Jakarta: Glodok Stories Food Tour with 13+ Tastings

Explore Jakarta’s historic Glodok Chinatown through 13+ tastings, from Chinese-Indonesian classics to dishes from across the archipelago, markets, temples and hidden local eateries.
Head straight for Glodok, Jakarta's gloriously chaotic pantry and one of Southeast Asia's oldest Chinatowns. Chinese merchants have traded tea, spices, noodles and sauces through these streets for centuries, leaving their fingerprints all over Indonesian cooking. Today, Hokkien traditions collide with Javanese spices, Sundanese ingredients and recipes carried here from across 17,000 islands. We're spending four hours and 13+ tastings digging into it.

Begin beneath Glodok's Chinatown gate before slipping into a traditional tea house. Bite through pandan-green klepon and molten palm sugar, crack into sesame-crusted onde-onde stuffed with sweet mung bean, and wash the lot down with jasmine tea. Consider it the calm before lunch gets serious.

Next up is bakmi ayam. Chinese migrants brought noodle-making traditions to Indonesia generations ago, Indonesians took things from there. Springy noodles, savoury chicken and punchy accompaniments make this one of Jakarta's great comfort foods. Alongside comes colourful nasi campur, several flavours fighting for attention on one plate.

Then we're off to West Java. Combro stuffs grated cassava with intensely savoury fermented oncom, while cireng takes tapioca starch and fries it into chewy-centred, crisp-edged little snacks. Neither is particularly elegant. Both disappear alarmingly quickly.

Cut through Petak Sembilan Market, where tropical fruit, vegetables, dried ingredients and food stalls spill through Glodok's narrow lanes. Nearby stands Dharma Bhakti Temple, first established in 1650 and the oldest Chinese temple in Jakarta.

Then we start island-hopping without leaving the neighbourhood. Palembang sends pempek - springy fish cakes plunged into dark cuko sauce that punches sweet, sour and spicy at once. From Bogor comes toge, built around crunchy bean sprouts, while rujak takes tropical fruit and introduces it to chilli, sweetness and funky shrimp paste. Fruit salad has officially lost its innocence.

Still standing? We've got more Indonesia to cover. Bakmi Belitung brings springy noodles swimming in savoury shrimp broth from the island of Belitung. Then dive into creamy laksa ayam, fragrant with coconut milk and warming spices, carrying echoes of the maritime routes that connected kitchens across Southeast Asia.

A sweet end involves pillowy milk buns and cempedak goreng, jackfruit's louder, funkier cousin battered and fried until crisp outside and sweetly caramelised within.

Glodok isn't just Jakarta's Chinatown. It's an archive of migration, trade and Indonesian appetite, where recipes from Sumatra, Java and islands far beyond have found a home.

Para garantizar la disponibilidad de la reserva lo antes posible. Vale la pena reservar con antelación, especialmente si planeas el viaje durante la temporada alta, como los días festivos o los fines de semana.

Esta excursión se puede cancelar sin costo alguno hasta :tiempo de cancelación horas antes del inicio del viaje. Si lo cancela después de 24 horas o no se presenta en la excursión, se le cobrará el precio total de la actividad. El retraso en la recogida o en la salida se considerará como no presentarse.