Sate Afrika

The one eatery everybody talks about in 2007 is every inch all the things we knew about it before we even went there: the owner and chief cook is from Mali, the sheep are from Cipanas, West Java, and the meat is served in cubes, not on skewers.

Before the latter is stored, it’s partially cooked, in medium heat, on a charcoal grill. When a diner calls to say he or she is coming over, the meat is taken out and placed in a large pot along with some stock and heaps of sliced onions. The pot is then covered and left to simmer before the meat is once more placed over charcoal, wrapped in aluminium foil, until it is dripping in fat.

Afterwards, these succulent morsels are heaped onto a large stainless steel tray before ending up on serving plates before us, to be savoured with mustard and chilli sauce, along with pisang tanduk, a firm-fleshed banana fried to golden dryness. It sure is nothing more than well-cooked meat eaten on a long bench over which a colourful map of Africa stares at us in all its beckoning otherness, but folks love it so much they just can’t get enough of it.

Every day Haji Ismail Coulli, the man behind this tiny sensation of a place — a basic shelter at a small corner of a parking lot, really — slaughters three sheep on average. And they disappear fast, usually between 10 am and 1 pm. So make sure you call first before coming. There’s only that one bench, which can seat up to eight people at a time on a full day, and tea and coffee come from the kitchen of the woman who lives opposite. A portion of meat is Rp 35,000 and can actually serve two people amply.