Ben and I got engaged in Bali, Indonesia. And after many trips there, I always crave for nasi goreng, gado gado and that spicy red sambal. I hardly had any Indonesian food since we moved to Europe 3  and a half years ago. But little did I know that would change when we moved to Porto recently.

The guy behind the Indonesian Pop Up in Porto is Audry Maulana, a Jakarta native who had been living and working in Porto for 2 years.


He works as a project consultant but he is a passionate cook. He makes Indonesian food as a cure for homesickness. I love how Audry never consults a recipe book or checks measurements. He would just put everything together, taste it, add a few more spices and it would always taste amazing.

After a brief stint in the restaurant scene in Paris and Versailles, I was itching to cook again. I shared some ideas with Gail and Audry about melding Philippine as well as other Southeast Asian flavours. They loved the concept and we had another Filipina friend Suzi of Handcrafted by Suzi join our team with her Filipino cooking skills.

We got busy grocery shopping, testing recipes and getting some friends to try the dishes. And we pulled in off in only 2 weeks! We got so many people in Porto- locals and foreigners alike- to get excited about the food.

The Indonesian Pop-up Kitchen Street Food Edition featured an Indonesian and Filipino menu. We had martabak (tofu-stuffed pastry), bihun (rice noodles and veggies), Indonesian-style chicken wings, Filipino turon (banana and jackfruit in pastry), and kaffir lime and peanut crackers.

We served almost 100 plates at Armazem de Cerveja and the place was packed!

Photography by Federica Piazza

Indonesian Street Food Pop-Up Kitchen 3 on facebook

More pictures from Indonesian Pop-up Kitchen 3 on Gail at Large

For the next event, we wanted something a bit different. Instead of serving a lot of plates, we decided to make it intimate and relaxed. We teamed up with the lovely ladies at Happy Nest, Lea and Capucine. They are a French duo who have the prettiest secret garden in Porto with an amazing brunch.


We came up with Indonesian Pop-up Kitchen 4: Rice Bowl Edition where the main dish comes in a beautiful turmeric rice bowl topped with fresh vegetables and Balinese sambal. We paired that with Balinese chicken satay skewers or Balinese tofu satay for vegetarians.

We also turned to our Southeast Asian neighbours for some inspiration. For starters, we had Vietnamese spring rolls in a peanut hoisin sauce.


And to finish it off, we served a bambo boat of Thai sticky rice mango. For refreshments, it was  either ginger and mint iced tea or lemongrass infusion.

It was a wonderful evening filled with Indonesian music, friendly chatter and of course, the smells of a flavorful home cooked Southeast Asian meal.

Photography by Laura Dronne of Mademoiselle Photography

Indonesian Pop-up Kitchen 4: Rice Bowl Edition on facebook
More pictures from Indonesian Pop-up Kitchen 4 on Gail at Large

If you want to know more about our upcoming events, get updates on the  Indonesian Pop Up in Porto page.