Around Yogyakarta - Jalan Malioboro, meals and more, Indonesia

While I was staying at the Royal Malioboro Hotel for a work trip in Yogyakarta, Indonesia, I was able to wander around nearby and take a couple of trips out of the city.  Yogyakarta is both a city and a special region.  It is referred to fondly by locals as Jogja.  While a lot of my meals were in the hotel, I had some interesting food from further afield, mainly in Jalan Malioboro.

 

We had some time at Jakarta Airport before a domestic flight to Yogyakarta.  Sylvia had asked me to check out the crisps so I took this photo of the display.  I saw some truffle chips that I planned to buy later but never saw them again.  One of my colleagues pointed out a drink of milk, coffee and avocado.  Another colleague and I went in search of a vegetarian meal.  After three refusals, we finally found a place that did a tasty fried rice.  Meanwhile our travelling companions sampled the Indonesian Ketucky Fried Chicken which they said was so much better than what we get in Australia.  Already I could tell we weren't at home any more and we hadn't even got to Yogyokarta yet! 

We arrived at Yogyakarta in the dark and walked from the train station to our hotel wheeling our suitcases.  I noticed the red pottery tiles rooves on older buildings, motor bikes everywhere, and I followed our Indonesian colleagues we had met up with who were now walking along the road rather than on the footpath.  We passed quite a few sleepy drivers on their rickshaws called becak (pedal powered) or helicak (half motorcycle, half passenger seat).  I never got a ride on them.  We almost did on one walk but mostly I was just too busy.

On the first day of the workshop, one of the local guys brought in a box of Bakpia Kukus Tugu Jogja.  This is a modern take on a older snack.  Traditionally bakpia are made of pastry wrapped around bean paste and baked.  The Bakpia kukus are steamed and often have more modern fillings such as chocolate, cheese and green tea.  Once you are aware of bakpia, you see it everywhere.  Many people at the airport carry boxes of it to take home.  The above photo is an example of one of the many bakpia shops.  I am quite a modern gal and prefer a chocolate filled steamed bun than a bean paste in pastry one, which I also was given to taste.

Jalan Malioboro (aka Malioboro Street) is a popular tourist street that was very near our hotel.  I went there a few times at night for leisure and a few times during the day for more practical needs.  At night it comes alive and I went down a few times with Indonesian colleagues.  It is lively with street food, musicians and lots of visitors, though not lots of Westerners.  A few times I went walking and was stopped by friendly local youths who were studying English and wanted to try speaking with us.

One well known shop on Jalan Malioboror is the Hamzah Batik.  I link here to an Indonesian article which can be translated with interesting information about Hamzah Sulaeman who is the owner.  He is a fashion designer and artist who has a character in his shows called Raminten, a traditional old Javanese woman.  There are a few statues of her in the shop and you can see a picture of her above in a museum type display.  As an aside, I was highly recommended the historic exhibits at the Museum Ullen Sentalu (with English interpreters) an hour out of town, but also notice there is a Jogja National Museum close by in the city which seems to be more about visual art.  Sadly I didn't get to either.

You could also check out the TripAdvisor reviews that are more about the shopping. Hamzah Batik is a huge shop over a few floors with lots of beautiful batik sarongs and clothes, traditional handmade furniture and kitchenware and lots of modern homeware items as well as lots of little souvenirs such as keyrings.  After walking along the street of people wanting to sell to you in the street, it is very nice to go somewhere to look around without anyone trying to sell to you and there is no bartering either.

 

 

I went with a group of colleagues and we ate upstairs on the 3rd floor.  It was fairly quiet but I think there are sometimes performances up there.  The food was quite traditional I think, and very cheap ($50 Australian dollars for meals and drinks for 8 people).  We sat on the floor at one of the low tables.  I was interested to try a gado gado in Indonesia as I have always liked a platter with satay sauce.  I was quite surprised that my meal came drowned in a satay sauce that was quite different to any I have had.  It made it harder to eat the vegetables when they were difficult to identify and I was not a huge fan, though I was able to eat it.  The crackers on top were quite nice and I really loved the battered and fried tempeh that I ordered to have with it.  

 

I also asked for a sparkling water as this was early in the week when I did not realise that sparkling drinks are not much of a thing there.  They found a little bottle of sparkling water that is usually used for cocktails.  To have sparkling drinks usually meant having coke, fanta or lemonade, which are not my favourite fizzy drinks as they are so sweet.

On another evening I wandered along Jalan Malioboro with some colleagues and looked around a bit more beyond the shops and markets.  The Indonesian colleagues were very helpful in pointing out some of the buildings.  The post office was a really beautiful building and we also had an old Dutch building pointed out.  Above was a Muslim temple just off the main street which we were told was unusual because it was not a tome but had a more traditional Indonesian roof.  We stood for a bit watching barefoot kids kick a soccer ball about with great enthusiasm.

