Royal Malioboro Hotel and meals, Yogyakarta, Indonesia

Recently I had a week in Indonesia working on a short course in the Royal Malioboro Hotel in Yogyakarta.  I was very fortunate to meet many wonderful people from Indonesia and the Asia Pacific and have a bit of time in Yogyakarta special region.  There will be more blog posts about my trip but today I will write about the Royal Malioboro Hotel where I stayed and spent most of my time.  Most of my meals were a hearty selection of rice or noodles, vegetables, and tofu or tempeh.

This was my room.  I liked the chaise lounge to sit on and spread out my papers.  There were a few little differences from the hotels I have known in Australia.  One was that there were scuff to wear on our feet but no bathrobe.  There was no stocked mini bar but a jug and a bar fridge were just what I needed to keep my drinking water supply topped up from the water cooler in the hallway.

Spending most of the time on the short course in the hotel meant a lack of fresh air.  So I enjoyed eating meals outside the dining room on the balcony. 

On the ninth floor (the top) was what my colleagues referred to as the sky lounge.  I am not sure if it was the official title but it was great to sit outside in the evening looking over the lights of the city and have dinner.

Beside the sky lounge was the pool.  When I first arrived, I wanted to swim every day but it wasn't that practical as we were often busy.  Only one morning I had a swim and it was really lovely.

In the lifts was a sign saying No Strong Smelling Food with a picture of the dreaded stinky durian fruit.  Fortunately the food in the hotel was wonderful and not at all stinky.  I ate so well all week that I never was hungry.

Morning tea and afternoon tea were always a lavish affair of savoury food such as spring rolls or pastries, condiments, crisps in glass containers, trays of elegant cakes, fresh fruit, juice, tea and coffee.

A lot of savouries were not vegetarian.  For most of these teas, I had mine on a separate plate to suit my diet.  As you can see above, they were always presented with panache.

Breakfasts and lunches were provided in the dining room as part of the short course.  The selection was a veritable feast.  There were always a selection of both Indonesia and Western hot dishes.  Most time I had to ask to check what was vegetarian in the local dishes.  There was usually a rice dish, a noodle dish and fairly plain boiled vegetables.

On our first lunch a vegetarian colleague and I talked to the chef who said he would make us Japanese tofu.  The we discovered the amazing fried tempeh and other tempting dishes.  By the time he brought us the tofu, we'd eaten well and surprised to see he had made us a meal so we ate what we could (and I was so tired that night I was able to go to sleep early without any dinner!)

I would usually then check the Western dishes and occasionally found a tempting vegetarian dish such as ratatouille or baked beans.  I would also check the salads and might take some of the salad vegetables.  I sometimes had some local sides such as marinated tempeh or greens but I was a bit wary of them being meat, fish or too much chilli and there were so many dishes i did not like to ask about every one.

I often enjoyed a kiwi or strawberry juice.  Sometimes I took a small cake from the display but often was quite full.

Here are a few of my meals:

Breakfast of fried rice, vegetables, corn and pineapple.  Rather simple but much fancier than breakfasts I have back home.

 Lunch of fried noodles, boiled vegies, ratatouille, peas and seasoned tempeh.

My final breakfast of fried rice, baked beans, tempeh, greens, curried vegies and one of those tasty crispy nests that I saw being sold and also eaten by locals.

The sky lounge didn't offer much options for non-alcoholic drinks - mostly soft drinks and juices.  The Indonesian diet is rather big on sugar and sweeteners.  This strawberry juice came with a little jug of sweet syrup to add to the drink to sweeten it to taste.

Dinner in the sky lounge one night was mie goreng (fried noodles) with salad, fried tofu and fried tempeh.  I loved the tofu and tempeh on the side for the vegetarian meal.

Another night my dinner in the sky lounge was the nasi goreng (fried noodles) with crackers, salad, tofu and tempeh.  It might not surprise you to hear that I did not have a day in Indonesia when I did not have tempeh.  It was a great treat and made me want to cook it more at home.

On my last night I was tired after a day of sightseeing and ordered from room service.  The spring rolls seemed a safe option but I did not bother to ask if they had no meat and no fish.  When they came and I started to eat, I discovered to my horror that they were chicken and vegetable spring rolls.  I just had a packet of seaweed crisps instead but later found they had fish powder in them.  It was not my finest vegetarian moment in the week.  

Luckily I had also ordered dessert of banana fritters with chocolate sauce, grated cheese, chocolate sprinkles and vanilla ice cream.  It was very satisfying.  Despite my poor choice of savoury foods on my last night, I was overall very pleased with the food at the Royal Malioboro and found the staff very helpful in finding out what was and what wasn't vegetarian.

Royal Malioboro Hotel by Aston
Jl. Ps. Kembang No.29,
Sosromenduran, Gedong Tengen,
Kota Yogyakarta, Daerah Istimewa Yogyakarta 55271,
Indonesia
https://www.astonhotelsinternational.com/en/hotel/view/78/royal-malioboro

More posts from my trip to Yogyakarta, Indonesia:

• Around Yogyakarta - Jalan Malioboro, meals and more, Indonesia
• Borobudur and Prambaran Temples, Yogyakarta, Indonesia
• Bali transit visit to GWK Culture Park, Indonesia
  
• Indonesia airport art (and a plane meal)