After eating our way from Denpasar to Jakarta last year we have been working hard to find some of that magic Indonesian street food back home in Sydney, Shalom turns up trumps for bakso, tofu and more…
[Now closed, other branches still open]
[Now closed, other branches still open]
Last year we ate our way from Bali to Jakarta over three weeks and ever since we have been hunting for great Indonesian street food joints in Sydney. The latest in our stomach is the curiously named Shalom on Parramatta Road, Broadway.
We'd been wandering past the place on our way into the city for a couple of years but had never been in the right frame of stomach to walk in; until the other day when we noticed they serve a couple of our favourite Indonesian street food classics.
They do a brilliant bakso: a beefy soup with meatballs and embellishments that vary by vendor. The Shalom version comes with fried wantons and extra dumplings.
And Shalom does a tofu dish that we never thought we would find downunder, it is basically deep fried tofu served with a spicy dipping sauce, it is divine, tastes much better than it looks or sounds.
On our travels through Java we became obsessed with tempeh, which is fermented soybeans and tastes much better than it sounds. We were lucky enough to have fresh tempeh from the city of Malang, which we were assured by locals is the best tempeh in Indonesia. Domestic tourists were taking the stuff home by the boxload so we had reason to believe them.
Alas the tempeh from Shalom was not great but good tempeh is very hard to find downunder. They served it the way we like it: fried with a sambal so good we wanted to take it home.
We only had room in our gullets for a couple of soups and tofu dishes but there are lots of Indonesian classics worth coming back for, and we'll be back as soon as we can: the Balinese chicken and chicken noodle soup are my top priorities...
The place was packed with Indo expats which is always a good sign...
Shalom, 155 Broadway. It's bagus!
For years we wondered why an Indonesian restaurant would be called 'Shalom' - a restaurant from an Islamic nation with a Hebrew name? It is named after their Christian church group.
Apologies for the crappy photos, we are learning to deal with taking photos in low light on a camera phone, all in good time.
Great Soto Ayam
ReplyDeleteAte there yesterday, had the Balinese ayam goreng, tofu and tempeh, satay lamb, bakso beef. Utterly delicious, and no problems of the "hey you're white, here have some tasteless crap" variety. Shall be back ASAP!
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