editorial

An excursion into the West Java countryside offers a behind-the-scenes look at some of the fine local ingredients that power a boundary-pushing Jakarta restaurant.
<figure id="attachment_147130" aria-describedby="caption-attachment-147130" style="width: 1200px" class="wp-caption aligncenter"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" class="wp-image-147130 size-full" src="https://staging.destinasian.com/wp-content/uploads/Esa-Lembang-Farm-Visit-Greenhouse-at-Hyoshii-Farm.jpg" alt="Strawberry plants inside a greenhouse at Hyoshii Farm in Lembang, West Java." width="1200" height="800" srcset="https://staging.destinasian.com/wp-content/uploads/Esa-Lembang-Farm-Visit-Greenhouse-at-Hyoshii-Farm.jpg 1200w, https://staging.destinasian.com/wp-content/uploads/Esa-Lembang-Farm-Visit-Greenhouse-at-Hyoshii-Farm-300x200.jpg 300w, https://staging.destinasian.com/wp-content/uploads/Esa-Lembang-Farm-Visit-Greenhouse-at-Hyoshii-Farm-1024x683.jpg 1024w, https://staging.destinasian.com/wp-content/uploads/Esa-Lembang-Farm-Visit-Greenhouse-at-Hyoshii-Farm-768x512.jpg 768w" sizes="auto, (max-width: 1200px) 100vw, 1200px" /><figcaption id="caption-attachment-147130" class="wp-caption-text">Strawberry plants inside a greenhouse at Hyoshii Farm in Lembang, West Java. (Photo: James Louie)</figcaption></figure>
It’s just past seven in the morning and I’m being whisked out of <a href="https://destinasian.com/category/indonesia/jakarta">Jakarta</a> on Whoosh—the aptly named high-speed train that has revolutionized travel between the Indonesian capital and Bandung, the country’s fourth-largest city. Our current speed flashes across an LED screen at one end of the carriage: 328 kilometers per hour.
While researching a story on <a href="https://destinasian.com/editorial/five-innovative-jakarta-restaurants" target="_blank" rel="noopener">five of Jakarta’s top restaurants</a>, I’ve been invited on a chef’s day out arranged by Kevindra Soemantri, one of the founders behind mod-Indonesian venue <a href="https://destinasian.com/jakarta-dining-esa-restaurant">Esa</a>. Kevindra and I are with Esa’s chef-owner Aditya Muskita and R&amp;D chef Muhammad Omar Aulia Yusuf; the two have barely slept since finishing up at 2 a.m. after service the previous night. Our goal is to visit suppliers in the highland district of Lembang, located outside Bandung on the fertile slopes of the volcano Tangkuban Perahu.
Whoosh covers a distance that would normally take two hours by car (on a good day) in 35 minutes flat. Alighting at Padalarang station on Bandung’s outskirts, we hop onto a feeder train into the center of town. A short ride in a rental SUV then brings us to the larger outlet of <a href="https://www.instagram.com/imahbabaturan/?DestinAsian" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Warung Kopi Imah Babaturan</a>, a casual Indonesian restaurant dishing up comfort food with honest home-cooked flavors. Our hearty breakfast spread includes tempe mendoan (battered sheets of tempeh), goat curry, squid stir-fried with green chili sambal, and light yet flavorful bowls of soto Bandung. Joining us here for the excursion is Farah “Dynna” Mauludynna, co-owner of local tasting-menu restaurant <a href="https://www.joongla.id/?DestinAsian" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Joongla</a>. Her enthusiastic and inquisitive nature comes through as she fires thoughtful questions at the Esa chefs; I’m certain she would make a fine interviewer. Dynna turns to me and laughs. “Am I taking your job?”
We’ve come to Bandung on a long weekend, and it seems just about everyone else is headed to Lembang. Traffic slows to a crawl on the uphill journey. Not that I really mind: we pass the time in deep discussions about the ideas that guide what Aditya calls Esa’s “no-rules Indonesian cooking.” The chef-owner speaks of using traceable ingredients to “make flavors you can’t necessarily trace to a single dish.” Everyone has their own favorite version of Indonesian classics like opor ayam (chicken braised with spices in coconut milk) and semur beef stew, and <a href="https://destinasian.com/jakarta-dining-esa-restaurant">Esa</a> aims to trigger an emotional response from diners without resorting to traditional recipes. Omar likens the highly collaborative creative process to film production. “Adit is basically the producer—so he has the idea and the vision, which he delivers to us—and we [R&amp;D chefs] are the directors. We translate the idea so the rest of the kitchen team can execute it. They are the artists.”
