Top 5 Comforting Savory Breakfast in Jakarta. Very Affordable!

When we wake up from our sleep at night, obviously we will start our activities in the new day and hope this day is could running well. I wake up, turn off my alarm, drink water, then go downstair to the dining room to have some breakfast. Some of them able to start their day without breakfast, but I am not the one of them. Trust me, Jakarta is too hard for me to start the day without breakfast lol (I live in Jakarta anyway).

For me, breakfast is not just filling stomach with foods. Breakfast is key of happiness. What kind of food I ate in the morning will determine my mood during morning activity. If I do not get delicious breakfast, it feels so weird and it will affect my performance (even though at the same time I need to thankful for the breakfast). So, I know several foods might called 'hero' that able to save my morning from 'mourning into dancing'. Personally, I hope this list also help you to find the comforting when one day you travel or stay in Jakarta. For me, comfort food in the morning is something savory with quite big portion. So, if you are savory food lovers, this is a right place for you bro. Cheers.

Bakmi

Apperance of Bakmi Medan that contains pork charsiu, meatballs, vegetables, and fried dumplings

The first breakfast that I recommend you try the most is Bakmi. Basically, bakmi is a term that refer to a portion of Chinese-style steamed noodle that contains meat, vegetables, and soup filling. In Jakarta, everyone loves bakmi. Some of them said that a bunch of problems can be solved with eating bakmi first. Because Jakarta is a gate of diverse Chinese cultures, bakmi has lots of variation depends on its origin. You can easily find bakmi that originally come from Bangka, Medan, Siantar, Singkawang, and Bandung. 

Different origin produces the different characters then affect the tone of the flavor. I often eat bakmi Medan and Bangka. Both of them are delicious just the way they are. Bakmi Medan is savorier, meanwhile Bakmi Bangka has little bit sweetness among its savory. For the topping, bakmi Medan has chopped soy-sauce pork and charsiu pork, meanwhile bakmi Bangka usually just has cjopped soy-souce pork. And I will recommend you more to eat bakmi with dumpling and meatball too, it's become more comforting and makes me ready to face the morning enthusiastly. I rate bakmi 9 out of 10.

Pastel

Pastel is a 'masterpiece' between Indonesian and Portuguese assimilation, a traditional fried pastry that contains rice noodle, dice of potato and carrots with boiled egg filling. For your visualization addition, pastel's pastry physically looks like a Japanese dumpling. I hope you able to visualize how dense that food could be, right. There are many kinds of pastel in Indonesia, because some people has their own variation with their pastel. Some of them put the chicken or noodle as its fillings, but today I will share about Jakarta's style pastel that my father bought near my house and ate by me in the morning. 

2 pieces of pastel are enough for me to make my morning special. Piece of pastel is something that can satisfy my stomach. Imagine, the crispiness and savory of the pastry and the soft fillings blend in my mouth become a perfect and balance combination. The crispiness also doesn't make our throat become hurt or dry, it's not oily and comfort for our body. Usually, I eat 1-2 in my daily breakfast and sometimes I also eat pastel in the afternoon. I will rate pastel 7 out of 10.

Bubur Ayam

Indonesian Chicken Porridge

Bubur ayam in English means chicken porridge. In this porridge term, I will explain the Indonesian porridge style. Actually, Indonesia also has many kinds of porridge, such as Bubur Cianjur, Bubur Cirebon, and Tinutuan (from Manado). Usually, the standard Indonesian (Jakarta) porridge is using soy sauce, slice of chickens, cakwe (strip of fried dough), fried nut, spring onion, variety kinds of satay, and chicken stock. 

In several residential area of Jakarta, the porridge seller usually uses bicycle or gerobak (Indonesian wooden cart) with their own unique sound to let the customers identify and feel engage to its seller. That's why several porridge sellers know their loyal customer since they were a kid. 

Different with Chinese porridge that tasted savorer and saltier, Jakarta porridge's flavor is light savory but sweeter from the soy sauce. I recommend you stirred your bubur ayam first and eat when it warms, so the taste becomes more flavorful and richer especially when outside's temperature is cold enough. This is 7.5 out of 10, so nice.

Ketupat

Ketupat in Bandung

Ketupat is a compressed rice cake that covered with palm leaf. You can't eat ketupat alone because it tastes so plain, so you need another food that able to accompany ketupat. Usually, in Indonesian-Moslem tradition, it served in main event such as Eid Mubarak and cooked with soup. Even though, there are still many people sell ketupat on the streetside of Jakarta. They sell ketupat with soup that contain combination of coconut milk and spices, then the addition of several fresh ingredient such as soy-sauced tofu and egg, vegetables, and finally crackers. Even in Bandung, they also provide chicken in our ketupat. Savoriness from the soup's spices and awesome aromatic makes this food is highly recommended to try it, especially if you guys love the strong flavor.

Indomie

Fried Indomie with fried egg

Well, actually Indomie is an instant noodle brand which very popular here. There are so many flavors you can find in minimarket, such as fried noodle, soto, rendang, chicken curry, and many more. I use 'Indomie' turn because a lot of people in Indonesia use the 'Indomie' word to mention about instant noodle. Besides that, I and my family just buy Indomie instead of another brand in minimarket even though I am not the brand ambassador of Indomie (please notice me, Indomie...).

As I said in the beginning that most the people here are noodle lover, instant noodle is their second option if they want to eat 'cheaper' noodle. in fact, there are hundreds restaurant in Jakarta that sell Indomie, even some of them name themself Warung Makan Indomie (Indomie Restaurant). So, if you are in 'saving money' mode in Jakarta, I have 3 flavors suggestion so you can choose Indomie flavor wisely. 

The first one, if you like the normal taste of seasoning and dry noodle, I think Indomie Goreng (fried) will be good for you. The second, if you like the stronger taste of seasoning, Indomie Rendang might will give you a new experience to feel the Indonesian's spices in a slurp of noodle. If you like noodle soup with good savoriness level, Indomie Kari Ayam (chicken curry) will give you tasty chicken stock sensation. Don't forget to add some vegetable and poached egg to give extra 'power' to your food. 

So, these are my recommendation to have a pleasant and affordable breakfast in Jakarta. Did you guys knew about 4 foods above? Let me know your impression in the comment section below. Have a good day!