Denise's Wonderland: Rijsttafel at Warung Bude Kati, The Hague

Nasi Rames

Attention to my fellow readers who are fond of Indonesian food, do make a stop at the Warung Bude Kati (if you happens to be in the Hague), for sumptuous yet authentic Javanese cuisine.

Warung Bude Kati is a family run restaurant and you can definitely expect the great taste of home-cooked meals here. Not to mention at a very reasonable price too. For less than €35, we were comfortably fed on a sumptuous rice-table meal (also refer as rijsttafel in Dutch) with assorted appetizer, gado-gado, six type of side-dishes, satay, white rice and drinks.

Before the main-course, we were served with shrimp crackers accompanied by assorted appetizers which comprises of spicy achar, cucumber pickles with onion, sambal, spicy nuts with anchovies, fried onions flakes and spicy grated coconut with peanuts. A great start indeed to a small feast.

Shrimps crackers or krupuk

Appetizer: spicy nuts, sambal, pickles, fried onion, grated coconut

Next is the gado-gado. It is essentially a salad of boiled vegetables, fried tofu and hard-boiled egg dressed in a peanut-based spicy sauce. It looks exactly like the rojak we have back home minus the shrimp paste sauce. Don't be fooled by the look, it was really spicy. I had a few unexpected coughs after just a bite.

Gado-gado with peanut sauce

Since chicken satay was not available for the day, we then opt for the pork satay. The pork satay is quite an exquisite taste and is very different from the pork satay we used to have in Malaysia. However, It was a tad too chewy for the infant teeth of mine.

Pork satay

There came the highlight of the typical rijsttafel, the six side-dishes. Sambal telur (hard-boiled egg with spicy sambal), stir-fry tofu with bean sprouts, cashew-nut chicken, beef rendang, stir-fry long beans and lastly the tempeh (fermented soybean) with chili paste. Truly a set of home-cooked dishes to go with a plate of fluffy white rice. I especially like the sambal telur and beef rendang, it was as good as the version we have back back home.