Soto Madura Tampak Siring, Jl. Dharmahusada, Surabaya, Indonesia
February 07, 2016
Soto Madura originates from the Madura island, East Java. In Indonesia, every island, every area has their own twist of what they would call this and that when it comes to food.. Sometimes, the same name is given but when you go from one town to another, it might look and taste different. You may like the one from A but when you try it in B, you may not like it as much..
You would call this kind of place warung in Indonesian, which just literally means street food stalls. Though some places may be dirtier than others, the environment is usually quite similar. We started off with a Hot Tea and also just Warm water with a squeeze of lime which sometimes helps taking the strong taste of individual food away. If you can notice the wrapped banana leaf next to the hot tea, you would wonder what's inside and it is rice. Each of the 'Rice' (IDR2k = ~AUD$0.20) is individually wrapped in banana leaves, some may be a full size or even half size. Some people do tend to take more rice as Indonesians love rice, so do the rest of Asia I might add. What's more convenient was that each table had their own box full of them, allowing you to take as little or as much as you want without having to continuously ask the waiter or the cook to order the rice. The rice was fluffy and complements the beef soup well which reminds you of being in those 1970s movies where people would dine out and eat street food together with friends or family.
'Soto Madura' (IDR12k = ~AUD$1.2).. so what makes this Soto any different to the others? Well, the base of this sauce is beef which includes various parts of the beef including meat, lung and tripe. All do include boiled egg and vegetables but the main highlight of this soup would be the tender beef. The distinct aroma of the burnt firewood used to heat the soup allows the soup to not only be flavoursome with spices and herbs but also have that smoky flavour.
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