Toko Indonesia a shop away from home

Toko Indonesia a shop away from home

Christina Schott, Contributor, Hamburg

When Andreas S. returned to Germany from his first trip to Indonesia three years ago, his immediate mission back in his hometown of Hamburg was to find an Asian food store where he could get Indonesian kopi tubruk, ground coffee, and tempeh.

But his search was in vain: Neither in Hamburg nor Berlin could he find any of his desired products, although he visited a dozen Asian grocers. The only thing he found was Japanese tempeh, which he could not finish due to its unpleasant taste.

The problem was that none of the Asian retailers were Indonesian. Although most Chinese, Thai or Vietnamese shops in Germany usually sell some Indonesian products like seasoning packets for nasi goreng -- fried rice -- chicken satay or sambal ulek, a type of chili sauce, the products are generally made in China, Japan or the Netherlands and do not have an authentic Indonesian flavor. Indonesian brands, with exception of Indofood, are rare.

This raises the question as to whether there is a gap in the German -- or even European -- market for Indonesian food.

Obviously, said Jamal Sjawie, a Hamburg-born Indonesian who opened in March 2003 one of the first Indonesian food shops in Europe outside the Netherlands, called Toko Indonesia.

His online-shopping service was quite successful from the outset, and he soon became the biggest supplier of Indomie instant noodles in Germany. By October 2003, the business grew large enough so he was able to move the store from its corner in a Hamburg wholesale market to a busy downtown street.

"We started with 200 products not even one-and-a-half years ago. Now we offer about a thousand," Jamal said proudly. "We have so much to do, that we don't know how to keep up."

"We" refers to Jamal and his Ambonese father, who came to Germany to work for Volkswagen and ended up staying.

To keep their operation simple, they decided not to employ other staff until it was absolutely necessary.

The unobtrusive shop, located in the ethnic neighborhood of St. Georg, seems neither empty nor crowded -- just well visited. The only decoration is a single, yellow Balinese umbrella.

"Most people come especially to buy special foods," Jamal said, "but sometimes they also drop by just to have a chat. My father would make tea then -- because the most important thing is that our customers feel comfortable."

Of Toko Indonesia's customers, 80 percent are Indonesians from all over Germany and in other European countries who take advantage of the online-shopping service. The rest are Arabian, Turkish, Chinese and, of course, German.

For painless shopping, the products are also listed in German. The shop's bestsellers are, besides the famed Indomie, krupuk udang (shrimp crackers), jasmine and ginger teas, kacang atom pedas (peanuts fried in spicy batter) and seasoning packets for rendang (stewed beef in coconut milk) and soto ayam, an Indonesian chicken soup.

Jamal, who studied economics at the Technical University of Hamburg-Harburg, cannot ignore market demands for Thai and Japanese products. "I put some Thai curries and sushi rice in our selection, since these are what most German customers are actually looking for," he said.

To motivate his German customers to try other exotic ingredients, Jamal started offering recipes as well. For example, his description for nagasari, translated as "banana surprise" reads: Banana cooked in coconut milk, rice flour, palm sugar and pandanus leaves.

"That sounds great," said Barbara Scholz, a housewife and first-time visitor to Toko Indonesia. "Finally, I understand what this stuff is good for. Usually, when I go to an Asian food store, I only buy what I already know."

Near the cash register, Jamal displays his favorite shelf of his "products of the month" -- Indonesian specialities that are relatively unknown internationally, such as enteng-enteng (sweets made from ground peanuts) or emping (melinjo nut crackers).

"People are naturally curious, and while waiting they take a package just to try something," he said. He may need to provide advice on preparing foods to save his customers' teeth: "I was really disappointed about this Sago Ambon. I thought you can eat it right away as a snack -- but it was as hard as a stone," one customer posted on the shop's website.

Andreas, however, was very pleased. When he returned to Germany from his second trip to Indonesia earlier this year, he knew where to go to get his beloved coffee and tempeh.

Toko Indonesia, Steindamm 71-75, 20099 Hamburg, Germany Phone: +49 40-73128888 Website: www.tokoindonesia.com