Dr. Tiff's Blog Post #2

Batavia: An All Too Authentic Indonesian Experience

For the fourth most populous nation in the world, Indonesia has had very little luck promoting its culture worldwide. People know about the tropical paradise that is the island of Bali, they may about orangutans (those come from Indonesia, right?), but that's about it. As a result, Indonesian food is a rare find overseas, especially in comparison to other Asian foods--Chinese, Japanese, Indian, and Thai--which have made far more of a splash on the global culinary scene.

Hence, the fact that Atlanta has any Indonesian restaurants, much less three of them in its general vicinity, is thoroughly surprising. Hidden away in a tiny Hispanic strip mall near the Buford Highway, the humble restaurant Batavia initially appears ashamed of the Indonesian fare it offers, advertising itself as a Chinese restaurant in English, Spanish, and Mandarin. Upon entering the restaurant, however, there can be no mistake: you're in Indonesia now. Or at least in a very good simulation of Indonesia.

Craving the cuisine of my childhood, I visited Batavia on a weekday afternoon, arriving just as the lunchtime crowd had dwindled down to six young Indonesian men lingering over the remains of their meal, a young Indonesian woman heading back to the office, and an Indonesian-Chinese family of three devouring the food before them with great gusto.

The restaurant interior was a dead-ringer for one of the innumerable mid-priced eateries to be found all over the archipelago: harsh neon lighting overhead, faux marble-topped tables and mismatched seats, fake potted plants here and there--a half-hearted attempt at an illusion of greenery. Even though Batavia seems to be suffering an identity crisis on its exterior, on the inside, it's so confident of its complete and utter Indonesianness that it doesn't even try to provide its customers with any coherent cultural eye-candy: no unique artwork, no scenic landscapes of the country, no large Indonesian flags. In fact, the only way one would ever know how Indonesian the place looks is if one has actually been to Indonesia, which is a downright shame. From the picture-menu on the wall, captioned entirely in Indonesian, to the staff behind the counter who offer only a minimal explanation of the dishes ("What's that?" "Beef." "And that?" "Noodles."), Batavia is home away from home for the Indonesian, but utterly underwhelming and confusing for those unfamiliar with the country and its cuisine.

The interior of Batavia

The whole establishment certainly doesn't go out of its way to be welcoming, yet it doesn't strike one as hostile either. They are merely indifferent. The staff behind the counter didn't smile, but they took my order promptly and perfunctorily. In addition to items on the menu, which range from $6 to $8, Batavia offers a cafeteria-style buffet typical of the Indonesian eatery: a generous heaping of rice and any three items of your choice all for $4.99. Unable to limit myself to only one dish, I opted for the buffet, and carrying my food atop a green plastic tray to one of the empty tables, I proceeded to sit down and dig in.

Most of the Indonesian food I have eaten in the U.S. hasn't tasted very Indonesian, partly because of the scarcity of Indonesian spices and produce in local supermarkets, and partly because most Indonesian restaurants tend to make their food more Chinese-like, afraid that the unique but unfamiliar combination of sourness, spice, and sweetness will drive away customers. Fortunately, Batavia's cuisine is just as unapologetically Indonesian as its ambience.

Tempe, like most soybean products, can be thoroughly unappetizing if not done well. The kering tempe kentang was fried to perfection, the chunks of soybean cake and potato pleasantly firm and moist on the inside and lightly crispy on the outside, all coated in a reddish-brown sauce flavored with chilies, shallots, and caramelized gula merah--the rich brown sugar tapped from palm trees.

The texture of their empal daging was as it should be--a distinctive combination of beef-jerky toughness and steak-like tenderness: with empal, the chunks of beef are first simmered with lemongrass, ginger, palm sugar, and onions, then deep-fried. If one is lucky, one gets tiny deep-fried bits of spices clinging to the meat...perfect for flavoring the white rice which forms the heart of every Indonesian meal. The plainness of rice accentuates the flavors in the flashier components of the meal, and vegetables and meat are always conveyed to the mouth with a sizeable portion of rice.

Their kare telur was tasty to be sure--hardboiled eggs, deepfried, and swimming in a spicy coconut curry sauce; but the sauce was far too watery and could have used a little more kick.

My server had also plopped a generous pat of sambal on the rim of my plate. There are several different types of sambal, all made with varying combinations of fresh chili, shrimp paste, shallots, lime, and other ingredients (sometimes pineapple, sometimes tamarind, sometimes cucumber, and so on). I eagerly mixed it in with my rice, but upon first taste, was mildly disappointed: it certainly had a zing to it, but only barely, having obviously come from a jar rather than being made fresh.

In addition to selling cooked Indonesian food, Batavia also functions as a sort of mini-supermarket, selling a variety of Indonesian spices, sauces, jams, and snacks. Fried shrimp crackers, fried soybean crackers, fried cassava chips, fried beans, are all on offer at exceedingly reasonable prices: $1-$3. If you're in the mood for sweet (but pricier) snacks, they also sell homemade pineapple tarts ($12), martabak manis ($10; a thick Indonesian pancake covered in chocolate and peanuts) made by local Indonesian housewives.

I left the restaurant humming to myself and grinning like an idiot, extremely full and ridiculously content. Yet at the same time, I felt oddly sad knowing that to any non-Indonesian patrons, the restaurant would simply be an unsatisfying blip on their culinary radar: an unintelligible meal served by expressionless waitstaff in a dingy room. In short, Batavia is certainly authentic, but perhaps a little too authentic.

Batavia
For homesick Indonesians: ★★★★
For everyone else: ★

Address: 3245 Chamblee Dunwoody Road, Chamblee GA