My cousins and I finally made the trip to Pasar Santa, the totally hip and happening food market in Jakarta at the moment. This place is so hipster, if it were pants it'd be below the knees. I've made the food reviews into two parts as it would be too long in one and people would probably stop reading halfway. But, be aware the second part (Desserts) is a lot longer.
Let's begin with the location. Outside the market parking is scarce and the streets are small, so people opt to park on a park a few minutes away. Inside the market, the food booths are all on the third floor, the first floor is exclusively for fresh fruits, veggies and meats and the second floor is for various knick-knacks and some tailors and even jewellers.The market is not air conditioned so I recommend coming with very casual and comfortable clothes. I would also highly recommend bringing a good supply of wet napkins and pocket tissues because it's not the most hygienic place...
Unintentionally, we were drawn to Japanese cuisine stalls. First we went to Kicchin and bought a couple of boxes of pre-made sushi.
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| Spicy Salmon roll from Kicchin (Rp. 29,000) |
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| Salmon Roll from Kicchin (Rp. 29,000) |
These sushi seemed to have been made and supplied to Kicchin by an Instagram based sushi seller, GoGoSushi.Jkt as labelled on the boxes. One thing I noticed was that they did not use Japanese rice, they used normal long grain rice and it lacked flavour. But, as stated on their Instagram page, they do not use mirin or sake so that explains it. However, with both the spicy salmon and salmon rolls there was a fair amount of grilled sushi and there was also crab stick inside adding substance to the sushi. There was also a generous amount of shredded cheese, Japanese mayo and tobiko on top. The spicy salmon, unlike the normal salmon roll, did not have tobiko, but was sprinkled with a good amount of chilli powder instead.
Next we visited Mommadon. We ordered their Hanbin Don, which is a fancy name for gyu-tan don with bulgogi sauce.
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| Hanbin Don from Mommadon (Rp. 30,000) |
The ox-tongue in the Hanbin Don was tasty, the only complaint I had was it was cut too thick and very difficult to cut into with a plastic spoon. Overall, the bulgogi flavour was present and seasoned just right. There was a good amount of sesame seed and chilli flakes on top that did not overpower the bulgogi flavour. Eaten with the warm rice, it was absolutely delicious.
Then, we took our half-full stomachs but fully hungry eyes to Geram and ordered their specialty, the Ramen Burger.
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| Ramen Burger from Geram (Rp. 30,000) |
To be honest, I did not expect much from the ramen burger as I've tried one in Perth and the ramen was dry and the noodles crumbled as you bit into it. However, I was pleasantly surprised by this one. The noodle "buns" were not dry but, had the right amount of crunch to it. The meat patty was moist but lacking seasoning. One tiny negative point about the ramen burger was that they slathered on way too much teriyaki sauce that was too sweet. Next time I will definitely ask them to put less sauce on.
That concludes the savoury dishes we tried at Pasar Santa. We were really pleasantly surprised by the quality, flavours and prices of the food we found there!
Keep your eyes peeled for the second part about desserts!
Stall Info:
Pasar Santa
Jl. Cipaku 1
Kebayoran Baru
Jakarta Selatan
GoGoSushi.Jkt at Kicchin stall
Instagram: https://instagram.com/gogosushi.jkt/
Mommadon
Instagram: https://instagram.com/mommadon_id/
Email: mommadon.minidon@gmail.com
Geram
Instagram: https://instagram.com/geramindonesia/
Phone: 0878 8555 1914 or 0812 9680 8813
Disclaimer: All prices and stall information were correct on 7th of March 2015. Prices are inclusive of taxes.
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