Are you ready for another culinary adventure in Jogja? When we talk about the beloved Jogja, let’s not skip its street foods. Yes, there are a lot of choices of street foods here and many of them are very affordable.

Among all choices of street foods, today I’ll share with you about angkringan.  Angkringan is a food cart that sells foods and drinks. This food cart is so easy to find and you can recognize them from their brown wood cart. What so famous about angkringan is its nasi kucing. Literally, nasi kucing means cat’s rice but this food is totally not cat’s rice at all. It is called that way because of its small portion. 

If nasi kucing isn’t cat’s rice, what’s that? Well, nasi kucing is a wrapped food contains of a small portion of rice with toppings. The common toppings for nasi kucing here are sambal (chili), spicy dried anchovies, and stir-fried tempeh. These toppings are in a small portion as well. Mostly, you will see people wrap nasi kucing with either brown food grade paper or banana leaves. 

Following the time, angkringan is no longer only a food cart. Now you can see some food stalls serve typically angkringan’s foods and drinks and they even add some more variations of menu.  You can even find places as cozy as restaurants with free wi-fi that serve angkringan’s menu. 

Today I’d like to introduce you to one of angkringan out there called Market Angkring Pusat “Pangukan” which is more known as Market Angkring . This one is located in Sanggrahan Sleman Jogja. Their nasi kucing has various toppings. You can find nasi oseng jamur (rice with stir-fried mushrooms), nasi with rica-rica ayam, nasi with chicken’s liver,  nasi goreng in a small portion, and many more. Apart from nasi kucing, they also have other menus such as meatball soups and kupat tahu. They also have many options for a side dish. Some are scallop satay, chicken satay, vegetable fritters, meatball satay, fried sausage, fried mushrooms, quail egg satay, omelets, nuggets, chicken’s feet, tempeh, tofu, and many more. 

I dined out at Market Angkring some time ago with a friend of mine. We had two nasi kucing with the spicy dried anchovy topping, nasi goreng, nasi jamur, two vegetable fritters, two mushrooms satays, two meatball satays, and two hot ginger drinks. Can you guess how much we spent on all? It was only IDR 18,000! That means for each of us we on ly spent IDR 9,000! Isn’t it nice? It’s much less than a dollar! Oh and yes, the foods they served were good. I didn’t feel full eating two nasi kucing but after having my ginger drink, I thought I ate enough. 

 Market Angkring is a low budget place to eat with good taste of foods. I can see why this place is famous and many of its foods are sold out fast. If you plan to go here while having a vacation in Jogja, make sure you come to this place in the evening. Their open hours are 5 PM to 11 PM.

What do you think of angkringan? Would you give it a try if you are staying in Jogja? Do you also have this kind of angkringan in your area? Please share your comment below. I’d like to read it.

Make your visit to Jogja more special by learning a few words and phrases for your trip. As you know, when we travel to a foreign country, many local people in that country would really appreciate our efforts to speak their language even though ours probably ain’t perfect. The same thing applied here.

Jogja has Javanese language. I have written about it a bit in my other post. This time we focus on Indonesian language, the official language of Indonesia. Indonesia has thousands of islands and more than 700 local languages. The Indonesian language or bahasa Indonesia is one of the things that unite us. So, this time I will share seven Indonesian words and phrases for you to practice in Jogja. These words and phrases can be used as well in any other part of Indonesia. With no hesitation, let me share you down below the useful words and phrases:

1.  Selamat Pagi/Siang/Sore/Malam

One easy way to interact with local people is by greeting them.  Saying selamat pagi (good morning), selamat siang (good afternoon), selamat sore (good evening), and selamat malam (good night) are some ways the local people do to greet others. You can practice this to the local people nearby and make sure you also put a genuine smile on your face while doing so.

2. Terima Kasih

Politeness matters in Jogja. Javanese people like to emphasize the importance of politeness to their kids. This is considered as one of many significant attitudes people here need to have. Saying thank you is one of the ways to be polite and to appreciate people. If you’d like to thank local people for their help or efforts, you can say terima kasih or matur nuwun.

