Indonesian @ Rumah Makan Immanuel

I choose to write this post early because this place struck something within me... When Daz and I were hungry and a bit lazy to cook one day, we looked up Urbanspoon to see where around my place we could eat... We found this place which was right outside my place which I have never visited or even noticed despite having lived here for close to 2 years!

It is an Indonesian eatery called Rumah Makan Immanuel... 'Rumah' means house, 'makan' means eat and Immanuel must be a name found from the bible... Indonesians being quite religious, I didn't find it surprising to find a humble little eatery that serves brilliant food cooked by hardworking and earnest people and at the cost of a fraction of what you would normally pay in a more lavish restaurant.

Before I move on to writing about the food, I must share with you how this place got me thinking about life and its philosophy... Daz and I were very much blown away by how good the food was here and wondered between ourselves why these talented people had not tried to expand their business or found a more strategic location to allow their business to fluorish

Then we realised that these people were happy doing what they do... Speaking to the owners, we learned that they have been operating for over 5 years in the area, serving locals and hardly being very busy but earning enough to survive... For some reason, we could tell they were very contented with their peaceful and relatively easy life, doing the same thing day in day out... in a very humble way

So moving on to the food... Firstly, I must say that I have never been a big fan of Indonesian food for a few reasons. Being Malaysian, I find that generally Indonesian food is a poorer version of Malaysian food. The main dishes being fried and lacking the richness of Indian influence that Malaysian food has. Therefore, for this place to have made an impression on me, it must have some outstanding recipes that made it stand out.

Our favourite dish, which blew us away when we first had it was 'Ayam Lunak'. 'Ayam' means chicken and 'lunak' means soft. This fried chicken is fried after being slow cooked for hours to the point that the bones are edible. Yes! You can chew right through them and they taste great too...

The other item that we love is the 'Soto' with beef tripe.

Interesting facts about soto:

• Soto is sometimes regarded as Indonesia's national dish
• Spelling variations include coto, sroto and tauto
• Was introduced to Suriname (country in South America) by Javanese migrants and considered as a national food in that country too

The other item that we love is their special fried rice... not sure how they cook it but it tastes great. Also, they serve other dishes such as 'kangkung belacan' (water spinach stir fried in shrimp paste), gado gado, beef rendang (Western Sumatra caramelised beef curry), bakmi (noodles fried in chicken and mushrooms) and bakso (meat balls).

My favourite dessert after this satisfying meal is 'Cendol'! This green worm-like jelly originates from Indonesia and is popular served in a drink with coconut milk, brown sugar (gula melaka), red bean, cream corn, grass jelly, durian and many different other ingredients in other Southeast Asian countries such as Malaysia, Vietnam, Myanmar (called mont let saung), Singapore and Thailand.

One common ingredient used in Indonesian cuisine is fried shallots (bawang goreng).

Expect a warm, friendly local place to have dinners. A highlight for us one day was when the owner came over and served us home-made ice cream for free. I was totally blown away by how delicious it was... Coconut and fruit ice-cream... I wish they have that on the menu too! And silly us gave them $10 too much in the bill, they were honest to return us the excess change.

Ratings:

Food: Flavoursome!

Ambience: Friendly and clean local eatery. Don't expect it to be posh.


Value: Great value for slow cooked nutritious food.


Nutritious value: Good as the food is brewed and cooked for hours, including soups and meat.


Overall: Not dazzling but definitely DEELICIOUS!