
Last night I had dinner at Makanan Indonesia. There are a number of interesting looking dishes on their menu, a reasonable portion of which I have sampled. On this occasion my interest was piqued by something called Dendeng Empai Belado. According to the menu this is "fried marinated soft beef pieces and potato chips tossed with Makanan Indo's chilli". I thought to myself that this could be really good or really bad. However, I chanced my hand and ordered this dish. My concern was that this dish might be full of onion or some other vegetables. I was also curious what would constitute potato chips in this context. When the dish arrived I found out. These were literally potato chips or crisps. I was expecting some variety of fried potatoes, but crisps surprised me. I have never seen a dish like this before, but thankfully it was void of onions or other vegetables. Anyway, the chips were nice; obviously homemade, but as good or even better than any crisps on the market. Owing to the sauce, the chips ranged from crunchy to crispy. This might sound like a shortcoming, but I appreciated the variety of textures that this provided. The chilli sauce was sweet, tangy, and not particularly spicy. This was by no means a bad thing, but I was hoping for the hot chilli sauce I normally associate with South-East Asian cuisine. As for the beef, the menu said "soft beef pieces". I would consider the beef in this dish to be more well done. Again this wasn't bad, but I was expecting the beef to be more tender. When I placed my order, the waiter said that this dish is usually consumed with roti or rice, so I ordered some roti. The roti was good; not too flaky as roti can be, but I didn't find it to be a necessary accompaniment. Overall, I took a gamble on this dish, but I think it paid off nicely.