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Indonesian bazaars, Masjid al-Hikmah, 2012
Traditional Javanese "gamelan" (three syllables) music. (There's a Balinese gamelan, also, probably more familiar in the west, with some historical similarities, but the musics are totally different.) Here's our website:
http://kusumalaras.org
We meet usually twice a week (prob. dialing back to once in the summer, though). The Javanese women in the group cook dinner for us; 3 of them are also cooks at the bazaar. One of the Javanese gentlemen who occasionally comes to rehearsal is on the board of directors of the mosque. Anyway, that's my connection with the food bazaar. I also used to bring food for the dinners, and the ladies were very good about helping me improve some things, but unfortunately I don't have the time to do that any more.
Indonesian bazaars, Masjid al-Hikmah, 2012
Next Food Bazaar, I'm told by one of the cooks, will be June 17th.I won't be there; am going to Java for 6 weeks of music study, but they have lots of Indonesian food there, so I'll probably be ok with missing it.
As far as I know, July hasn't been scheduled. The fasting month starts on July 20: they'd briefly discussed running a food bazaar then, for takeout only, but they decided it wouldn't work well here.
Indonesian bazaars, Masjid al-Hikmah, 2012
Well, she shouldn't wear a bathing suit, but a dress is fine, if perhaps a little formal. The Indonesian women who don't do the cooking (who are just customers, I mean), wear dresses or skirts or pants. The ladies who cook do get dressed up in full "Moslem clothing," they call it, but no one else is expected to.
The bazaar isn't in the mosque itself, it's in the parking lot behind the mosque. If you go into the mosque for any reason, such as to use the bathroom, I think (I'm not sure) that women are asked to cover their heads (they'll have scarves available for this), and everybody is asked to remove their shoes. People are friendly and will help you with the proper etiquette if necessary., but there's nothing special required for the bazaar. (Cultural sensitivity: hand over money, and eat, with your right hand. They're used to Westerners, though.)
Indonesian bazaars, Masjid al-Hikmah, 2012
actually it seems it's starting at 10 in the morning. I asked several times about this in disbelief. I think dave put the address of the top of this thread. sorry I can't be more responsive now, but I'm off site and dictating this into my stupid smart phone.
Indonesian bazaars, Masjid al-Hikmah, 2012
Pin the kids down with hot chilies; that will keep them occupied. Or an es cendol (described above) if you're not feeling malevolant.
If anybody sees me there, please say "hi." I'll be there late morning and in a bad mood due to lack of sleep; I'm short (5'6"; maybe not so short for Indonesians, but I'm not Indonesian) and will be wearing a black baseball cap that says KUSUMA LARAS NYC, the name of the local Javanese music group.
Indonesian bazaars, Masjid al-Hikmah, 2012
As of last Friday, one of the ladies that cooks there + one of the guys that runs the thing said it was on for Sunday. June hasn't been scheduled yet.
Indonesian bazaars, Masjid al-Hikmah, 2012
True - there was something else scheduled at the mosque for the previous Sunday. I neglected to post here; sorry. Glad Dave is keeping up with this more reliably.
Indonesian bazaars, Masjid al-Hikmah, 2012
I dunno - watch this space, maybe? If whoever's in charge of the weather could keep the rain away, that would help.
Indonesian bazaars, Masjid al-Hikmah, 2012
I wrote to one of the people who runs it; he says that it's scheduled for May 13, depending on the weather. I'm not 100% sure what that means (do they intend to adjust the schedule if the weather report is bad?), but it looks like you can pencil that in, at least.
Indonesian bazaars, Masjid al-Hikmah, 2012
Yup ... I'm there now. attendance is a little sparse but the vendors are there.
Indonesian bazaars, Masjid al-Hikmah, 2012
Oh, I spoke to one of the ladies last night, and she just said that they'd be making "the usual." So, no useful information there. Also, the weather report is unfavorable, calling for rain. It does rain in Indonesia, but this bit of authenticity is rather unwelcome.
Indonesian bazaars, Masjid al-Hikmah, 2012
Just my opinion, but I've never had any sate there that I thought was particularly distinguished. In Indonesia, there's a much wider variety of meats available (organs of various kinds, for ex., which are my favorite). The meats they use here are kind of bland.
The gado-gado at the long table in the back is, on the other hand, very reliable, and quite good; the sauce is prepared fresh for each order. Tell them if you want it spicy (or nothet).
