0:00 There's just something about the anatomy of a nose. It just messes with your head. It's like they're kind of cute, but it's not usually food. It's a nose. You know, there's going to be some weird textures going on there. There's nostril hairs. They're kind of jiggly. And if you're like me, it gives you a bit of an unsettling vibe. Yes. The process. cuz I've never seen anything mashed together quite like this. But it's also oddly magnetic. And that Okay. So, when I saw these photos of just stacked up piles of cow noses on street vendor stalls in Indonesia, I knew it was time to get exploring some rather unusual foods. So,
0:47 here's the plan today. First, the good stuff. Serté, the classic. What a better way to start a day. And then we level things up. Honeycomb but with a twist. It's like curried l if you will. The chilies, shredded coconut. I mean, this is one hell of a mix. There you have it. And finally, the end game. Those gelatinous slabs of coward. Wobbly, hairy, and totally unskippable. Sort of beautiful in a rather unnerving way. [Music] You can't go anywhere in Indonesia without running into s. It's on every corner, every back alley. And it's just
1:34 this celebration on a stick. Grilled meat, chicken, goat, beef, slathered in thick, sweet peanuty sauce, or depending upon where you are, torched with spice and sliced into oblivion. And yet somehow I kind of missed the memo. I always thought of sate as just some general Southeast Asian thing. Maybe Thai or Malaysian. I didn't know. But it is Indonesian and it's a staple. It's like how Americans might see burgers or barbecued ribs. And now that I know, it's the first thing I look for whenever I hit the streets here. It isn't some side dish. It's not something you eat with a toothpick at a catered event. It is a full-blown meal.
2:22 This is a standard breakfast. In some places, it's standard breakfast. Sauté hitting the grill. Chicken skewers clutched in fistfuls getting dunked in marinade and then laid down over charcoal. It's like a religion. Smoke fills the air. And for me, breakfast doesn't really get any better than this. They throw it on a bed of rice, then just absolutely drown it in that thick peanuty sauce that can take you straight to heaven. But this being East Java, you also get hit with that dark, salty, molasses shrimp paste pettes. It's funky, bold, but it is not optional. Not in these parts. It looks like a damn good breakfast and my kind of breakfast.
3:08 Kind of like a peanuty taste. That is really good. There is a lot of people coming to this area buying this thing because it's very cheap. This is 10,000 rupiah. That's super cheap. If you're ever in Suraya, what a breakfast. Maybe maybe better than the toxic tofu. [Applause] [Music] Okay. Okay. You know, whenever I'm walking around and there's a cobra sign swinging above an alleyway and a dead bat hanging underneath someone's laundry, I know I've found something pretty interesting.
3:53 An interesting start to this restaurant. Apparently, they have cobra as well. [Music] Bro, that's wild. Oh Be careful. He could sprout or spit. Spit. Oh, that's a mean cobra. But we have done that before very recently. So today is not that. But honeycomb curry, something like that. probably unique and definitely worth sticking around to find out what's cooking. You can find these kind of places like all over Indonesia. They sort of focus on exotic foods and
4:40 it seems to be a trend that it is often Indonesians or non-Chinese Indonesians serving Chinese Indonesians. Go figure. The beave, wild ones, is eaten all over Asia. It's usually a byproduct of the wild honey collection process. But the way they're preparing it here in Suraya is a whole different game. I've never seen anything like this. Usually Chinese people come here to buy the cobra for the they believe it a medicine. They often ask her to cook the meat. M. And what about the bat? Do people come here for bats? Yes, but it
5:25 has uh it has to order. All right. First up, chilies. Green ones. They get sliced. Next, we're grabbing a handful of red chilies. Toss it in with some garlic, some onion, and a handful of lime leaves. Everything gets tossed into the blender. No messing around. Just blitz it into oblivion. This reminds me a lot of the way we ate the yaw. So, maybe it's just kind of like the the curry like mix. you eat all kinds of exotic creatures with here. That's my stab at it. And while the blender is doing its thing, we get to work on the lava cones, breaking them down into just bite-sized chunks. Then the green chilies, those thin slices, get tossed in. Big handfuls of
