Krakatoa Indonesian Cuisine, a Southeast Asian paradise found in Hollywood
Krakatoa Indonesian Cuisine on Hollywood Boulevard shares a storefront with a psychic adviser.
A tiny storefront eatery on Hollywood’s bustling main drag offers a rare opportunity to dine on genuine, albeit pricey, Indonesian specialties.
By ALAN J. WAX
We went far afield from our traditional turf for the opportunity to dine on a cuisine we’d never had before: that of Indonesia.
Our recent travels took us to Hollywood, a small, but bustling beach-front city located between Fort Lauderdale and Miami. It was well worth the hour-plus travel. There, we happily dined on the exotic, traditional offerings of Krakatoa Indonesian Cuisine, a small Indonesian restaurant first established in 2014 at the nearby Yellow Green Farmers Market. It moved into the storefront on Hollywood Boulevard in 2017.
Krakatoa, which shares a storefront with a psychic adviser, is housed in a narrow space. There’s dining outside, in the front window and adjacent to the doorway, then there is a long open kitchen in a narrow, colorful, umbrella-lined passageway that leads to another small dining room in the rear. The décor mixes walls of bright orange and black and hammer-etched brass pictures, as well as the fringed orange umbrella
Passage through the kitchen area.
Chef Abe Mois in his kitchen.
The restaurant specializes in flavors from the area of Sumbawa Island, Indonesia. Self-taught chef-partner Abe Mois is from Lombok, an Indonesian island east of Bali and west of Sumbawa. Consequently, many of his dishes, based on his childhood memories, are from that part of Indonesia. His partner, John B. Anthony Jr., who works the front of the house, moved to Miami from Virginia 30 years ago. The two, according to published reports, met some 12 years ago, when Anthony traveled to Indonesia. Mois eventually moved to the U.S. to further his education.
To be sure, the food at Krakatoa is pricey – a recent dinner for four, including a couple of beers, came to $125 pre-tax and tip – but it was unique and oh so tasty.
Rijisttael.
While Indonesian cuisine can be spicy, we asked our helpful, friendly server, Luis Alberto, that our orders be toned down to accommodate the spice-averse at our table. The kitchen complied and, to be sure, the dishes arrived as requested, but still tremendously flavorful. Luis also brought small bowls of mouth-searing sambal sereh, a spicy lemon grass sauce,for those like me who wanted to enliven our dishes. Let’s just say, a little dab will do ya.
Our order included rijsttafel ($75) which according to Britannica.com is an elaborate meal of Indonesian dishes developed during the Dutch colonial era, likely inspired by a similar Indonesian multiple-dish meal known as nasi padang. It arrived in an oversized, shallow rust-hued, handled ceramic bowl filled with salad; sate chicken
Beef semur
on sticks; tapioca crackers known as krupak; opor, a dish of chicken and potatoes simmered with turmeric, galangal, coriander, lemongrass and coconut milk; and Soto Kambing, extraordinarily tender chunks of lamb in a full flavored sauce made with star anise, turmeric, garlic, shallots, lemongrass, and candlenut
We also ordered semur ($29), a dish from Java of sauteed beef and vegetables with a rich, earthy sauce flavored with whole cardamom, cloves, cinnamon and star anise and finished with Indonesian sweet soy sauce known as kekap manis.
I reveled, along with our friends, with every flavorful bite of every dish. My wife – she’s the spice averse eater – to my surprise nearly wolfed down everything on her plate.
We left fully sated. Dinner at Krakatoa proved to be an adventure, but one filled with countless pleasures. It was worth the trip. And, a reminder: Don’t forget to pay the curbside parking meter, in effect 24 hours a day every day.
Krakatoa Indonesian Cuisine
1910 Hollywood Blvd., Hollywood, FL 33030
(754) 221-0914
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