[caption id="attachment_173931" align="aligncenter" width="550" caption="Soto Semarang (1)"][/caption] [caption id="attachment_173937" align="aligncenter" width="550" caption="Warung Soto Semarang Pak Sarben in Solo City (Surakarta)"]
Soto is one of Indonesian traditional foods which is easily found in most parts of that country. Generally, soto is a kind of food with bases of broth and vegetables. Those bases can be very various. Soto style is various in each part of Indonesia. In common, soto uses chicken or beef broth. The vegetables that are mostly used as topping are sprout and celery. Many people say they like soto because it can make the fresh sensation. The spices used like nutmeg,pepper,coriander,ginger, and turmeric really make soto tasty and healthy.
[caption id="attachment_173934" align="aligncenter" width="313" caption="Cart of Soto Semarang"]
There are so many kinds of soto named according to the city where it comes from such as Soto Betawi, Soto Kediri, Soto Madura, Soto Banjar, and Soto Semarang. Though it comes from specific region, but basically people can find it anywhere in Indonesia. For example, those who stay in Solo city (Surakarta) can still enjoy eating Soto Semarang without necessarily going to Semarang. For additional information, Semarang is the capital city of Central Java (Jawa Tengah) while Solo is one of the city in Central Java. One of the warung (stalls) of Soto Semarang located in Solo is in Jendral S. Parman street. The place is very strategic; only five minutes walking from Solo Balapan train station. The name of the stall is "Warung Soto Semarang Pak Sarben" referred to the owner name, Mister Sarben. In Indonesia, this is common to give the name for restaurant or stall by the name of the owner.
[caption id="attachment_173952" align="aligncenter" width="313" caption="Perkedel (1)"]
[caption id="attachment_173941" align="aligncenter" width="550" caption="Whatever you like, you may add lime juice, chili sauce, or ketchup"]
Simply to mention, Soto Semarang has more condensed sauced compared to most soto found in Solo. In Solo, fried onion is used as topping but in Soto Semarang, it uses fried garlic. In "Warung Soto Semarang Pak Sarben", just like many other soto stalls, people can have many choices of side dishes like kerupuk, karak (those two are kinds of cracker), perkedel (fried grilled potato), tempe, and tofu. People can also find many choices of satay like chicken intestines satay, chicken skin satay, scallops satay, and quail eggskewer satay. Differently, all the satay in this stall are immersed in another condensed sweet savory sauce. So the taste of satay can be stronger and people may take that sauce as well to be added in their soto. Another specific character of that place is the use of small bowl. So people may take two portions of soto to make them full.
How about the prices? one bowl of soto is IDR 5,000 [caption id="attachment_173947" align="aligncenter" width="550" caption="Soto Semarang (2)"]
