Lil' Java: An Indonesian kitchen with a dish for every palate

I brought a bucket of assumptions to Lil' Java - and virtually all of them were wrong. And they began with the sign out front that reads: "Cheapest breakfast in town!"

Yes, Lil' Java makes a very cheap breakfast. But its identity as a bargain corner for scrapple, eggs, toast, and coffee (just $5!) is not even close to its real reason for being.

Think of exotic rawon beef stew, whose complex black broth is darkened with sweet ground keluwak and rich candlenuts, with an herbaceous current of lemongrass and Kaffir lime. Or the flavorful nasi goreng rice stir-fries, piqued by aromatic spice and a garlicky jolt of ground shallots and peppers.

Lil' Java - as the name suggests - is an Indonesian restaurant. And its location in Girard Estates makes complete sense given that this western corner of deep South Philly is also home to a handful of other tasty Indonesian kitchens (Hardena and Sky Cafe are my favorites) . . . Right?

"Not really," says co-owner Ferry Takili, who opened in March in the former Malone's Back Room Cafe at 18th and Ritner, a bare-bones space lightly redecorated with tropical green walls and batik-print table covers. "It was totally random."

OK, then. Well . . .

Might one at least assume that, given the soulful and exotic stews and pulse-quickening array of four separate house-made sambal chili pastes, that Takili's wife and chef, Debby Takili, has spent a lifetime perfecting a passion for her national cuisine that she wanted to share?

Not exactly, concedes Ferry: "We don't have any experience running restaurants. It wasn't our dream. It was my mother's idea."

Only problem? Takili's mom bailed out at the last minute and returned to California, leaving Ferry and his wife with a project they were seemingly ill-equipped to tackle. The hasty addition of a few American classics to their menu - the breakfast and a surprisingly tasty burger dusted with Indonesian spice - was an early panic reflex (inspired by a couple of reference meals at the Penrose Diner) to help attract a broad local crowd.

But based on the steady stream of neighbors who came in for their take-out orders of pork in sweet gravy and gado-gado salad during my visits, more than a few turning toward my table and whispering, "Everything's amazing!" word of Lil' Java's true talents beyond breakfast has definitely begun to spread.

The good news? Ferry, who arrived in the United States in 1993 and worked in various office jobs and as a flea market shoe salesman, has a cheery demeanor that's a natural for a dining-room host. He's also an able culinary interpreter for the many regional shades of cooking from Indonesia, a diverse archipelago of 6,000 inhabited islands: "My wife is from East Java, whose style is both sweeter and more strongly spiced than other regions."

There is some overlap with other local Indonesian menus, but not much. The even better news? Debby, it turns out, is a gifted cook whose skill in applying the lessons learned at her mother's stove far exceeds what one might expect from her previous jobs at Subway and Dunkin' Donuts.

Almost everything here is homemade, from the four sambal hot sauces to four variations on peanut sauce, and the myriad dumplings that star in some of her best dishes. One new appetizer obsession I've never encountered before is martabak telor, which looks like pan-crisped love letters folded around nutmeg-scented ground beef, leeks, and scrambled egg. Fried dumplings made from ground chicken and fish anchor the batagor, a warm tumble of various bite-size textures (steamed potatoes, fried stuffed tofu, hard-boiled eggs) that reminds me vaguely of an Indian chaat salad - but sloshed with tan peanut sauce perked with vinegar. It's similar to, but also quite different from, Debby's take on Indonesia's famous gado-gado salad, which is vegetarian, with pressed rice cakes, potatoes, and garlic crackers, and whose peanut sauce, already swirling with tangy tamarind and hot red chilies, gets an extra East Java-style dose of creamy coconut milk.

Her simple take on more familiar wontons, whose plump pork fillings are edged with dried shrimp and sweet oyster sauce, is completely irresistible. They come either simply fried as an appetizer with spicy sweet dipping sauce, or dunked into the rich chicken-pork broth of bakwan campur soup (both fried and soft-poached) along with a medley of other dumplings, including tofu chunks stuffed with seasoned ground pork and open-top sui-mei, whose meat fillings are flecked with grated sweet carrot. Only the bouncy meatballs were unimpressive - and they turn out to be the only ones Debby doesn't make. But when we added a spoonful of crimson red sambal, it was as though the broth suddenly glowed with warm sunshine.