<figure id="attachment_147128" aria-describedby="caption-attachment-147128" style="width: 1200px" class="wp-caption aligncenter"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" class="size-full wp-image-147128" src="https://staging.destinasian.com/wp-content/uploads/Esa-Lembang-Farm-Visit-Esa-Dining-Room-and-Dessert.jpg" alt="Kitchen-facing seats at Esa Restaurant in Jakarta; a dessert made with Hyoshii Farm strawberries and Peruvian mint from Novio Fresh Bandung." width="1200" height="834" /><figcaption id="caption-attachment-147128" class="wp-caption-text">Left to right: Kitchen-facing seats at Esa Restaurant in Jakarta; a dessert made with Hyoshii Farm strawberries and Peruvian mint from Novio Fresh Bandung. (Courtesy of Esa (left); James Louie)</figcaption></figure>
<figure id="attachment_147131" aria-describedby="caption-attachment-147131" style="width: 1200px" class="wp-caption aligncenter"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" class="size-full wp-image-147131" src="https://staging.destinasian.com/wp-content/uploads/Esa-Lembang-Farm-Visit-Hyoshii-Strawberries-and-Chef-Aditya-Muskita-in-Greenhouse.jpg" alt="Hyoshii Farm specializes in Japanese-quality strawberries; Esa’s chef-owner Aditya Muskita in one of the farm’s greenhouses." width="1200" height="894" srcset="https://staging.destinasian.com/wp-content/uploads/Esa-Lembang-Farm-Visit-Hyoshii-Strawberries-and-Chef-Aditya-Muskita-in-Greenhouse.jpg 1200w, https://staging.destinasian.com/wp-content/uploads/Esa-Lembang-Farm-Visit-Hyoshii-Strawberries-and-Chef-Aditya-Muskita-in-Greenhouse-300x224.jpg 300w, https://staging.destinasian.com/wp-content/uploads/Esa-Lembang-Farm-Visit-Hyoshii-Strawberries-and-Chef-Aditya-Muskita-in-Greenhouse-1024x763.jpg 1024w, https://staging.destinasian.com/wp-content/uploads/Esa-Lembang-Farm-Visit-Hyoshii-Strawberries-and-Chef-Aditya-Muskita-in-Greenhouse-768x572.jpg 768w" sizes="auto, (max-width: 1200px) 100vw, 1200px" /><figcaption id="caption-attachment-147131" class="wp-caption-text">Left to right: Hyoshii Farm specializes in Japanese-quality strawberries; Esa’s chef-owner Aditya Muskita. (Courtesy of Hyoshii Farm (left); James Louie)</figcaption></figure>
Finally, after a 90-minute drive, we pull in to the small gravel parking lot at <a href="https://hyoshii.com/?DestinAsian" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Hyoshii Farm</a>, which sits at an elevation of just over 1,300 meters. Five years ago, its founders set out to cultivate Japanese-quality strawberries in Lembang’s rich volcanic soil; their fruits are now found in restaurants like <a href="https://destinasian.com/jakarta-dining-esa-restaurant">Esa</a> and on the shelves of high-end supermarkets. “I’ve been growing strawberries since I was five years old,” says in-house expert Ihsan Alfalah as he shows us around the two-hectare farm. We’re soon led inside a cool greenhouse, where rows of hydroponically grown and pesticide-free strawberry plants are neatly lined up on racks.
Hyoshii Farm has its own R&amp;D team and laboratory, where Ihsan and his team have been cross-breeding strawberry varieties from Japan and the United States, and selecting the most promising seeds from the top one percent to create a new kind adapted to Indonesia’s tropical climate. “American strawberries are big and firm but sour. Japanese ones are sweet but mushy,” Ihsan says. “By developing our own cultivar, we want to achieve a balance of firmness and sweetness.”
