Pinangsia is an area in West Jakarta in Indonesia. It sounds more like the name of an exotic bird to me. I’d heard that Pinangsia Noodle House has some rather strange opening hours, just Wednesday and the weekends. I thought surely not, how on earth can they remain competitive with hours like that? So I rang them on a Wednesday night and sure enough, they’re open Wednesday and the weekends but with Friday throw in as well. I ask the friendly voice on the other end whether it’s cash only or credit card and she says that it’s cash only. “Our meals are usually $7 to $8 so they wouldn’t meet the credit card minimum anyway!”. Being on Anzac Parade, Kingsford, it caters for Indonesian students from the nearby UNSW as well as the occasional food loving non Indonesian.

Walking in, we see that there is a large central share table as well as side tables seating 4. There’s a self serve fridge of drinks and a section with help yourself condiments and water. There are small gold framed pictures of the dishes high up on the wall and of course, tissues boxes on every table to serve as napkins. It’s about half full at 7pm this Wednesday night and we choose a table and sit down. Our menus are quickly brought to us, with 2 pages of pictures and the rest in Indonesian with English translations underneath. It’s a little confusing but I am guided by the helpful “thumbs up” icon designating which dishes are recommended.

We order the Mie Ayam karet thick (or thin) chicken egg noodles with meatball soup (or fishball) $8, the Ayam Goreng Bumbu Bali (grilled chicken Bali style) $7.50 and 2 fried meatballs ($1.60 each). They ask us whether we want white or dark meat and while I usually like white meat, dark meat is much more moist so we choose dark as I find that chicken can sometimes be dry in Indonesian cuisine. We also order a Murtabak to share with the peanut, chocolate and cheese filling ($5.80).

Mie Ayam Karet thick (or thin) chicken egg noodles with meatball soup (or fishball) $8

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