Yogyakarta Village Food - EXOTIC INDONESIAN FEAST in Jogja! Eating JAVANESE FOOD in Indonesia!!

Welcome to Chopstick Travel. I'm Luke Martin and today we have another episode from Indonesia. This time, we are in Yogyakarta, a former kingdom here in Indonesia and home to some unique and diverse cuisine. In this episode, we are going to be exploring another village and spending the day with a local family cooking some classic Jogja style dishes with ingredients straight from their farm. So, we are in the countryside. We're gonna head to a market for breakfast that's just in this village here before we head to the family's home. So, let's go. So, we're exploring this tiny little market in the village. There's not a whole lot going on. It's pretty sleepy in here but there are some fresh produce. Everyone's just going about their daily business and everyone's curious why we're walking around here but there's a little snack that we're gonna try for breakfast in here. really friendly and this is called and it's steamed corn. You can see it's wrapped up here. I'm gonna pull this little twig out. It's in this banana leaf and then I can open it up and then you can see all that steamed corn and then she's mixed in some coconut too. So, some shredded coconut and it's a very simple dish. I'm sure I don't drop any of it. Let me try to get some of that coconut. Some of the corn. Very simple. Not much to it at all. You can definitely taste the coconut and the corn is soft. Almost like a steamed peanut. It's definitely got a little bit of a corn flavor too. Just hearty but really not much flavor to it. Really friendly locals. Nice little snack. So, we're gonna keep heading farther into the village, the house that we're gonna be spending the day at and maybe stop for another snack on the way. So, just down the street from the market, you'll notice this massive banyan tree. They've actually built the road around the tree and then you'll see a bunch of locals congregating underneath it and that's because there's a guy selling ice chendol which is sort of like a dessert but we're gonna have it for breakfast. You can see behind me, he's serving it out of this really cool kind of double basket that he can carry on his shoulder but he's set up here for the morning and he's working super fast. So, chendol is a coconut milk ice drink sort of dessert but then they also mix in gula melaka which is the palm sugar, that thick brown sugar and there is a lot of bees hanging around too because of the sweetness. So, we're gonna order up a cup and try it out. So, I have my cup of chendol. Here, they call it and you can see him making it behind me. It looks really good. So, there's a couple different ingredients inside. There are those little tiny noodles and then he's also put fermented sticky rice and then you can see all of that palm sugar. I'm gonna give it a nice mix and then this is icy cold too. This is gonna be sweet, I think. So, let me give it a little try. I'm actually just gonna go with my spoon. Oh, yeah. Actually, it's not too sweet. It's really refreshing and that coconut is rich. All those little chewy noodles in there and then the sticky rice too. This is actually perfect for breakfast. It's such a cool atmosphere right underneath the huge banyan tree. This is such a cool spot and that was really delicious. I love the palm sugar in there. It's actually not too sweet. You can taste that. It's really high quality, really fresh and love the setting once again under the huge banyan tree here. So cool. So, we just met the family and we are going to be heading out to their garden to pick all kinds of different things for cooking today. This is gonna be our chef and she's also gonna be helping us pick the ingredients. So, let's go check out the garden. So, the first thing we harvested was some green papaya tree flowers. So, they're kind of these little bulbs and flowers and we will be cooking with those later. It's an ingredient I've never tried before but really cool. The flower. The second ingredient we harvested is a banana blossom. Also, very cool ingredient. So, we just picked melinjo leaves and blue pea flowers. Some really exotic ingredients they have here in their gardens and also the blue pea flower is one of their specialties here. They actually export it and sell it all around the country and the world. So, we just picked two more ingredients. The first one is moringa which is a very popular kind of super fruit. Well, it's actually a leaf and then we just pick some fresh green papaya and I think that's gonna be all the ingredients we need plus some things we got at the market to cook the dishes today. So, now, it's time for cooking. We're gonna go check out the kitchen. We are in the kitchen. Check out the plethora of ingredients we've got here. All kinds of different things and the first dish that we are preparing is a green papaya coconut milk dish called Sayur Babur. Just making the spice base to this dish. We took a type of ginger called sand