I HAVE always liked Indonesian cuisine for its diversity, differing from one region to another in that country.

It’s also the land of spices, used in its cooking, manifesting in its marinades, curries and traditional drinks among them.

We couldn’t resist stepping into Betawi Indonesian Cuisine in TTDI when it was only a week old. It was lumpia bebek and lumpia sayur for starters, then ikan bobor bayam, igar bakar nasi bakul, pucuk pakis kalio, and that must-order tahu telor.

The last is what I was familiar with, but Betawi’s was different. Instead of a fluffy deep-fried bean curd filled with vegetables and drizzled with sauce, we got a harder bean curd piled with vegetables and sitting on a sweet spiced sauce.

It was a house-made bean curd we were told. Past the “meaty” bean curd, we liked the sauce.

We started lunch with lumpia bebek and lumpia sayur, served with a peanut dip and tangy sambal. The lumpia or popiah was delicious. I bit into a fine crispy skin, and moist shredded duck, stewed Sumatran style.

Lumpia Sayur was tasty too, lifted up by the nutty, fragrant dip.

Ikan bobor bayam is fried tilapia fish fillet on coconut milk and spinach topped with sambal matah and crispy sweet potato.  I enjoyed this unusual fish dish.

The fried fish fillet sat on a lightly sweet and spiced coconut sauce, with chilli heat from the sambal matah (a Balinese raw sambal). Crispy thin slices of purple and yellow sweet potato were piled on top of the fish.

Iga bakar nasi bakul has nasi uduk (steamed rice in coconut milk), topped with braised beef ribs and presented in a basket lined with banana leaves.

The dark ribs had been marinated in kicap manis and spices before the braising. A perky sambal and lime juice give the finishing touch to the rice.

The sticky, caramelised tender ribs tasted quite good with the sambal and rice. The rice was 2 to 3 pax, and 5 of us couldn’t finish it.

Pucuk pakis kalio had deep-fried pucuk paku in a soupy Indonesian rendang sauce, and topped with fried shallots.

It’s quite a departure from the usual vegetable dishes. So, we had crispy paku combined with the sauteed ones in the delicious sauce.

We were offered four sambal to try – terasi, balado hijau, sambal gorek and sambal mbeq, each with its own level of chilli heat and nuances.

Dessert was the Indonesian Panna Cotta or som som, as they call it. It’s a smooth rice jelly topped with fruits and gula jawa.

The drinks menu caught our eye too. I was happy with my traditional Indonesian drink of bir pletok, pleasantly spiced and lightly sweet.

There was also the soda mangga naga, with mango, dragon fruit, ice cream and sago.

The vegetable dishes are priced from RM15, the lumpia is RM12 for the duck, and RM9 for the vegetable one. Iga bakar nasi bakul is RM80, ikan bobor bayam is RM40. 

Betawi Indonesian Cuisine is at 31 Jalan Tun Mohd Fuad 3, Taman Tun Dr Ismail, Kuala Lumpur, tel: 017 419 1210. – May 18, 2024.

* Eu Hooi-Khaw has been writing about food for the longest time, covering all aspects, from restaurant reviews to cooking and recipes, as well as the healthy side of it. She has written for major newspapers and magazines, published the cookbook Fresh Ingredients, and also writes for her website hooikhawandsu.com.