Those efforts have clearly paid off. Plump and lusciously sweet with notes of honey, melon, and peach, the ruby-red strawberries Ihsan plucks from the branch are the best I’ve had in a long time. “We call this kind momoka because it tastes like peach.” Another self-developed variety is stark white, with a flavor reminiscent of soursop. We’re told its name means “snow princess” in Japanese. Then our attention shifts to the unripe young strawberries growing nearby. A flash of excitement crosses Aditya’s face. “This is the kind of white strawberry I’ve been looking for!” Neither green nor red, they have a slightly fibrous texture more commonly associated with vegetables than fruits. “This is great for sambal,” the chef says while munching on one. “It has sourness but is not astringent.”
Between Hyoshii Farm and our next stop, we’re caught in another traffic jam clogging Lembang’s narrow roads. The meandering route passes through villages and a wedding celebration spilling out into a country lane. Escaping the holiday crowds, we roll the windows down to enjoy the cool mountain breeze. But the driver comes to a halt just 10 minutes out from our destination. Google Maps has directed him to an impossibly steep incline that clearly wasn’t paved with eight-seater SUVs in mind. Uncertain whether the car can make it over with all of us inside, we huff up the slope and rejoin our driver on the downhill stretch to <a href="https://www.instagram.com/novio_fresh/?DestinAsian" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Novio Fresh Bandung</a>.
<figure id="attachment_147133" aria-describedby="caption-attachment-147133" style="width: 1200px" class="wp-caption aligncenter"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" class="size-full wp-image-147133" src="https://staging.destinasian.com/wp-content/uploads/Esa-Lembang-Farm-Visit-Sunchoke-at-Novio-Fresh-Bandung.jpg" alt="Newly harvested sunchoke (Jerusalem artichoke) from one of Novio Fresh Bandung’s three farms." width="1200" height="800" /><figcaption id="caption-attachment-147133" class="wp-caption-text">Newly harvested sunchoke (Jerusalem artichoke) from one of Novio Fresh Bandung’s three farms. (Photo: James Louie)</figcaption></figure>
<figure id="attachment_147127" aria-describedby="caption-attachment-147127" style="width: 1200px" class="wp-caption aligncenter"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" class="wp-image-147127 size-full" src="https://staging.destinasian.com/wp-content/uploads/Esa-Lembang-Farm-Visit-Chef-Aditya-Muskita-at-Novio-Fresh-Bandung-Zallotti-Blossoms.jpg" alt="Chef Aditya Muskita inspects herbs at Novio Fresh; zallotti blossoms taste like a cross between mint and basil." width="1200" height="894" srcset="https://staging.destinasian.com/wp-content/uploads/Esa-Lembang-Farm-Visit-Chef-Aditya-Muskita-at-Novio-Fresh-Bandung-Zallotti-Blossoms.jpg 1200w, https://staging.destinasian.com/wp-content/uploads/Esa-Lembang-Farm-Visit-Chef-Aditya-Muskita-at-Novio-Fresh-Bandung-Zallotti-Blossoms-300x224.jpg 300w, https://staging.destinasian.com/wp-content/uploads/Esa-Lembang-Farm-Visit-Chef-Aditya-Muskita-at-Novio-Fresh-Bandung-Zallotti-Blossoms-1024x763.jpg 1024w, https://staging.destinasian.com/wp-content/uploads/Esa-Lembang-Farm-Visit-Chef-Aditya-Muskita-at-Novio-Fresh-Bandung-Zallotti-Blossoms-768x572.jpg 768w" sizes="auto, (max-width: 1200px) 100vw, 1200px" /><figcaption id="caption-attachment-147127" class="wp-caption-text">Left to right: Chef Aditya Muskita inspects herbs at Novio Fresh; zallotti blossoms taste like a cross between mint and basil. (Photos: James Louie)</figcaption></figure>
<figure id="attachment_147132" aria-describedby="caption-attachment-147132" style="width: 1200px" class="wp-caption aligncenter"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" class="wp-image-147132 size-full" src="https://staging.destinasian.com/wp-content/uploads/Esa-Lembang-Farm-Visit-Novio-Fresh-Bandung-Golden-Wood-Sorrel.jpg" alt="Golden wood sorrel growing in the R&amp;D gardens at Novio Fresh." width="1200" height="800" /><figcaption id="caption-attachment-147132" class="wp-caption-text">Golden wood sorrel growing in the R&amp;D gardens at Novio Fresh. (Photo: James Louie)</figcaption></figure>
The agrobusiness first took root in <a href="https://destinasian.com/category/indonesia/bali">Bali</a> as a supplier of high-quality herbs and heirloom vegetables. Co-founder Retno Wulansari runs the Bandung operation, which spans three farms in the Lembang area. She welcomes us into an upstairs office with boxed lunches and traditional snacks, pouring cups of homemade lemon verbena tea while introducing her produce. Edible flowers are the current bestsellers, though Novio Fresh Bandung also cultivates sunchoke (Jerusalem artichoke), kohlrabi, parsnip, radish, and beetroot. Retno travels when she can and keeps up to date with what growers are doing abroad. “Indonesia is about five years behind the UK,” she says. “Farmers there are moving away from edible flowers. With the stock that we already have, we will be ready when demand in the market begins to change.”
