The Shalom Indonesian Restaurant that we visited is located at Sussex Street in Sydney. Sussex Street strikes us as an Asian food street. You can find Indonesian, Thai, Japanese and Korean eating places along a short stretch of the street. Having not found a place that serves authentic Indonesian food in Adelaide, we decided to give Shalom Indonesian Restaurant a try. We were pleased to discover that the food was quite good.
We ordered the Chicken Satay, Fried Tofu in Sweet Vinegar Sauce, Gado Gado and Fried Basa Fillet with Red Onion Sauce. The Chicken Satay has the option of being served with steamed rice or Ketupat. We went with the Ketupat option because that was what we always had with Satay. Ketupat is not easily available because it is not an easy dish to make. It is made by wrapping rice tightly in a woven palm leaf pouch and boiled. The rice grains expand and become compressed within the pouch, giving Ketupat the smooth texture of a rice dumpling. The Chicken Satay had the 'charcoal grilled' taste, accompanied by a nice peanut sauce which taste richer than that used in Gado Gado.
Chicken Satay
Fried Tofu in Sweet Vinegar Sauce consisted of large chunks of fried tofu in a vinegar sauce. The tofu chunks were crispy and nicely complemented by the slightly spicy vinegar sauce.
Fried Tofu in Sweet Vinegar Sauce
Gado Gado is a vegetable salad with peanut sauce. The usual ingredients are tempeh (firm soybean cake), hard-boiled egg, cabbage and cucumber, topped with shrimp chips. This is the first time we ate one with tomatoes. This dish was not very impressive because the vegetables were not nicely cut and the peanut sauce was not rich enough.
Gado Gado
The fish in the Fried Basa Fillet with Red Onion Sauce was perfectly cooked and was contrasted nicely by the spicy red onion sauce. A nifty touch is that the sauce is served separately from the fish so that it does not become soggy before you eat it.
Fried Basa Fillet with Red Onion Sauce
