From Sidewalk to Hawker Center : “Warung Santai” Seafood

My love for seafood will never die, I think. Being on the top of my preferred protein along with pork, I can’t refuse when it comes to great seafood to taste. However, seafood in Yogyakarta (or probably in some cities in Java as well) is quite pricey (to get good quality seafood), therefore, I can’t eat that often. Besides, people say that it’s not really healthy, packed with cholesterol and such, but meh… it’s tasty :D.

Back in 2014, there is this tent-based seafood hawker in Yogyakarta by the name of “Warung Santai” Seafood. The food there weren’t that expensive, still in the budgets of college students and youngsters. It was located right in front of Circle K near McDonalds Jl. Sudirman Yogyakarta. Back in that day, with that relatively low price, the food was great, in a great ratio between the protein and rice. Being that way, the hawker was always packed during dinner time, mostly by teenagers. I ate there once and I had to wait in line for about 10 – 15 minutes to get some seats and wasn’t almost no space between each people.

Now, in 2017, few days ago, I tried to reach that same seafood hawker. People said the location changed but turned out it’s only behind the Circle K since there’s a new hawker center there now. The fact that Warung Santai is now moved to Araya food court/hawker center, must have some impacts to the seafood hawker. And it’s exactly what happened. Upon the time I reached Warung Santai and saw the menu, the price was escalated up to 60%. No doubt, it’s been 3 years apart, anyway. But that fact was quite disappointing. More over, they sold beverage no more, therefore, you either bought some on the other hawkers or bring your own. That’s… quite a drawback.

Boiled Clams

Fried Shrimps

Fried Clams

OK, that’s one thing, another thing was, they kept the same taste compared to what I had in 2014. That’s a good thing. The taste was simple and slightly salty for everything. I ordered boiled clams, and my other 2 friends had fried clams and fried shrimps. My boiled clams tasted good, since it’s not overly process, you still have the freshness of them. The spices was only salt, I think, since I didn’t taste anything else but salt, even to the slightest state. They’re not that juicy, but more into dry state instead.
The fried clams tasted almost the same compared to boiled clams. The fried ones were less salty and gave very subtle texture of crispiness. I thought the clams were stir fried and not deep fried. I didn’t have a single clue what kind of clams they’re using for the dish, but it’s very common to have that one if you visit seafood stall in Indonesia.
The fried shrimps, were crispy and crunchy since it’s (I think) deep fried but with no batter. Slight saltiness could be tasted, probably the shrimps are marinated with salted water or quite some time. However, the shrimps skin weren’t peeled for the dish (and it’s pretty common here), so if you can’t or don’t want to eat that hard skin, make sure to peel them off. Also the head were still attached, so make sure to fit your preferred style. For me, I could and would munch them all off, hahaha.
You’ll be provided with some kind of dipping sauce. The first time I paid the hawker a visit, they gave me peanut-X thing dipping sauce and that was AWESOME! BUT, last time I visited the hawker, they gave me quite strange mixture. They used the peanut sauce, but with tomato and pineapple (my friends and I guessed). That tasted strange, though. More like random :D. But, they have 1 more dipping sauce and that was incredible. Mainly it was from garlic, terasi, and a little bit of palm sugar since it tasted slightly sweet. Too bad I didn’t capture the dipping sauce. 😦
Overall, I’m satisfied with the taste but some drawbacks make me doubt whether I’ll come back frequently or not. Probably every once in a while, I’ll pay a visit, especially for the crab. Gonna taste the craaaaaaab~.

Reviewing seafood dish is quite my thing since I love what I eat, but if I did it often, my wallet will be empty in no time :D. Even it’s still pretty pricey, this Warung Santai is still considered more low-cost compared to some other seafood specialist restaurant. Anyway, give like if you enjoy reading my stories, pour some comments if  you have any ideas, opinions, or recommendations, and stay tuned for my next stories.

 

CHEERS AND HAVE A GREAT DAY!!

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I also do some artworks (in self-practice as well, actually), if you’d like to visit, you are very welcomed to my Artstation and Patreon profile.

