Rumah Makan Aceh Seulawah Benhill

July 17, 2011 Rumah Makan Aceh Seulawah Benhill

Our latest food adventure takes us to tiny restaurant situated deep in Bendungan hilir (Benhil) Jakarta. We had our eye on a 15 year old Acehnese eatery with quite the reputation. The restaurant is hidden behind some peddler carts so keep an eye out for it.

Anxious to experience their delicacies we started off with a rather typical Indonesian offering, the infamous Nasi Goreng (Fried rice.)  Seulawah’s Nasi Goreng comes with a fried omelette, emping (cracker) and the regular garnish of tomatoes and cucumber. The fried rice was a little heavy on the spice, which is naturally expected in Aceh cuisine.  It’s hard to go wrong with fried rice and Seulawahs hits the spot nice.

An item on the menu that stood out like a sore thumb was Sambal Ganja. Being the adventurer that we were, we had to try this. A quick taste of it revealed some shrimp in the sambal. A lot of green stuff is mixed into this however hold your horses as it is NOT ganja. It turned out to be Star fruit, which is used as a base in most of acehnese cuisine. Yes most of the houses in Aceh are lined with Star Fruit Trees. Coming back to the Sambal-G we were told that this dish did NOT contain any Ganja at all,  perhaps the law had something to do with this. Overall the sambal was rather bland, with the shrimp giving it a chewy texture and the star fruit rendering it rather tart and sour.

Next up was the Bebek Gule, duck cooked in a curry-like coconut milk soup. This was served cold and we had to request it to get warmed up. This was not their best dish as we had to struggle to separate the meat from the duck,  perhaps a result of the duck spending the entire day swimming in the serving pan.

Next up was the Mie Aceh. This was a tasty albeit salty treat. We ordered the Mie Special and this came with emping and fried shallots sprinkled over it. This is a dish that most people come into Aceh restaurants for and our plateful did not disappoint. Mie Aceh is different than other noodle dishes as it is cooked with almost a dozen different spices and has a strong complex taste.

We were then served the Ikay kayu, a traditional Aceh dish which involves drying up tuna fish until it is as hard as wood, hence the name. This was served cold at Seulawahs unfortunately. However its salty and spicy taste and texture makes it rather addictive and the perfect condiment for some of the other dishes we were partaking in.

Last and perhaps the star of the show was the Ayam tangkap. This was a plateful of deep fried pieces of Ayam kampung or Free range chicken covered with Curry leaves that had been fried in different herbs and spices. The leaves are crunchy almost cracker like and savory. We found ourselves fishing through the curry leaves in search for the tiny pieces of chicken. This is the must have dish at Seulawahs.

Seulawah’s also serves up Roti Canai with various toppings and a mean Teh Tarik. Our take on Suelawah’s food is mixed. Perhaps visiting this restaurant during the after hours  was a mistake as the food felt rather cold, it would be interesting to drop in during lunch time when everything should have been freshly made.

Rumah makan Aceh SEULAWAH
Jl. Bendungan Hilir no. 8
Jakarta Pusat.
Seberang Rumah Sakit TNI
021-5708660

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