Many of the vendors move around, so it's not really possible to recommend a particular table, and the dishes also vary from month to month and many of the vendors make the same things, so that it looks like there's a theme for each month. But some things are constant. The "es cendol" (cold drink based on coconut milk sweetened with palm sugar , with green things that look like worms, but they're not, they're made of rice flour) at the table on the left about 3 tables from the back is always popular (and may have a long line). A table or two in back of that, there's usually "bakso," (soup w/meat balls) that's the best in the bazaar. On the right side, I think two, maybe three, tables from the front (next to the door), there's a rather wide variety of stuff that quite good: rujak (fruit salad), anchovies + peanuts, lots of stuff.
But the physical setup may be different this year - I''ll be meeting with some of the ladies this Wed. evening; will try to find out more information.
Indonesian Food Bazaar this Sun 10/9
Oh, thanks to everybody for the thanks. I'm not really a VIP, but I play in a Javanese music group with some of the ladies. We rehearse twice a week, and they cook dinner for the group (sometimes I cook some things, too, and they're very patient with me about that, but I haven't had time to cook recently).
Indonesian Food Bazaar this Sun 10/9
One of the people that runs the thing was saying that they might have one next month if the weather is "like this." I told him that everybody would be surprised if that happened, but who knows? They'd been looking for an indoor venue, but couldn't find anything suitable that wasn't too expensive. Anyway, I'll try to alert people here if something does happen next month.
Personally, I think they should convert the mosque prayer room into a permanent bazaar. I was suggested to the priest at a church where I played organ that he should just forgo the masses and host organ recitals instead. He thought I was kidding.
Indonesian Food Bazaar this Sun 10/9
Indonesian dishes - it varies quite a bit from month to month, although there are some constants (sate = grilled usually meat, not my favorite; gado-gado = veggies w/peanut dressing from the booth way at the back: you want this; es cendol = sweet drink w/coconut milk and brown sugar and green wormy things made of rice flour, from the booth w/the long line on the left side; you want this, too). It's outdoors, and table space is short, so people sit on the sidewalk and eat. But there's a lot of take-out too, probably most of the Indonesians take out more food than they consume there. My Javanese music teacher sometimes drives down from Middletown, CT (about 2 hours because he drives like an Indonesian; it takes me more like 2 1/2 hours, but I drive like an old lady), and goes home with a week's worth of food.
Everybody's very friendly and will help you figure out what to get.
Indonesian Food Bazaar this Sun 10/9
... at the Al-Hikmah mosque, from roughly 11 or so on, at least until mid afternoon. I try to get there around 12 or 1, usually.
48-01 31st Ave
Queens, NY 11103
Nearest Transit:
46 St (R)
This is the last bazaar of the season.
The website for the mosque is down at present, but I got this information from some of the ladies who cook there; actually they told me a couple of weeks ago, but I forgot to post here until they reminded me tonight. Sorry about the short notice.
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Masjid Al-Hikmah
48-01 31st Ave, Queens, NY 11103
Indonesian Food Bazaar this Sunday
(June 5)
Outside the Al-Hikmah Mosque, 48-01 31st Ave. (at 48th St.), Astoria, Queens
There's a somewhat oblique announcement on the mosque's website in Indonesian, but I got the word from some of the ladies who will be cooking there (thanks, Bu Sri and Bu Uci!), and I believe them. The theme of this month's bazaar will be chicken.
-----
Masjid Al-Hikmah
48-01 31st Ave, Queens, NY 11103
Indonesian Food Bazaar
Oh, I removed the goofy address. Looked like it was some kind of automatically generated ad thing based on the content of the message, in this case the word "bazaar." I didn't notice it .when the message was posted (was it even there? I tend not to see ads). But there it was, and there was a little "remove" button, which made it go away.
It's really annoying that something like that would be placed in the body of a message.
Indonesian Food Bazaar
This Sun, in the parking lot next to the mosque.
http://www.masjidalhikmahnewyork.org/
Indonesian Food Bazaar in Elmurst this Sun, 7/19
Hi, Jeff; thanks for the advisory that the shrimp-and-stinkbean thing wasn't as good as it looked. The local Malaysian restaurants have something similar, hiding under a name like "sambal petai," and it's a favorite of ours. But thanks to your report, we don't have to sulk.
I have no idea what the fried thing with the egg was; I didn't see it; it definitely wasn't cucur. You said is was 'topped with more crispy noodles!" implying that there were crispy noodles underneath, so the whole thing might have been fried noodles (bahmi or bakmi goreng). Those often have a rather leathery fried egg on top, a habit that the Indonesians picked up from the Dutch. Preps with the egg are often distinguished with the word 'istimewa' ("special") which corresponds to your exclamation point.
