Streets of Indonesia - The Westin, Hyderabad

Off late Indonesian food has gained immense popularity. The cuisine is something that everyone has developed a palate. It was easy because, the Indonesian cuisine has roots from the other oriental nations.

Indonesian street food consists of a wide variety , from the nasi goreng and mie goreng to the soto ayam. Fresh produce including herbs and aromatics form the base for some good food. The food here includes simple stir fry, braised meats , skewed meat and vegetables etc. Some commonly used ingredients that give the food its characteristics and makes it a little different are fish sauce, generous amounts of lemon grass, peanuts , shrimp paste, different types of soy, sambal , palm sugar etc.

A lot of them in the recent past might have been to bali, immense growth for tourism. The foodie in you might have tried a few of the local dishes and once back home you miss those amazing flavours. Here is a chance to relish the same again, Chef Eka from St. Regis , Bali is here to showcase some Indonesian classics at The Westin.

Not much of tweaking with the ambience, they have already got some classic decors.

Lets check out on what they had to offer. #hyderabadfoodexplorer

We started with Soto Ayam , it was a chicken and noodle soup. The broth was flavorful, a good sign for a good soup. It had a good punch from the lemon grass , consisted of noodles, shredded cabbage , spring onion and a hard boiled egg. You get some condiments that go really well, some of them were burnt garlic, sambal, soy sauce, lemon etc. The addition of sambal gave it a little more body.

The salad counter has about 8 to 10 salads, these are just the ones for their Indonesian festival. They also have the regular salads apart from these which need a special mention.

For the appetizers we had chicken and tofu, lumpia sayur (vegetable spring rolls), potato perkedel and assorted satays. The chicken and tofu had dumplings made with the mince, deep fried and tossed in a slightly sweet and salty sauce.

Lumpia sayur were mini spring rolls served with a sweet chilly sauce, the potato perkedel were mini sized fritters with Indonesian flavours. The satays though were really good. Personally loved the chicken and fish variants. The peanut sauce on the side went really well with the satays.

Ikan Menyat (braised fish) and nasi goreng were my favorites from the mains. The sauce in which the fish was braised was packed with flavour. The nasi goreng came along with chicken satays , prawn crackers and a fried egg on top. The burnt flavor from the fried rice was something you should look for in a nasi groreng. A perfect one.

Mie goreng, Ayam taliwang and bapi kecap were equally good. You also have a counter to make your own or choose your own. You get to choose from a wide variety of vegetables, noodles and protein.