Stomachs full, it’s time for a tour of the hydroponic gardens. Wasabi arugula lives up to its name; I learn that garlic flowers have a less biting flavor than the bulb, and we nibble on sour oxalis leaves before riding pillion on the staff scooters for the short ride to another Novio Fresh farm. Here, a cornucopia of herbs I’d never knew existed flourish in the R&amp;D greenhouses: savory and briny samphire reminds me of seaweed, while olive herbs taste just like Kalamata olives. We try zallotti blossoms: the flavor of these tiny purplish blooms lies somewhere between sweet basil and mint. Aditya points out the tall bushes of huacatay (Peruvian black mint) sprouting like a weed from the top of an earthen embankment. At Esa, it’s transformed into ice cream and served atop slices of Hyoshii Farm strawberries. We’re also acquainted with the slow-burning spiciness of horseradish leaves, the long-lasting sweetness of bronze fennel, and the syrupy nectar of “blueberry” sage flowers. I look over at Dynna to see her considering each bite, likely weighing up the possibilities of using these ingredients at her own restaurant.
Once we’re ferried back to the main facility, Retno hands us juicy black tomatoes that have just arrived from the company’s third Lembang farm, their complex flavor and grape-like texture unlike any tomatoes I’ve recently eaten. Kevindra nervously checks his watch, cognizant of the distance between Novio Fresh and Bandung station. Aditya and Omar are content with grazing on herbs in the greenhouses but it’s time to go. There’s no predicting the traffic on the busy roads this long weekend. After all, we have a high-speed train to catch.
<figure id="attachment_147134" aria-describedby="caption-attachment-147134" style="width: 1200px" class="wp-caption aligncenter"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" class="size-full wp-image-147134" src="https://staging.destinasian.com/wp-content/uploads/Esa-Lembang-Farm-Visit-Whoosh-Halim-Station-Jakarta.jpg" alt="Disembarking from the Whoosh high-speed train at Jakarta’s Halim station." width="1200" height="800" srcset="https://staging.destinasian.com/wp-content/uploads/Esa-Lembang-Farm-Visit-Whoosh-Halim-Station-Jakarta.jpg 1200w, https://staging.destinasian.com/wp-content/uploads/Esa-Lembang-Farm-Visit-Whoosh-Halim-Station-Jakarta-300x200.jpg 300w, https://staging.destinasian.com/wp-content/uploads/Esa-Lembang-Farm-Visit-Whoosh-Halim-Station-Jakarta-1024x683.jpg 1024w, https://staging.destinasian.com/wp-content/uploads/Esa-Lembang-Farm-Visit-Whoosh-Halim-Station-Jakarta-768x512.jpg 768w" sizes="auto, (max-width: 1200px) 100vw, 1200px" /><figcaption id="caption-attachment-147134" class="wp-caption-text">Disembarking from the Whoosh high-speed train at Jakarta’s Halim terminus. (Photo: James Louie)</figcaption></figure>

Newly harvested sunchokes at Novio Fresh Bandung, Esa’s chef-owner Aditya Muskita, strawberries from Hyoshii Farm.

Down on the Farm with Esa’s Pioneering Chefs