As for recommending the various sweet pastries, well, I don't find them infinitely alluring. An acquaintance once remarked, "Asians just don't understand deserts." We can all think of exceptions to that, but it's not a bad rule of thumb. One exception that I meant to try but forgot - not at that heavily laden desert table, but at one of the booths on the right side towards the back (the last one, just before the door to the mosque), was 'serabi' which is a pancake of sweetened fermented coconut-milk-based batter. The ones I'm familiar with are hemispherical, crispy at the edges and thicker in the middle, and they have optional toppings of jackfruit or chocolate sprinkles (another Dutch legacy). The ones at that booth were flat and green, presumably from pandanus (plus a violent food color). They're best eaten warm.
I actually know several of the cooks - we play in a Javanese orchestra (gamelan) group @ the Indonesian consulate. The ladies bring food to rehearsals; some of us Westerners also bring food. That's where I learned some things.
Oh, as for making things fresh/buying prepackaged - some of the things *are* made elsewhere and packaged, most obviously in the case of the sweet-laden table (none of the people there were cooks), but "elsewhere" means somebody's home or, at worst, a local restaurant. There's no factory churning this stuff out. (Exception: stuff packaged in Indonesia and shipped here, but that will still be in packages, at the back of the mosque's booth.) The ladies who cook are very proud of their cooking (and subtly competitive). It's pretty easy to tell which booths house real cooks and which don't (only a few) - the latter sell only stuff to go. I think there were three of these, but even these are just selling stuff from their neighbors.
Indonesian Food Bazaar in Elmurst this Sun, 7/19
A few more pix:
(1) Bu Sri with her sate in the background (her smile is typical; everybody's very friendly)
(2) making gado-gado (ground fresh for each order). The camera was shaken in order to simulate an authentic earthquake.
(3) grilling fish
(4) various cake-like things for sale
Indonesian Food Bazaar in Elmurst this Sun, 7/19
I took notes, mostly legible, last Sunday. My camera crapped out, but an en-iPhoned friend showed up, so I'll try to embed pictures. I've never done that here, so the results are not guaranteed.
They got the very good idea of labellng the booths with names, so that even though they move around, we should be able to identify them by the names. The typical names start with Warung [food stall] Bu or Ibu (lit. "mother," a respsectful term for a lady of a certain age). But I didn't write down most of the names. Two of the best booths seem to be in fixed locations, which is helpful.
Incidentally, a lot of the Indonesians don't eat there; they just buy prepared food. There's not enough seating but if you don't mind sitting on the sidewalk and show up early enough so that there's shade, that's not a problem. One of the organizers told me that they're looking for a larger venue, but who knows what will come of that.
The booths have different foods each time, so giving a detailed description is not necessarily helpful, but here goes, anyway.
As you go in, past the grilled corn, first on the right is the Warung Tuson (sp ?), which featured sate (on-a-stick) sapi (beef), kambing (probably lamb - in Indonesia, it's goat), and ayam (chicken); something called "sausage [from the city of] Solo," and arem-arem (tempeh, bean sprouts, sticky rice, with coconut water and sweet soy sauce).
Next booth - I didn't write down the name - featured a "New Menu" with Bakso Malang (chewy meatballs in soup), pecel (veggies in peanut sauce), Rawon (black-colored soup w/beef), siomay (shiumay), and a number of dishes already packaged to go: kacang ikan teri (dried anchovies + peanuts}, sambal (hot sauce), rempeyak (crackers of peanut + coconut milk), and various kinds of krupuk (cripsy crackers)
Then (proceeding towards the back), a tub + refrigerated case with drinks, then a door to the mosque, then one of the fixed booths mentioned above, labeled Warung Bu Saemah. I didn't get anything here this time - had to try some new booths - but the previous two times, this has been one of the best booths. They always have some things packaged to go, including some kind of asinan (sweet-sour veggies), and some kind of rujak (fruit salad). This time the rujak was "rujak coklat" (c is proounced roughly like English ch), which I was too scared to try.
Next booth (no name; sorry) they had pepes (wrapped-in-banana leaf) kingfish (a lot of places had that this time), various kinds of rempeyek (not just the peanut kind), and bakso (meatball soup).
