Eating in Yogyakarta

I recently returned from a few days in Yogyakarta, Indonesia. The real purpose of the trip was to see the Borobudur and Prambanan temples, and do some cycling. As usual, however, I'll focus here on my food experiences.

Disclaimer: I'm not an expert on Indonesian cuisine. I'm going to do the best I can here to describe things I ate that were purchased mostly from people who spoke very little or no English, by somebody (me) who doesn't speak Bahasa at all.


First, a few words that I learned that are critical. Perhaps the most common word related to food was "goreng," which means fried. There was a ton of fried food, with chicken ("ayam") being among the most common. On day one I stopped in a little open restaurant for some fried chicken with rice ("nasi"). This is also a good time to mention that one can eat local food extremely cheaply. The chicken and rice cost about $1. 

For dinner that evening, I went to a fancier place that actually had an English menu and proper chairs/tables. There I had a fish curried with pineapple and a local spice blend (lots of turmeric, probably some cloves/nutmeg, and plenty of chilies), also served with rice and a shrimp (?) cracker. These crackers are pretty ubiquitous. With a beer and a shake for dessert, dinner was a whopping $5. Gasp.

The next day I was on a cycling trip and my guides took me to a roadside restaurant just outside of town. Many restaurants just have food sitting in a buffet-like arrangement, and you just take what you want. Here I had more fried chicken, some tiny little fried fish, some cooked vegetables, and tofu cooked in coconut milk, all atop rice. They also had a soup that was a thick broth spiced with lemongrass and cloves, filled with fatty chunks of beef, and with some sort of still-crunchy legumes. All delicious.

That evening, I decided to eat only food that was being cooked in sidewalk warungs, which are tiny little local restaurants that exist entirely on the sidewalk. I also decided to eat only stuff that I could see being cooked, just to be on the safe side. I first saw a woman frying stuff that looked really good. I thought it was going to be fish, but I actually have no idea what it was. She was also making fried cassava chips. Total cost for one piece of fried stuff, and a handful of cassava chips? 20 cents. I also spotted a satay place, where I bought a cluster of tiny satays (maybe 12?) served to me in a banana leaf with some sauce for about $1. Regrettably, I didn't get photos of these.

The next morning I was on another organized trip to see Borobudur Temple and the surrounding villages. My guide there took me to a tiny village street restaurant for breakfast, where a woman just had a board set up on the side of the road and was dishing out breakfast. Here I had rice porridge, spiced coconut, tofu in a spicy curry sauce, and some fried onion pancakes. Fabulous.

For lunch, my guide took me to a little restaurant in town that serves only a special local dish made with jackfruit. They chop up the jackfruit, cook it in coconut milk with some palm sugar (it turns black for reasons I don't totally understand), and then serve it with various proteins, rice and cow skin (that's what the guide said it was) covered in chile paste. Shown here is the tofu option. Chicken heads, eggs, chicken meat, and various other options were available. Cost for this dish was about 60 cents.

That night I went to a slightly upscale warung, in that it existed in a tiny storefront, but the kitchen was right on the sidewalk. This place specialized in nasi goreng (fried rice, if you're paying attention), which was served with various vegetables and quite tasty, alongside some lightly pickled cucumbers. Sorry the photo is slightly fuzzy.


All in all, a fascinating and tasty journey.