With the fiery spiciness and the rich bold flavours their dishes have to offer it is no wonder that Indonesian restaurants have been sprouting up everywhere. At the Curve alone in the past few months two have opened up and I was eager to try Bumbu Desa as soon as I spied the menu.

The concept here is a bit different from the typical restaurant experience. As you walk in you are ushered to a long buffet-like counter where all the delicious food is spread out. While there are menus to order from it’s more fun to walk along this counter and pick and choose your meal as you would from a menu. You can’t help but salivate the minute you walk in and see the rows of tasty dishes. Once you’ve picked them it’s sent to the kitchen to heat up and they will bring it right to your table.

I spy a huge pot of rendang that has my name on it and we also pick a few other specialties. Back at the table they take our drink orders and we decide to try a cendol and an orange coconut juice. The cendol was generous with gula Melaka and made with fresh santan. The orange coconut juice was a mix of the two with pieces of the sweet coconut flesh. Extremely refreshing.

Our meal arrives shortly after we place our order and we immediately tuck in to the steaming nasi liwet, which is much like nasi lemak but with a stronger fragrance of ginger and santan and a sprinkle of ikan teri a smaller type of ikan bilis. This is so freaking good!

"PEDAS!!!"

The rendang, cooked Minangkabau style is tender and packed with flavour and the thick gravy is a treat on the coconutty rice. Certainly not a dish for calorie-phobes though! The butterfly split fried fish is cooked till crispy and crunchy…the whole fish can be eaten bones and all. Dip this in the accompanying sambal goreng and you’ll be in fried food heaven.

Our Indonesian colleague Ebee was excited to see cireng on the menu. This is tapioca that is battered and fried then served with a spicy sweet peanut sauce. She said that this is an authentic Sundanese snack and it tastes just like the real thing. It was my first time eating it and gosh these chewy morsels are addictive.

Being a rojak fanatic I was also happy to see that they had rujak buah on the menu. I grew up in Indonesia and so I was always used to this type of rujak where the sauce is a light brown and it is spicy with a hint of nuttiness. The server asked us what level of heat we wanted when he took our order and we confidently said “PEDAS!!”. He strode off with smirk and when he returned we took a few bites thinking to ourselves “this ain’t so bad”. Then it hit…and when it hits, it’s pure torture and yet so good at the same time! Your nose will run, eyes will water and tongue will burn but you’ll want more.

Overall the food is quite authentic and the service comes with a smile. This is where I’ll be anytime I get a hankering for Indonesian food.

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Foodster's Verdict

Bumbu Desa

                   

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