Galabo is a street food court where you can find many Solo’s famous food vendors selling at the same spot.
My dad got pecel ndeso, which is red rice dish served with raw vegetables and topped with black sesame-based sauce and gendar (Javanese rice cracker). It tastes savory with nice crunchy texture from the vegetables. Normally when you buy pecel in other cities, it is served with white rice. So, for me this dish is quite unique. Red rice is also more nutritious than white rice, so it is healthier than white rice.
I got nasi liwet, which is rice cooked in coconut milk and topped with sweet and spicy chayote stew, shredded chicken, yellow tofu, and coconut cream. It was rich, creamy, and extremely delicious!
My sister got timlo from the stand of Timlo Sastro – the pioneer of timlo. At first, I thought it was just a chicken soup or so – just with a different name. But I was wrong! It has tomato slices, egg, wood ear fungus, risol (sort of rolls). It was soothing and tasty too. For the drinks, we had wedang uwuh and jahe panas.
Wedang uwuh is made from the bark of secang tree. When it is brewed with hot water, the color becomes red. It is usually mixed with cloves, cinnamon bark, rock sugar or palm sugar. Jahe panas is hot ginger tea. In Indonesia, we usually use different kind of ginger as in the Netherlands. For drinks like this we use jahe emprit. It is smaller than the normal ginger but tastes 10x spicier and stronger.
We also got bakmi Jowo, which is Javanese noodle soup, and sate kere. The last one is quite special because I can’t really find it outside of Solo. The famous vendor is Sate kere Yu Rebi. One stick cost around 1000 Rupiahs. “Kere” means poor because unlike normal satay that is made of meat, this one is made from soybean dregs (tempe gembus). But don’t get me wrong, the taste was super good, especially served with peanut sauce. The texture is somehow between tofu and tempe – soft and smooth. with a prominent soybean taste.
Actually, each stall has their own independent eatery within the Solo city. But Galabo is a place where you can sample each of them at one spot. If you don’t have much time and want to try Solo/ Surakarta’s specialty at once, you should come to this place.
Galabo
Geladak Solo Kota
Surakarta, Indonesia
Open every day 17.30-00.00