6:13 shredded coconut go in too. And we mix it all together. [Music] Finally, that spice bomb that's been blending on the side gets poured on top. The whole thing gets turned into just like this sticky waxy mess, for lack of a better term. The chilies, shredded coconut. I mean, this is one hell of a mix. A bit of salt to finish it. A bit of magic powder, and the filling is done. Before we try the curry, I'm pretty keen to try a little bit of this lava raw. It's kind of a specialty of mine. All right, guys. So, being in the kind of like industry that I am, I've eaten like bee and wasp lava a whole bunch of different times. This stuff looks more like standard honeybee, like
6:59 a local variety of bee. And the gist of it usually is you're trying to get to the honey, but you know, just kind of too hard to get rid of the lava. And they're not spinning it or anything like that. And you just eat the comb. It happens to have the lava in it. It gives it that nice kind of like exploding texture. It is surprisingly sometimes pretty good. And when I've had it in Japan, actually, the giant Asian hornet lava soaked in a teriyak sauce. It was one of the best insects I have ever eaten. There you have it. I'm lying. It's got a bit of that sweet taste from the honeycomb. It's really not too bad. Small variety of bee, at least what this is. Now, this bee lava mix needs to be steamed. And for that, it's got to be wrapped. So, squares of banana leaf get loaded up with a good
7:45 scoop of the filling and folded into these neat little pouches. It's like a pizza pocket, but with bugs. We trim the top, pin it all together with skewers, and just keep cranking them out. We're making an absolute mountain of these things, guys. I've got to admit, I was not expecting this. When I heard that we were going to be eating var today, I was not expecting some kind of like dumpling mix put in a banana. This is like uh the most preparation I've ever seen done to maybe an insect in general, but for sure honey. Super interesting. I'm I have absolutely no idea what this is going to taste like. Right outside in the alleyway, the steamer gets fired up. All right. So, we have them steming away
8:31 maybe like five or six of these kind of like sachets of bee l of honeycomb loaded with l a little bit of honey drizzled in tons of those kind of like basic Indonesian spices. It's um it's a thing. Let's see how it is. And it doesn't take long before we're good to go. The skewers come out and underneath you've got that shredded coconut chili mix spotted with black bees and those seethrough little larae. It's kind of wild, but it's kind of beautiful in a weird way, and it smells good. All right, guys. I have had like every type of wasp l bee l that you can possibly imagine. I think I've had like stingless bees, Asian giant hornets, he hornets in Japan. Like your traditional honeybee.
9:17 But I've never had anything quite like this. Like this is one of the most full-blown preparations. And it's kind of like this mash. The coconut, shredded coconut is kind of keeping it together. There's these wads. Oh my god, that's unreal. Here we go. Giant mouthful of this this crazy concoction. Instantly you have that coconut curry flavor. That sort of traditional Thai Indonesian flavor base. It really does remind me of a green curry. Actually has a lot of those what I would associate with Thai curry flavoring. The little wasps, these little guys, they they actually have a fair bit of chew to them. Again, the stickiness there must be from the wax. It kind of like glues to your teeth. So, the texture is unreal. I was sort of thinking that you would not be able to taste the bees at
10:03 all, but you very much can. There are some black bees in there. I don't know if you can see it in this bite. They're sort of like I don't know if you're supposed to eat these or if they were just kind of left in because you can't remove them. So, we're going to eat. Mentally, it's more tough right away when you can sort of see the full bean. And flavor-wise, maybe I prefer that. I don't know why. That is more of a like meaty flavor. Less of the gush. Oh, there's a bit of crunch in there now though. The bee, a real full-blown bee has some crunch. Oh man, that's like hard to eat. Surprisingly enough, considering that at first it looked like just chilies. It's not the spiciest thing in the world. And if anything, the texture that gets you or that sticks with you is the wax. It's just not something you're used to. Let's grab this bite. It has a chunk of chili in
10:49 there. Maybe this one's got a bit more pop. [Music] Oddly enough, I'm kind of familiar with that flavor now. And there is a real flavor to it, but it's got just so many other flavors, so many herbs, so many spices in there that I think this is a pretty approachable dish. Like most people, I think could eat this. If I had to rank like tier list out my bee and wasp list, teriyaki murder hornet, then this might be number two. This is pretty damn good. Those stingless bees that I had in Cambodia, that might also be like S tier, but this is a solid A tier form of bee or horned lav. Well done, Indonesia. Pretty good.