Next booth back had only sate Padang, which is very, very dried beef with a loppy tumeric sauce instead of the usual peanut sauce or sweet soy sauce. It tasted better than it looked. I was disappointed because in Indonesia they make it with offal.
Next booth back was visually dominated by the grilled fish. This is where Jeff got his shrimp and petai, maybe as part of a "nasi campur" (mixed rice) plate. This was labeled udang (shrimp) blado (chili sauce); they also offered ayam and ikan (chicken and shrimp) blado. I got their pepes ikan (fish with coconut in banana leaf). The pepes itself was reasonably tasty; the accompanying veggies maybe not quite so much. Their es buah (fruit ice) was pleasant; nothing special. They also had a selection of, um, Chinatown-quality dvd's.
Last booth on the right, at the back, had only food to go: cucur (fried rice-flour cake), lemper (rice cooked w/coconut milk, with a savory chicken filling, wrapped in banana leaf), pastel (what you think), empek-empek (fish cake, usually served with sweetened vinegar), ikan pepes (fish in banana leaf), and some things I can't figure out from my notes.
ACROSS THE BACK there were two booths. The one on the right (about 2/3 of the space) is another "fixed position" booth. This is run by the mosque itself, so is called the Warung Al-Hikmah. They have smoothies on the right and gado-gado on the left. They also have some shelfs of packaged goods in the back, and to-go foods in the front, including home-made tempeh, botak (shrimp, veggies, coconut steamed in anana leaves), aram-aram (see booth 1 above), otak-otak (fish steamed in banana leaves), tempeh bacam ("marinated" in sweet/sour sauce).
The booth in the back on the left had: mie ayam pangsit (chicken noodle soup w/dumplings), and gudheg (young jackfruit in a sweet-ish sauce). Also some decent-looking batiks.
COMING DOWN THE LEFT SIDE FROM BACK TO FRONT:
Warung Bu Sri who had the best sate (beef and chicken) I've had there. (Claimer: she's a friend)
Next booth had empek-empek, abon (shredded beef - keeps forever; just sprinkle it on rice), otak-otak, sambal.
Next booth had sate ayam, ayam goreng (fried chicken; it's first boiled, then fried. I don't like it, but most people do. I didn't try it here.) Es cendol (see Jeff's post), es buah (fruits). There's always a huge line here for the ices.
Next booth was empty (a first)
Next both had tahu (tofu) siomay (i.e., in soup), bubur ayam ati ampela (congee w/chicken liver and gizzards; wish I'd tried that), and many, many things to go: martabak manis (pancake w/sweet filling), molen pisang (banana baked in a sweet crust), etc.
Next was Warung Angi, which had the brilliant Buntil (coconut and small fish in cassava leaves, all in spiced coconut milk. You can eat the leaves), es cendol, dendeng (very dried meat) blado (this was to go only, I think), sate padang.
Next was Warung Bu Deh which had lots of stuff to go, mostly snacks. I don't know what kue bawang (onion/garlic cakes) are; should have gotten some. They had tape (two syllables), which is a mildly alcholic sweet made from fermented rice. (Don't know what the religious implicatons are of that, either.) In addition to the to-go stuff, there was a rather extensive selection of hot dishes to make up a "nasi rames" or "nasi campur" (mixed plate with rice). The ones I can read my writing on were: telur blado (hard-boiled eggs in chili sauce), gule nangka (young-jackfruit curry), rendang (beef cooked for a very long time in spiced coconut milk), sayuran (veggies in coconut milk),
something with tempe (kering, maybe? - cooked until dry w/red peppers and peanuts), ayam bubu rujak (chicken with a sweet-salty sauce that's usually used on fruit salad - this is a very popular dish with westerners).
The pix are (1) the tables; (2) pepes ikan w/ accompanying rice + vegges (and pink things); (3) buntil (sate padang in back on the left); (4) some selections for nasi campur
Indonesian Food Bazaar in Elmurst this Sun, 7/19
Whoops - every other Indonesian thing is in Elmhurst so I put that in without thinking. A friend who lives a couple of blocks away refers to it as Astoria. If there's a way to change the header, I can't figure it out.
Indonesian Food Bazaar in Elmurst this Sun, 7/19
In the parking lot behind the mosque. Directions here:
http://www.masjidalhikmahnewyork.org/ (not the V train, though; that doesn't run on weekends).
Suggestions: get there early, maybe by about 12, so you can sit on the sidewalk in the shade on the west side of the mosque. In the afternoon, the shade goes away.
