Indonesia is one country that still maintains the popularity of its traditional culinary diversity even with all the foreign restaurants popping up around. You might not see them as much in the big cities.
Thanks to the internet, sometimes some contents give us insight and also make people realize that this country still has many traditional culinary dishes that are rich in taste and unique in their own right.
As presented in The Kisarasa series. This series showcases a collaboration between the Dailybox group, director Cianicolay, and Two well-known Indonesian chefs, Juna Rorimpandey and Renatta Moeloek. In this series, They set out on food journeys across the islands and tell the story, the taste, and the uniqueness of it, with each episode lasting half an hour.
This vlog-style series not only goes from restaurant to restaurant and gives reviews of the food, but there are a lot of stories to tell from every journey, like how the food is made, what makes the food special, which has its own uniqueness.
The ways how they show the uniqueness and how delicious the dishes is trough the cinematography that gives the audience such a beautiful shots.
If most culinary content talks about the food or the restaurant that is currently viral at that time, Kisarasa mostly talks about especially food or traditional food from Indonesian provinces such as Bali, Yogyakarta, Surabaya, Ternate, etc.
Not only reviews about the dishes, Kisarasa also provides footage that demonstrates how to make the dish while the narrative are discussed about the content.
How Kisarasa Open Every Episode
“Love at first sight”, That’s the way Kisarasa opens every episode. After the opening by the studio name, this main spotlight is on the beautiful footage from the daily human interest that shows the activities related to today's episodes.
Sometimes the opening footage shows how beautiful Indonesian panoramas or local culture are. Then the footage is followed by Renatta or Juna's narrative that tells about today's province’s philosophy related to the foods that they will talk about.
How Juna and Renata Told About Dishes
Not like a usual live food reviewer tells about the food, the way Juna and Renata told the taste by discussing to each other how they felt. Not only the taste, they talked about the texture, the looks, and also they talked about the impact that was created by how the food was made, which is mostly in a traditional way.
Each episode of Kisarasa typically explores multiple culinary creations rather than focusing on just one. For example in season 1, episode 5. The episode tells about satay. Even though the main narrative is about Kere satay.
In this episode, Juna and Renata also talk about tell stories about the diversity of satay dishes in Yogyakarta such as Klathak satay and grasshopper satay.
Some episodes showcase the wide range of culinary delights in a city, sometimes they spotlight a single iconic place or restaurant celebrated for its unique flavors or cooking techniques.
In some episodes also only show one of the chefs teaming up with a guest celebrity to create a traditional dish. Regardless of the focus, Kisarasa consistently delivers engaging and informative storytelling.
The First Episode of Kisarasa
Kisarasa first aired in September 2022 with an episode titled “Chef Juna's Journey to Bali: Full of Taste and Memories”, which highlighted the story of Ibu Ray Bebek Betutu, the well-known restaurant in Bali for a decade.
The episode focuses on the preparation of the local Bebek Betutu dish, emphasizing what makes Ibu Ray's version unique. It explores how traditional cooking methods contribute to a richer flavor compared to modern techniques.
Other than that, the episode also narrates how Ibu Ray's dedication to serving authentic Bebek Betutu earned her widespread recognition as an expert in this iconic dish.
In 2024, Kisarasa already has 3 seasons and 24 episodes. The last episode of this series was released last July. Not only on Youtube, Kisarasa also spreads culinary insight through Instagram. From their latest post, Kisarasa will continue their Youtube series to the fourth season.
Besides this series might help you find what to eat when visiting some of Indonesia's countries. Trough the footage when they're cooking the dishes might help you if you want try make some Indonesian traditional dishes.