11:34 You get the gush, the explosion. No, but it's like uh not melting, but what? It's like cricket. Cricket. Cricket, but more sweet and waxy. Yeah, waxy. A day exploring odd foods in Suraya is never a waste. But to be honest, I came here for one thing. Cowo. [Music] I'd seen photos of this. Just these big yellow slabs of snot and foiled nose stacked up roadside like trophies. And I didn't know how it was cooked. I didn't even know what it was called. I just
12:21 knew that I had to come and I had to eat it. Crossing the street in Indonesia easier than Vietnam. Much easier, in fact. And you'll find it lined up around bus stops and train stations. Just these vendors selling different variations of gelatinous cows dishes. As far as I can tell, this is some kind of like cow nose salad. We have this giant mixing bowl in which everything gets kind of pasted together. M and tassel. Tesl of some kind. Let's call it. Slice up some vegetables. Bit of cowos. Let's see how it goes down. Oh, the good stuff. I'm kind of particular about where I get my tofu in Indonesia these days. It's from another
13:08 is not the place where we buy the tactic to no. No toxic tofu, guys. It's not just served up as a salad here. The cow nose can be served straight up. Just chunked and skewered, ready to eat takeaway. Okay. All right. To put this cow nose together, we start with a handful of peanuts straight into the pastel for mixing. Then go in slices of green banana. Yep, banana. Next up, chilies, red and green. No messing around. We grind it all up and then we're going to hit it with massive doses of the shrimp paste. Both black and a brown variety that I haven't seen before. That shrimp
13:54 paste. Yeah. What? Okay, so I'm getting a bit more of a gist of it. This dish is like a complete mishmash. I can recognize that incredibly potent black shrimp paste that seems to infuse all of Surviva, much of Java's cuisine. That is the like power base from which these dishes come from. I mean, it packs a punch, but it's a lot easier to eat than like bund mto in Vietnam. This is where good food comes from. Black shrimp paste. That's straight heaven. Sliced tofu goes in. Then big chunks of that gelatinous cowos, the star of the show. Some pickled veg, bean sprouts, and pineapple on top. Some sticky rice and cucumber just to round things out. And
14:40 boom. Wrap the whole thing in a banana leaf and brown paper. And that's it. Ready to serve. [Applause] All right, guys. Here we go. This is that kind of like crazy ko salad. Honestly, it looks like the most insane amount of flavor that you've ever seen. Like the number of ingredients is wild. The process. I've never seen anything mashed together quite like this. There's all sorts of stuff. Tofu, cowos, tempe, all sorts of sauces, pickles, vinegar. I'm pretty sure spice. Let's go. I mean, it's impossible to see what anything is. Wow. I think that is tofu, but I am not sure at all. I mean, that is just like as predicted, the most incredible array
15:28 of flavors. Super spicy, salty, sweet. There's pineapple in this stuff. Two types of shrimp paste or fish paste and shrimp paste. Just salt overload. That is for sure a piece of cowos. We're going to give that a bite. Oh my god, that is the oddest thing. Super chewy. You can feel the texture of those kind of like micro hairs on the end of the cow nose. Just unreal. Like what an odd if you're not used to it kind of texture. And the tofu, I mean, the tofu, it just takes on a lot of this. There is rice in this. That kind of like gelatinousy rice. That is just so good. I mean, this taste, I don't think you're ever going
16:14 to get this much flavor from a dish. That was sweet pineapple. And there's no way you can tell. You're just gonna you just kind of have to dive in and you really don't know what you're going to get. It could be it's always going to have that super spicy, salty, sweet array of flavors on the sauce and then the protein or the whatever you're eating beneath it. That's the surprise. This looks like a pickle piece of cucumber. That is absolutely unreal. I've never had a dish like this. Just absolute flavor overload. Wow, guys. What a dish that is the most insanely heavy dish I think I've eaten. I can see why it's popular. It's I think
17:00 you could eat one of those and just go all day. It's that thick gelatinousy Indonesian rice, the cowos, the tempe, the tofu, the banana, that little bit of pineapple. You get what I mean? It's like all of it is just such a like a heavy meal. Just straight up eating spoonfuls of that stuff. That is intense. I mean, it's good, but it's intense. I like this one. Uh this is it's uh mix of a lot of things, right? Where where do you think the tofu comes from? Oh, she said the tofu come from your bankang. Yang is another city. Do you think anybody cares? Huh? Do you think anybody cares where the tofu comes from? No one care. We just eat this. Nobody cares. The seller and then the one they are husband and wife they selling this for
17:46 15 years. 15 years ago is 5,000. Right now 15,000. Good. Delicious. It's nice. Delicious. And even driver approved.
