
W - http://www.satayhut.com.au/