Ask people from Jakarta what food they miss from home, and it's likely they'll say bakmi ayam, a simple noodle dish served by street hawkers and the formidable chain restaurant called Bakmi Gadja Mada. The noodles are boiled, then tossed with a flavored oil in a bowl to coat every strand. Then in goes toppings of boiled greens and spoonfuls of simmered cubed chicken and mushroom, with a soup served on the side. You might say it's a deconstruction, except it predates the Ferran Adriàs and Wylie Dufresnes of the world. And when OC's few Indonesians crave it, they go to Warung Pojok. Since opening a few years back, the Garden Grove restaurant's maturity has allowed it to make the dish even better than it used to be. It's now served in an actual bowl, not Styrofoam, and the noodles taste even richer. Though Warung Pojok is no longer the only Indonesian eatery in OC (see the next blurb), it is still the place to go for this dish, no matter whether you hail from Jakarta or Semarang, or think Java is just another word for coffee.
