Bahagia Barus doesn’t strictly follow an established recipe when creating homestyle dishes for his street-side eatery Panci Bahagia in Menteng. He picks and chooses inspiration from the food and ingredients he finds around him, mulls over them to come up with his own twists, before writing down the precise measurements and putting the idea into the pan.
“What’s great about coming up with my own recipes and combinations is that people can’t compare them to other dishes out there. They’re simply different!” cheerfully remarked the self-taught cook, who began selling his cooking on the side of his corporate job to fund his diving hobby.
Clearly, Bahagia’s nonstandard cooking approach has been well-received in the Menteng neighbourhood, where the Bandung-hailed man has resided for 17 years. His bijou joint—made up mostly of his kitchen, with a concession window through which Bahagia takes food orders while cooking and engaging his customers in conversations—welcomes a regular flow of office workers, civil servants, to expats who hardly ever miss a day of dining at the eatery. They perch on outdoor stools and makeshift seats, seemingly unfazed by the cacophony of the busy junction nearby or the chugging of the commuter train above.
With only one other person to help him in the kitchen, Bahagia currently limits the menu at the eatery to six recurring dish selections, rotating daily depending on availability. A best-seller is Nasi Campur; somewhat similar to the popular Balinese dish, the rice bowl is generously topped with cubes of opor ayam, beef slices, deep-fried chicken skin and boiled egg, with a twist in the form of sambal ijo. But to get a better taste of Bahagia’s ingenuity, try Nasi Soto Kering instead, which hybridises the local dishes of soto and opor into a thick, spicy curry, slathered over beef slices and accompanied by lightly salted crisps.
And while Panci Bahagia’s menu offerings have continuously evolved and transformed since the eatery’s founding three years ago, a lasting mainstay can be found in Bihun Goreng Sapi—Bahagia’s personal favourite. The lightly smoky rice noodles offer a texture similar to angel hair pasta, pairing nicely with chewy beef slices and a little zing from grilled garlic, shallots, and chilli.
From its DIY homestyle recipes and ever-changing menu to the food truck-esque setup that provides little shelter from the weather, Panci Bahagia doesn’t really follow the expected playbook of a ‘consistent’ F&B joint. But its loyal following tells a different story. Some regulars have kept coming back for years, with a few even making long commutes from across Jakarta. Whether it’s Bahagia’s cooking, his stories of past adventures, or the simple charm of doing things one’s own way—something about the place clearly strikes a chord.