This is not a great photo but I was quite fascinated by this memorial to the Indonesian National Revolution after World Wat II (1945-49).  Our colleagues explained it a bit with a story that went something like that the Indonesians wanted independence from the Dutch after being invaded by the Japanese in World War II and the British occupied for some of this period.  They did not sound impressed by the British occupation.  I have read about it online and it is quite complicated but sounds like a lot of turmoil.  Yogyakarta had an important role as capital city for some of this time and afterwards was rewarded with autonomy as a "Special region" and is the only region in Indonesia headed by a recognised monarchy.  As someone who loves history but had not been aware of Indonesia's history, I would love to learn more.

As we strolled we chatted.  Colleagues from both Jakarta and Bail told me that Yogyakarta was cheaper than in their home towns.  Another told me how nice Javanese people were but that those from his home island of Sumatra were more blunt in their communications.  When talking about how common motorbikes are in Indonesia, I was surprised when the petite woman asked me why more people didn't ride motorbikes in Australia.

But you only had to look at the roads to see the answer.  No only were the motorbikes smaller and less powerful, they were better behaved than many motorcycle riders in Australia.  It was not unusual to see couples with a child, young women in hijabs, or drivers carrying a lot - even a ladder - on the back of the bike.  I was more surprised not to see more pushbikes.

The reason you will see lots of becak and helicak (pedicabs) in the above photo is that the fence at the far right is of the palace (kraton) grounds.  We were there too late to go into the palace and could not see much but we did veer down a side lane to see batik paintings made and sold by the palace servants.  The servant told us about how they made them with wax and one of my colleagues did an excellent job of translating.  She even had a chat about the royal family and gossip about the heir to the throne.  Apparently there were gardens we could visit and two trees we could walk between with our eyes closed to make our wish come true but we were too tired to be out long.

It took a few busy days until I finally walked along Jalan Malioboro by myself to buy cold and flu medicine for one of the group (who spent days in his hotel room) or to buy souvenirs.  Alone, I was stopped by quite a few people - mostly to ask me to go and see their batik paintings but there were also students who were learning English and a teacher who had travelled 3 days by bus (and boat) with a group of high school students from the next island.

We also went by bus for a fancy workshop dinner to Abhayagiri Restaurant in the village of Sambirejo outside Jogja before seeing a ballet (more about that later).  The restaurant had plenty of seating among the gardens, water features and twinkling lights.  It was very pleasant sitting outside in the evenings that were so warm I never had need of a cardigan.  Our tables were set very elegantly with menus, flowers and fancy green napkins.  The menu was Indonesian and catered to different diets.

We were given a (mostly) English menu so I could understand what we were eating.  The starters were a lovely refreshing stacked Apple and Orange Salad with a Clear Vegetable Soup.  It was a treat to have a soup as it can be difficult to find a vegetarian soup in Indonesia.

For our main course we had  Nasi Goreng Curry, Sapo Tofu Vegetarian, Sate Jamur and Tahi Tempe Goreng.  It was very good, albeit a bit beige.  The Jamur is mushrooms (though Google Translate told me it was mold).  And the tofu ad tempeh were very welcome. You might also spot my carrot cut in the shape of the Batman signal!

Lastly the dessert was listed as a Fruit Platter - I think it was fried banana, sliced fruit and a wobbly cold pudding of some sort.  It wasn't really my sort of thing but that was fine.  I nibbled bits of it but was more focused on checking everyone wasn't lingering over their desserts because our time was tight to get the bus to the ballet.

Regular readers will know that I enjoy seeing street art.  While on the bus to Abhayagiri and on a tour of temples on my sightseeing day, I loved looking out at the passing sights including this street art on the pylon under the bridge.  I wondered if it is an actual person.

There is lots more I could say but I will post about the temples soon.  Meanwhile it was a great experience both professionally and personally.  I will tell you just a few more things.  It was very easy to be a millionaire in Indonesia with a million rupia equivalent to about $100 Australian dollars.  I managed to get sunburnt where I missed putting on sun tan lotion but it wasn't too hot there - about 32-33 C most days.  Our flight there was a long one because there were a few delays so I was pretty tired when I arrived.  This might be why I slept through an earthquake.  At least it wasn't related to the nearby volcano.  Jogja is near one of the world's most active volcanos, Mount Merapi, that had last spewed lava a week or two before we arrived.

Finally I was back at the airport, glad to be heading home but quite sad to leave Yogyakarta.  It made me hope I would be back in Indonesia one day.  And my foodie adventures continued at the airport.  I regret to inform you I did not feel brave enough to try the Fried durian balls at the Jogja airport nor to try the durian chocolate I saw at Denpasar airport.  I felt a bit better about avoiding the stinky fruit when I spoke to an Indonesian guy in the shop about the durian chocolate who said he didn't like it either.

I was however curious to try the vegetarian burger with chips and fries at the All American Foods in Jogja airport.  It was quite a small airport where you could buy a lot of bakpia and batik but not lots of food options.  It amused me that after I finished my burger, fries and coke that I had a warm tingle in my mouth from the spice.  It was quite pleasant but it wasn't proper Western food.

