Manakan Indonesian

I love a good cheapo Asian takeaway shop. You know the kind I'm talking about, the neighbourhood favourite everyone goes to when they want a cheap dinner. Where the walls are plastered with tacky decorations. You have to help yourself to all the cutlery. There's dodgy live bands or karaoke. There are condiments littered all over the tables surface. Its always noisy, crowded and full of university students. The menu is sticky, laminated and has pictures because you can't pronounce the words and the one person serving, barely understands English.

Its okay thought, cause the meal is always super cheap, comes out in a matter of minutes no matter what and how much you order, there are the countries natives there, its delicious even if you feeling lingering guilt over how bad it must be for you and you come back again and again. That's my kind of Asian takeaway shop.

I found it with Makanan Indonesian. Located on Hardgrave Road in West End, it must be good to stay in business for so long along that cut throat strip of super cheap Asian food. I'm always a sucker for Indonesian food so I beelined for it, too snobby in my Vietnamese tastes for anything but my mother's cooking to be tempted by the likes of Trang, Dakbla, Quan Thanh or Kim Thanh. I liked the menu and the prices so that's where we had lunch that day.

This place had a constant stream of mixed race couples and business men, although it only looks like there are a few people in there during the photo. Check out the decor, I'm not sure what they're called but I remember that the figures on the walls, are actually shadow puppets. The masks were a bit creepy though.

Nice little place haha

I did take home a copy of their menu but I don't know where it went! Watch this space for when I find it or go back for another copy of their menu. Its a huge menu too! Spanning a folded A3 double sided sheet, with dishes from lots of different regions of Indonesia.

It feels like home already!

We were given water soon after we ordered and sat down inside. I like that the cups are so childish, large, chunky plastic tumblers, ideal for kids to throw around without breaking! The bottle was cute too, I like the colour of it. Also tacky plastic flower/s? Check!

The cups are weird but cute!

We got teh tarik and a Sprite of course. One of my friends had been looking through my phone earlier and saw this photo and asked if I had taken it because the tea had a smiley face. Until then I didn't even notice it, can you see the smiley face? It was alright, the tea was a bit on the weak side for me and not overly sweet although you can taste the condensed milk being used as opposed to sugar. I wish it had a frothier head of bubbles though, what's the point of teh tarik without bubbles!

Its happy to see you!

Our plate of ayam goreng. Five pieces of golden brown, deep fried chicken, two drumsticks and three wings. They came out HOT from the deep fryer, my Boyfriend picked up the first pieces as I was busy checking my photo of it, he had taken a bite just as I put mine in my mouth and warned me that it was really hot. Luckily I had that warning, otherwise I'd have gotten burned like he did. I had just bitten in with my teeth and even through them I felt the scalding heat, I just dropped them back on the plate and tried again a few seconds later.

Golden brown much?

Oh and check out the feathers still left on! My camera refused to refocus on it, but you can still see the blurry feathers that have been deep fried along with the chicken hahaha, authentic! It reminds me of what my family buys live poultry, kill and pluck them.

Feathers!

Crazy mouth burns asides it was delicious! Simple, deep fried to the point that the skin shattered goodness, the chicken was simply brined and fried, I don't remember any other spices being involved. I nibbled the flesh right down to the bone, I don't mind being a savage when eating fried chicken, that's why it comes in perfect portions for your hands!

Western fried chicken is always so different I find, the flavour is all in the skin, thick, crunchy and heavily battered like KFC, and not in the actual flesh itself, so after the skin is gone you just have plain chicken pieces. Whilst Asian fried chicken like karaage, ayam goreng or Korean/Thai etc fried chicken, the flavour is forced right down to the bone with marinades, brining or spice pastes. Love it.

My Boyfriend's Jakarta Laksa came out next. The bowl is freaking huge, I don't think the pictures did it justice. It's diameter was about the size of a tissue box and just as deep! It looks so tasty with its diced coriander, green onion and fried onion topping, just like what my mum puts on top of our soups. It was unbelievably fragrant. There were bits of tofu, chicken, bean sprouts, slippery egg and rice noodles throughout the dish, although it did say vermicilli but I think these noodles were too thick to be considered that.

Jakarta laksa!

It was thisssssssssss big!

The coconut based broth was heavenly, with a mild back burn. I normally hate drinking soups in Asian places, I find they don't cook it for long enough so that the flavour leeches out of the bones. This soup is as good as anything my mum or I would cook at home. My Boyfriend thought it was quite spicy despite my protests and he even had the nose sweats to back up his opinion ahahaha. He refused to drink my tea when I offered it to him, stubbornly saying that the water would suffice. Silly boy! All the foodies know that water just spreads it around, while the casein in dairy destroys or removes the capsaicin from the nerve receptors in the mouth!

I picked the gado gado and chicken satay skewers. The chicken skewers were really small, they were sweet with the taste of sweet kecap manis. My Boyfriend declined to try any as he had a taste of the peanut satay sauce and didn't like it. They were tender, bouncy and well charred if a bit on the small side.

Gado gado and chicken satay

Even before I started eating, I knew this would be too much and I'd be defeated. I have no idea why I picked it, I think I was always intrigued by the idea of gado gado since I love peanut infested/infused/covered anything. I conveniently forgot I hate tofu and oddly sweet things like sweet meat and I just generally hate salad. Gado gado combines all these things in one salad. I ignored all the tofu, and ate all the cucumber, egg, most of the green beans and ate most of the sauce with the mildly coconut-y rice. It was too much and my Boyfriend was too full from his meal to be forced to eat mine.

The brain says finish it. The stomach whispers no.

All in all, I quite liked the place. My Boyfriend picked the dish of the day asides from the ayam goreng which we smashed through, I would happily go here again and try something else, maybe some mie goreng or something. The price wasn't bad either, with both of us having drinks, entree and main for less than $40 together.

Atmosphere: 8, I love cheapo Asian dives. For the reasons entailed above.
Service: 5, nothing special. I did notice the guy manning the counter being very friendly towards some business men who must've been regulars I think. We were left alone as a couple. Took a while for tables around us to be cleared.
Food: 6, solid but nothing spectacular. Since going, I haven't had wistful daydreams about how good this place is or anything.