Tag: sambal

Dish O' The Day
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01/29/18 10:27pm

Awang’s Salted Egg Calamari is Amazing

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Fried calamari Indonesian style.

It’s no secret to regular readers of this blog that Awang Kitchen is my favorite Indonesian restaurant in Queens. I eat there quite often and write about it almost as often. Here’s the thing though, I’ve become so used to ordering off the specials menu, that I’ve been missing out on some glorious dishes on the regular menu. Dishes like cumi goreng sauce telor asin ($9) or fried calamari in salty egg sauce.

Fried calamari isn’t necessarily the first thing I think of when it comes to Indonesian fare and I wasn’t quite sure what to make of “salty egg sauce,” but after a friend talked it up on Instagram, I knew I’d be trying it. Turns out that salty egg sauce is actually bits of golden salty egg yolk mixed in with the fried garlic and shallots that’s interspersed with the fried nuggets of squid.

The menu listing for this wonderfully salty and crunchy Indonesian take on fried calamari sports two chilies, but only because of the accompanying sambal. It’s great mixed in with the calamari itself as well as the accompanying nonsalty egg.

Awang Kitchen, 84-05 Queens Blvd., Elmhurst, 347-492-9264

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12/22/17 2:44pm

Awang’s Indonesian Sushi Rolls Rock

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A rendang roll, with wasabi,ginger, and spicy mayo, natch.

Southeast Asian restaurants with sushi bars usually raise a red flag, and I tend to pass them by, with one notable exception, Awang Kitchen. Like many of my fellow Indonesian food nerds I’m unabashed in my enthusiasm for this restaurant that opened last spring, giddily eating my through bowl after bowl of various baksos and other Indonesian delicacies. Until just last week though I’ve avoided the chef-owner’s sushi bar, harboring a secret wish it would eventually evolve into a satay station. And them some rolls with a decidedly Indonesian accent began to show up on the specials board.

It began with beef rendang ($10). Tempe, peanuts, anchovies, and of course beef rendang, packed in seaweed with rice and cucumber a bit of peanut sauce and the requisite spicy mayo make up this cross-cultural creation. With the crunch of the dried fish and the candy coated peanuts known as sambal kacang, it’s tempting to dismiss the rendang roll as just nasi lemak in roll form, but it’s really an entirely new animal, a true Indonesian fusion dish. It’s served with the same green horseradish and pickled ginger you’ll find at many other sushi spots on Queens Boulevard, but it didn’t need either. Since the kitchen doesn’t make miso soup, I asked for a bowl of beefy, garlicky bakso broth.  (more…)

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07/11/17 10:10am

Queens Dinner Club Brings Awang to Astoria July 20

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Bandeng presto, a milk fish that’s seen hours in a pressure cooker before deep frying.

I’ve been a fan of the food and chef at Awang Kitchen ever since local Indonesian food aficionado and ace instagrammer @dan.bukit pulled my coat to it a few months ago. It’s no surprise that such a talent would be found in Elmhurst, which is hands-down the best place for Southeast Asian cuisine in New York City. When the boys at Queens Dinner Club and I learned that Chef Awang served liwetan, a festive meal served on a banana leaf rarely seen outside Indonesia, we knew it was going to be the second dinner at our new home, the swanky Bamboo Lounge at Kaufman Astoria Studios. We’re proud to present Awang Comes to Astoria on July 30 at 7:30 p.m. Tickets for this one-of-a-kind feast are $45 and may be purchased here.

Succulent roast duck with roasted green chili sambal.

Bandeng presto, a specialty from Southeast java, that involves marinating a milkfish in yeast, shallots, and garlic and then letting it luxuriate in a pressure cooker before a nice hard deep fry is one of many dishes that Chef Awang will be preparing. As with most of his dishes, it comes with a homemade sambal.  Bebek goreng sambel ijo, a succulent fried duck with roast green chili sambal will also be served as will rujak juhi, which combines shredded dried squid with noodles peanut sauce, potatoes, and cucumbers. Check out the full menu here.  

As part of the evening’s festivities, Chef Peter Zaharatos of Sugar Cube will be creating bespoke desserts designed to complement Chef Awang’s menu. We’ll see you there!

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04/28/17 2:59am

Awang Kitchen Brings Jakartan Flavor to Elmhurst

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Fried chicken marinated with coconut water.

Fried chicken marinated with coconut water.

When I first visited the Facebook page of Awang Kitchen, the newest Indonesian spot in the Southeast Asian-inflected Chinatown of Elmhurst, it displayed a vast menu, which has seen been edited down to a more manageable size. While the food was delicious, when I visited on opening weekend, the kitchen was moving at a glacial pace. Thankfully the kinks have been ironed out and Awang is fast becoming my favorite Indonesian spot in the neighborhood.

I’m a big fan of Indonesian fried chicken, so when I spied ayam goreng kalasan, a variety marinated with coconut water, I had to try it. It was some mighty fine bird and came with a sidecar of sambal terasi, a fiery red pepper concoction made with terasi, or fermented shrimp paste. It’s one of several sambals that the Jakartan chef-owner Siliwang “Awang” Nln makes in house. (more…)

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03/10/15 10:17am

Woodside Gets New Indonesian Food Bazaar

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Woodside
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People who are familiar with festival-style Indonesian food in New York City have probably visited the outdoor food bazaar held in the rear parking lot of Astoria’s Masjid Al-Hikmah, which usually begins with the first warm weather in April and runs through October, or possibly one of the one-off events such as 2013’s Forest Hills Indonesian Food Bazaar. Longtime Masjid Al Hikmah attendees were dismayed last year when the mosque didn’t manage to put together an event until September 21st and then tacked on two more in quick succession, October 12th and October 26th. I attended them all, of course.

Event Organizer Fefe Anggono

Event Organizer Fefe Anggono

The innaugural edition of the City Blessing Church Indonesian Food Bazaar, which is being planned as an (at minimum) monthly event, took place on the last Saturday in February, 2015 in Woodside, Queens. The organizer, Fefe Anggono, owned and managed a restaurant in Long Island for seven years and started this event as a way to not only bring attention to the church and its rental space, but also to provide an outlet for vendors left out in the cold by the mosque’s inconsistent event-holding policies. (more…)

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