Be courteous and hand over your money with your right hand.
This thread has some specific food suggestions:
http://chowhound.chow.com/topics/551751
I'll try to take notes and issue a detailed report next week.
Add Indonesian to Burmese Food Fest
@jen kalb: I don't think it was Ena. The delicious offering was brought by the ladies who bring food to gamelan (Javanese orchestra) rehearsals. They hadn't made it themselves; they said it was made by someone who lives in Queens. I got the impression it was a younger person, someone's niece or something like that. I didn't think it polite to ask them for details. But thanks for the tip about Ena's restaurant - I have family in the DC area, go down there several times a year. Usually stop for seafood on the way down or back (Woody's Crab House, North East, MD), but will definitely detour via Philly one of these days.
Oh, Jeff is right, the next food bazaar is the 19th. I thought I couldn't make it but it turns out I can. Will take extensive notes. Probably should start a new thread next week in order to call attention to it (they *are* interested in advertising it - they were really happy at the crush of people when the Times article came out).
Add Indonesian to Burmese Food Fest
Thanks, Jeff. I would have assumed that some place called "Sugar Club" is a massage parlor or something. I don't know much about Thai food, since I've never been to Thailand - do like that restaurant, I forget the name, in the shopping center on the NW corner of Whitney and B'way, since it's mostly Thai people in there and the food has a lot more flavors (fresh herbs and things) than in the run-of-the-mill Thai places. I live in the Lower East Side, a bit north of Chinatown, so go to Bangkok Groceries (on Mosco, btw. Mott & Mulberry) for Thai groceries - they're very, very nice, and have a good selection of fresh herbs and frozen things that don't ship well fresh. Also the best coconut milk around (necessary for all sorts of SE Asian, and S Asian, cooking) - it's frozen from Thailand, not diluted from coconut cream like the Philipino stuff, and not pasteurized-processed-made unhealthy like the canned stuff (which is what they use in all the restaurants). Bangkok Grocery is the importer; it's pretty rare at other stores (and sometimes even they can't get it, but they don't know why).
Ena Widjojo is the lady who used to cook at the Indonesian consulate here? They don't have anybody cooking regularly there now, unfotunately. There is an Indonesian lady somewhere in Queens who does catering - she made an offering (of various kinds of food) for a shadow-puppet performance we did at the consulate a few months ago, and it was unbelievably good, but it was also incredibly expensive. I can't figure out a polite way to ask who she is.
Add Indonesian to Burmese Food Fest
Oh, yeah, I love that place, but most of my fellow Indonesi-o-philes don't. The stuff prepared to order is better than the pre-prepared stuff, generally, but the pepes (things w/banana-leaf wrappings) are pretty good.
You can also buy their stuff, in convenient take-out form, from the wonderful little store "Indo-Java something or other," a block and a half away, on the other side (south side) of Queens Blvd., just w. of Grand/Bway. It's owned by the same people as the restaurant. The best prepared food there is the stuff labeled "Philadelphia.' A little chow-houndy research shows a bunch of Indonesian places in Philly, but I keep forgetting to ask which one they get their food from. They don't always have the Philly stuff, but it's definitely worth a grab.
Add Indonesian to Burmese Food Fest
Thanks for the kind words, which I pedantically have to repay with a slap, and point out that "Bahasa" means "language," so saying I'm well-versed in that would refer to my linguistics degree, but that's just an undergrad degree, so I'm not that well versed.
Also, more to the point, I know some things about Javanese food and the sort of pan-Indonesian stuff a bland version of which they feel appropriate to feed to tourists (when Americans come back from Indonesia complaining that the food is dull, you know exactly what sort of places they've been eating in), but there are hundreds of non-Javanese cultures in Indonesia, and I don't know much about them. (The biggest groups live on Java: Javanese, mostly in central and east Java, are about 40% or 45% of the population, so they're much the biggest group. Next is Sundanese, who live in west Java, maybe 10% or 12 %. Next is Betawi, who live in the Jakarta area, maybe about 8%. I'm pulling these number out of my butt, so don't take them too seriously.)
I've never seen of heard of Nasi Biryani in Indonesia. Quite sure they don't have it in central Java. The name is obviously Indian - there are large numbers of Indians in Malaysia and Singapore (the British imported them when they were the colonial power), not so many in Indonesia (which was colonized by the Dutch).
