Vegan restaurant of traditional Indonesian cuisine with a garden and organic design
Warung Pituk was founded as a completely vegan restaurant so that vegans could order dishes without fear that some animal components were used in the food. The emphasis was on traditional Indonesian dishes. The head of the warung, Anna, a native of Finland and half-Russian on her father's side, a vegan with 8 years of experience, was ready to start culinary experiments to create vegan analogues of Indonesian dishes.
Pituk in the language of the Sasaks, the inhabitants of the island of Lombok, means "seven". Anna needed some universal word that would mean something lucky for her. At the time of opening the warung, she was interested in numerology, the sacred meaning of numbers and realized that seven is one of the most powerful, lucky and symbolic.
Warung Pituk was opened at the end of March 2018. From her experience of traveling in Indonesia, Anna felt that it was quite difficult to find any vegan food here. Traditional warungs mainly offered meat, chicken or fish. But even if there were vegetables among the dishes, they were often cooked with some kind of animal sauce like fish or shrimp paste.
Anna decided to give up any animal food - even eggs, honey or milk. But at the same time, she did not want to compromise on her taste preferences. She was not satisfied with the opinion that vegan food is food for rabbits. She wanted to prove that vegan food can be very aromatic and delicious. Anna wanted to create a restaurant where she and visitors, vegans and meat eaters would enjoy the food equally.
The main idea of the design was immediately the use of natural materials like bamboo. Many materials used in the decor were taken from second-hand stores. Some things simply needed to be repaired and reused instead of throwing away still usable things in a landfill. Bamboo was chosen because it is a traditional material for Indonesia and it began to be used in the history of construction long before the construction of concrete buildings. And, of course, Anna took into account the possibility of earthquakes.
Anna wanted to bring the garden inside the restaurant and fill it with live plants so that guests would sit surrounded by flowers, banana trees, coconut palms. She is proud that during the construction of the warung, she did not destroy a single tree that originally grew on this territory. "We built the restaurant around nature," says Anna.
One of the most interesting dishes on the menu is rendang. In general, rendang occupies an important place in Indonesian cuisine and, according to world culinary ratings, is often one of the most delicious dishes in the world. Therefore, Anna always wanted to make a vegan version of it.
For traditional rendang, beef is taken, which is stewed for many hours. The main idea was to create a vegan rendang that would be as tasty as the original, but at the same time, a person would not immediately understand what exactly it was made of.
Ultimately, through trial and error, it was possible to create the perfect rendang from a combination of jackfruit, mushrooms, onions and beets. Yes, beets, because as a half-Russian, Anna absorbed a love for borscht, beet salad, vinaigrette and other beet dishes from childhood. The best praise for Anna was the comments of meat eaters who ate the vegan rendang and asked if it was really only made of vegetables.
Chicken soup was another challenge for Anna. She understood that soto ayam is a very Indonesian dish, a popular street food, and she wanted to make a vegan version. She tried to create different variations of mushroom soup, focusing only on the aroma, because at that time she had completely given up meat.
Anna gave the dish to meat eaters and chicken soup lovers to try, until eventually she received a comment that now the mushroom soup is indistinguishable from the famous chicken soto ayam. The main secret was the spices and herbs that helped make the soup really tasty and aromatic.
The restaurant invites guests not only to eat, but also to have a good time. There are board games. You can buy fresh vegetables and fruits in the warung. Warung Pituk is located on the street that connects the western and eastern parts of the island and is often used by visitors to the island to meet the sunset and back.
What to try?
Rendang
Mushroom soup
