#867: Indomie Mi Instan Rasa Coto Makassar

This is a real treat – this is one of the varieties not available in the United States and was kindly sent by Edwin N. of Vancouver, BC! Thank you again so much! So what is Coto Makassar anyways? Well, here’s something I found here:

Coto? Nope, I am not misspelled the word to Soto (popular Indonesian dishes). Its a local name for the traditional food from South Sulawesi, a soup that consist of meat, specifically the innards of cow, and mixed with spices like galangal and pepper. Galangal is also known as Blue ginger, Alpinia galanga, or lengkuas in Indonesian name.

Makassar in the name refers to the capital city of South Sulawesi, where this unique dishes is very popular as the local traditional food.

Wikipedia says:

Coto Makassar or Coto Mangkasara (Makassarese), is an Indonesian culinary food originating from Makassar, South Sulawesi. It is a soup with seasoning broth made from starch.^[1] The main content of this soup is beef and it can be mixed with innards such as intestine, liver, lungs, heart, tripe, or cow brain.^[2]

Coto Makassar is usually served with Burasa or Ketupat.

Soup’s on – let’s try it!

Was very hard to read – black deep red – so I used some Photoshop magic to make it easier. Click to enlarge.

The noodle block.

Dry seasoning powder and chili powder.

Dark colored chunky base with the chili powder on top.

Seasoning oil packet.

Curious – smells kind of like peanut butter.

Fried onion!

Nothing better than a little fried onion on top!

Finished. Added some grocery store frozen stir-fry veggies, a hard boiled egg with Krazy Mixed Up Salt and some Dua Belibis. Noodles are good and work well in soup. Nice texture. The broth Has a very deep and dark color. Has a spicy and a funky beef taste – kind of a spicy vegetable beef kind of thing going on. Good stuff. 4.0 out of 5.0 stars. UPC bar code 089686043051 .

Short film showing the preparation of Coto Makassar.

This is one bizarre documentary – “Heavy Metal Parking Lot” – Judas Priest fans in a parking lot at a show in 1986 – quite interesting.

#727: Meet The Manufacturer – Indomie Mi Instan Rasa Empal Gentong Khas Jawa Barat

Today I continue reviews for Meet The Manufacturer: Indomie week! This is another one, sent to me from Jakarta, Indonesia by Indomie – thanks again! So what does Empal Gentong consist of? What does it mean? Here’s what I found on Wikipedia:

Empal gentong is a spicy curry-like beef soup originated from Cirebon, West Java. This soup is similar to gulai that usually cooked with firewood stove in gentong (Indonesian for: clay pot). The ingredients are parts of beef meat, intestine, tripes, lungs, etc. cooked in curry-like spices in coconut milk, kucai (Chlorella sorokiniana) and sambal in the form of chilli powder. Empal gentong can be eaten with steamed rice, ketupat or lontong. Empal gentong originated from Battembat village, kecamatan Tengah Tani, Cirebon regency.

Sounds interesting. I plan on adding a couple of things to it and make this a sumptuous meal! Please join me! Read the interview I did with Indomie here!

Here’s the back of the package. Note that this is a soup – no picture of draining.

The noodle block, ready for action!

So for packets, we start with the standard powder seasoning and chili powder combo. Again, I ask if anyone knows what the little guy on the chili powder side is all about!

Here’s the seasoning powder. I used a little bit of the chili powder – seen on top.

Now for the wet ingredient and topping: seasoned oil on the left and fried onion on the right.

The oil has a meaty and slightly sweet aroma.

These are great – adds a nice little crunch on top of everything.

Finally, the solid ingredients packet.

The back of the packet simply calls this sayuran kering which I translated to dried vegetables.

Finished. I added some of the awesome fresh vegetable mix we made from shopping at Country Farms yesterday, along with some beef lunch meat, a little Fresno pepper, a hard boiled egg, some lime, a little Huy Fong Sriracha chili sauce and some Krazy Mixed Up Salt. The noodles are characteristic Indomie; good to chew but not tough and abundant. They’re pleasant and enjoyable. The broth has an interesting flavor to it – kind of beefy and also a little sweet. It’s an interesting mix; kind of reminds me of the light flavor the special Laksa had – not the flavor so much but the lightness of it. I really liked this one. 4.0 out of 5.0 stars. UPC bar code 089686910308 .

Here’s a video of a street vendor selling Empal Gentong.

Here’s some Indonesian music played on the Gamelan. Here’s a Wikipedia article about this amazing instrument and its history. This article is about the Gong Ageng – check it out.