depot sulaiman ayam bakar bumbu rujak

The best way to describe ayam bumbu rujak is without words.

But with copious amount of photos.

Ayam bumbu rujak

A mere mortal might describe it as a dish with ayam kampung taking centre stage, supported by a thick bumbu rujak, an orange-red sauce that is redolent with bay leaves, kaffir lime leaves, lemongrass, galangal and chillies. All the good stuff.

Ayam kampung is a fighting breed of chicken, its meat is more muscular and on the leaner, tougher side, but one that I find tastier, more flavoursome. In this dish, the flavour is brought out even more by grilling directly over small charcoal, resulting in the delicious charring of the skin.

In our house, we like to have this dish for breakfast, fresh off the grill. The only problem with that is, I am not much of a morning person. This is proving to be quite a predicament since our favourite place to have ayam bumbu rujak is Depot Sulaiman, which sells out really quickly after it opens in early morning. So, the usual procedure for us is, to ask them to set aside our order the night before and pick it up in the late morning after they've finished grilling it.

Sate daging

Eventhough the chicken is the bestseller of the shop, all of its other protein items are as equally delicious, as they are equally lashed with the beautifully red bumbu rujak, equally grilled over charcoal. Like its sate daging, beef cube satay, chunky and tender; and its sate usus, chicken intestines satay, chewy and full of sauce.

Sate usus

Sate usus, on a different day

Jangan tewel

But even its side dishes are done remarkably well. I am a fan of its jangan tewel, a young jackfruit with green beans side dish, done also in bumbu rujak spices, but with a lighter, thinner coconut milk. The young jackfruit fresh from the market, yields easily when chewed, very much unlike the slightly tougher version we get in the canned form. The green beans are cooked to the softer side but still holding their form.

The less remarkable side dish is its jangan tahu, a tofu dish with small beef shin pieces, done similar to its young jackfruit counterpart. What we usually do is combine the two together to make a young jackfruit tofu side dish, making it into a dish that is both delicious and texturally interesting.

Jangan tahu

The greedy person that I am, I like to pile a large mound of rice in the middle of my plate, to grab everything and plop them carelessly on top with a generous serving of the sauce.

With each spoon of rice, I pick a little bit of the young jackfruit, a little bit of the tofu, a bite of the chicken, alternating with a bite of the beef satay and the intestines. Nothing but pure satisfaction.

A bit about the place that produces such magnificence. Like all the restaurants, warungs, depots that serves good food in Malang, Depot Sulaiman has a long history. It has been owned by 3 generations of women, opened in 1959 by the grandmother of the current owner, Ibu Napsiah. Ibu Sikah was the second owner, the mother. And Ibu Yanti is the current owner.

The warung is not hard to find once you've got your bearings. Along Jalan Jendral Basuki Rahmad, try and spot the blue gate with the blue roof. Don't go through it. Approach the gate and look to your left, there should be a smaller, less grand, orange gate, with the title "JL. JEND. BASUKI RAHMAD Gg. II, RW. 02 KEL. KAUMAN". Go through the orange gate. The fourth house from the gate, on your right is a yellow building that is Depot Sulaiman. I've also included a map, below.

Depot Sulaiman
Jalan Jendral Basuki Rahmad Gg. 4 / 952, RT09, RW 08
Malang JAWA TIMUR
Open Mon-Sat 7.30am-1pm (or until it runs out)