Other dishes I liked: karedog, which is basically coleslaw w/peanuts and a tamarind dressing instead of a milk or mayonnaise thing. Rawon, which is a beef (brisket) soup flavored (and colored black) with "kluwuk" nuts - don't know what those are in English. I had some really awful, dry chicken sate that my roommate picked out, so he's not allowed to choose things any more. Oh, "rujak" is a fruit salad. Most westerners like "rujak petis" which is sweet + salty (petis is a black-ish flavoring made from fermented shrimp shels). There's also "rujak manis" ("sweet") which is WAY too sweet for western tastes, but try it anyway - eat w/rice and something sour, maybe an asinan. "Gudheg" (or "gudeg") is young jackfruit, inevitably canned here, which is usually either slightly sweet or very sweet (it's a main-course thing, not a dessert). The sweet version, which is typical of the city of Yogyakarta (where the earthquake was a few years ago) is not well liked by westerners (or other Indonesians); the less-sweet version, typical of the city of Solo (aka Surakarta) is much better. It's a toss-up which you'll get.
The two times I've been, the stands haven't all been the same, and the ones that were didn't have all the same stuff, so I don't know how useful it would be to provide a detailed map, but it might be fun to try. If the next one's on July 19, though, I might not be able to go, since that conflicts with a reptile show in Westchester.
If I can find my camera, it'll be fun to take pictures - that's a very asian thing to do. A couple of months ago, I took a Javanese friend to a Japanese restaurant here, and he took pictures of everything - the Japanese staff + customers looked very accustomed to that sort of behavior. Even if I can't find my camera, I can certainly make notes - it hadn't occurred to me before that most of the signs are in Indonesian (since the foods don't have convenient English names).
Get extra food when you're there. Most of the stuff will keep for a couple of days at least; most of the stands will wrap up stuff to go (and there's a lot that's already packaged that way).
Add Indonesian to Burmese Food Fest
Hi - newibe here, but not to Indonesian, or at least Javanese, food. I know some of the ladies who cook the stuff @ the bazaar. Couple of minor corrections - I don't remember what the pink coconut drink was called (maybe "es kelapa" = "coconut ice"), but "es cendol" is the drink/ice with the green wormy things (the 'cendol' proper - they're made of rice flour and are supposed to be flavored w/pandan = screwpine, which is where the green comes from, but they're usually more-or-less tasteless) and palm sugar + coconut milk on top.
The "jook"-like stuff is called "bubur"; the most common kind is "bubur ayam" (chicken). It's not made like Chinese congee, which is rice cooked for a long time with a lot of water until it's soupy. Bubur is more complicated - the rice is cooked for a long time until it turns into glop, then cooled to room temperature. At serving time, it's diluted with a hot, spicy chicken broth, and garnished with things like chicken shreds, egg, garlic or onion flakes, shrimp or tapioca chips, etc. I love it. It's a typical breakfast or late-night dish.
"Asinan" is a sweet and (mostly) sour dish made with vinegar and more-less-uncooked vegetables. One or two of the stalls sells it to take out (the last two festivals, they had different kinds each time).
Meatballs are asian; supposed to be rubbery. They would call them "chewy." I love them, but they're not to everyone's taste.
Other recommended dishes: "Soto Betawi" ("Jakartan Soup") if you like guts - beef tripe, liver, tongue in a thin coconut-milk + beef (or chicken?) broth w/peppers and tomatoes and things. Soto urat = stuffed tripe in soup.
Some of the stands have "nasi campur" ("mixed rice") which doesn't mean anything specific, but they'll put together a plate for you. It's a good way to try a bunch of stuff. There was one dish at the second bazaar, not the first, of taro leaves stuffed w/coconut and a little bit of dried fish, in a coconut-milk gravy, that was pretty spectacular, but I forgot to ask what the name was. I don't think it's Javanese (there are a lot of other islands in Indonesia).
As toby1355 pointed out, some of the stuff is better hot even though they serve it at room temperature. There was a stuffed tofu ('tahu isi') like that - really large, about the size of a fist, stuffed w/veggies, that needed microwaving, but was unbelievably good after nuking.
Suggestion: get there early, 11 or 12 is good, before the sun gets too high. That way, you can sit comfortably on the sidewalk on the shady west side of the mosque. Or just get a lot of stuff to bring home.
Hario Teapots Retail
http://merae.com carries a pretty full line of Hario. They're in your area too - website says "nestled in the heart of downtown Los Angeles." Don't know what "nestled in the heart of" is supposed to mean, maybe just generally evocative. Hope they have enough parking, at least.
