Sedap Malam restaurant opened nearby

One of my favorite seafood restaurants in Jakarta is Sedap Malam, which means "delicious night." That sounds a bit kinky, but then again, seafood is supposed to be sumptuous and tempting. The original restaurant is located on Batu Tulis Raya street, the area behind the Presidential palace.

I used to go there with my parents and we would order the sweet black pepper sauce crab.

Now a chain has opened near where I live, which means I don't have to go too far to have some delicious seafood. = 

Garlic shrimp

That's kangkung (Chinese spinach / morning glory) on top

Coconut and orange punch

The famous crab with sweet black pepper sauce

Bean sprouts

My friend made Malatang from scratch

In my desperation to recapture the taste of China that I so miss since I left last July, my friends tried to recreate Malatang (麻辣烫) at home by following a simple recipe from the internet, which unfortunately I did not jot down. So I can't tell you the precise ingredients and measurements of what actually went into the stock, but it turned out to be very spicy and delicious, even though the taste wasn't quite at the level of the malatang I used to have on the streets of Xiamen.

First we went to Food Hall at Plaza Indonesia for the ingredients. We bought lots of meatballs and seafood meatballs, tofu, mushrooms, and vegetables. For the broth itself, we bought pork and chicken bones, garlic, star anise, ginger, powder chili, sichuan peppercorns (numbing goodness). And that's about it.

We did not put any MSG into the stock, because I HATE MSG!!!!!!

We made the stock and then added the other stuff in. I liked it. Next time, I would add more garlic and ginger to the mix and try to get some chili pepper with sesame oil in it. Maybe that would do the trick a bit.

In China I ate: kaorou (烤肉)

Kaorou is basically barbecue, but in China, a bunch of spices are used like cumin, pepper, sesame seeds, etc. The vendors would usually fry all the ingredients we've chosen and then put them on the grill.

My friend said that having too much barbecue can be bad for you because, well, we all know about charcoal and what happens to your lungs and stomach. 

Anyway, aside from the unhealthy part of Kaorou, I dig it very much. It's cheap, good, and filling.