Indonesian flavor in Chow Kit, Kuala Lumpur
Chow Kit is one of the areas in the center of Kuala Lumpur City which is quite famous for many people in Malaysia who want to hunt Indonesian culinary delights.
There are also those who refer to the Chow Kit as “Little Jakarta” as much as the WNI there are. No wonder Indonesian culinary is easily found in the region.
Various shops to restaurants serving Indonesian specialties, from Padang cuisine, typical of East Java, Central Java, Sunda, Aceh, to Palembang can be found at that location. The difference is intermittent with shops and restaurants serving culinary specialties from Malaysia and India.
If you want to experience cuisine, Minang can find a lime rice restaurant or a Simple Restaurant located on Jalan Tuanku Abdul Rahman, Batagor and Siomay Bandung Mang Ujang on Jalan Chow Kit, satai meadows and vegetable eagles on Jalan Raja Alang, and Bakso Sido Mampir on Jalan Tuanku Abdul Rahman.
Other Indonesian specialties such as hodgepodgepodge, pecel, sulling, chicken satai and goat satai until the prospect can also be found in the area. Even lilok, Sunda’s typical snacks are served complete with peanut seasonings and soy sauce, some sell them in the area.
Mintarsih Warijan, a WNI who also echoes the food says quite often it enjoys peek that is sold in a shop house not so far away from the Chow Kit Monorail Station on Tuanku Abdul Rahman Street.
His customers, according to him, are not only those in Kuala Lumpur because often when buying there meet also those who come from out of town, one of them from Johor Bahru.
Some typical Indonesian food stalls on Jalan Raja Bot and Raja Alang, Chow Kit, Wednesday (4-1) in the afternoon, also look quite crowded in receiving online orders as well as by visitors.
One of them is Martabak Ningrat which is managed by a married couple from Cirebon and Kendal, Tono Hadi Ningrat and Siti Rahmatun.
According to Tono, the Martabak Ningrat was entrusted with his management to himself and his wife. The owner of the business is from Indonesia, precisely from Surabaya.
Standing since 2021, Martabak Ningrat has been popular not only by WNI there, but also Malaysian customers.
In fact, according to Tono, they once received orders for hundreds of servings for dishes at a wedding. They make the dough until they cook it at the wedding location.
If on an ordinary day the usual martabahs sell as much as 80 to 90 boxes per day, then on weekends or holidays, sales figures can skyrocket up to 130 boxes per day.
Wijsman Butter, which is displayed neatly in the storefront, is sent directly from Indonesia as one of the main ingredients to maintain the delicacy of authentic Indonesian flavors on the martabak they make.
Various kinds of sweet martabak menus with topping (upper layer) cheese, chocolate, and even branded jam and salted martabak with beef stuffing are offered there. The price range offered is RM15-RM30 per one portion of martabak.
Buyers who may be “mager” aka lazy motion to leave the house can order this martabak online through the application or call directly to Pak Tono’s number and orders will be sent using the Lamamove service.
Furthermore, there is Warung Soto Lamongan (Wasola) which is only about 400 meters from the martabak’s place of business. The many stalls that present a typical East Java menu are also one of the mandatory destinations for Indonesian culinary hunters.
Located right in the Wisma Sabaruddin complex, Chow Kit, Wasola provides a variety of Indonesian specialties, ranging from soto lamongan, wasps, turtle chickens, meatballs, catfish pecels, goat satai, to chicken satai.
Dinda Noraiun, an Indonesian student who was carrying out a student exchange program at the Melaka Malaysian Technical Universiti, that afternoon was seen enjoying the food he ordered there with his friends.
He claimed to be interested in coming to the stall after he and his friend saw a review on the Google search engine that Wasola had rating which is quite high there.
“ It’s raining, right … keep on like mind delicious that I fertilized, I keep like a wasp, soto. Continue to fit searching on Google Maps was the highest here, although far the star is 4.7 high, ” ujar Dinda.
Ardelia Junilla, an Indonesian student from Jakarta who is carrying out a student exchange program at Universiti Teknik Malaysia Melaka, claimed to be surprised because the prices offered were relatively cheap.
“ And also the price is not as different as the one in East Java. Cheaper instead, ” he said.
That was the first time they had explored Timuran Javanese food in Wasola and it turned out that it was not different from what he felt in East Java. Dela, a familiar greeting from Ardelia, is a student of the Ten Nopember Institute of Technology (ITS), so it is quite a foul taste of the wasp that came from East Java.
With RM8.5, visitors can already eat soto lamongan along with white rice. Other menus can also be enjoyed at an average price below RM14 per serving.
His second yearning for Indonesian food paid off by enjoying the wasps in Wasola, which they said tasted authentic and tasty according to rating existing and visible stall atmosphere “Indonesia banget”.
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