SATE JEPANG : a little yakitori vendor in Bintaro

'Too many cooks spoil the food', well, that is a saying that I believe just fine when I was hanging out as one of the 20 people. The larger the group, the harder it seems to find a mutual destination, in this case, a good place to eat. The problem is either no one is making a choice or everybody wants to go with their own choices.

After an hour of just sitting, with dubious multiple decisions, I have somehow used my right as an individual to utter my choice, my craving, my curiosity of a particular street food vendor that I have been lured by the idea of it for months. It was a secluded yakitori vendor in Bintaro, famous with the name of Sate Jepang among the inhabitants of the area. It's a funny thing how one mind can affect other's. So the next thing I knew, there we were, a breezy 6 p.m, on the side of Maleo street.

To my disappointment, we arrived with no presence of any vendors. Back to square one, we all stepped out of our cars and began discussing our next destination. Here's another funny thing, call it something about fate or just pure damn luck, as we were all busy dwelling, there it was. A small yakitori cart pushed by two skinny men, approaching us. Well, being dubious wasn't a bad thing after all.

No, this was not a 'Silent Hill' setting. It was just too smoky as they were setting up the tools. And no, that was not me or any of my friends. lol

Once again, 'Too many cooks spoil the food'. Too much of everything has never been a good thing. This is a concept which I think they get really well. They only offer you with three choices of yakitori. Either you have chicken skin or chicken meat skewers (breast or drumstick). It was easy in deciding what to order as we were all just faced with three options. Sometimes less is definitely more.

Is it normal to call it chicken thigh?  The yakitori was coated with a thick brown sweet savory sauce that gave it its kick in the taste buds. 

Make your request for extra crispy skin. TOP NOTCH. Each portion is worth for 10k, with a total of 5 skewers. Not fulfilling enough, that's why we ordered most of the stock for the night.

If we have lontong for satay's company, this vendor have onigiri (8k). You can choose between just plain rice or the ones with tuna fillings. Since they also grill the onigiris, the outside layer of the rice became a bit crispy, in a good way.

I always have a special thing for street food vendors. It was more exciting to discover a new unexposed cheap 'it-destination'. I warn you fancy diner fans, this place has no high-end touches in every way possible. It is the place to sit on the side of a road with plastic chairs and minimum lighting, with minimum care in the world but with lots of fun teasing and bullying your friends. Not forgetting, the misty setting from the thick smoke will blur out your vision. I was unable to see anything further than a 2 meter distance and I also ended up smelling like yakitori for the whole night. I have no complains though, it was the highlight of my day, both the yakitori and the crazy times I had with my friends.

We bought most of the stock for the night. In an hour and a half, there were none left. I only had a portion and an onigiri for the night, but I also kept taking my friend's portion as we sat there. It's a bit ruthless that we left almost nothing for the other customers. After all, we were the first customers.. ;p