Java Spice Fails to Stimulate

With our upcoming Indonesian trip just weeks away, my mom and I were craving some Indonesian grub.  There aren't too many Indonesian restaurants in the San Gabriel Valley, and because we are regulars at Merry's House of Chicken, we decided to try something different and give Java Spice in Rowland Heights another chance.  Unfortunately, our original verdict remains intact - what a let down. 

Indonesian food is all about bold flavors.  The mélange of sweet, salty, spicy, sour, bitter and savory all comes together in one perfect entity, and Java Spice just doesn't quite know how to capture that.

The first time I dined at Java Spice was four years ago at the request of a friend and his Vietnamese wife.  They had never had Indonesian food, and were excited when they found this place.  I was too and was delighted when they invited me along to introduce them to Indo cooking.  After all, my mother is a native Indonesian, and I am half Indonesian so I know my Indonesian food.  I had them try the very traditional dishes like gado-gado, nasi goreng, and sate kambing.  And all I remember thinking about that night was how sinfully unspectacular the food was, how embarrassing.  And I never went back ... 

Up until two and half weeks ago when our financial adviser was telling my parents how much he was just loving this new Indonesian place he recently discovered with his wife.  When my parents related the story to me and mentioned Java Spice, I couldn't help but immediately tell them it's not so good.  Our financial adviser, who was within earshot, then couldn't help but immediately feel embarrassed for suggesting such a place that I disliked.  Oops.  I had my parents tell him that I was there years ago, and that things might have changed.  Things can change, right?  The guy was seriously raving about how great this place was, I couldn't deny we were all a bit intrigued.  After all, it was because of him we are all fans of Merry's House of Chicken, another Indonesian joint.  So, what did we all do?  We checked out Java Spice.  

It was a very busy place on a Saturday night.  Lucky for us, we came at the right time as one booth in the corner was readily available for us.  We sat down and studied the menu.  One thing  I do applaud this restaurant for is how vividly visual and varied the menu is.  I normally don't like it when restaurants have way too much stuff to offer, but when it comes to Asian food, the more the merrier.  From fried noodles and rice combinations to stir-fried veggies and seafood with chili, my mouth was watering just reading down the menu and looking at the photos that accompanied most of the listed items.  I couldn't decide what to order, but finally went with the nasi bungkus, a rice combination dish that consists of curried beef, fried chicken, a medley of jack-fruit and tofu with hard-boiled egg and green chili all tightly wrapped in a banana leaf.  

Nasi bungkus just to give you an idea of what it looks like

Once you unwrap the bundle, it looks like one big pile of puke (hey, it's the truth!), but oh my God, it is so robust in flavor, it is the true essence of what Indonesian food is all about in a nutshell.  Sadly, the nasi bungkus at Java Spice lacked any real flavor.  Also the beef satay my mom ordered was really hard and chewy, and the peanut sauce was a tad too thick and devoid of any zing peanut sauces normally encompass.  And my dad's nasi goreng ayam, or fried rice with chicken, was disappointingly bland and overly greasy.  The only good things we had were the drinks, es durian and es cendol, two of Indonesia's most popular, refreshing, shaved ice beverages with sweet condensed milk.  And the other saving grace was how quick and efficient the service was, even on a busy night.  Oh, and the food was easy on the wallet.

Beef satay, but not from Java Spice

Because of friendly dollar signs and an array of dishes to choose from, my mom and I wanted to give it one more shot to see if maybe what we had ordered a couple weeks ago was just done on an off night.  This time we ordered soto ayam, ketoprak, cah kangkung (sauteed water spinach with tomatoes, garlic & quail eggs), and mie ayam bakso (a bowl of dry chicken noodle with beef ball).  The latter two were pretty tasty; the soto and ketoprak just missed the mark.  Again, the peanut sauce on the salad didn't pack a punch like we're used to, and the soto was the world's blandest chicken soup ever!  No hint of turmeric, ginger, or lemongrass at all!  It just tasted like plain, hot coconut milk. 

Ketoprak, mie ayam bakso, & cah kangkung

Cah kangkung, or sauteed water spinach

Earth's flavorless soto ayam, or Indonesian chicken noodle soup

The upside on this visit?  The cooks came out to join us in a conversation on our trip to Indo, where we should visit, what to look out for, and how they liked life in the U.S. compared to their former life in Indonesia.  Despite their mediocre cooking, service was friendly.  But at the end of the day, I'm still looking for scrumptiously, jaw-dropping, finger-licking, I-can't-wait-to-have-that-again kinda food, and Java Spice certainly doesn't satisfy.