Pasar Senggol Indonesian Street Festival

Another weekend. Another festival.
We made a quick jaunt to Frances Street in Randwick, in Sydney's east, for the Pasar Senggol Indonesian Street Festival. The skies were a little patchy at times, but that didn't stop the enthusiasm of families and friends out for a tasty day out.
The Japanese stall at the start of the line was clearly not Indonesian. But the wafting smells of takoyaki and dorayaki on the grill drew us near anyway.

Dorayaki Japanese filled pancakes
Dorayaki are a popular Japanese snack, kind of like a pancake sandwich with various fillings inside. These include chocolate, custard, green tea and red bean which are signified by the specially shaped drizzles on their surface.

The takoyaki were also popular.

Takoyaki with prawns

These are prepared by pouring takoyaki batter into a gem iron tray...

And then twisting and turning the balls until cooked.

We shared a portion of six, garnished with fine bonito shavings and served with skewers as eating implements. Unfortunately ours were a little soggy and undercooked, even though we had had to wait for about ten minutes for them to be cooked.
We also had much fun with a bottle of Japanese lemonade, the kind which has a little glass ball inside that drops into the tunnel within the bottle's neck once you open it. The novelty of the clinking travelling marble soon wore off however when its movement to the bottle lip made drinking the lemonade itself rather cumbersome and difficult.
But back to the food, there were plenty of other snacks on offer:

Indonesian samosas

Sticky rice with chicken and sweet sticky rice cake

Happy baskets
We had these happy baskets, a crispy cup made from a deep-fried wonton sheet, lined with lettuce and topped with cooked vermicelli noodle, chicken, pork floss and sweet chilli sauce. Someone likened it to "Indonesian sang choi bao" which wouldn't be a bad call. Rather simple but quite tasty, and would go down well as a cocktail canape or dinner party appetiser, I think.

Spring rolls and deep fried wonton dumplings

Pandan sticky rice desserts

Indonesian samosa and martabak pancake
Fried foods are my weakness, so I couldn't help sampling a samosa and the martabak pancake. Alas I wasn't much a fan of either. The samosa was a little gluggy with peas and watery potato, the martabak pancake was crisp but the pea omelette inside wasn't quite what I expected.
We also tried lempeh, a homemade sticky rice mixed with chicken breast.

Combro pastel
The dish labelled as combro pastel was the surprise find of the day. M was intrigued by the queue of locals for this dish, and although it was marked as hot, we were surprised to find it completely mild. It seemed that you chose your tofu dumplings either steamed or fried, but we somehow managed to convince our server for a half-portion of each. A thick sauce of satay with mild chilli was then ladled on top, then squirted with a healthy dose of kecap manis.
We all found this super tasty, and the cool wintery day it provided the perfect dose of warming nourishment.

Sticky rice with palm sugar

Fried palm sugar pancakes
I'm not sure what these are called, but boy, were these right up my alley. The pancake was a little chewy with tunnels of air throughout, but the exterior had a sugary crunchy crust to it which had me grinning ear to ear.

Cake ketan hitam
Even before I googled cake ketan hitam, I thought it tasted like a heavier denser chiffon cake with the slight grit of ground black sticky rice. It is a style of chiffon cake, and black sticky rice flour forms the basis of this unusual dessert.

On our way out we grabbed a take-home pack of dorayaki. It's always a pleasure to end the day on something sweet.

Pasar Senggol Indoneseian Street Festival
Frances Street, Randwick, Sydney
Saturday 27 May 2006
posted by Helen (AugustusGloop) on 5/28/2006 10:42:00 pm


