INDONESIAN FOOD is like THIS?? I'm still not over it. 🤤🇮🇩

Street Food is like a drug to me. I  love it. I love the authenticity. I  

love the price. I love the flavor. I  love everything about it. The problem  

is it doesn't always love me back. More  than once throughout my global travels,  

eating street food has directly gotten me  sick with food poisoning. And as a result,  

I've sort of been avoiding street food entirely.  But you know what? No, not in Jakarta. I'm putting  

my foot down. Jakarta is one of the world's most  famous destinations for street food, and there  

was no way I was going to miss out on it. Food  poisoning be damned. My name is Josh and I am  

a digital nomad who lives in a different country  every single month. Join me on a journey through  

the street food scene of Jakarta, one of the most  underappreciated culinary cities in the world.

Jakarta sort of has a reputation. It's not  a city with many famous activities and it  

doesn't have a huge amount of iconic sites.  So, I had it in my head when I landed that  

I was just going to mosy around, check this  one off the list, and move on. Thankfully,  

I got way more out of it than that. I started my  own self-guided street food tour in a way that  

I almost never do with breakfast. I rarely eat  breakfast. However, when I heard about Buber Ayam,  

I knew that I had to break that rule. It's this  rice porridge dish that is commonly served with  

chicken and shrimp crackers on top. And once  you add peanut sauce and sweet soy sauce, it all  

becomes this sort of like savory protein filled  hot cereal of sorts. According to many locals, the  

best place in town to get this is at Buber Ayam  H. Jewo, a street food cart set up right across  

from the historic Meutia Mosque. I think that  the sauces are what make this something really  

special. It sort of becomes both sweet and spicy  at the same time, which I really enjoyed. It also  

has the softness of the porridge contrasting with  the crunchiness of the crackers. So, it's super  

dynamic all around. This was all amazing, but  it's only breakfast. I was just getting started,  

but if I was going to keep going, I needed to  head back to the hotel, pop open my luggage,  

and unpack my stretchy pants because this food  tour is going to be good. Speaking of popping  

open luggage, so far, I've been extremely lucky  to have nothing but amazing experiences with the  

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I closed out the luggage and headed back out  from the hotel ready to go. And I was very  

excited because this next meal is actually  one of the national dishes of Indonesia.  

It's called Nasi Goreng. And Nasi Goreng  essentially just means fried rice. For mine,  

I visited Nasi Goreng Kambing Bon Sir. Now,  you might have noticed something already.  

One thing about Indonesia, the names of their  restaurants very typically feature the food that  

they are most known for. I mean, I love that. It  makes knowing what to order super easy. Kambing  

means goat meat, and that's what they're famous  for here. So, I ordered nasi goreng kambing,  

fried rice with goat meat. And um I also ordered  a dino powdered chocolate drink uh because for  

whatever reason, I quickly became addicted  to these in Southeast Asia. I had so many of  

them. Let's not talk about it. This particular  meal would normally have made me paranoid about  

food poisoning with the meat element and the heat  and all of that. But one thing I've learned in my  

travels so far is that the best thing that  you can do to protect yourself is to visit  

very popular street food locations like this. By  choosing places with long lines and high demand,  

you increase the chance that the turnover of the  food is quick and it's less likely that it might  

have been left sitting out for an extended period  of time. Being away from street food had kind  

of made me forget just how enjoyable it can be.  And it really is a drug. I couldn't get enough.

