Drinking Virgin Milk in the House of Raminten

A few days before my trip, my colleagues told me that a visit to the House of Raminten in Yogyakarta was a must. Their actual advice was:

“You must try the virgin milk in the House of Raminten!”

Virgin milk? Err.. okay guys!

The House of Raminten

The restaurant was not hard to find, it’s almost a walking distance from the hotel we stayed at, though we paid a $1 taxi fare to get there. We were greeted by the picture above. She’s the Raminten. A drag queen character from a local TV show. I think I might be wrong, but that’s what I gathered from my cousin who’s a local. We had to wait for a half-hour to get in, the place was packed even at almost midnight.

Cat Rice

Back home, in Jakarta, I have been begging my family to take me to eat Nasi Kucing, translated literally as “cat rice”. They didn’t understand my fascination with “cat rice”. “It’s just a mini-sized meal, the size you feed to the cat”, they explained. It didn’t matter, I was curious, I still wanted to try it, but they never did take me. In their defence, they have taken me to eat plenty of other types of food.

In Yogyakarta, I finally got to try it. Nasi Kucing, or Sego Kucing as the locals called it, aka “cat rice” was exactly what they told me, a mini-sized meal. It contained a small portion of rice (in the picture above, I asked for an extra serving), a bit of 7 pieces of stir-fried tempeh, 10 pieces of chili anchovy, and a pinch of sambal.

We also ordered Tempe (tempeh) Mendoan

Eaten while it’s still hot, together with a small bite of chili Padi, usually during tea time. This snack is famous all over Java. We have it rather regularly in the office, usually right after the office hours to gear up to do some overtime. There were even times when we served this to foreign colleagues during regional meetings.

Lastly, from the House of Raminten before we returned to the vintage hotel we were staying in, Susu Perawan Tancep — literal translation: the virgin milk — served in boobs cups. It contained milk (of course) and some local herbs. The taste reminded me of masala tea.

I didn’t like it, but my cousin did.

To each his own boobs I guess 🤷🏽‍♀️

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