Those wontons also make a cameo as a satisfying side soup shimmering with sesame oil and a hail of green scallions, alongside mie noodle bowls topped with barbecued and roast pork (pangsit babi) or, my favorite, garlicky ground chicken with fried shallots and black mushrooms (ayam jamur) - a stunning value at $7 for a hearty meal. Though stellar value here is a given, considering the entire menu tops out at $9.50.

That includes one of the more familiar dishes here, beef rendang, which is less saucy than others I've had, but which comes as an incredibly flavorful large hunk of beef that's been slow-stewed in coconut milk with galangal, Kaffir lime, chilies, and cloves, and unfolded into a fan of tender shreds at the press of a fork, all the easier to mix it into the fluffy mound of coconut-steamed rice with crepelike shreds of scrambled egg.

There were a few items I did not love - the seafood dishes were simply too inexpensive to use high-quality ingredients; I'd also skip the old-school egg foo yong topped with canned peas.

But for the most part, I loved everything Debby cooked, from the tender roast pork plate glazed with sweet and garlicky kecap manis soy called bistik babi to the lemongrass-tanged turmeric soup with rice noodles to even the rice stir-fries mixed with some especially funky ingredients, like salt-preserved fish and sator beans.

Called "pete" on the menu and "stinky beans" in common parlance, sator beans, Ferry warned, were an acquired taste. But with a generous dollop of shrimpy-sweet sambal to give the rice zoom, we could not resist these odd beans, which look like wrinkled favas, have the texture of unripe avocado, and give off a vegetal whiff of methane that sparked some dormant receptors for earthy pleasure rarely activated by Western foods.

Impressed by our adventurous spirits, and with perhaps some of his own assumptions contradicted, Ferry decided we were ready for the treat of durian fruit buried beneath es teler, or "drunken ice," a mountain of shaved ice streaked with sweet condensed milk and chocolate syrup hiding a treasure of exotic fruits (jackfruit, toddy palm seeds) and avocado at the bottom. The infamously pungent durian was also there, and it was everything we both feared and hoped for, like an odiferous washed rind cheese that had turned so ripe it had also grown magnetically sweet and fruity. I actually liked it, contrary to my assumptions. But that was just one of many.

claban@phillynews.com

215-854-2682

@CraigLaBan

www.philly.com/craiglaban

StartText

LIL' JAVA

1739 W. Ritner St., 267-991-2636; on Facebook

It doesn't get much more humble than this simple Indonesian cafe in Girard Estates, but the friendly husband-wife duo of Ferry and chef Debby Takili, despite their inexperience as restaurateurs, delivers a sambal-spiced array of East Javanese-style home cooking that satisfies with both tremendous value and the soulful flavors of exotic soups, aromatic beef rendang, peanut-sauced salads and handmade dumplings that add up to one of the tastiest new adventure meals in town.

MENU HIGHLIGHTS Pangsit goreng (fried wontons); martabak telor (crispy egg-and-beef packages); batagor (fried dumpling salad); gado-gado salad; rawon (beef-keluwak-nut stew); soto ayam (turmeric soup); bakwan campur (fried dumpling soup); nasi uduk rendang atau ayam goreng (braised beef with coconut rice); bistik babi (pork in sweet gravy); mie pangsit ayam jamur (mushroom chicken noodles); nasi goreng (fried rice; try it with sator beans); es teler (shaved ice and fruit dessert.)

DRINKS BYOB. Beer works best here.

WEEKEND NOISE When the TV is turned off and the crowds are light (usually), it's a super-quiet 73 decibels. (Ideal is 75 decibels or less.)

IF YOU GO Breakfast Wednesday through Monday, 8 a.m.-close. Indonesian menu Wednesday through Monday, 11 a.m.-8 p.m. Closed Tuesday.

Entrees, $6.50-$9.50.

All major cards.

Reservations not required.

Not wheelchair accessible. (Two steps at entrance and bathroom not accessible.)

Street parking only.

EndText