Indonesian Street food Straight off the American Streets

In Solo, people will often talk about how good the food is here as a topic of conversation. In out experience, usually people will talk about the food in Solo having three attributes: enak (tasty), murah (cheap), and manis (sweet, with a lot of sweet soy sauce or kecap manis used). Even people in Jakarta talk about how cheap the food is in Solo.

Sometimes, to spice things up, we turn the conversation to things unusual, like whether there's any Mexican food to be had in Solo. (Once in awhile see see tortillas for sale at the Super-Indo which I think is the Indonesian franchise name for the US Food Lion.) Unsurprisingly, most people can't tell us anything about Mexican food in Solo, but once in awhile we've heard about a place called "Chon-e-joe," since the C here gets an English Ch sound and the J here doesn't get an English H sound like it does in Spanish. It's known as the only Mexican place in town, with a stall in the mall near our house and then a roving food truck. Conejo means rabbit or kelinci.

On Monday this week we went to Conejo and I greeted the owner with a "buenas noches." He didn't speak Spanish but we talked for a few minutes and it turned out he had learned about the popular emergence of US food trucks from a show on National Geographic (funny, I think National Geographic is more famous for giving pop ethnography on places like Indonesia to people in the US). And he had learned how to make his menu items by watching Youtube.

The sign with menu.

An empty picture frame that was sitting around the sitting area. W quickly discovered what it was meant for. And as we took pictures, Robby the owner came over and took pictures to put on Instagram.

Usually we discourage "bunny ears" but since we were at Conejo...

We got five burritos and one quesedilla.

Waiting a little for the food.

N noticed that the stall in the mall was equipped with wheels, a nod to the concept's origins on the American streets (via National Geographic).

W's enjoying his first Indonesian burrito

N enjoying her first Indonesian burrito. Looking at the pic, she says she nailed it, just precisely the face she was trying to make.

S enjoying her first Indonesian quesedilla

But wait, it needed a healthy amount of ketchup

W with Robby, who N said had really struck the right food-truck-owner style. 

National Geographic was so responsible (or maybe it was Youtube) that it even let Robby know the right kind of drinking vessels to provide. Mason jars.

As we left, we saw another stall specializing in an item that's not unfamiliar in Mexican restaurants.