Toko Rame

Last Saturday, we had Indonesian food out, second day in a row! Yummy! We visited for the second time together a little restaurant in Bellflower, CA called Toko Rame, or literally translated "Busy Store". This little restaurant is a halal Indonesian restaurant with likely Muslim owners. It was a scorcher outside, but relief was found inside, not only in their air conditioning but also this wonderful drink:

Es Shanghai - Shanghai Ice

This is a wonderful mix of the different iced drinks you can find in most Indonesian restaurants. It has green jelly, cocunut cubes, tape, green flour strips, jackfruit and ice overlayed with sweet syrup. Although I am not a fan of tape (not sure you want this translation; fermented rice), the taste in this concoction was not overbearing and suited the dessert drink well.

The real food consisted of only two dishes on this day as we ate just the two of us, the first of which was:Siomay Bandung

This is the first time we ate this dish at this restaurant. We ate a very similar dish the previous time we ate at the restaurant, called tahu camput surabaya (surabayan mixed tofu) . The siomay bandung somehow lacked the taste of the first one. However, the peanut sauce was still tasty, and overall good portions make this a good choice to try, although I would reccommend the tahu campur surabaya more. For you stinky bean (pete) lovers, the tahu campur surabaya also had stinky bean!

Our second dish:

Salty and Spicy Fried Fish Fried Rice with Pete (Stinky bean again!)

Any entree with double the fried food and that is spicy will turn out exquisite. And so this dish was. For you stinky bean lovers, the stinky bean on this dish lacked the usual pungent aroma and strong taste and may have been disappointing, however to myself, it made the dish better because it didn't overwhelm the remainder of the tastes. The fried fish is not mixed into the rice in this case; neither is the sunny-side up egg. The acar (vegetable garnish) is spicy without beaing too sour; perfect for my tastes. The white things on the side? They are fried shrimp chips, oh so yummy! They are already tasty on their own, but when they are mixed with fried rice or dipped in peanut sauce or a spicy broth, they taste even better.

The Good: Price including the dessert drink was only 23 dollars including tip. The food was good, but not as sastifying as our first visit.

The Bad: The location is a little ghetto, although close to the 91 freeway. Minimal seating, again maybe 20-25 diners maximum eating together in this room. Food not so spicy today.

Overall: Although the food was not spicy enough for my tastes (neither was the sambal), the food was fairly tasty and cheap. Another 3 stars out of 5 from me. With Indo food being so difficult to find in the area, I am sure we will eat here again in the future and I promise to review different dishes... maybe even some oxtail!