Tuban Eats

Traditional Tuban cuisine is characterized by the extremely hot chili flavor. I guess, the majority of local Tubanese loves to eat very spicy foods. To them, the more their mouths numb and their bodies sweat when eating spicy foods mean that the more they enjoy eating the food. Accordingly, some Indonesian food that is not supposed to be spicy, such as sayur bening (spinach soup) and sayur asam (mixed vegetable in sour soup), here they also put chilies within.

In relation to my interest to explore traditional Tuban cuisines, I usually ask my local friends to accompany me on my food safari. Not to forget, I always bring stomach-relieving tablets, promag, to prevent discomfort due to excessive gastric acid, chewed before and after having the very spicy food.

Here, I recommend some popular place to eat traditional spicy foods in Tuban (I challenge if you dare to try). I put 1 star (mild) to 5 stars (extremely hot) just to indicate the ‘hot’ level of the food.

Pecel Pincuk Patung*
Description: A mixed vegetable (agati flower, cassava leaves, bean sprout, petai cina (a kind of bean), and basil with peanut sauce, served with rice.
Place: Near Patung round about in Kalijogo St. The small warung (food stand) is in the left side if you come from the round about. ASK locals which one pecel pincuk stand is.
Open time: around 6 p.m. till mid night.
Other info: They also have empal (spice-flavored beef), fried eggs, chicken egg satay, perkedel (potato cake), rempeyek kacang (peanut chip), rempeyek teri (anchovy chip), salted duck egg, and soy bean milk.

Lontong Tahu Tri Dharma*
Description: Lontong (rice cake) and fried tofu with peanut sauce.
Place: Sutomo St. in the intersection to Ronggolawe St.
Open time: around 6:30 p.m. –

Wader MU**
Description: Fried fresh water fish with sambal (chili paste). I give 2 stars for the sambal, the fried fish itself is not spicy.
Place: Warung Moeloeng. Go toward Semen Gresik mess, if you come from Tuban, the place is about 1 km after passing the mess in the left side. Phone number: +6281335304014.
Open time: morning till night around 10 p.m.

Lontong Kikil**
Description: Kikil soup served with lontong (rice cake). Kikil is the chewy part around the cartilage and foot part of the ox meat. The soup is rich in traditional spice of the typical East Javanese cooking.
Place: Near Patung round about in Kalijogo St. The small warung (food stand) is in the left side if you come from the round about. ASK locals which one Lontong Kikil stand is.
Open time: morning till afternoon.

Bechek Menthog (Duck Curry)**
Description: Duck curry and satay, served with steamed grounded corn or lontong (rice cake).
Place: go to Medika Mulia hospital, pass it heading south for another 300 m, then ASK locals for more detail guidance. The place is on the right side, under pohon sawo (big sapodilla tree).
Open time: morning-afternoon.
Other info: curry will be ready after 12 p.m. better come on time otherwise they run out of stock quickly due to so many customers.

Nasi Pasar Baru***
Description: Various Tuban cuisines including delicious seafood cooking, served with warm rice on a piece of teak leaf. Famous for all sorts of curry: catfish, sting ray, squid curry cooked with squid ink. Ask for the sambal (chili paste).
Place: Pasar Baru (central market of Tuban), go in through eastern gate (main entrance), and you’ll notice a warung there.
Open time: 6 p.m. – 3 a.m.
Other info: Ask for the teak leaf on the plate.

Ikan Bakar Nurhamidah***
Description: Grilled fish served with rice and fresh vegetables. The sambal (chili paste) is very tasty. The way they grill the fish is excellent, well cooked but not too dry making the taste of the grilled fish so marvelous. I give 3 stars for the sambal.
Place: Tuban-Semarang Highway km. 4, the place is precisely on the beach.
Open time: morning-night.
Other info: They also serve other seafood; fried shrimp/squid are highly recommended. Arrange your time to come earlier as they take at least 45 minutes to bake and prepare the meal.

Nasi Jagung Jangkar****
Description: Fried eels/frogs/catfish coated with red chili sauce, served with steamed grounded corn wrapped in banana leaves. The sauce can be separated by request.
Place: go to Medika Mulia hospital, pass it heading south for another 1 km, then ASK locals for more detail guidance.
Open time: morning, normally by 12 p.m. the foods have been sold out.
Other info: Tuak, a traditional drink that contains alcohol is also served here. (See also my other posting about this place).

Belut (eel) Pak Min****
Description: Same dishes of spicy eels and steamed grounded corn, except the sauce is slightly different, a bit yellowy color due to turmeric use in the ingredient.
Place: go to Medika Mulia hospital, pass it heading south for couple miles until the road ends at a T-junction, turn right until you find the 1st alley on the left. Car is not accessible to this alley but the place is in walking distance (5 min walk). ASK locals for more detail guidance.
Open time: around 5 to 9 p.m.

Belut (eel) MU*****
Description: Eels in spicy thick sauce, served with steamed grounded corn. A half spoonful of the sauce is enough to burn your mouth! Suggestion: keep eating till you finish, a pause will make you suffer even more.
Place: go to Merak Urak (MU) market, from the T-junction, drive another 2 km to Suruan village, heading to Tuwiri Wetan until you find the first alley in the left side. ASK locals for more detail guidance.
Open time: morning-afternoon.

