And, finally, VP of sales, George Franssen, says you won't be able to resist the aroma
of spices, veggies, and meats at one of the few places in South Florida serving up Indonesian
cuisine.
What started as the stand in a marketplace has expanded into a fullon restaurant with
a colorful ambiance and a friendly staff.
Named for a volcanic island, he wants you to prepare yourself for an explosion of flavor.
It's in Hollywood, and it's called Krakatoa Indonesian Cuisine.
Krakatoa started from my initial vacation in Indonesia, and I met Abe while in Indonesia.
After he really introduced me to the food, we wanted to somehow try to introduce the
Indonesian food to South Florida.
We wanted people to not only enjoy the food, but enjoy being here and have an experience
while they're here.
What we did is actually bring in a lot of pictures from our trips to Indonesia, and
of course, a lot of them are about food 'cause that's what we do when we go to Indonesia,
and it doesn't matter how full you are, you see something else, and you just wanna keep
eating.
To me, Indonesian food is about flavor and the freshness.
The lemon grasses, the kaffir lime, the candlenut, lots of variation, spice levels, seasonings.
Everything just works in concert with each other.
It's like a circus in your mouth.
Krakatoa Indonesian Cuisine is an Indonesian experience.
Have you ever had Indonesian food?
Yes, I'm originally from the Netherlands.
[Michelle] Well then, of course you did, yes.
It used to be a colony of the Netherlands, and in every city in the Netherlands, there
are at least five, or six, or seven Indonesian restaurants.
You know, a lot of our viewers do not know anything about Indonesian cuisine.
It's very new to a lot of us, so tell us what you had and explain it a little bit.
Indonesian food is much more to the sweet and sour side.
It's not overly spicy unless you want to have it spicy.
We found that the menu they have there is absolutely original.
They have the most popular Indonesian dishes there, like nasi goreng, mie goreng
Hold on.
What is nasi goreng?
I will explain.
Okay.
Nasi goreng is a fried rice dish, so it's made with fresh vegetables, you can have it
with chicken, or with beef, or even with shrimp.
They use really different type of herbs.
And spices.
And spices than we use normally in our Western cuisine, and it's fantastic.
If you would go to this restaurant, I would advise the first time you go there is to take
the rice dish.
It's a dish you can share with somebody.
It's for two persons, and you get four different types of Indonesian food.
[Michelle] And, you two both had that, the rijstaffel.
Yeah, and thank you for pronouncing it 'cause I was wondering how to say that correctly.
So, what did you have this last time around?
This time, we started with the balabala, which is vegetable fritters, very tasty.
You can put some sambal with there, which is sambal sauce, which is a hot sauce, and
some soya sauce, and real Indonesian soya sauce.
[Michelle] Did you like those?
It was very tasty.
I liked it a lot, and I loved that sweet sauce on it.
The good thing is the kitchen of the restaurant is inside, in the middle of the restaurant.
You can see what they're doing.
The owner, one of the two owners is from Indonesia himself, so they really make it authentic
Indonesian food.
Justin, what'd you think?
Yeah, it was definitely, well, thank goodness they were extremely cordial over there.
My wife and I were running pretty late to get there.
They welcomed us right in, sat us in a nice two top in front of the windows, we could
oversee outside.
We did the rijstaffel, right.
[George] Good memory.
[Justin] First time going there, I figured let's try something that we can share.
Of the three meats, I found the chicken with the peanuts over the top, that was the most
flavorful.
I found the beef was in this thick brownish type sauce.
It felt very authentic with, I would think, slow cooked for hours in a larger style type
kettle.
But, really, I thought the star of that whole thing was the rice.
The little pickled vegetables on the side.
That rice was so good, and it was served in that little cone shape.
A lumpia.
Which, I was told afterwards, was very authentic, right.
Then we had lamb that was slowsimmered, so it was all served on the same plate together.
Wow, that's a lot of food.
It wasn't too big.
No, it wasn't.
And, for the price point, I thought it was very fair.
It just felt very satisfied.
Good.
I had onion fritters that I thought were amazing with the sweet sauce, and our wait staff,
Pedro, he was awesome because he would pick out things for us, and we were going to get
that dish with the multiple meats, but I said, if you could swap one out, which one would
you?
And, he took out the lamb, and we got the shrimp udeng, I think it's called.
It was dreamy.
It was the best shrimp dish ever, and we did try all those different things, and they were
quite nice, and then we got dessert.
We got Six Feet Under, and it is crumbled Oreos with a mint leaf on top, or a sprig
on top, and then underneath is this avocado mousse smoothie.
[George] That's the one we had as well.
[Elaine] So yummy, and you just dig in with a spoon, and you have a really nice time with
a glass of wine, and it's a perfect meal.
It sounds a little funky.
It was really good.
And, they have a rather extensive wine list, right, George?
They do, yeah, but I think eating Indonesian food, the best drink for me to eat with the
food is a beer.
So, what would you choose for a wine to go with this kind of food?
You know, I ended up going with a bottle of sparkling.
We wanted to go beer, but we were in the mood to enjoy wine, so we thought the bubbles would
kinda accentuate any sort of herbs of flavors that came out, and just, sparkling wine just
goes good with everything, right?
Well, George, Krakatoa was your choice.
Please sum it up for us.
Well, it's one of my favorite restaurants.
We love Indonesian food.
We like it to be authentic with fresh ingredients, and actually we plan to go there on Saturday
again, so I think that says it all.
Justin?
Fun, adventurous environment, and what I would think to be pretty authentic Indo cuisine.
Elaine.
Very cute, adorable place, has these beautiful pictures all over, you really have to go,
sit down, enjoy a nice glass or bottle of wine, and I highly suggest that shrimp dish
because I think it's called shrimp udang.
For an exotic food adventure, check out Krakatoa Indonesian Cuisine, located at 1910 Hollywood
Boulevard in Hollywood.
Open Wednesday through Sunday for lunch and dinner.
Reservations are accepted, and the average price for dinner without drinks is about 45
dollars.