3. Maaf

Sometimes it takes courage to apologize. If you make a mistake and you’d like to apologize to the local people, apart from saying “sorry” you can always say “maaf”. To make it even more polite, you can say “Saya minta maaf” which means “I am sorry/I apologize” in English. “Saya mohon maaf” can be used too but this one is more formal.

4. Tidak

“Tidak” is a word to show refusal. This means “no”. If people on the street offer you items to buy and you want to refuse it, you can say “tidak”. If you want to refuse in a more polite way, you can add the word “terima kasih” as in “tidak, terima kasih”. 

5. Iya/Ya

When there’s a no, there’s a yes as well. If you’d like to show agreement in bahasa Indonesia, you can say “ya” or “iya” which means “yes”. 

6. Saya Tidak Tahu

If you have no clue or don’t know about something, you can always say “Saya tidak tahu” which means “I don’t know”. 

7. Saya Mau Minta Tolong

There will be a time you probably will need some help. If you want to ask for help, you can say “Saya mau minta tolong” which means “I’d like to ask for a favor”.

I hope the above words and phrases will be useful for you. Which one of those seven that steal your attention first? Do you have any experience in using the Indonesian language while you are staying in Jogja? 

Terima kasih for reading. Feel free to leave a comment below or share your experience in practicing Indonesian language.

Can I say today’s tuna day? The topic today is tuna and I can’t do anything but recommend you try these tuna street foods during your visit to Jogja. They are so tasty even you who aren’t into fish probably would fall for these ones!

I am not a big fan of fish. During my childhood my parents rarely served fish and if they did, I would hardly eat it unless my mother fed me. I remember when I was in high school my mother enforced me eating fish and I had to agree just because she fed me. Uh!

I am pretty okay eating freshwater fish as long as they are not fishy. Seawater fish was a big no for me. Most of the time I could avoid eating any of them but one day, for no specific reason, well, maybe a curiosity, I was willing to eat a slice of tuna pizza. That was fishy but eatable. Okay, that was not bad and it triggered me to expand my horizon.

About a week ago, a friend of mine told me about a stall that sold variations of tuna dishes. I was like… Uh, not fish! I almost said no but my curiosity tickled me and it led me to Warung Makan Hercules in Pogung Kidul Jogja. This food stall offered various menus of tuna such as pepes tuna, sate tuna (tuna satay), telur tuna (tuna cooked with egg), bakso tuna (tuna meatballs soup), sup tuna (tuna soup), tuna asam pedas (spicy & sour tuna), and tongseng tuna. This stall also has non-tuna menus but this place is famous for its tuna dishes.

I had pepes tuna and tongseng tuna at Warung Makan Hercules. Pepes is a way of cooking in which food ingredients are altogether wrapped in banana leaves then they are steamed or grilled. For pepes tuna the main ingredient of the pepes is tuna and it is wrapped with other ingredients such as chilies, green tomatoes, basil, and other blended spices. Pepes tuna I had smelled nice. Combination of its additional ingredients eliminated the fishy odor. The tuna was soft, seasoned, spicy, and savory. It was served with sambal, slices of cucumber, and boiled water spinach. Yum, yum! It was so good and it was only IDR 17,000! I liked it a lot! I even brought home tuna pepes for my mother and she said the dish was delish!

Tongseng tuna I had was appetizing! Tongseng tuna is tuna curry-like dish. In the plate of my tuna tongseng you can see slices of tuna, slices of chilies, and chunks of cabbage. Though it was a stew dish, the tuna in my tongseng tuna was not fishy at all. The dish was spicy and flavored. I had it with a plate of hot rice and my goodness… I could not stop eating it. I even ate the chilies! The price of tongseng tuna was IDR 20,000.

 

I heard that its telur tuna is famous among customers of Warung Makan Hercules but I didn’t get the chance to taste it, unfortunately. However, I am willing to come back there again to taste its other tuna dishes. I heard they were all good.

What do you think about tuna dishes I share with you today? Which one would you like to taste? Feel free to share in the comment section below. Oh, and I’d like to hear about your favorite tuna dish too!