Rajungan Rhemason*****
Description: A very hot addictive crab curry.
Place: Manunggal Jaya in Manunggal St. in front of SMUN 3. Phone number: +6281357388219.
Open time: morning-night.
Other info: They also serve black squid curry, goat satay, and goat curry.

Happy Eating!

Soto Ayam Sleko

“The best of soto ayam I’ve ever had” is the reason why I compose this essay and dedicate it to Ibu Narto, for her brilliant recipe of a perfect spice mixture creating such a great taste of a traditional East Javanese style of Soto Ayam.

Soto ayam is an Indonesian type of chicken soup (soto=soup; ayam=chicken) characterized by its yellow color due to the use of turmeric and other spice. Talking about soto ayam, Indonesian people normally refer to East Java as the place where you can find the original taste of this soto. Soto ayam in East Java is slightly different from the one in West Java. Soto ayam in West Java is with coconut milk whereas the one in East Java is without. I myself prefer the East Java one since the exotic taste is purely from the perfect mixture of the spice. As reference, Lamongan in East Java is the most popular place for soto ayam. I often drop by there on the way from Tuban to Surabaya to eat soto ayam.

Lamongan soto ayam is good but not until I found this place called Warung Soto Sleko during my food safari in Tuban. This place offers a really great taste of soto ayam, the best I’ve ever had so far. I got information about this place from local Tuban people. From them I can tell that this place is pretty well-known among the old generation of Tubanese. They said that this place has been popular since long time ago. However, not so many young Tubanese know about the place.

The owner of this small warung is a 72 year old lady called Ibu Narto. In her late age, she is still active to run her business selling soto ayam. She uses a small patch in the front part of her house with a nice little garden in one side. She told me that every morning she has to go to the market to buy free-range organic chickens, then prepare the ingredient based on her excellent recipe and finish her cooking by mid noon. The place previously opened from 5 to 9 p.m. but now opens from lunch time to 9 p.m. everyday except on Sunday for the church.

Ibu Narto told me that in the beginning she ran her business, she didn’t utilize the front part of the house for the warung. When she had finished the cooking, her late husband would bring the big pot full of soto to the nearest market. They opened a stand there because there were more customers around the market than around the house since the area around her house was not convenient for access. But after couple years passed, Tuban city council had fixed the area up and facilitated it with street lights. Since then, they opened this nice comfortable little warung at home. Her loyal customers still come to the current place in Pahlawan St. no. 7, just in front of a monument in the T-junction. Her customers are not only from down town Tuban, but also from Jakarta, Surabaya, and other areas.


Apart from serving soto ayam, Warung Soto Sleko also serves fried chicken and sambal lalapan (fresh vegetables and chili paste). Both soto ayam and the fried chicken are from free-range organic chickens therefore the taste are very delicious. Soto ayam here can be served with rice or lontong (rice cake). Normally the rice is poured with the hot soto within one bowl, but you can ask to separate the rice from the soup as what I usually do. Before, this place also offered grilled chicken, but they have withdrawn it from the menu. The reason is simply due to ease to prepare soto ayam and fried chicken only, said Bu Narto. So, I strongly recommend you, try this marvelous soto ayam and the fried chicken. Bon Appetit ;)


Price info:
A bowl of soto ayam + rice: IDR Rp. 7,500.00
A piece of fried chicken: IDR Rp. 10,000.00
A glass of tea: IDR Rp. 1,000.00

Batik Gedog, a nice souvenir from Tuban

Batik Gedog, one of the Indonesian traditional hand-painted batik, is a well-preserved cultural heritage which is originally from Tuban, East Java. The artistic feature of this batik is characterized by its coloration. The base color of the fabric could be any color. Red, blue, green, brown, black and white are common among other basic colors. The conspicuous pattern of this batik makes it unique relatively to other Indonesian batik. The patterns are mostly inspired from nature for example flowers, leaves, marble, insects, lizards, peacocks, and many other types of birds.

Batik Gedog can be worn as informal or formal clothing. Pajama, casual T-shirt, short- or long-sleeves shirt, and formal gown are common clothing made from this batik. The highest to lowest quality of the fabric used for painting Batik Gedog are silk, juantiu, and primis (local term) respectively. Cotton is the most suitable fabric to make Gedog T-shirts. Any fabric other than those types is less appropriate to apply for batik painting.

The center of Batik Gedog making can be found in several villages in Kerek, the western suburb of Tuban. A village called Margorejo, about 30 km from down town Tuban, is a very popular Gedog making center where you can see the process of drawing Batik Gedog by most female local workers.

It is very interesting to see those skillful hands of the ladies drawing particular pattern on the fabric. They use a wax-based ink to make permanent color on the pattern so it can hardly bleach for long.


The only thing you should be aware of when you wash a new clothing of Batik Gedog for the first time is that you have to separate it from other clothes as the remaining ink will dissolve and can contaminate other clothes. The second wash will be perfectly okay to mix up.