Avigayil Damm

I have this thing about Soto. I just love it. Probably not as much as Rev. Petrus Agung though, because I certainly don’t have Soto ALL the time. Ok that was sort of an exclusive circle’s joke, if you didn’t get it, I don’t blame you.

So back to Soto. I was meeting up with friends at Pasaraya just to have lunch. It was one of those ‘city tour’ day, where I do all sorts of errands in one day so that I don’t have to get out of the house too often. The traffic is just too bad, and I can’t be bothered having to spend lots of time commuting, especially since I have now moved to a place out of the city (since I’ve been back from Haiti).

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Today I am back to the office in Jakarta. I arrived last night very late, at almost midnight due to the slight delay of the flight (when is it ever not delayed?). The office boy who usually makes a round to take lunch order was out groceries shopping today for office supplies. Therefore, my colleague and I ordered some food from one of the drivers who happened to be out of the office anyway.

My colleague ordered grilled chicken and I opted for soto ayam. Soto ayam is a (chicken) soup with a mix of different ingredients, depending on the type of soto. This one, a clear soto or soto bening, consists of glass noodles, chopped white cabbage, tomato slices and of course shredded chicken. The soup is usually made of the chicken broth, spiced up with some galangal, spring onions, lemon grass, onion, garlic, some ginger and coriander. Personally I like the Batavia version, soto Betawi, which has uses similar spices, minus the coriander, plus candle nuts, turmeric and coconut milk. But this soto was not bad at all!