It’s been a long long time since the last time
I wrote a blog post. Yes, I sincerely apologize to all of you who have been
waiting for so long for another reference from Tummy Prosperity. I’ve been
assigned to work in Japan for the last 6.5 months and all the workloads did not
allow me to spend some time for updating my blog even though I really wanted
to.
Ok, cut the story short, here I am already back
again in Jakarta, meeting again the ‘extreme’ traffic and the hot sunny
weather. However, it’s still great to be back here, as I can speak Bahasa
Indonesia again, meet tons of friends, gather and hunt new places together with
my foodies fellas, and for sure, eat Indonesian foods again!
I don’t know if it’s a coincidence or you just
need to call me lucky, at this third weekend I spent in Jakarta, I got the
invitation from D’ Solo, a traditional Javanese restaurant, who has just
expanded its menu range by adding one well-known dish from Makassar, South
Sulawesi. Well, if you’ve just guessed that they now serve Coto Makassar, yes
you’re 100% right!
When I heard from them that they’re excited to
let me try this newly launched dish, my heart jumped excitedly! I guessed it’s
been more than a year since the last time I ate Coto Makassar, the most famous
dish from my hometown. Oh yeah, for you
who haven’t known where I originally come from yet, now you know it.
When I first arrived at D’ Solo restaurant at
Melawai, I could immediately tell that this restaurant was ‘Soooo Java’. The
decoration of its 2-storey outlet strongly gave the ambience of Java. Yes, as I
said before, it’s indeed a traditional Javanese restaurant, who used to serve
Javanese dishes only.
However, despite it sells traditional dishes,
don’t expect that it look like warung. The restaurant is actually so cozy as it’s
spacious and it does have modern touch on the design. The service is very
satisfying for me as well as the waiters and waitresses are responsive and dexterous.
So here comes the part I’ve been waiting for,
the food-tasting for Coto Makassar! For you who have not heard about this dish
or might have heard it but haven’t tried it and wonder what it is, let me give
you brief description about the dish. Besides the form, which is soup, Coto
Makassar is totally different from Soto. The spices mixed into the soup as well
as the appearance are really distinctive from Soto. The main ingredients are
ground peanuts and candlenut, while the meat used is mostly beef although in
Makassar you can find some sell it with horse meat.
Similar to the order process for Coto in Makassar,
here in D’ Solo they also asked which part of the beef I wanted to be mixed
into my Coto. Don’t get surprised, but yes, Makassar people love to have
innards like intestine, liver, lungs, heart, tripe, tongue, and even brain in their
Coto so all of those things I mentioned were served here. And my choices, which
was kind of mainstream in Makassar but I recommended you to go for if you’re
newbie for Coto, are the beef itself and heart. You needn’t worry about heart
because it basically doesn’t have any particular smell or taste and I somehow
couldn’t really differentiate it from the beef.
As you know, Indonesians mostly couldn’t eat
without chili, so you’re right if you expected this dish to have certain chili
sauce to enjoy with. For the original one in Makassar, the chili sauce’s
basically made of chili only. However, D’ Solo’s one mixed it with tauco, the paste made from
preserved fermented yellow soybeans. Although it’s pretty different,
surprisingly I really loved this chili sauce. For some of my friends who couldn’t
really eat spicy food, they said it’s really spicy but there’s no big problem
as you could add the chili into your coto based on your preference. Besides,
using the Makassar style, I did mix it with a little soy sauce (some people
also loved to have it with lime). As the companion, this Coto was enjoyed with Ketupat or Buras. You might be familiar with Ketupat but had no idea what’s Buras.
Simply said, it’s just like Lontong
as the rice’s mixed with coconut milk and the taste’s a bit sweet.
Looking at the
presentation of the dish, at first I thought the taste would be quite different
because this Coto had brighter soup color. However, having my first spoon of
it, I was amazed as it tasted really similar to my favorite one in my hometown.
The soup was so rich, even when I tasted it before I mixed it with any other
ingredients! If I had to mention the difference, perhaps it’s just a little bit
more oily but luckily, the super tender beef and heart made me able to enjoy it
until the very last sip of the broth. Not to mention, their Ketupat and Buras also came as flawless partners to the Coto as they were scrumptious.
Overall, I was so in love with it and it could be a perfect healer for my
craving for my hometown’s foods.
Actually, I was
really tempted to try D’ Solo traditional Javanese dishes as well. Its Nasi
Liwet and Selat Solo looked so mouth-watering, and its Serabi Solo reminded me
of my university days back then when I really really loved to buy this
traditional cake. Additionally, all of the dishes are sold at very affordable
price, which were mostly within the range of IDR 20k – IDR 30k. For side
dishes, many of them were even below IDR 10k! Unfortunately, I have had early
lunch with my friends before coming to D’ Solo so our tummy could just afford
the Coto. Therefore, I’m really looking forward to having my next visit to D’
Solo to have a try on their traditional Javanese dishes!
Taste: 8.5/10
Place: 8/10
Service: 8.5/10
Price: 8/10
Thanks for Reading! :)
D’ Solo Restaurant
Address: Jl. Melawai Raya No. 189 G
Phone: 021 7278 7371
Opening Hours: Monday – Sunday, 8am –
10pm
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Inputs &
comments: jessicagaby@ymail.com
