Istana Wedang

Jl. Kampung Kali (cabang Jl. Pemuda 21)
Semarang

Istana means castle. Wedang means drink (it can be hot or cold). Thus, once I heard about Istana Wedang, I immediately thought of a place which sells various drinks. Make sense, right?

However, this place sells mostly everything, from drinks to main dishes. The place was small compared to other restaurant, but the room setting was similar to a cafe.
We immediately ordered various kinds of food from the menu. They did not have a lot of choice for the food, but enough to satisfy one's hunger. The drinks (both cold and hot) were, obviously, more that the food choices.

1. Es Cencu...?? (I totally forgot the weird name)
This drink was basically milk tea with jelly balls or bubble tea. I thought they had some kind of grass jelly in it. It was OK, not too sweet either for a supposed refreshing drink.

2. Nasi Goreng Babat (Beef tripe fried rice)
This was my husband's choice. As always, I took a little bit just to taste. :)
The fried rice was sweet because of the sweet soy sauce. The tripe was amazingly tender and no smell at all. I'm always afraid of eating tripe because of it's yucky smell. But the rice was a little bit too oily to my taste.

3. Lontong Cap Gomeh
Lontong is a condensed steamed glutinous rice, usually with banana leaves. Cap Go Meh symbolized the 15th day (last day) of Chinese New Year celebration.
This dish was created by the Chinese descendants who lived in Indonesia using local ingredients.
Since lontong did not have any distinct taste, like regular steamed rice, it usually served with other dishes, such as opor ayam (chicken cooked in coconut milk), liver and gizzard stir-fried in spicy sauce, and sayur lodeh (in this case was eggplant cooked in coconut milk).

Together they all made a very delicious meal!

4. Fried noodle
The fried noodle had chicken, meatballs, and vegetables on it. However, it was a bit spicy (too much pepper), so the children couldn't eat it. :(
Also, the noodle was undercooked.

5. Es Teler
Literally means drunken ice, this drink did not have alcohol on it. The ingredients were avocado, young coconut meat, shaved agar-agar (jelly), and kolang-kaling (Nipah palm seed or atap seed). This was a very refreshing taste with the addition of coconut milk and ice. The sweetness was perfect. :)

To conclude my review at this time.. I would rather try their wedang than eating their food.