Warkop Iwan
Happy Chinese New Year, ChoxChe-ers!! May the New Year bring you joy, love and peace! What do you guys usually do on the first day of CNY? Please comment on the blog to let me know! For me, it is a family tradition to visit my grandma from dad’s side on the morning of 1st day of CNY. My family would spend 3-4 hours catching up with grandma and all the aunties and cousins who would also be visiting at the same time as we do. By the time we go back home in the afternoon, my aunts and cousins from mother’s side would normally already be in our house waiting for us. We would be busy serving the guests until 8-9 pm, before visiting back my aunties who are mostly living very nearby us. By the time we call it a day, it would normally be around midnight.
This year I have done something a little bit different though. Instead of going back home after done visiting all relatives at 1 midnight, my cousins and I decided to have Indomie (one of the brand of instant noodle in Indonesia) as late supper at Warkop Iwan (Location: Jalan H. Misbah No. 14D, Hamdan, Medan Maimun, Kota Medan, Sumatera Utara 20212 ; opens 24/7). The first and renowned warkop (eating place) for Indomie is actually the one located beside it, called Warkop Agam Senyum (Jalan H. Misbah No. 14, Hamdan, Medan Maimun, Kota Medan, Sumatera Utara 20212; opens 24/7). But my cousins all prefer Warkop Iwan over Warkop Agam Senyum due to its less crowded place. Also, according to them, the noodle in Warkop Iwan has less spices added in, thus tasted less fatty and salty. I had never eaten Indomie from both warkop before, so I just followed their preference. Let's just jump to the food review, shall we!
The warkop's outlook
Food:
1. Indomie Bangladesh (Rp. 25.000/ S$2.50): The instant noodle was cooked in a large quantity of water until very little soup remained, hence often referred as “mie becek” by the locals. Aside from the addition of original spice that comes with the instant noodle, an extra spice from Aceh was also added in.The egg bits in the soup were not made by directly putting and stirring the eggs in the soup. Instead, they were firstly fried in another frying pan and cut into pieces before being added to the soup. Though was having extra spices added in, this noodle surprisingly still tasted plain with a little hint of spiciness due to the chopped bird’s eye chilies add-on. The fried onions garnished on top were very crunchy. The noodle's texture was not too soft nor too firm, just perfect! (ChoxChe’s rank of 7/10).
Indomie Bangladesh aka mie becek
2. Indomie jumbo (Rp. 32.000/ S$ 3.20): A bigger portion of instant noodles (probably a size of 1 and half pack of instant noodles) that was fried together with the eggs. The noodle was oily and overcooked as the texture was too soggy for this one. Likewise mie becek, it had also tasted kind of bland. (ChoxChe’s rank of 5/10).
Indomie Jumbo
3. Indomie goreng polos plus sunny side up egg (aka Gopo; Rp. 10.000/ S$1.00 plus Rp.4.000/S$0.40 for sunny side up egg): This is my favorite amongst all the three. However, the delicious taste was coming from the original spice per se. I am sure ChoxChe-ers would ask why bother eating Gopo at warkop, if we could actually make it ourselves at home. While this is true, I shall say the ambience of the warkop itself has for a certain degree influenced how we taste the food and in this case it has given an extra enjoyable flavor to this simple gopo. I mean isn’t it better eating noodle together with friends or the people you are closed with late night, chit chatting while looking over the busy street, rather than eating the instant noodle all by yourself at home? (ChoxChe’s rank of 9/10).
Indomie goreng polos (aka gopo) plus sunny side up egg.
Beverage:
Teh Susu Telur (aka TST; Rp. 12.000/ S$1.20): This drink was composed of 3 elements: the tasteless tea, the sweet condense milk, and the foamy and buttery raw egg yolk. Not only did this drink taste extremely sweet but it also had a super intense taste of raw egg yolk. Definitely worth the try! Do ask for extra ice to counterbalance the extreme sweetness! (ChoxChe’s rank of 7/10).
Teh Susu Tarik (aka TST)
P.S: Please do take note that there will be many beggars, DVD sellers and street musicians coming in to the warkop. Some of the street musicians will perform in front of warkop, and you could always enjoy the music or clap along with it as aint nobody is gonna force you to donate a cent if you don’t feel like it. Do also check on your seat, table and the table legs (pretty much all your surroundings) for chewed bubblegum as I have gotten one glued to my skirt from the table leg. A tip for ChoxChe-ers if this happen to you is to immediately use an ice cube to harden it up. It will get released off easily from the fabric. Do not ever try to scratch it away as this will just cause the gum to stick even deeper to the fabric.
Got a big chewing gum from the table leg stuck to my dress (hmm...)
Ambience level: 9/10 (fans, TV, friendly waiters)
ChoxChe’s recommendation: 9/10.
Hope this food review is useful! Till the next post!
