If you’re looking for Porki Station in Glodok Chinatown then the bad news is that you are now shit out of luck. Yes, the sign is still there, but there’s a red cross on it and the restaurant is now called Masakan Chinese Food.
I found this out the hard way while looking for pork in Jakarta, a thing alongside beer that is now increasingly hard to get. Although dildos are sold on the street, so go figure.
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What the Porki Station?
Porki Station was a Chinese Indonesian restaurant in the Mangga Besar area of Glodok, specialising, unsurprisingly, in pork. The menu was basically a celebration of the pig, with everything from pork satay and crispy samcan to pork belly, pork ribs, pork steak, Bakut Sayur Asin, Babi Hong and Cu Kiok. There were also pork rice bowls and various other Chinese Indonesian dishes. Prices were pretty reasonable, with dishes ranging from around IDR 12,500 for pork satay to IDR 175,000 for pork ribs. In other words, if you were looking for pork in Chinatown, this was very much your sort of place.
Why has it closed? Well, as you will see from the photo, the pig has a red cross on it. Islamification in much of Indonesia, even in Christian places like Kupang and Jayapura, now seems to have become more of a thing, although with this I am but theorizing!
So, Masakan Chinese Food?
I found out it was not Porkies by there being no pork on the menu and, when asking the waiter, him saying “Porki no more”. The new restaurant though was at least pretty good, with it specialising in limited dim sum, fried rice and general Chinese Indonesian cuisine.
I did the meatballs in broth, as well as all four dim sum dishes and some fried rice. Of course, I added as much sambal as I could, which was then washed down with sweet tea. Sweet tea is a thing in these parts. Eight dishes and a few teas came to IDR 200,000 (about US$12). A fair price for a fair meal.
Where is Masakan Chinese Food? Former Porki Station
Masakan Chinese Food
Formerly Porki Station
Jalan Labu No. 1K, Mangga Besar 1
Taman Sari, West Jakarta 11180
Indonesia
The place is in the Mangga Besar area of Glodok Chinatown, and the old Porki Station address is listed as Jalan Labu No. 1K, Mangga Besar 1, Taman Sari, West Jakarta 11180. The old restaurant was also listed simply as Porki Station, while the current restaurant is known as Masakan Chinese Food.
So, yeah, an OK restaurant, but don’t bust your balls to get there either. It is not the legend that was Porki Station.
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