Ayam Presto Genteng Biru

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Bebek Presto Panggang Genteng Biru, by bayuamus.

When you find the word "presto" in Indonesian cooking, it is not related to how fast they will serve you the food, but more to the cooking method used. Fast cooking? Sort of, but the real origin of this term came when the pressure cooker was introduced to Indonesia quite a while ago. "Presto" was the famous brand of these pressure cooker, and it has been becoming a common cooking lingo afterward.

Even though many brands are available in Indonesia nowadays "presto" cooking always refers to the style of cooking where the meat are cooked with the pressure cooker until becoming very tender, and most of the times even the bones are crumbly. This has not however destroy the character of the meat, so you can fairly hope for a good degree of meal upon encountering these kind of cooking.

Related to the crumbly bones attribute, the kind of meat so often cooked with this cooking method are chicken, and bandeng (milk fish). Although tasted great and very umami, the latter is notorious for having very lot of small fish bones all over its meat. With presto cooking, voilla! A fish you can eat whole and leaves nothing in the end!

One eateries we discovered in Denpasar lately with this kind of cooking, is the small shop at Pertokoan Dauh Puri Kelod, or better known as "Genteng Biru", hence why the shop name itself is "Ayam Presto Genteng Biru".
They served various menu based on the three meats; Ayam (chicken), Bebek (long necked duck), and Bandeng (milk fish). We have tried their "Ayam Presto Bakar Pedas" (11.5K) and "Bebek Presto Panggang Gurih" (17.5K), which both turned out to be above average. The meat is very succulent, the taste was rich, and while the chicken size is good, the duck portion size is practically twice the size of the chicken!

This place opens up from lunch until dinner, and on weekends this place is crowded. Seating are "lesehan" style, alias you sit on the floor (raised wooden platform in this case) with your leg crossed. It's tricky posture for a westerners, but if you love spicy food -- rich savory kind of spicy, not the blatantly chillies infused -- you might want to try this one. 


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