Pondok Selera Review ~ Indonesian - Eating World Chinatown

Tonight we head to Eating World for some Indonesian at Pondok Selera at Eating World before seeing Australia's finest band, in my irrelevant opinion, Black Cab.






There's a beer to match every stall at Eating World except for Indonesian, there is no Bintang so I have to have a Tsingtao from China, it's a tough life.



#38 Stewed Five Spices Beef Chunks & Tendon Noodle Soup. Joy. Tender beef chunks and gloopy gelatinous tendons that soak up the broth. And oh, the broth, beefy with strong five spice flavours. A new old favourite. $10.80. Very happy.



#39 Braised Broad Noodles in Black Vinegar Sauce (Loh Mee). Deliciously different, very thick and hearty, ingredients: a bit of everything. $9.50.



Tonights feast is brought to you buy the numbers 38 and 39, and the letter z.



With a solid feed under our ever tightening belts we are gig-ready. Black Cab blow us away once again, their shows are always a mixture of shambles and genius, always different, always wonderful. The singer has a touch of Ian Curtis in his voice and tonight they finish with a Joy Division cover, oh yeah. Get their 2004 debut album Altamont Diary on vinyl and be hip. Plug over.



Back to the food. We enjoy our dinner so much we come back the next day for lunch. We are in the mood for soup again but the Indonesian classics in the bainmaries are beckoning.



Bainmaries are your friend: in Indonesia this food is usually pre-cooked and served luke warm to cold, pick and choose your dishes.



Here you get three choices on rice, around $8 meat depending. The lady will ask if you want some curry chili sambal and some curry sauce over the rice. Just say yes.



We get the bright idea of having a combination rice plate to share like an entree. Over the years we have learnt the veggie dishes are tasty and easier on the system than the meat dishes, we love beef rendang but dang it can hang around like a brick in your guts all day. We get a chilli googie egg, lightly fried and delicious. Some divine chilli eggplant, lightly spiced and cooked in sweet tangy tomato and tamarind sauce, it tastes fresh and not oily as eggplant dishes can often be. And of course we get some anchovies and peanuts (my favourite), here they fry it up with potato, yum. The green chili sambal is fiery and delicious: a lot like the fresh green chili past you can buy in tubs from the Thai shops in Campbell Street, Chinatown. Also yum. $7.50.



Soto Ayam, the classic Indonesian chicken soup. The broth has a strong turmeric flavour and colour, the chicken pieces are twiced cooked and delicious. It also includes half a boiled egg, glass noodles, fresh tomato and green chili. $8.



#18 Bakmi Gaja Mada - Indonesian Egg Noodle Soup, a dish we first fell in love with in Jakarta, this one is delicious. Lovely thick yellow noodles. The chicken and mushroom pieces are lovely and sweet, we guess they have been cooked in kecap manis, sweet Indonesian soy sauce. It is served with fried wantons, veggies, fried onions, broth and basko (meatballs) on the side, I like to pour the soup onto the noodles. $8.50, very happy.



This dish is really something else, they also do a great version of it at Pinangsia Noodle House in Kingsord.

[BACK AGAIN SEPTEMBER 2013]



Back again for the good old three choices on rice for $8.80. A piece of fried chicken with two serves of veggies to make up for it. The veggies are really fresh, very happy.



Ever since I can remember there has been a great Indonesian stall at Eating World. I haven't been here for a while, I think it has changed hands, it used to be staffed by some lovely Indonesian mamas, now it is staffed by some smiley young lasses, the food is still great.


Pondok Selera is in the Eating World food court, top end of the mall, 25-29 Dixon Street, Chinatown. The Indo stall in the Dixon House foodcourt has the same and appears to be run by the same folks.