Pandoraspace

Dearest Uncle G,

After I told the concierge at our hotel that I had a hankering for food that was not sweet (many Javanese dishes are on the sweet side), he laughed and said he is from Sumatra so he would know where to find food that is not sweet.  (I am told that Sumatrans are accustomed to food that is spicy and not sweet.)  The concierge recommended we try a restaurant called Iga Bakar and promised that the food was not sweet at all.

On our third evening in Jogjakarta, LS, Danang and I ate at Iga Bakar. 

Iga is the Indonesian word for ribs while bakar means grilled. It therefore came as no surprise that, at Iga Bakar, the main dishes served were grilled beef ribs basted with various sauces, which true to the Sumatran concierge’s word, were not on the sweet side.

LS had the Iga Bakar Saus Bawang Putih (grilled ribs basted with white garlic sauce). Danang ordered the Iga Bakar Pedas (grilled spicy ribs). As I was not feeling particularly adventurous that evening, I settled for a grilled steak.  Big mistake!  While the steak was everything I expected it to be, the ribs that LS and Danang ordered were spectacular. I took a bite off of each of their ribs and was treated to the taste of tender grilled beef perfectly seasoned with garlic and salt. As Danang ordered the spicy ribs, it was basted with a bit of chili and had a very spicy sauce on the side. I did not try the spicy sauce but LS and I noticed that in the middle of the meal, Danang was sweating buckets. The sauce must have been really spicy.

  

We also ordered ribs in soup, which the three of us shares. The soup tasted like bulalo (a Filipino soup dish of boiled beef and bone marrow) only without the bone marrow. It was delicious!

 

For drinks, Danang and I ordered Es Degan, which is fresh coconut juice with coconut bits and sweetened coconut sauce. Yum! LS had the Es Kolang-Kaling, which is dragon fruit juice that had a slightly sour taste that made a drink refreshing.

  

For this most satisfying meal, we only paid 149,000 Rupiah (about $ 15.00) and it was well worth it. So, if there is any place that I recommend you try in Jogjakarta, it is Iga Bakar.

Love, Pandora

This entry was posted on Friday, May 22nd, 2009 at 12:08 am and is filed under My Indonesian Experience, Palate Pleasers. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.