An Indonesian food festival in Mumbai

The embassy of Indonesia in Mumbai is in Altamount Road in the Cumballa Hill area. The embassy arranges an Indonesian bazaar once in every 3-4 months for a day from 10.30 AM to around 5PM. In the yard of the embassy Indonesian craft items and food are sold from temporary stalls. Extremely interested in the food, we show up at one such bazaar in the month of March.

The foodie vibe at the embassy of Indonesia in Mumbai

The market can be attended by everyone but we are shocked that there is no frisking or even ID card checking at the entrance gates. We reach at 2 PM and by then we observe that most of the food counters are running short of food. The market has started from 10.30 AM and we are late.

The crowd is overwhelmingly Indonesian. We realise that this is a close-knit community event for Indonesian expats settled in Mumbai. By overhearing some discussions among the crowd, we understand that even the few Indians attending the event here have close ties to Indonesia. Either they have some relative living there or they have lived in the country at some point in time. It feels like we have gatecrashed someone’s private party!

However, that feeling quickly vanishes as we start interacting and ordering from the stalls. Since the food is completely new to us, we do ask what exactly are the ingredients of the dish. The hosts patiently explain us, overcoming the language barrier. We feel the warmth of the get-together.

The bazaar is arranged in an open space. Stalls are set up along the perimeter of the area. At the centre of the space is a sitting area— a bunch of tables and chairs where people can take their food and eat. A few round tables are there for people to keep their food and eat while standing.

Indonesian handicrafts and a cat chilling in Mumbai

Indonesian food fest

We start our Indonesian food sojourn with iced fruits (INR 50). Given the extremely hot day, we think it is the right beverage to open the experience with. Watermelon is the main ingredient in the iced fruit. It is delicious and refreshing. I read that this beverage is the go-to beverage in Indonesia to break Ramadan fasts.

Next we buy a box of soto ayam(INR 200), it is a traditional Indonesian dish prepared by using chicken, noodles, rice vermicelli, vegetables and the most important spice—turmeric. It is moderately (by Indian standards) spicy. We see various chicken preparations are being sold in boxes. They look like Indian chicken curries. We are interested in sampling food that is not remotely Indian because we already have ample access to that kind of food. So we skip those and just focus on the Indonesian food that is mostly inaccessible in Mumbai or accessible only in fancy restaurants that charge a bomb.

We eye the desserts. The number of desserts on offer are clearly higher than the non-dessert items. We pick up a cup of srikaya ketan, a type of glutinous pudding green in colour. It is rice coated with coconut custard. The green colour is due to the usage of pandan(I guess), a fragrant plant that is used generously in Indonesia to add flavour.

We also pick up a bolu pandan, a chiffon pandan cake. It is like a teacake but green in colour due to the addition of pandan leaves – a cake with the distinct aroma and taste of pandan. The srikaya ketan and bolu pandan cost INR 120 in total.

Other desserts in this counter are—lapis beras ketan(glutinous layered cake), talam ubi (sweet potato cake), es cendol, bolu gulung (red velvet cheese roll), bolu gulung taro(taro cheese roll), bolu marmer(butter marble cake), lapis legit(sugarless thousand layers cake), bolu kukus(steamed cake), bakso ayam(steamed cake) and taekwan(fishball soup).

We next jump to the most famous of them all—boba java tea (Javanese boba tea). It is INR 100 per glass. Boba tea or bubble tea is served chilled. Plump tapioca pearls dipped into a mix of milk and palm jaggery is what boba java tea is all about. It is sweet, but not icky sweet. The tapioca pearls add texture and bite.

As we guzzle the tea, we observe the counters have started shutting. Now more than 70% of the food is sold out. FOMO strikes us and we prance on to another counter. “Give me that coconut sprinkled green thing,” I request. It is banan tapioca (INR 50) – banana, wrapped in tapioca skin sprinkled with grated coconut.

We meet a very chubby cat in the premise of this bazaar. He is clearly a favourite as he receives constant petting by the hosts. I go and give him a nice snuggle. After lounging around us for a while he decides to nap in the handicraft stall, perfectly blending in with the carpet.

This cat break later, we pick up a box of sticky rice served with durian dipped in a broth of milk and coconut(INR 100). I miss reading its Indonesian name but the liquid tastes like dudhpuli, the Bengali sweet that hits the market in winters.

Our sweet affair with Indonesia is not over yet. Just before booking our uber we buy a glass of black grass jelly. Leaves of platostoma palustre, a commonly occurring plant in East Asia is used to make this. The plant is a relative of the mint plant. The jelly is then mixed with coconut, milk, and palm jaggery or sugar to make the drink ‘black glass jelly’. It is extremely sweet in taste. On this syrupy note our food adventure in Cumballa Hill ends. We would love to return. The next time we would make sure to reach early and taste all the dishes!

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