21 Comments:
At 5/29/2006 4:51 am,
Cat said…
i think i just gained 5kg but had a hell of a good time doing it...oh yum it all looks so delicious! im dying over here lol
At 5/29/2006 5:51 am,
Pim said…
Dorayaki, made famous among children all over Asia by the beloved Anime character Doraamon!
Everything else look yummy too.
At 5/29/2006 8:46 am,
Robyn said…
OH MY GOD, SO MUCH DELICIOUSNESS!! AHHHH why don't we have that here?!?!?!!
That kind of dorayaki is called obanyaki here, I think...but there's only once place I can think of to get them, so that's just ONE place that calls em obanyaki. They're one of my favorite foods ever! WE DON'T GET CHOCOLATE ONES! Arrrgh!
At 5/29/2006 9:49 am,
cin said…
you guys just seem to have the best food festivals there, and so many of them too. or maybe it's your ability to photograph and write about them, AG.
I know what you mean about that lemonade too - I can't understand why they wold put something that stops you from drinking the drink!
At 5/29/2006 10:16 am,
Veruca Salt said…
Go the Asian desserts. Also loving all the fried finger foods.
At 5/29/2006 4:19 pm,
ragingyoghurt said…
did you have the sticky rice with palm sugar? they look tasty!
At 5/29/2006 10:14 pm,
FooDcrazEE said…
there goes my diet.....
At 5/29/2006 11:55 pm,
Helen (AugustusGloop) said…
Hi Catesa - lol. No you didn't, but I'm glad you enjoyed the photos!
Hi Pim - It was tasty. Trust me to get hypnotised by the Japanese treats though =)
Hi Robyn - Dorayaki, obanyaki... argh! Who knows?
What do you mean you don't have deliciousness? Have you seen your blog lately? =) All that cupcake goodness. And pancakes. Pancakes! City Bakery cookies!
Hi Cin - There are always food festivals going on. Yeah, I just love hanging around food! =)
I was fascinated with the lemonade, but then I saw the corn syrup in the list of ingredients, and that kinda ruined everything =)
Hi Veruca - I hear you. And I love anything with palm sugar. Mmm....
Hi bowb - No, I didn't. I kept meaning to try it, but somehow forgot in the end. It did look tres tasty.
Hi foodcrazee - I follow the see food diet. It works a treat!
At 5/30/2006 10:05 am,
Julia said…
Another fantastic festival write-up. I've never tried dorayaki but I'll be looking out for them now for sure. And I love that lemonade, I'm a sucker for a novelty!
As for fried foods, my sister bought a deep fryer on Saturday, and we fried up dozens of spring rolls, scallop rolls, dumplings and other golden delights all afternoon. It was wrong, but oh so right. One of those purchases she's umm and aahed over for years but there's no looking back now!
At 5/30/2006 11:31 am,
joey said…
hey,ever since i discovered your site.i've been acting like a little girl who just discovered a treasure chest full of yummmies.=)
i love your food blog,and your photos always make my stomach grumble like mad.
just wondering if youve ever been to sushisuma in surry hills?being a jap food addict that i am, i think its a great place to go for lunch. here's a linkie for you to check out~
www.sushisuma.com
hope you like it
At 5/30/2006 11:09 pm,
Starlet said…
Aw your post makes me jealous. I actually live in Randwick (b/c I go to Uni there) and was thinking of checking out the Indo festival as well. Unfortunately it was raining on Sat when I looked out so I was too lazy thinking it would be too wet! My loss, all those dorayaki, yum!
At 5/31/2006 12:32 am,
Helen (AugustusGloop) said…
Hi Julia - This same stall sells dorayaki and takoyaki from their shop in Sussex Street, Chinatown. They're opposite Golden Century and sell pick-n-mix candies, dried fish and other Asian treats =)
They make this stuff in the window. You can't miss it.
Ahhh fried foods. My favourite food group of all.
Hi Joey - Thank you for your very kind comments. I'm glad that the site is whetting your appetite!
I have been to Sushisuma, a while ago now though. It did have tasty food. I may have to go again. *sigh* The punishing eating schedule I subject myself to...
At 5/31/2006 10:12 pm,
papa lazarou said…
always walk past and lick my lips at that dorayaki and takoyaki outlet in chinatown... saw on tv, restaurants in japan, where u can cook your own various types of those takoyaki balls in an iron tray/grill built into your table... delicious :P
At 6/03/2006 12:05 pm,
obachan said…
How interesting! I love the drizzles on the surface of the dorayaki. We call them oban-yaki or kaiten-yaki here, and they don't have the drizzles. And those takoyaki with prawns look so tempting. You have more creative Japanese foods over there. Lucky you! :D
At 6/03/2006 11:28 pm,
Helen (AugustusGloop) said…
Hi Papa Lazarou - I've actually done the whole cook-your-own-takoyaki in Osaka. It was fun!
Hi Obachan - Maybe these are obanyaki then. Argh. I'm getting all confused...
At 6/07/2006 7:41 pm,
Liz :) said…
I just happened to stumble upon your blog when I was looking up the Lindt cafe on google! Love the pictures and your blog!!!
Will be checking in regularly!
How often does this Indo St Festival happen?
I'm popping over to Syd (Im from Perth) mid June for a few weeks and def want to go to the Growers food festival that you wrote about!
At 6/08/2006 12:33 am,
Helen (AugustusGloop) said…
Hi Liz - Hi and welcome to my site. I'm glad you're enjoying the ride!
I presume this festival takes place annually. Most of them do. I have a food festival calendar which I try to keep up-to-date on the right-hand side panel of this site if you want to pre-plan activities for your upcoming trip. You should be able to make the Good Living Growers Markets if you're here for a few weeks as that takes place on the first Sat of every month.
At 8/04/2006 1:51 am,
Anonymous said…
Hey Helen, it calls lemper, not lempeh. Also, if you wanna find lots of good Indonesian restaurant, try to go to Kingsford, Randwick, Bondi Junction or Maroubra.
At 8/06/2006 1:37 am,
Helen (AugustusGloop) said…
Hi Anonymous - Thanks for the comment. I actually used the spelling that the vendor used in their sign, so I suppose it's one of those inevitable variances that comes with anglicising foreign words.
I keep meaning to check out the Indonesian restaurants in Randwick and Kingsford. They're meant to be great. Thanks for the tip about Bondi Junction and Maroubra too.
At 8/20/2006 12:17 pm,
Anonymous said…
Hi, just surfed by. Noticed you had problems with drinking the Japanese lemonade Ramune.
If you look carefully, there's actually an "area" on one side of the bottle that prevents the marble from rolling down when tipped up for drinking. XD
At 8/20/2006 11:41 pm,
Helen (AugustusGloop) said…
Hi Katrin - Aha. Thanks for the tip! I'll know for next time!
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