Indonesian Archives

In British Columbia

Santapan Indonesian Grill: Food Truck in Vancouver

July 21, 2020

Santapan Indonesian Grill is the latest food truck to launch in Vancouver. They are currently just waiting for a few permits before hitting the road, but we got a sneak peak of the truck and the menu.

Once they get all their permits, they are planning to be in Kitsilano on West 4th. As they have a commercial kitchen to prep all their food, their dishes and drinks are available for pick up and delivery through UberEats, DoorDash, and FanTuan 饭团.

Sustainability is top of mind, so all their bowls and utensils are compostable/recyclable. The menu is simple and customizable to your taste. love how they use healthier ingredients like fresh vegetables, olive oil (instead of canola), Himalayan pink salt, organic chicken, and no MSG to name a few.

Bali Bowl

The Bali Bowl is the works with coconut rice. It also has romaine lettuce, carrots, edamame, cucumber, green beans, baked potato, radish coins, boiled egg, and standard sauces (Peanut Parti, Sumatra Spice, and Surabaya Citrus).

It’s bigger and more filling compared to the salad. The coconut rice is so good and fragrant. Everything was cooked perfectly.

Gado Gado Salad

The Gado Gado Salad is the works on salad. It also has romaine lettuce, carrots, edamame, cucumber, green beans, baked potato, radish coins, boiled egg, and standard sauces (Peanut Parti, Sumatra Spice, and Surabaya Citrus).

It’s the healthier option compared to the Bali Bowl. Still tastes great.

Roti Wrap

The roti wrap has everything in a whole wheat wrap minus the baked potato. If you’re looking for a grab and go option that isn’t messy, this is it. It’s handheld with no mess. You’ll probably be about the same fullness from the Bali Bowl too.

Chicken and Steak Skewers

Both the chicken and steak skewers are nicely seasoned in bite-sized pieces. During our visit, we did find it was a touch overdone as we would have liked it to be softer and tender.

Tempeh Skewers

This is the vegan option if you do not want any meat. It’s essentially fermented soybeans. It’s not bad at all. Good texture and flavour to go with your meal.

Indo Ice Coffee

This drink has cold brew coffee, coconut milk, and lightly sweetened. Very light and refreshing. The layers are very distinct and the green pandan syrup give is an excellent aroma that pairs with the coffee.

Jakarta Jelly

This dink has organic Indonesian cold brew coffee, coconut milk, grass jelly, and lightly sweetened. It’s a unique drink that you don’t see often. This drink has the addition of the grass jelly.

Final Thoughts

I love seeing the new wave of food trucks opening in Vancouver. Santapan Indonesian Grill gives us a new twist on Indonesian flavours for the West Coast all packaged in a compact food truck.

The sauces can have a kick of spice to it, so if you want a different spice level, definitely ask them for their recommendation.

If you see them rolling around town, definitely give them a try.

Website:
https://www.santapan.ca/

In Fusion

Potluck Hawker Eatery: A Taste of South-East Asian Street Food in Vancouver

July 14, 2020

Potluck Hawker Eatery is now open in the Cambie Village area of Vancouver. This is a counter-service style restaurant inspired by the South-East Asian hawker street food markets.

Chef Justin Cheung put his own spin on Malaysian cuisine, paying homage to a comprehensive training of Thai cooking and a nod to a Filipino potluck. It is fantastic and we are all here for it.

Interior

The 993 square-feet restaurant draws inspiration from the ritual of potlucks, where families spend the day in the kitchen preparing their family’s signature dish and contributing to the table – a coming together of stomach-filling, soul-warming dishes. We absolutely love the space and don’t forget to take a selfie in the washroom because it’s amazing. Make sure you go into both washrooms too.

My favourite part is seeing the ingredients that go into the dishes on the walls. its gives it nice character and also transparency in what they cook with.

If anyone blames the smell on you, tell them it’s from the durian wallpaper.

Thai Iced Tea

One of our favourite drinks and its very nice and refreshing for a summer’s day. Bold tea flavour and they sweeten it with condensed milk. If you want it less sweet, just ask.

Beet Carpaccio

This has spicy fish sauce and lime juice dressing, fried shallots and fresh herbs. You heard that right beet, not beef. It was tangy and refreshing. The chilis give it a nice kick of spice. It really reminded us of butter beef but without the beef or butter.

Burmese Shrimp Ceviche

The dish has cucumber, cherry tomatoes and shrimp lightly pickled in fresh lime juice, fish sauce and chili. Not as flavourful compared to the other dishes but you’ll want to eat this before all the other dishes so the work better together. The shrimp was really nice and fresh in this ceviche.

