Dr. LT's Food Adventure: Sate House

812 Nogales Ave
Walnut, CA 91789
(626) 581-7726

General:

As a Tour de Cuisine for Sate House, I suggest first timers to order Nasi Bungkus (weekends only here) in addition to Sate (isn't it obvious from the name?) and fried rice/noodle. Nasi bungkus is an exotic mixed-dish on rice served and wrapped with a banana leaf. Think of it as a Tour de Cuisine on Indonesian multi-regional dishes presented in almost tester-size format. There is also an overtone of the exoticism of the fragrance from the banana leaf. The rating? 4 stars, I think that it is a bit on the sweet side here to merit more points.

Sate house is about their sate (satay). I suggest first comers to go with pork or chicken. Sate is the Indonesian version of skewer meat. Chunks of meat are marinaded with Indonesia-specific sweet soy sauce (esteemed Indonesian friends swear up and down thaht they can fix any food to be a gourmet food by adding a dose of ABC brand sweet soy sauce and ABC brand "sambal" chili sauce). The skewer is then grilled and topped with Indonesian peanut sauce. The sweet soy sauce is on the dark side and is very earthy with a strong soy bean undertone. However, this is overpowered by the sweetness of the sauce, which I was told, comes from exotic palm sugar. Indonesian peanut sauce, unlike the sour Thai counterpart, is also sweet with a touch of salt savoriness. So, this is a sweet on sweet food with a touch of savoriness. The sweetness, however, is delicious and is not over the top. Expert clienteles would opt for extra sliced shallot which gives a nice harsh onionish finish. Their satay is server with a yellow-colored pickled which is cucumber and carrot immersed in sugar, vinegar, and turmeric.

The fried rice is unique and delicious. Guess what they use? the sweet soy sauce, ubiquitous to Indonesian dishes as fish sauce to Thai and Viet dishes. I suggest you to have the fried rice as "combination" with pork, chicken, and shrimp. Another backbone of the dish is the spicy chili sauce. The chili sauce is neutral to mild savory. The fried rice is topped with over an easy runny fried egg.

The fried noodle is also unique and delicious and follows the same concept. The difference is that the egg is scrambled in instead of served on the top.

The other dishes are unique as they have the touch of the mom and pop owners, influence by the cultures of the places they lived. They lived in Indonesia, China, and Hong Kong before they moved to the States. So, these very friendly, especially pop, amazingly speak Indonesian, Mandarin, Cantonese, English, and also Dutch.
As a final note: food is on the SPICY HOT side. Aside from the pre-made Nasi Bungkus, you will need to specify the spiciness. Always do a one downgrade, meaning that if you think about medium, say mild.

Details:

Bitter Sweet Chips (Emping Pedas): fried appetizer, available at the table near the cashier. Made from ground seeds of an Indonesian fruit. Complex flavor profile. Dominant bitterness is equally contrasted by added sugar sweetness and supported by mild saltiness and spiciness. A very unique aroma, too. An acquired taste and NOT noob friendly. 4 stars.

Fried Rice, special ordered items: hard core with tripe and stinky bean . Dominant stinky bean aroma. Imagine the aroma of shiitake (xianggu) mushroom blended with sulfur and you get the idea. The taste of the stinky bean itself is mildly bitter giving a nice contrast to the fried rice, which has a flavor profile of medium salty and mild sweet. The tripe is sweetly marinaded prior cooking. Spiciness varies according to request. Whatever spiciness level you think you could handle, drop it by one level. Exotic and for the most adventurous of patrons only. 4+ stars.

Pork Satay: sweet soy sauce marinade (see my previous review), grilled with slight char, sweet peanut sauce dressing. Yellow pickle on the side. Six skewers when ordered without rice cake, five when ordered with. 4 stars.

Ketoprak Salad: rice noodle salad with peanut sauce dressing. Add cucumber, cooked bean sprout, cubed fried tofu, and fried tapioca chips. Sauce has a strong garlic overtone. Flavor profile is sweet and mild vinegar sourness. The least exciting one. So so. 3 stars.

Fried Shrimp: their version of Cantonese Salt Baked Shrimp (Chiu Yim Ha). Unlike the Cantonese counterpart theirs has a medium thick breading. MSGed saltiness blackbone. Garlic and green onion undertone, jalapeno overtone. 4 stars.