ginger. It's a very aromatic type of ginger. Some salt, some shallots, tiny little bit of water and it is really satisfying to watch these get grinded away on that stone with just the rock. So, that goes into the pot with a little bit of water on top of wood fire. There's a beam of light coming in here. Really cool ambience. Green papaya in. We will boil this down until soft and in the meantime, we're gonna make some coconut milk for the sauce. Next up, we added in the coconut milk and also the Melinjo leaves that we grabbed earlier from the garden. So, the green papaya dish is done. We are just trying to cool down. It is quite hot here in Indonesia with this tea and actually the ice is using those blue pea flowers that they have an abundance of here. So, the ice is nice and blue. Oh yeah, that's refreshing. The next dish is gonna take a little bit longer. So, we're gonna start it now. It's tempeh and tofu that we're going to be braising for about an hour or longer. The base of this dish consists of garlic, onions, and quite a lot of palm sugar and we're gonna put the tempeh and the tofu right into that mixture with a little bit of water and this is a very classic traditional Jogja style dish. So, the food in Indonesia can get quite spicy. We've got some raw chili peppers here and Sabrina's volunteered to try one raw. Have you? No, I was voluntold. Here, I'll try it after you. I don't think it'll be too bad. It's bad. That's really spicy. Yeah. Tastes really nice. It's almost got a little bit of a sourness to it. Don't really wanna swallow. Yeah. Yeah. Do it. Do it. So, we also have the bird's eye chili. The other one was spicy but not crazy. I'm gonna take a really small bite. My fingers are shaking. That one has a really nice flavor. Not an immediate spice. Is it building? Yeah. Let's try. That's not too bad. Oh, actually, it kicks in but the flavor of that one is even better. Oh, that's got some heat. Flavor of this one is better. Packs. Packs more of a punch. We weren't sweating before. We're sweating now. So, we got three stoves going at the exact same time. In the middle, we have the tempeh and the tofu braising away. Then, we also have some cassava boiling away which we'll just eat as a snack later and then we also have something else. I can't remember. Oh, the sorghum, right. Okay. And then we also have sorghum which we will eat kind of as an alternative to rice just as another carb. It's getting quite hot in here with all these fires going. So, now, we're gonna be stir frying the papaya leaves which we picked earlier. We started with a base of those two types of chilies that we tried. Some garlic, some shallots, some salt, and then also quite a bit of palm sugar and then she just poured in these little mini anchovies. So, that is smelling really, really good. So, we added in those papaya leaves and one thing that I keep noticing here in Indonesia is you always see the chef tasting the dish before it's finished and that is a really good time because you know that they are checking the quality, making sure the flavors are correct, and making adjustments if they need to be made. There are a lot of dishes being cooked in that kitchen and we are still going to be making a couple more. So, we're definitely going to be having a true Jogja feast. The rain has just started. Just stepping outside the kitchen to cool down. That rain is very welcomed by me because it is giving a nice breeze, nice cool breeze. Our protein dish today is going to be a chicken. We're cooking a dish called Ayam Ingkong, which is the full chicken and this chicken is their, well, formerly their resident chicken. So, now it's in the pot. So, the chicken is in the pot. A little bit of spices, a little bit of broth. It was already half cooked and we just took the pate, which is stink beans. I've never tried them before. So, today is going to be the first time. Very popular ingredient in Southeast Asia, especially here in Indonesia and we put them directly into the fire, right in the charcoal just to grill them a little bit and we'll eat them just like that, maybe with a little bit of sambal later. So, all of the dishes are finished being cooked. We're just putting the final touches on everything and we're going to sit down and have Jogja style feast. So, I'm sitting down now. I have an absolute massive spread of food here in front of me. All freshly picked from the garden or fresh from the market this morning. Tons of exotic ingredients and I'm just going to sit down and do a little taste test before everyone sits down and eats. So, let me introduce everything to you first. So, we've got three different types of carbs here. The first is the sorghum. This is cornmeal and then we have rice that has been dyed with those blue pea flowers. The next up is the coconut milk with the green papaya and look at that. That looks delicious. Next up is that tempeh with the tofu that has been braising for over an hour now and it's caramelized on the outside. You can see all of