Open Hours:

10 A.M to 9 P.M. (Monday – Sunday)

Address:

Pogung Kidul No. 8  RT 04/RW 49 Jogja

Contact Numbers:

+6281390206955

+6281227778777

Bakso in today’s post is special for you the pork eaters. Pork meatball soup—bakso babi is a variant of meatball soups that has its own fans though its sellers are not as many as the usual meatball soup. Pak Jo is one of those who serve bakso babi in his stall. Located on Garuda Street in Condong Catur, Warung Pak Jo Spesial B2 sells bakso babi for IDR 12,000.

Welcome to Warung Pak Jo Spesial B2!

The look of Warung Pak Jo Spesial B2

Let me tell you what you can find in a bowl of bakso babi from Warung Pak Jo Spesial B2. First of all, you can get 5 pieces of pork meatballs in the bowl. Together with the pork meatballs, Pak Jo also adds slices of pork, slices of fried bakso, and chunks of mustard greens. To enrich the taste of your bakso babi, crispy fried onions and celeries are put as toppings. Yum, yum… 

Yum, yum! The pork meatballs here are soooo good!

Bakso babi at Warung Pak Jo Spesial B2 I think it is a recommended food to try while you are on vacation in Jogja. How does it taste? Oh well, hehehe… I think it is delicious! I didn’t sense any strong garlic aftertaste and this is one of the reasons why I like this bakso babi. The next reason why I like this one is its soup. The soup is savory and made from the light broth.  The smell of pork in the meatballs is pretty light here compared to other bakso babi.

Eat bakso babi, the pork meatballs soup, with sambal. Sambal is chili. Hot and spicy. That's nice, isn't that?

Warung Pak Jo Spesial B2 d doesn’t only sell bakso. There are other menus to try here such as fried rice, satay, cap cay, fried noodles, rica-rica, and so on. All of these are served with pork. If you don’t want to go to the stall, you can also order some foods here through online applications called Gojek and Grab. You can even order foods right away by contacting Pak Jo’s phone number. 

What do you think about bakso babi? Will you let yourself to taste it once you are in Jogja? Apart from Warung Pak Jo Spesial B2’s bakso babi, there’s another pork meatball soup seller I gladly recommend. Please check Bakso Babi Pak Har here.

Price:
Starts from IDR 12,000 (food)
Starts from IDR 3,000 (beverage)

Open Hour:
Monday : 11 A.M - 11.45 A.M., 12 P.M. - 10 P.M.
Tuesday - Sunday : 11 A.M. - 10 P.M.

Address:
Jl. Garuda No. 191 Condong Catur Jogja

Phone Number:
+62 8139 3094 843

 

People have their own way to serve pecel. Many sellers here would give you a plate of veggies that consists of spinach, long beans, mung bean sprouts, and cabbage. All are boiled ones. This is seldom to find but some other sellers add bunga turi (a flower with the Latin name Sesbania grandiflora) and kecipir (winged bean) as well in their vegetable mix. 

My family mixes vegetables differently for our pecel. What we usually have with our peanut sauce are long beans, mung bean sprouts, cabbage, beans, cucumbers, and mustard greens. We don’t serve spinach at home for ages. We boil the veggies separately and we make sure they are not overcooked.

This is our pecel. I like all veggies above. Do you think mung bean sprouts are veggies?

The IDR 4,000 sambal pecel. Yum, yum!

People enjoy pecel differently in Jogja. Some people like to eat pecel with nasi only. Other people might like to have it with side dishes such as tempeh, tofu, chicken, or a boiled egg. It’s pretty flexible, eh… For me, I like my pecel with nasi, tempeh, and some crackers. If you are on a diet, you can skip the rice and add more veggies.

Tempeh and prawn crackers. Tempeh is one of my favorite foods.

If you are interested in buying sambal pecel, make sure you check its level of spiciness. Some sambal pecel are chili free but many are spicy and its level of spiciness is not mentioned on its packet. I suggest you ask the seller to make sure you don’t upset your tummy. If you don’t want to ask, maybe your gut can give you a clue! Hehe…

They are so good! Don't you know that tempeh is a super food?

What do you think about nasi pecel? Will you give it a try when you are visiting Jogja? What veggies would you like to have for your pecel? Please share it in a comment section below. I’d like to read it!