Stocking my Indonesian Kitchen

I use Thai curry pastes, but I don't cheat with powders.

I think the reason why is that the small can of curry paste contains perishable indredients and cumin, corriander, turmeric, etc. will never spoil (though they do lose their potency slowly).

Hard to make Indonesian food with Thai curry paste.

And not all of these bumbu packets are dry...

Oh yeah; I'm just saying canned vs. assembled.

FWIW, I only made my own chutney once (mint-cilanto) and it was mediocre. So I buy that in jars.

I think the only real Indonesian food I've had was at the strip mall off Van Dorn St., near the metro stop.

I had some fiery coconut-based curry; my mom got (relatively) authentic Satay skewers.

Tyler Cowen disses it (called Sarinah Satay House) in his review, but whatever. Plus that place also has a decent sushi joint, a passable Afghan one and the largest African grocery I've found in the area.

Tyler Cowen says "Mostly I save up my Indonesian urges for when I am in other places" but no mention of where these places are. Certainly the Indonesian food in Indonesia is better, but otherwise I wouldn't know where to go. (Though we hope to try at least one place in the SF Bay Area)

Satay Sarinah is decent enough. Personally I am in there enough to be a regular, and they always ask if I know when my wife will be here.

I know well of Van Dorn Plaza, I live about 2 blocks from there. The "sushi joint" is my daughter's 2nd favorite restaurant (just behind McDonalds, but she's 8 so...)

Many of the Indonesian items on the menu of Café Asia and Nooshi are quite authentic. Satay Sarinah is mostly Java style I think. There Mie Goreng is very good though. (IMHO)

Yeah, it's a long distance from Aceh to the New Guinea border and like 300 million people; it figures they would have a culinary diversity like China or India.