Above is my last proper meal in Indonesia at Denpasar airport.  I decided after the spring roll debacle in the hotel that I would have some to make me feel better about them.  I think I asked if they were "vegetarian, no meat, no fish" quite a few times.  They were nice but not so different to what we could buy back home in Melbourne.  The kiwi juice was a bit more unusual.  The only place I saw kombucha in Indonesia was at Denpasar airport but only just before I went to my boarding gate.  Denpasar airport (Bali) was a lot more Western than the lovely Yogyakarta.

More posts about my trip to Yogyakarta, Indonesia:

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

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)

In My Kitchen: June 2023

June brings chilly days and dark nights.  And life continues to be busy.  Two weekends in Geelong with family, lunches out with Sylvia.  Not to mention the jolt of an earthquake.  Work has been intense lately with preparing for an Indonesian workshop.  Mothers Day was a lovely sunny afternoon with my mum, sisters and nieces at a wine bar called Archive in Belmont where I was happy to have some choices of non-alcoholic drinks.  Sylvia and I had a fun day out the previous day with pizza at Kewpie, croissants from Lune and white chocolate vegemite ice cream from Fluffy Torpedo in Fitzroy.  I am not finding time to write about these places but maybe some day soon I will.  We also got to the cinema to see Guardians of the Galaxy III which was great fun.  

The above plate is from a trip to the Mill Markets in Geelong.  More purchases are below.

As the nights close in, the weather turns very hot cocoa and slippers.  A mug of hot tomato soup brings warming comfort.  I took this photo to remind myself not to heat tomato soup in a cup in the microwave.

Here is a meal where a past passion met a future passion.  I am just holding onto my sourdough.  These days I have less energy and time for it but I love it still.  My current passion is my cast iron frypan which just makes every meal better and hopefully is good for my iron levels.  I made sourdough flatbreads on the cast iron frypan and they were lovely and scorched.  I think had a little leftover baked beans that I spread over it and then sprinkled some cheese and placed it under the grill.  It made a really good and easy pizza.

Sylvia has tried a bit of cooking with eggs lately.  Unlike me, she is quite fond of eggs.  This was a recipe from Tik Tok for marinating hard boiled eggs in soy sauce, maple syrup,  mirin and water overnight.  She served them with two minute noodles and used the marinating liquid to flavour the noodles.

I had a visit to Geelong and walked around the Mill Markets with my dad.  The stalls with have a lot of fascinating second hand goods, lots of retro items, some that make me feel quite nostalgic.  I loved this remnant fabric and asked a friend, who is far better with a sewing machine than me, to make handkerchiefs out of them (thanks Kerin).  I also bought the flower as I thought maybe I could work out how to make some myself.  I live in hope of more time for such activities.

I also bought some new knives and forks.  I bought some that were bagged up in a op shop lately that turned out to be cheap and flimsy.  So I spent a bit more and bought these lovely and quite substantial knives and forks that are made by Rodd.  I've never heard of the company before but a quick Google showed them to be a quality product that was made in Australia at least from 1930s to 1960s.  The pattern on my utensils is called Carmen and sold second hand as vintage, but that is all I have found for now.

I also found this herbal Blue Magic Tea in the Mill Markets.  It is made of butterfly pea, camomile flowers and rose petals as well as some natural flavour. I have been fascinated by the natural blue of the butterfly pea and was very pleased to bring this home but am yet to try it.  Apparently it is blue and turns purple when you add lemon juice.

In this meal Sylvia wrapped fingers of tofu in rice paper roll wrappers to fry up to be crisp and then in a marinade.  She saw it on Tik Tok.  With some vegies and rice, it made for an interesting meal - quite chewy but good.

There has been quite a bit of rice around the kitchen lately.  Fried rice with tofu scramble has been on regular rotation for dinner.  I really liked a meal I made recently from leftover rice with lots of spinach, potatoes, red capsicum, peas, maple syrup, vegetarian fish sauce, soy sauce and sesame oil.  Cooked together and served with spring rolls.

We watched MasterChef (RIP Jock Zonfrillo) on the night Amy made caramel dumplings from her childhood.  It looked so easy when she made it in the microwave.  And it used the sort of ingredients we always have in our pantry.  The caramel sauce smelled and tasted amazing, albeit a little too sweet.  But the dumplings seemed too dry when I rolled them.  I should have followed my gut as they were barely edible.  I am surprised a recipe from MasterChef did not work and wonder if I made a mistake but would prefer my golden syrup dumplings.

A few weeks back, Sylvia wanted to try a pizza base from the supermarket on a Friday pizza night.  I had extra fast track sourdough pizza dough left after making my pizza.  So we made a dessert pizza - it was a masterpiece of nutella, cream cheese, marshmallows, banana and raspberries.  So good!

Last weekend after an extremely busy week of work I had a long sleep over 14 hours and woke at 4.30pm in the afternoon.  Sylvia and I had fluffy pancakes with lots of raspberry sauce, bananas, yoghurt and maple syrup.  Breakfast for dessert is great after a satisfyingly long sleep.

I am sending this post to Sherry of Sherry's Pickings for the In My Kitchen event. If you would like to join in, send your post to Sherry by 13th of the month.  Or just head over to her blog to visit more kitchens and her gorgeous hand drawn header.