Places to go when the munchies hit late at night

Places to go when the munchies hit late at night

By John Badalu

JAKARTA (JP): For true clubbers, the ritual of having a bite
to eat after the clubs close is essential. For others, when the
late-night munchies hit, they may be left feeling a bit hungry if
they do not know where to head.

Want something other than Mickey D's Thamrin? No matter where
you are, Jakarta offers plenty of spots where you can fill your
stomach in the wee hours. Here are some top choices.

Bubur Ayam, Hotel Indonesia (Jl. Thamrin, Central Jakarta).
Welcome to the oldest hotel in town. Located smack in the center
of the city, the wonderfully camp Ramayana restaurant (they have
hideous mosaic tiles all over the place and fake birds on
display) is certainly not the hip place to be, and your
neighboring diners are likely to be government officials.

Despite the kitsch decoration, the restaurant is open 24 hours
and the bubur ayam (chicken porridge) is worth the trip. Served
in a small bowl with lashings of porridge, the chicken meat is
plenty and tasty and reasonably priced. Besides the famous bubur,
there are the usual hotel room service menu mainstays, such as
nasi goreng (fried rice), burgers and sandwiches. So if you
happen to be in the area and have a hankering for a late-night
snack, try this mouth-watering porridge.

Nasi Goreng Kambing (Jl. Kebon Sirih, Central Jakarta). To
find the place, just look for the cars parked by the side of the
road. You can either eat in your car or hop out and sit in the
covered sidewalk stall.

Don't miss the attraction of seeing the way they cook in an
enormous wok that can serve 75 plates in one go. Although the
goat meat is getting less and less these days, the taste is still
unbeatable and it is the quickest service you can find in Jakarta
(unless you park 50 metres away from the stall, and then it is
difficult to get the waiters to come to you).

The level of harassment from the singing beggars and pirated
CD and cassette sellers is reasonably low. Apparently, music
video director Rizal Mantovani is a regular at this place. Nasi
Goreng Kambing is open from 6 p.m. to 4 a.m., but they close
earlier if the food is finished.

Sop Buntut, Bogor Cafe, Borobudur Hotel (Jl. Lapangan Banteng,
Central Jakarta). Newly revamped hotel still serves the same
fragrant sop buntut (oxtail soup). This dish is a Jakarta
specialty, and Bogor Cafe offers "regular" (the oxtail is boiled)
and fried. Both are delicious.

Besides the famous sop buntut, there is an array of choices,
such as nasi goreng, all kind of burgers, steaks and desserts.
The late-night clientele varies from dodgy-looking businessmen
(in those gold-pattern Versace shirts that went out of fashion
five years ago) to clubbers from Central and South Jakarta.
Expect to pay hotel prices with 21 percent tax. The cafe is open
24 hours.

Bakmi Gang Mangga (Jl. Kemurnian IV, West Jakarta).

It's hidden away in the Kota area, but the best way to get
there is to go along Jl. Gajah Mada toward Glodok and turn left
when you see a gas station in the middle of the road. There are
actually two good places on this street. One is the famous Bakmi
Kemurnian (a Bakmi Gajah Mada look-alike; even the menu is more-
or-less the same but less glossy) and Bakmi Gang Mangga, which
offers a full range of Medan-style Chinese food. But people come
here for the bakmi ayam (chicken noodles) or bakmi with some
barbecued pork, and the nasi goreng.

This is not a celebrity stomping-ground (they probably get
lost on the way every time) but die-hard clubbers from Kota
inundate the places during the early hours. Bakmi Kemurnian never
closes and Bakmi Gang Mangga is open from 4 p.m. until 6 a.m.

Bubur Cikini (Jl. Cikini, Central Jakarta). Across from the
railway station and Kentucky Fried Chicken, the bubur Cikini is
different from the usual porridge you find on the streets of
Jakarta. Unlike bubur Betawi (sweet soy sauce, peanuts, chicken
meat) and krupuk (shrimp crackers), bubur Cikini is the kind of
porridge that comes from Sukabumi. It has an egg, with salty soy
sauce, tasty chicken meat and sliced cakweh (a kind of fried
bread, like an Indonesian crouton).

They are open from 6 p.m. until midnight, but usually run out
of food before that. The diners are a younger crowd, including
many students from the Jakarta Arts Institute.

Bubur Hostess (Jl. Hayam Wuruk). Yet another bubur place, but
that is what people like to eat on a tired stomach. It is located
between Suisse bakery and ML Discotheque on a small side street
(no name) and it has no sign outside, but the house is No. 24.

It is called Bubur Hostess because at one time the clientele
was mostly prostitutes (hostess being the old euphemism for
prostitutes) working in the area. And the place keeps the same
hours as the hostesses: 2 a.m. to 8 a.m.

Today, there are fewer prostitutes to be seen, with Kota
clubbers, local Chinese-Indonesians and early morning exercisers
making up most of the customers. They serve plain porridge but
you can add chicken, barbecued or red sweet pork and also cakweh.
The pork doesn't come cheap but it is crispy and crunchy to chew
over. Overall, it is still pretty affordable. Looking to
celebrity watch? Well, do you think any public figure wants to be
associated with this place, despite its good food? I doubt it.