Patreon

Artstation

and also selling some original merchandise at Redbubble
*Sorry, get to promote everything, but, yeah, my effort on living my dream may be starting from the very bottom*

Thank you. :D*

Even Another Hotplate Rice : Pothz Burger

*WARNING : PORK DETECTED!*

My God, lately, I’ve tried a lot hotplate rice in Yogyakarta, including this one. But, no regret, everything just taste amazing, IMO. Now, there’s this one called Pothz Burger. I wasn’t really aware of this place before my friend told me about it as a place for our next hangout. It’s located near Mrican, which at Jl. STM Pembangunan to be exact. I think that’s why, I don’t really go that way much, so I’m not really aware of anything around there. 😦

However, the place is quite small with only about 5 or 6 tables in it. It’s also located on the terrace of a boarding house. The restaurant banner was partially covered by leaves, so make sure to search thoroughly if you want to pay this place a visit. I think it’s still freshly open, probably in under a year (but I’m not really sure) since they’re still giving 20% price-off which was probably for promotion time.

Pothz Burger sells several type of food including hotplate rice, Italian-style pizza, and burger. Anyway, this is what I ordered that time

Pork Hotplate Rice
(duh.. It has a unique name for this menu but I forget.. It’s the complete package of hotplate rice without extra topping BTW)

Despite the name ‘burger’, I didn’t really aim at their burger since I think it wouldn’t satisfy my hunger, but during the time there, I saw one of the waiter brought a set of burger buns, which are BIG, way bigger than the usual ones. However, I’m aiming for the cheese instead (I love cheese!).

This hotplate had a dang portion of cheese!  With mozzarella scattered all over the grilled pork, and a slice of cheddar at the top, this would never go wrong for any cheese lovers. I tried to mix the cheddar with the rice because it’s so tempting to did so, and I created a very tasty rice mixture with it. 😀 Taking the rice aside, I also mixed the mozz with the pork so it formed a gooey-sticky-thick-looking pork and cheese mixture which tasted heavenly, having 2 of my favorite food mixed together. As usual, I left the egg for the finisher.

Speaking of the taste, the sauce was salty, not overly salty and more to the bland side, more to the subtle taste. It was not as strong as the sauce of other hotplate rice I’ve ever tasted, so that’s kind of a room for improvement. Besides, they only provided basic additional ingredients like powdered chili, and shoyu to add some flavor. The top point was the cheese which has extraordinary amount. The pork was also perfectly cooked, not overcooked, but slightly chewy and flavorful. Pork and rice ratio was perfectly balance.

For a small-startup business, they have such high customers flow. With that taste, and reasonable price, I have no doubt that they’ll be a great restaurant in the future. Some improvements could be done but overall it was an amazing foodie experience. Anyway, before I finish this blog..

this is the pork-mozz mixture I talked about earlier
(hahahahahahahaha)

So, give a like if you enjoy reading my journey, leave comments in the comment section if you have any idea or opinions, and stay tune for my next foodie trip and experience.

CHEERS!!

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I also do some artworks (in self-practice as well, actually), if you’d like to visit, you are very welcomed to my Artstation and Patreon profile.

Patreon

Artstation

and also selling some original merchandise at Redbubble
*Sorry, get to promote everything, but, yeah, my effort on living my dream may be starting from the very bottom*

Thank you. :D*

Across-Island Dishes : Lokon

*WARNING : PORK DETECTED*

Several years ago, my friend took me to a home-made-food restaurant serves some dishes originally from outside of the island where I live. Manado, to be exact. It’s in North Sulawesi, which is the island north of Java. The restaurant is in Jogja but serves dishes from Manado. The owners came from Manado, I think, since this pair of husband-and-wife have a very fluent Sulawesi accent.

The name is Lokon, like the name of a volcano in North Sulawesi, probably named that way to bring the ethnic feel of North Sulawesi itself. The banner of this restaurant is quite worn out so I didn’t recognize it well at first. My friend also asked me to go to ‘oma ne’ (it’s Javanese, translated to Bahasa Indonesia as ‘oma-nya’, or to English to ‘the oma’ since, probably, it’s a calling for aunt / auntie in Manado). So, that’s it, up until now, I never say Lokon as its original restaurant name, but Oma-ne instead.

Here, the menu is not too many. They only serve about 5 or 6 kinds. Two of them is the babi kecap (soy-sauced pork), and kinawok. Those are two dishes that my (other) friend and I ordered last time we went there. The place is quite simple as well, not too fancy but not too shabby as well. The beverage is also standard, like mineral water, ice tea, and orange.