Salted Egg Yolk Fried Chicken Sando

This beauty has crispy chicken thigh, green mango slaw, tamarind chili jam, in Fife Bakery milk bread. We also got their Malaysian shaker fries as an add-on.

This dish was our favourite. The fried chicken thigh was tender and juicy. It balanced well with the crunchy slaw, salted egg yolk, and jam. The bread was really good, lightly toasted but very soft. The shaker fries has that savoury-sweet flavour combination.

Nasi Goreng

This is an Indonesian style fried rice with house special soy topped with shrimp crackers and fried egg. You can choose to have this with chicken, seafood or tofu. The egg was cooked perfectly to moisten up the fried rice. The rice did end up to be quite moist.

Mama Cheung’s Laksa

This is dish is named after the chef’s mom. It has coconut curry noodle soup with fish cake, prawns, puff tofu, boiled egg and mixed noodle. You can choose to have this with vermicelli or egg noodles. Very flavourful with a kick of spice.

Fish Sauce Caramel Wings

They use free-run Farmcrest chickens from Salmon Arm, BC. It was finger lickin’ good with the pandan infused palm sugar and sesame. Their fried food is exceptional here. The chicken is seasoned as well as the batter so they really get the flavour to shine throughout the wings.

Roti Canai with Condensed Milk

Not the combination that I would have through would work together, but it was simple and tasty. A good way to end the meal.

Final Thoughts

The food at Potluck Hawker Eatery is fantastic and packed with a depth of flavour. The essence of South East Asian cuisine really shines through. A lot of the dishes do use cilantro and spicy peppers, so if you adore that, head on over to Potluck. If you’re not into those flavours, they can accomodate no cilantro and reduced spice levels too. Salted Egg Yolk Fried Chicken Sando is the best.

Highly recommend this place and we just can’t stop thinking about their fried dishes. All so nicely battered and seasoned. Vancouver definitely needed more restaurants like this.

Address:
3424 Cambie St, Vancouver, BC

Website:
https://www.potluckyvr.ca/

In Downtown

Bali Thai: Outstanding Service in a Food Court

March 27, 2012

Under Harbour Center is a food court that looks very outdated, but in the food court is this family-owned Thai/Indonesian place – Bali Thai. MeatLover suggested we go here for lunch since I asked her to take me to some Indonesian places. This place doesn’t look like much, but it’s their amazing service and attention that keeps their customers coming back.

Lunch is really cheap for under $7 and the staff make sure you leave happy.

I ordered 2 items on rice. I got the stewed eggplant and 3 chicken skewers on saffron coconut rice. They also wondered if I wanted more rice, but I declined since I don’t really enjoy rice. When you do go, you can always ask for more rice at no extra charge. The rice was very fragrant, but the spices of the eggplant were quite strong and over powered the taste.

Even though I ordered a 2 item meal with rice, they gave MeatLover and I extra vegetable fritter. Add the peanut sauce cause its good. It was so good, I could have eaten these all day. No joke! I’ll definitely be back for some more lunch when I’m in the area.

Overall, the food is decent depending on what items you add to it. I would go back just because of the nice service they provide, plus those vegetable fritters are so good.

Words of Wisdom:

Under $10 meal
Awesome service
Larger portions if you ask for it
Closest Skytrain: Waterfront

We Rate Bali Thai:
Address:
FF4 – 555 West Hastings Street

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In Indonesian

Hawker’s Delight: Cheap $5 Dinners, But Is It Good?

January 11, 2012

Hawkers Delight is located on Main street and they are known for their amazing cheap food. All items on the menu are around $5. It’s cash only, but as long as you have a $10 in your pocket, you will be OK. They serve up Malaysian/Indonesian dishes and have good vegetarian options.

M, KoreanGirl and I came here because we were feeling pretty frugal and needed a super cheap dinner.

Tofu Goreng ($5.25) are little stuffed tofu puffs with cucumbers and bean sprouts with a lots of peanut sauce and sweet soy sauce. Each one of those puffs are soaked in a lot of sauce. When you take a bite, its gonna be messy, so watch out for your clothes!

Some of us at the table liked it, and I particularly didn’t like that taste of the sauces and how messy it was to eat.

Dried Noodle ($5.75) has a bed of warm dry noodles, bean sprouts, veggies, and a bunch of other ingredients. I thought it was alright, but I didn’t really love the taste of it.

Nasi Goreng ($5.25) is like Mee Goreng, but in a fried rice form. KoreanGirl and M both had their versions spicy. They were surprised by the low price and good taste.

Overall, I think there are a few items that are a hit and a miss. The prices are quite affordable, but you do get what you pay for. Perhaps it just didn’t suit my tastes.

Words of Wisdom: