Bebek Kaleyo

Every different region in Indonesia has their special way of cooking their delicious duck meat and the love of this fowl cannot be more evident than when you step into Bebek Kaleyo in Tebet, Jakarta. Oh by the way, that is IF you can actually walk in there.

Located just before the Tebet railway station (you have to make a U turn) and a few hundred meters later you see the chaos that is solely the responsibility of Bebek Kaleyo along the main road. Motorcycles, cars and people are trying to cram into this open space building to get a seat.

Near the counter, there are rows of cardboard lunch boxes stacked up for those who order takeaway and for the remaining whom insist on eating in the warm and sweaty environment, they sit and wait with their arms folded ever so patiently. Service is fast here and there is absolutely no mucking about. The place probably has a capacity to fit in 150 � 200 people and there are always no empty benches in sight.

Their Bebek Muda Cabe Ijo dish is one of the perpetrators that brands Bebek Kaleyo as the busiest duck restaurant in town. Unlike the Balineses Betutu, they succulently deep-fry the duck leg or breast and it is smothered in pounded homemade green chilies and with no fork and spoon on sight; you are expected to dig in using your hands. The generous portion and the very pleasing, typical traditional presentation of the duck, makes this dish even more appealing. After having a few bites of their duck, we realize that this is one of those foods that are bound to put an addictive spell on your taste buds. This can be dangerous. After the first few bites, you start to devour your duck in a very medieval way where you really do not care about what people think when you are sucking on the bones and making the slurp noises, after all, who are they to judge when they are very likely doing the same thing.

We seriously believe that the French with their Duck Confit has got nothing on the Indonesian Bebek Kaleyo!