This is what I had last time, soy-sauced pork

Soy-sauced Pork

(I know, the English name sounds awkward, but I’ll stick to it)

Some soy-sauced pork dishes I’ve ever eaten use watery soy-sauced soup, but here, it’s more like a sauce than soup. It’s quite oily (but delicious), thick, with dark brown in color, indicating there’s quite a portion of soy-sauced dipped in there. Even so, the taste is not overly sweet and not spicy at all. Somehow it’s very well-balanced with a dimmed garlic-y flavor. The pork itself is tender, not very soft but not that chewy. Just right.

Usually, or probably, mostly the dishes from Manado are spicy, or even blazing spicy for average hot-food eater. My friend from Manado said that he sometimes even can’t handle the hotness of the dish due to overdose chillies portion. Kinawok is one of them. This one is what my friend ordered and I’m allowed to try a piece of kinawok pork.

Kinawok

Now, this food is a total contradiction to what I’ve had. Color is bright orangish yellow, soup isn’t really thick (more like oil and mashed spices, mixed). The taste is quite salty, not overly salty, though. The spices really take their part well in giving amazing taste. However, for me, it’s too hot (again, I have almost 0 tolerance to spiciness).  The pork’s tenderness level is the same like what I had. If I can handle spiciness well, I would love this dish more than I do now.

Actually, I’ve tried some more dishes here but I don’t have any pictures of them so I think, I will talk about it as the 2nd part of Lokon. I ordered soy-sauced pork because the dish I usually order is sold out so I had to choose an alternative choice.

Stay tuned for my next foodie trips, give comments if you have any ideas for me or my blog posts, give like if you like it and see you soon.

CHEERS!!

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---

I also do some artworks (in self-practice as well, actually), if you’d like to visit, you are very welcomed to my Artstation and Patreon profile.

Patreon

Artstation

and also selling some original merchandise at Redbubble
*Sorry, get to promote everything, but, yeah, my effort on living my dream may be starting from the very bottom*

Thank you. :D*

It’s Rude, It’s Offensive, yet Delicious : Soto DJANCUK

Saya nggak akan tau ada tempat macam ini kalau nggak diajak bapak saya.. hahaha

Jadi, di suatu sudut Kota Jogja, ada sebuah tempat makan unik nan eksentrik yang menyuguhkan satu menu makanan asli Indonesia sebagai spesialisasinya. Tempatnya mudah sekali untuk ditemukan (karena nggak hilang hahahahaha [bad joke is bad]) karena nggak sampai masuk-masuk gang yang mblusuk. Anda bisa datang dari arah PGRI atau PUKJ. Bila Anda datang dari Arah PUKJ (Jl. Martadinata belok ke arah selatan di lampu merah pertigaan), lurus saja terus ke selatan dan Anda akan ketemu pertigaan dengan lampu merah. Kalau ke kiri Anda akan ke arah PGRI, tapi untuk ke rumah makan ini Anda belok ke kanan. Maju sekitar 500an meter dan Anda akan langsung menemukan tempat ini di sisi kiri jalan. Biasanya akan ada mini bus seperti ini (gambar di bawah) yang diparkir di depan rumah makannya.

Jadi, kata bapak saya, itu adalah food truck (sesuai tulisannya) yang dipakai untuk berkeliling memasarkan dagangannya. Pembeli bisa makan di dalam karena dalamnya sudah didesain sedemikian rupa sehingga mirip mini bar lengkap dengan meja, kursi, peralatan dapur, penerangan dan lain-lain. Dengan kata lain bus ini adalah rumah makan yang mobile.

Saking eksentriknya, rumah makan ini diberi nama Soto Djancuk oleh pemiliknya. Kenapa? Saya juga nggak tau menau karena belum pernah bertemu pemiliknya langsung dan kabarnya hampir nggak pernah ada di sana. Barangkali ia dari Jawa Timur :D. Nah, kata ‘djancuk’ ini sebenarnya umpatan yang biasa dipakai oleh orang Jawa TImur-an dan setau saya ini sangat kasar.

OK lah, nggak perlu lagi jauh-jauh membahas kata ‘djancuk’ tadi, langsung saja ke rumah makannya..

