Dienstag, 7. Oktober 2014

Foodie Berlin: Nusantara Indonesian restaurant

Berlin charmed me, among many other things, with the diversity of its restaurants. When not possible to travel, only a short trip around the corner will reveal some country whose cuisine I never tried before. Like, for instance, the Indonesian one. During some long explorations of Moabit - post coming up very soon - I spotted a green patch of colour on Turmstrasse and some pictures of big dishes and promise to come back as soon as possible for a luxurious lunch. Nusantara means archipelago in old Javanese and the name sends a lot of spicy waves in my imagination. Arrived around lunch time, the place was quite busy, but decided to take a seat outside, on some camping big chairs, too big to be comfy. Everything looked a bit unkept and a bit dirty, but the service, although slow, was friendly and welcoming and ready to bring without additional costs a new dish if the wrong one was brought by mistake. 
I started my Indonesian culinary trip with an Es teh, fresh Indonesian ice tea, with an aromatic smell and taste, sweetened with white sugar and brought with big ice cubes. 
Indonesian coffee is famous, and tried it several times. It's a bit sprinkling, sour stronger and goes very well with lemon cakes. While waiting for my meals, I was sipping my Kopi Jahe, a special ginger coffee that I instantly liked it, and which is very perfumed too. Although it can be drink with milk too, I preferred the raw strong version. 
Finally, it was about time to have my first impression of Indonesian food. Out of a long list of menu - in English and German - without too many hints about the ingredients, I went for two. The first was Tempe Mendoan. Tempe means fermented soybeans. It was accompanied by a very creamy peanut sauce. It looked and tasted very meaty, although not deeply fried. The peanut sauce was taking all the possible tastes around and thus, did not left anything for any other special flavours. 
The main star of my Indonesian lunch was Gado Gado: a combination of various veggies, eggs, cubes of peanuts with sesame seeds and broccoli. As in the previous case, the peanut taste took all the other special tastes. The balance was brought surprisingly by the soy sprouts. 
The prices are more than affordable.
I left the restaurant moving slowly as a penguin, and with some new hints about an unknown cuisine. Maybe I did not get the best samples of food, but at least if it will be a next time, I will make my homeworks better and will know for sure what specific meal would love to taste first and foremost.

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