Hello Asean Hive Community
The last post I have made here on Asean Hive Community was about Pangsit with different naming. So they are dumplings and they are a perfect side dish for Ramen. So let me continue that part by talking about different style of Ramen.
Ramen is actually a Japanese Noodle Soup dish which is famous with their signature rich savory broth and some toppings. From every region in Japan, they have their own Ramen however... Ramen is actually a Chinese adapted food in Japan. They are no something that organically originated from Japan.
In every region where there are Chinese descendant, There should be a "RAMEN" there. They will make their own Noodle Soup Dish based on local flavor. So let me share one of them here.
A couple days ago I came to a local brand, a very famous one here, called Bakso Lapangan Tembak Senayan. They were established in 1972, started from a street food cart and now they have become a big food franchise.
Bakso is what Indonesian call for a meat ball. Even we call a meatball as Bakso, it is actually a wrong one. Bakso comes from Chinese word Bak and So, which mean minced pork. Long time ago many Chinese descendent here made meatballs from pork, and somehow through years of adoption process, the Bakso we find in Indonesia are 99% pork free or Halal.
However I come to this place not for their Bakso...
The store was not empty, there were some tables occupied. I liked this condition, because it was not so crowded but still they had decent traffic. Decent traffic = decent sales = good raw materials circulation. I often see many stores sell bad food because they have to use or recycle old resources, and I despite that condition.
The first reason was because of work. I had something to be done soon, and I could not wait. So I had to use my laptop in a restaurant lol. Not a coffee shop, but purely a restaurant, which I believe it should be weird no matter you are. The second one was due to this dude @gwajnberg...
He made a post and had to use some Ramen pic from outside. For me it was a big no if you had to use other people food picture just to dress up your post. in this term, I agree with one of the great footballer who once reigned over England Football League, Didier Drogba said when Barcelona cheated in their matches.
I need to show him how to do the right thing, take a shot on your own ramen bowl, be original!! So on that day, I intentionally came to a place that sold local style "Ramen" which was that store.
So this was my order. It was Mie Godog Jawa. if you translate it word by word, it means Javanese Boiled Noodle. Let put this simple, it was Javanese Noodle Soup or Javanese RAMEN if that would click with you better.
Honestly I was disappointed with the presentation. it was too plain for me. I know they tried to make this look simple so people would think it was cheap. Hell no, it was not cheap at all. They have become a chained restaurant, and they could no longer selling cheap food.
I have said it was plain and it was really plain. they used small bowl, so the noodle looked very stuffed there, but once you put your spoon and fork into it, you know well they were small lol. Basically the toppings were veggies, eggs and shredded chicken, that's all. They put $2.5 price tag for a portion, not cheap but hey what can you say? It's a restaurant anyway.
Still... my biggest complain was to their presentation.
Anyway those reddish soup was actually not too spicy. It was a bit spicy for me, but still ok. A real Javanese Noodle Soup should be sweet, in this part their dish was failed. Anyway those red soup was not coming from red chili, but the color came from smashed tomatoes. They put some red chili cuts there, to spice up a bit.
Overall this Noodle Soup was good, only the presentation that was bad. However it was far from the best Javanese Noodle Soup I have eaten before. Really far I mean, if I rate from 0 to 10, this one should be around 6 to 6.5. I have eaten some great ones that I dare to rate on 8 to 9.5. However I haven't got the perfect one, maybe one day I will find it.
Ok that's all my post today, thanks for stopping by, and have a nice day all!!
Thank you for coming and reading my post. I live in Jakarta, Ex-Capital City of Indonesia. I used to live by making money online, that's why I like being here, on HIVE, and in #PIMP - (Paper In My Pocket) community.