Something Long Overdue ....

Nearly two years ago we visited Bandung, Indonesia and had the opportunity to try "Pepes Ayam" in one of local restaurants in the city. My little girl fell in love with it and we had another dinner the next evening at the same restaurant, called "Bumbu Desa". Pepes ayam itself is a chicken dish, wrapped in banana leaf, filled also with sliced red and green chilies and other spicy ingredients.

From time to time we talked about making them at home, but never really got to make them. The recipe is do-able, it is not too hard to make but somehow I never really had everything that I needed for this dish together. The hardest thing to get for me is the banana leaves to wrap them, because they are not always available at the supermarket and I am not a wet market goer, unfortunately, where these sort of things are more widely available. I could use aluminum foil instead, but I dislike the idea of losing the aroma of banana leaf.

Until finally a couple of days ago, I asked DH who happened to be in the neighborhood of a wet market, to get some. With the leaves, I was actually still short of some of the ingredients, but still proceeded with the plan. It's almost like "now or never" thing, I had postponed it for too long. Besides, the leaves would dry out if unused. What a waste that would be!

After wrapping them with banana leaves, we need to steam the parcel for 30 minutes. They can be eaten at this point, but I love to grill them for a little bit more.

So, we finally did it! They are spicy, but delish!