Indonesian snacking in Duarte

Last summer the Northridge Thai Temple had to stop hosting food stalls on weekends because neighbors complained about parking problems. But there's another place around here that sponsors Southeast Asian food stands, in Duarte.

It's a much smaller operation, only five or six stands, but the quality of the food is very high -- for example, very tender sates with a sort of spiced sugar crust, topped with a dab of peanut sauce, and empanadas (called pastels) that come with their own little cup of spicy coconut sauce. (Yes, one place does make that concentrated meat dish rendang, but it seems to sell out early.)

There are even things you might not have seen at an Indonesian restaurant, such as Dutch sausage rolls or little quail-egg-sized buns with a bit of pineapple in the middle. Sometimes there's a Balinese stand where you can get, say, spicy beef, a sweet hard-boiled egg (cooked with jackfruit), a chewy corn pancake and yellow coconut rice for $6.

If you don't know what to order, just stand around looking puzzled and somebody will probably come up and offer to explain everything. It's a very friendly, relaxed crowd. However, since this is a small operation, tables can fill up and you might want to order your food to go.

Unlike the Thai Temple, this operation is in a business area, so it hasn't had to face parking complaints from any neighbors. It's held in the parking lot of the Duarte Inn, down at the end of a driveway that's also the parking lot of a mini-mall. (You pass an Indonesian import shop and an Indonesian restaurant on the way.)

Indonesian hawker stands, Duarte Inn, 1200 Huntington Drive, Duarte; Saturdays, 10 a.m.-2 p.m.

-- Charles Perry

Photo by Charles Perry