Satay, spelt sate, satae or even kebabs or kebobs, essentially feels the same in makan language. Ditto, fresh seafood on the grill. No one really wants to know what it means. If you’ve had it and loved it before or better still, grew up with it as some kind of a childhood comfort food, then this would be a completely satisfying and fulfilling sensation. Just anticipating that skewered stick of meat, well or simply marinated, gestating and manifesting over gentle wood fire, watching it brown and grilled over its own juice and culminating to a perfect smokey roastiness, is like observing food porn…aiyoh!

Which brings me to one of the purest and simplest satays I’ve had in a long time- thanks to my makan avatars of Jakarta, the Wongso food clan- they know the way into my heart and soul “just assail him with damn good food and don’t think too hard about the décor and service.”, is patriarch William Wongso’s mantra for me. Their family runs eateries, bakeries, caters, has their own TV series and even publish cook books. I was unceremoniously bundled in to their car one late morning and a dizzying 40 minute ride to this corner of town (don’t ask which part- they all look the same, grey, dusty and lined with single storey zinced roofed terrace houses with some convenience stalls and eateries). We parked right outside the Rumah Makan Wong Tegal (no relations to Wongso) and it looked like nothing- one of those monotonous food shops you regularly pass by in the side streets off town. It’s just a well maintained food shop that had two tables of customers and a very smiley husband and wife owners eager to greet and feed any hungry walk-ins, like us. “You have to try their goat veal satay”, the usually monosyllabic William was a bit verbose that morning, echoing his excitement.

Next, forty sticks of freshly grilled skewers, looking a bit bland actually, was ready to be devoured. My hunch was right- it was not marinated at all. Just a few slices of soft and fresh pieces of young goat meat pressed onto a stick and softly fired over coconut shell fire. Upon first bite, everything made sense. They did not have to pre-flavour the young tender meat as it had an agreeably faint hint of gaminess- as in goat meat-stink. It came with hidden bits of fat- necessary and forgivingly so. The dip- kichap manis (sweet soy) with bruised birds eye chilli with pickled cucumbers and green mango strips, was like showers in spring. The husband and wife team of Mr Wong and Mdm Lauw are Hakkas (a major south Chinese community in Jakarta) and decided to sell this as it’s a type of comfort food for the Tegal community (a little town just outside Jakarta) who has problems getting such makan in the city. “That’s how they have been enjoying it for generations and that’s how we make it.” Mdm Lauw explains. The four of us wolfed down sixty sticks of goat veal satay, in between sating on their other signature- Hakka style deep fried yong tau foo where they bind the minced meat atop with a gummy potato or yam starch. It tasted like a well made toast with gummy minced meat topping.

HOT STUFF! No frills, just good food on the grill.

Next, early dinner. I had to make my way past a very smokey grill outside a no frills family style seafood restaurant. It was not much to shout about as these Makassar style seafood grills are omnipresent in Jakarta. The unique style of hot oil blanching, then grilling fresh seafood, is very appealing. They don’t marinate them and all they rely on is a damn good sambal trasi (sambal belacan). The item I have to shout about here “Hear ye, hear ye” is the deep fried Ikan Kudu Kudu nuggets. “It tastes like chicken” warns Olivia, William’s foodie offspring, and it was. They take this puffer fish look-alike fish, slit it down the bottom, de-bone and de-meat it, then batter, fry it into nuggets and stuff it back into the deep fried and hardened fish skin body. It was manna for palate and the eyes. In between, they grill a pod of petai (bitter stink beans) to distract us, except, this one strangely came sweet and crunchy. They also churn out signatures over their open coconut shell chip fire grill like pomfret and tantalizingly soft squid.

I’ll be back for more soon. It’s so good soulfood for me.