Rice is huge all over Asia, but that's especially  true in Indonesia. But what's crazy is that this  

rice, nasi uduk, is so different from the rice I  just showed you in Nasi Goreng. I took a trip over  

to Nasi Uduk Kaban Kacang, where they serve their  nasi uduk, which is effectively a sort of coconut  

rice inside a little banana leaf pouch. And um  well, I can't lie to you. Uh I did try to eat the  

entire banana leaf pouch. Uh I picked it up and  I put the whole thing in my mouth like it was a  

hamburger. Um I will tell you, my server literally  pointed at me and laughed and then proceeded to  

tell everyone who worked there that I tried to  eat the food like a hamburger. It was actually  

hilarious. Most of the people there spoke English,  so we were able to joke about it together. And  

they kindly explained to me that you're supposed  to open up the pouch, add sauces, and eat it with  

a fork. The banana leaf is really more just for  packaging and flavor. I guess I'm still not 100%  

sure what the leaf is for. Once I was eating this  uh the right way and incorporated all the spicy  

sauces. This was really good. I actually could  have eaten way more of this because once it's  

portioned into pouches, there isn't actually  that much food on the inside. But nonetheless,  

it made for a really nice and refreshing lunch,  especially compared to the heavier fried rice that  

I had the night before. Definitely don't  miss this spot while you're in Jakarta.

This next one is actually the best of them all  because my absolute number one favorite food in  

all of Southeast Asia is flat noodles. I love flat  noodles. Oh my god. I mean, call them whatever you  

want in whatever language. I could eat these all  day. I stopped into a proper restaurant for this,  

though there are no doubt some great chances to  grab this. Had some street food stalls throughout  

the city. The restaurant is called QQ Kopitium,  and these noodles would end up being one of the  

best meals I've had all year long. Not just  in Indonesia, not just in Southeast Asia,  

in the whole world. Okay, so good. I also ordered  a Teh Tarik, which is an iced milk tea drink,  

especially famous in Malaysia before absolutely  going to town on these noodles, which I chose to  

come with beef. For me, it's something about the  oils in tandem with the rice noodle. Rice noodles  

just act as an incredible agent for carrying  sauces and flavoring, and this whole region  

just does such an amazing job of maximizing that  with their noodle dishes. I sort of just stumbled  

upon QQ Kopitium as I was walking the main  thoroughfare of Jakarta's business district,  

and it was an amazing and happy accident. Truly  the best kind of thing to happen when you're in  

a foreign country. It was almost time to leave  Jakarta and I had eaten so much amazing food.  

And you know what? I had not gotten sick. It  might sound crazy, but given that I loved what  

I ate so much, the fact that I did not get  food poisoning truly felt like a victory. So,  

I decided that it was a victory worth  celebrating with one very special meal.

Now, this might be the opposite of street food,  but I want to tell you about it anyway. Inside  

of the Grand Indonesia shopping mall  and apparently at some other locations  

throughout the country as well, you'll find  a pancake restaurant called Pancious. Now,  

this is a bit more high-end. The whole mall  feels like that. No longer are we eating on a  

stool in an alleyway. Okay, this is the real deal.  They have your regular sweet pancakes that you'd  

be accustomed to seeing in the United States,  but they also have savory pancakes. And I was  

feeling adventurous and my flight back to Kuala  Lumpur kept getting delayed, so I figured why  

not? I ordered the barbecue chicken pancakes.  Um, and these were such a delight. I mean,  

there's nothing groundbreaking about this  meal, right? It's pancakes, it's cheese,  

it's barbecue sauce and chicken and onions. But  combined all together, it actually makes for a  

really beautiful and unique combination.  I'm here for it. I enjoyed this. In fact,  

I very much enjoyed my entire time in Jakarta.  I took a chance. I had been scarred a bit by bad  

street food experiences in other countries in  the past, but I'm really proud of myself that  

I was able to buckle down and find a balance that  worked for me. It's not about being reckless with  

your health, but instead about taking smart risks.  And of course, anything can happen at any time,  

but there are truly just some times in life when  you do have to risk it to get the biscuit. And  

I'm glad I did because eating street food was the  defining moment for me in Jakarta. The city might  

not have a ton of tourist attractions or sites,  but I am confident if you choose to lean into it  

for the food, it will totally change your mind  about this city. Thank you so much for watching.  

I actually made another video about Jakarta.  Did you know the whole city is sinking? Um,  

crazy, right? I promise I can explain.  Click the screen to watch that video next.