those beautiful crunchy bits on the outside. Then, we've got our full chicken here which looks awesome as well and this is a full chicken head and everything. In the middle, we've got this beautiful salad which is like a mixture of all kinds of different things. So, we've got some long beans. We've got some wing beans. We've got some bean sprouts. This is the banana blossom flower that we picked earlier. Some of the blue pea flowers. This is the green papaya flowers and then the chiyote and then we've got the grated coconut with some spices in the middle. These are the papaya leaves that have been stir fried with all of those ingredients that we watched her do out back. Then back here, we've got the patai which is the stink beans which I'm looking forward trying. Some herbs, some cucumbers. We've got a sambal here for dipping those in and then we've got this which has the this is moringa. Moringa leaves. Yeah, moringa with lots of sweet corn and this just looks insanely good. So, let me try out some of these dishes now. So, this is the first dish I'm going to try. The green papaya soup with the melinjo leaves. Make sure I get lots of that green papaya, some of the leaves, and then some of that coconut milk broth as well. That has a crazy flavor actually. That has a crazy unique flavor that I was not expecting at all. I'm not sure if I think it's gotta be those melinjo leaves. They taste almost smoky and almost meaty which is really surprising and then fresh green papaya and then creamy coconut milk. I'm gonna try the second soup, the moringa leaves with all of that sweet corn. Get a little bit of the broth. Definitely get lots of that corn and those leaves. Oh, that is so refreshing. That corn is nice and sweet and she also added that special type of aromatic ginger in there. It's not a super strong ginger but it's got that ginger flavor which is really refreshing. So, I tried the two soups. Now, let's get some rice or some of these carbs I should say. So, I'll get a little bit of cornmeal, put it on my plate, little bit of the sorghum, that right here and I gotta get quite a bit of this blue rice, that blue pea flower rice. So cool. So, next, I'm gonna try this chicken. Check this out. This is the entire thing. We've got the legs, the feet, there's the intestines, everything in there. I'm gonna try to break off this thigh here. Oh yeah. And I'm gonna have to take the whole thing. Oh, maybe I can break this part off too. There we go. So, I'll take this big drumstick, put that on my rice. Now, I'm gonna grab some of this braised tofu which I'm really looking forward to try. That's the tofu here and then piece of the tempeh as well. And last for my rice here, I'll grab some of these papaya leaves. Wow. This looks incredible. That looks like an amazing dish. Okay, I've assembled my dish. I've got three different types of carbs and three different types of dishes to go with them. So, I'm gonna rip some of this chicken off and try it with a little bit of that brilliant blue rice. The blue pea flower doesn't really give a whole lot of flavor to the rice but it really makes it look brilliant blue and with that chicken, nice and juicy and it's got this really aromatic kind of ginger flavor to that chicken as well. I'm gonna try some of the papaya leaves with some of this cornmeal. She poured a whole lot of those little anchovies into this dish so you can definitely taste a little bit of seafoodiness going on and then it's got a sweetness too from the palm sugar she's added and then those papaya leaves don't have a whole lot of flavor to them. Maybe a very slight bitterness but that is a really good vegetable dish. Alright, I'm looking forward to trying this one a lot. This is the tempeh. I'm gonna break off a little piece here and then eat it with some of that sorghum. That could almost be eaten as a dessert. It's quite sweet and all of that palm sugar has completely caramelized on the outside and you can feel the individual soybeans in that tempeh and then with the sorghum, not much flavor but a nice substitute for rice. Let's also do a piece of the tofu. I'm gonna go for some blue rice this time. I actually think I prefer the tofu over the tempeh. It's got this really meaty texture and it's soaked in all the sweetness from that palm sugar. That is an awesome dish. The braised tofu and tempeh. So I'm going to assemble a salad here. Take a little bit of each ingredient. That's the bean sprouts. This is the chiyote. These are the winged beans and also a couple of long beans in there as well. This is the papaya flower that we picked fresh this morning. Really unique ingredient that I've never tried. A couple of these blue pea flowers. Just raw like that. So beautiful. Oh, they're hard to get. So beautiful and then this is the banana blossom. Another very unique ingredient and then I gotta grab some of this too and then I'll just use my fingers here. Get that coconut mixed in and then just take a big bite and try to get everything all in one