Hunger Satisfied at 'Soto Seger Boyolali Mbok Yem'

Soto, one type of Indonesian traditional soup, is Javenese's favorite for breakfast. Yogyakarta, one of Java's major cities, shows an obvious image of this soto-eating culture for breakfast. As once you step your feet here on the City ground, particularly in the morning, you'll likely see a 'warung' (stall that sells someting, including food) soto at a corner. No wonder it's not exaggerating to say that we can see 'warung soto' at every corner of the City in the morning.

This morning, my wife and I were on the way to my mother-in-law's house in Temon, Kulonprogo. Although we ate some 'bakpia' cakes before leaving, OTW we felt quite starving. Moreover, my wife is 7-month pregnant, which double her starve. She needs to feed the hungry baby as well. Then, we decided to stop wherever we find any looking-tasty 'warung' to eat.

Long story short, at an area called Milir, Kedungsari, Pengasih, Kulonprogo, we found one. It's called 'Warung Soto Seger Boyolali Mbok Yem'. Warung means stall, soto is one type of Indonesian soup, seger means refreshing, Boyolali is the name of a regency in Central Java off the northwest of Surskarta, and Mbok is an addressing to a Javanese old woman to a name Yem.

The warung serves two variants of soto, i.e. beef and chicken. This morning we tried the chicken one, because my wife wanted to eat something same with me, while I can't eat beef due tue its smell. As we sipped the soup, as its name, it felt really refreshing. The combination of lime, sambal, and sweet soy sauce added to the refreshness. Aside from the soup, the other fillings were boiled been sprouts, rice, shredded chicken, and some other herbs. As we mixed them all even the look was very tempting. You can feel it when you're a Javanese seeing such a food.

Soto, in Javanese culture, is never eaten alone. There is always a wide variety of side dishes that can 'accompany' the soto. Commonly, there would be sweet 'sate usus ayam' (chicken intestine sate), sweet 'sate jeroan ayam' (chicken innards sate), 'telur asin' (salted egg), 'sate telur puyuh' (quail's egg satay), 'bergedel/perkedel' (potato balls), 'tahu bakso' (meatball-filled fried tofu), 'tahu bacem' (sweet slow-cooked tofu), 'tempe garet/garit' (fried tempe (soybean cake)), and 'tempe tepung' (fried flour-coated tempe). If you're curious, you may try them all. The drinks offered are typically iced/hot tea, iced/hot orange water, iced/hot milk, black coffee, and some instant drinks. The price is cheap, for each item. For us, the perfect match for soto is hot tea and 'tempe goreng'. And after a such a long ride of motorbike, our hunger was satisfied. Alhamdulillah.

Feeling like wanting to try? Please do.