After our not very successful trip to the Immanuel Café, Marlina and I hoped to search out some better Indonesian food at Java in Randwick.
For a direct comparison we ordered a gado gado salad. Java's version of the salad was less sweet and had a stronger peanuty flavour from the stay sauce. I liked the crunch from the lettuce, bean sprouts, carrot and cucumber, while the tofu and boiled eggs provide a contrast in texture. The satay sauce makes familiar ingredients quite different from any western salad.
Our second dish was nasi uduk. A meal in one plate with chicken, beef, egg, a dollop of hot chilli sauce and a crunchy peanut and small fried fish mix. The nasi uduk didn't didn't really excite me. I've had the salty peanut and fish mix before in Malaysian dishes and it's something that I still find a bit strange.
Our final dish was ayam bumbu Bali. Two marinated chicken legs topped with a spicy peanut sauce. I found the chicken a little bit dry. However, the spicy peanut sauce was good and even better was the rich tomato and chilli sauce that came as an accompaniment. There was a deep richness from the tomato and a nice hit of chilli. A different style chilli sauce to any I've had before.
Java filled up quickly, even though we arrived early for dinner at 18:30, proving this is a popular local restaurant. A big improvement on the Immanual Café and a good gado gado salad.
Looks and sounds good. The nasi uduk reminds me of the Malaysian nasi lemak, one of favourites. I really love the crunchy anchovy and peanut mix, though I do understand it is a bit of an aquired taste.
ReplyDeleteThe nasi uduk looks amazing!
ReplyDeletethis is basically my local hehe i always order the nasi rames take away. you get a bit of everything. :-) next time you'll have to try their beef rendang and lemongrass fried chicken :-)
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