Ayam Goreng is one of those places that was recommended to me by many of my readers and friends. Mostly, it’s raves for the tender, perfectly cooked chicken. So one blisteringly cold Spring day we head off for lunch at Ayam Goreng, in a busy restaurant laden stretch of Anzac Parade.

We walk in and it’s fairly busy. We sit down at a table for two on the side and take a look at the laminated double sided menu. Two choices are obvious, the chicken ayam and the margarine chicken (I promise the second choice is not just based on the name!). Most things are ridiculously cheap, Beef Rendang is $3.50 so we order a bit more than we normally would figuring we could take some away to eat at a later stage.

Writing your own order

There is a section of a lined pad and a pen where you write down your order and hand it to the waiter and you then help yourself to water and glasses and wait for your food.

While we wait for our food, we take in our surrounding, including plant with the longest branches you could imagine that stretch as long as the wall (ok there wasn’t much to look at).

Deep fried marinated chicken Javanese style (thigh piece) $5.50

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What on earth is a Pempek I hear you ask? I can only anticipate your question as that’s the exact thing that I said upon hearing it. Pempek is an Indonesian fish cake which is a mix of ground fish and flour, deep fried and comes in variety of shapes and is much loved food. This may sounds rather boring but it is nothing like the fish balls or cakes that your local asian food grocer stocks in the fridge. Incongruously, there is a Pempek Clovelly, not in the suburb Clovelly but in Kensington on Anzac Parade. It’s not a fancy looking place, somewhat dowdy in fact like most of the eateries on Anzac Parade but it is supposed to serve some fabulous Pempek so a Pempek-ing We Go!

There are already several tables of people seated as we walk in and the waiter is hurriedly bringing out dishes for them. We sit down and stare at the menu for a while. It’s in Indonesian with an english translation and some pictures of the food. We’re not quite sure how the Pempek is served, it seems you can get a bowl of it but it is priced per piece from $2.50 to $17.50 for the large sampler plate. Our waiter comes back with a smile on his face, apologises and takes our order. We choose to go individually as this is our first time trying it and order a Pempek Lenjer (Fish stick), Pempek Kulit (fish cake skin) and Pempek Bulet (fish cake ball), all $2.50 each, usually 3 per serve . We order some Bakso Abang Abang Indo style noodle soup ($8), a piece of Ayam Goreng ($5) and a noodle dish with Lontang (rice cakes), vegetables and tofu with peanut sauce ($9). There’s a note that all of the meat supplied is Halal and a request on the wall that no alcohol is consumed on the premises. There’s also a helpful reminder that Anzac Parade is a tow away zone before 7pm should any patrons enjoy their food, only to find later that their car has been towed away.

Pempek Lenjer (Fish stick), Pempek Kulit (fish cake skin) and Pempek Bulet (fish cake ball), all $2.50 each

It’s a short while before our Pempek arrives, the three crispy pieces in a bowl of cuko (a sweet thin sauce made of brown sugar, garlic and vinegar) served with a side pot of chili. Ahhh ok so this is the soup we were seeing pictured. The first Pempek we try is the round fish ball, split into quarters and open like a flower. Each segment is delicious especially when dunked into the sauce although the taste isn’t very fishy at all. It could be any sort of filling, even deep fried tofu although it is tastier than tofu. The accompanying chili sambal is very hot and strong, unlike most of the chili sauce one gets so we treat it with caution.

We try the second Pempek, the Pempek Lenjer (Fish stick). The texture to this is slightly different although if you asked me to describe how different, I’d have difficulty. The crispy baton was more moist then the others and tasted like it had some sort of vegetable in it.

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Anzac Parade, Kingsford is littered with student priced eateries ready to cater for the hordes of students from the nearby University of New South Wales. What it is light on, is a restaurant for the non student, the person whose budget could extend a little further. That’s where Ratu Sari fills a gap, an Indonesian restaurant that looks a bit spiffier than the utilitarian student dives (and please know, I use the term “dive” without malice, there is often great food to be had at these places).

We’ve booked for an early dinner as we are seeing Rose and Ronald off at the airport and need to be in and out fairly quickly. I wasn’t sure if I needed to book but I did a couple of days before for 6pm and even though we’ve arrived at 5.45am on this Saturday evening there are already 3 tables ordering or eating. We sit down and there are 4 waitstaffers rushing about bringing dishes and food from the kitchen. It’s hard to flag one down but where one doesn’t hear us, another hears and summons another to take our order. I ask for some recommendations and we end up ordering a Soto Ayam (Chicken soup $9.50), Prawns Kapitan ($18.90), Ayam Goreng Pemundi ($15.90) and Lontong Salad ($12.90). I can’t resist when I see the name of a drink, the Cherry Blossom drink so I order that too ($5). We let our waitress know that we need to make a flight so she assures us that she will let the kitchen know about this. She’s efficient, if not exactly stop and chat friendly.

Cherry Blossom drink $5

During the next 5-10 minutes, when it’s nearly 6pm, a surge of people arrive and the restaurant goes from having a few tables to becoming completely full with many large groups. The clientele is mixed and consist of larger groups of Non Indonesians to family groups of Indonesians and Chinese. During this time, my Cherry Blossom drink arrives with a layer of syrup at the bottom (raspberry rose flavoured but fairly hard to pin down), a layer of milk with milk ice shavings and then jelly-like basil seeds on top. It’s sweet and refreshingly good and everyone tries some and enjoys it.

Ayam Goreng Pemundi ($15.90)

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