Tampak dari luar pun Anda pasti akan langsung tau kalau tempat ini ‘tidak biasa’. Jangan bayangkan rumah makan soto yang mewah, dengan tata letak yang rapi. Alih-alih, persepsi mereka tentang rumah makan cukup unik. Langsung lihat saja di bawah ini

*maafkan kualitas HP saya

!!!!

Itu sebagian pemandangan yang akan Anda lihat di rumah makan Soto Djancuk. Rumah makan ini memiliki nuansa yang sederhana nan unik bin eksentrik. Sekilas akan tampak seperti rumah lapuk di pedesaan dengan pintu kayu yang sudah entah berapa lama usianya, dinding bata yang nggak ditutup dengan semen, hiasan-hiasan dinding yang unik dan artistik, serta macam-macam lagi. Bahkan roda pun aka jadi meja makan Anda di sana hahaha. Kursi-kursi kayu dan bambu (kadang disebut lincak) yang akan menjadi tempat duduk Anda di sana. Entah model apa yang digunakan pemilik rumah makan itu, tapi gaya itu memberi kesan yang extraordinary. Tempatnya memang terkesan kotor dan kumuh tapi percayalah, itu cuma tampak luar saja, sebenarnya tempatnya bersih kok. BTW, yang botol kuning itu botol kecap dan bukan kendi arak/tuak/miras/alkohol hahahaha

Kemudian.. bintang utama di sini (maksudnya makanannya) adalah soto, ya seusuai namanya, Soto Djancuk. Sebelum saya ngoceh lebih lanjut, langsung lihat penampakannya saja..

Itu dia. Soto Djancuk hahahahahaha, entah kenapa saya suka menyebut menu makanan ini, tapi percayalah saya orang baik yang tak suka mengumpat hahahaha

Harganya nggak mahal, 10ribu rupiah saja untuk satu porsinya dan dijamin untuk yang porsi makannya rata-rata (kaya saya) pasti kenyang. Anda akan disuguhi 1 mangkuk soto di atas piring. Kelihatannya memang mangkuknya kecil, tapi kalau dituang ke piring, pasti sepiring penuh.(benar-benar penuh hampir di ambang batas piring hahaha) Sesuai penyelidikan saya, ada 2 tujuannya kenapa Anda dikasih piring juga. Satu, biar kalau tumpah-tumpah, nggak mengotori meja, dan dua, Anda bisa menuang semangkuk soto itu ke piring agar panasnya cepat hilang (seperti pelajaran jaman SD, semakin luas permukaan….. ah sudahalah, lupakan). Berlanjut ke komposisi sotonya, soto ini soto sapi dan saya bisa bilang seporsi sotonya disuguhkan dengan potongan daging sapi yang tidak sedikit. SIsanya hampir sama seperti komposisi soto pada umumnya, nasi, thokolan atau kecambah, irisan tomat dan irisan telur rebus. Nah yang spesial dan saya suka dari soto ini adalah rasa kuahnya. Kuahnya gelap sekali warnanya, tapi nggak kental. Pekat karena rempah saja, Karena sebagian besar soto yang pernah saya makan kuahnya relatif bening dan kadang kurang kaya akan rasa, tapi soto ini benar-benar menyuguhkan rasa lain. Campuran antara gurih dan sedikit asin serta asam (mungkin cuka) akan memberi sensasi tersendiri di dalam mulut.

Dan lagi, jangan khawatir kalau Anda makan di Soto Djancuk ini karena ada beberapa pilihan lauk sampingan yang bisa disantap bersama menu utamanya. Beberapa lauk sampingan antara lain ada gorengan (tempe, bakwan, tahu), sate (telur puyuh, hati, keong). Nah kesukaan saya yang keong tuh, rasanya manis dan tekturnya kenyal tapi agak pedas dan saya nggak suka pedas sama sekali, tapi untuk sate keong ini, santap langsung! Hahahaha.

Meski tempatnya tampak sangat sederhana tapi kualitas kulinernya juga nggak kalah kok, kalau penasaran bisa dicoba langsung saja ke TKP. 😀

Stay tuned for the next adventure(S).. Cheers!

Random Fun Tips (RFT) : Nyalakan lampu motor/mobil saat malam hari.