bite. There is a huge contrast in flavors going on in that mouthful. That papaya flower has definitely got the strongest flavor. It is very bitter like a tart bitterness. Then there's freshness. There's a little bit of sweetness and then of course that coconut with the spices adds like a saltiness and a little bit of spiciness too and freshness from the coconut but wow so many ingredients there. I couldn't really pinpoint one of them but definitely that papaya flower has a strong bitterness. So I've been looking forward to trying this. This is the grilled pate, the stink bean which I've never tried before. So I'll rip one of these beans out and then you're supposed to peel away the little bit of skin on the outside and then we've got a sambal over here which I'll take a little bit of put it right on the stink bean like that. Try it as is. Oh yeah. You can taste the stink for sure. Wow. That sambal is very spicy and very strong. I can taste the garlic in there, the shallot but then that stink bean has this kind of unique strange aroma to it and it's got the texture of just like a half boiled soybean or something but it's really hard to explain what that tastes like. It kind of goes into the back of your nose. Almost like a little bit garbagey or something. So the flies are getting pretty bad outside. We're going to all move inside and eat together as a family now. So we've moved inside. We're all sitting down eating together on the floor. There's so many exotic fresh ingredients. This is a lemon basil they call it and it is literally like pure lemon like you squeeze a lemon in your mouth but with hints of basil. So many fresh ingredients. So many exotic flavors. Really interesting meal. So for dessert, I've got a tea here. This is with fresh lemongrass and then just huge chunks of ginger. Also got a little banana but let me try this tea first. Yeah, perfect. Only a little bit of sugar. That is great for after a big meal helps with digestion. Love the lemongrass and the ginger flavor. Everything we've been eating today has been really exotic and a lot of the ingredients have been new to me so I don't know why. I just assumed that was going to be a regular banana but there was big seeds all throughout the banana and it's actually really starchy almost more like a potato texture than a banana. Wow, what a meal. So many crazy flavors. That's why I love exploring all the different cuisines around the world because you discover new things that you've never tasted before like those papaya flowers. Really strong bitter flavor. So many different things in there that I'd never tried before and it was a lovely meal with a really friendly family. I just wanted to talk about the chef. She She actually wakes up every morning at 3am and bikes to the market. It's about 5 kilometers. She's 68 years old. She takes a bunch of fresh produce from her garden to sell at the market and she's just as friendly as could be and it's really just inspiring to see how healthy they're living and how healthy they're eating and they said that they only really eat meat usually fish one or two times a week. So mostly just everything from their garden fresh and we actually got a tip that there's some fresh rambutan in the tree right here. Oh yeah. Check this out. So we're going to pick a couple of these for dessert. Nice. So this tree is loaded with rambutan and you gotta look for a really red one. There's one way up here. There we go. Oh yeah. Look at that. That is super red and let's crack this open if I can. It doesn't get fresher than this. Look at that. Such a crazy looking fruit. Let's give that a taste. That's sweet, sour, fleshy, juicy. Oh, it doesn't get better than that. That is so good. Nature's candy. Are you reading my mind? What? I just said nature's candy in my head. No. What did you think of our day in the village here in Jogja? Oh, I love coming into the village and the village in Jogja was exceptional. We picked all these things from the gardens, which was amazing and learned about new ingredients and then had that delicious meal just a minute ago. Oh, my belly's full. My heart's full. I'm so happy. Big thank you to Ari from Kalanarasa Tours for helping us organize today and to everyone in the family for cooking and having us into their home, especially to Abu Sis for cooking. That was absolutely incredible. We hope you guys enjoyed the video. What do you think was your favorite dish Sabrina? I liked everything, but to be honest, I really loved the sambal and I put it on everything. It was a raw sambal. It was so flavorful, delicious, and it went well with everything that we had. Yeah, I can't really pick one thing because literally everything was like a new taste to me. I've never tasted anything quite like this meal that we had today. It was very unique. So make sure if you haven't already subscribe and hit the bell icon so you're notified when we post our next video and we'll see you on another episode of Chopstick Travel from Indonesia soon. Bye. Bye.