Indonesian restaurants in Paris by political refugees

Indonesian restaurants in Paris often appear, then disappear. Two of them were founded by Indonesian political refugees. The first one, Restaurant Indonesia (formerly Restoran Indonesia) was founded by a cooperative of political refugees who landed in Paris, after having lived in China, or elsewhere, having lost their Indonesian passports. The other Djakarta Bali was founded by a family of Indonesian exiles, by the way of Cuba, then Paris. The fate of the new restaurant Borneo is dependent on finding fresh capital. The chain d’jawa, are food-stall eateries in various locations in central Paris.
 

Restaurant Indonesia, on 12 rue de Vaugirard, in the sixth district of Paris, close to Luxembourg Gardens, was founded by a worker cooperative called SCOP of four Indonesian refugees and four French counterparts from the French Ministry of Agriculture. The aim was to create work for political refugees from Indonesia whose diplomas were not recognized in France, an idea of veteran Indonesian-born journalist Umar Said who had fled to China after Indonesia’s first president Soekarno was ousted.

Umar Said, later known André Aumars when he became French, lived in Beijing, working as a journalist, but then he fled China in 1973 as the Cultural Revolution gained ground there. Eventually Umar landed in France as a refugee and found a job in the French Ministry of Agriculture. Later Umar Said with three other Indonesian exiles, opened the Indonesian restaurant as a cooperative on 14 December 1982. They offered Indonesian food, besides staging exhibitions, dances and debates. Decoration features batik and leather shadow-play puppets, while a room downstairs is a gathering place for meetings and private occasions. After Umar Said passed away in October 2011, Anita Sobron, daughter of one of the four founders took over, and the menu increased in volume. The political history of the restaurant inspired a popular Indonesian novel called Pulang by Indonesian writer Leila S. Chudori, re-printed many times. Indonesian diplomats are no longer discouraged from eating there.
 

The other Indonesian restaurant founded by Indonesian political refugees, Restaurant Djakarta Bali, on 9 Rue Vauvilliers near Les Halles, is now directed by Nin Hanafi, who was born in 1964 in Cuba to Indonesian Ambassador A.M. Hanafi from Bengkulu, Sumatra and his Javanese spouse. Fate prevented them from returning home to Indonesia until later.

The former diplomat, wife and children moved to Paris as exiles. There they decided to create an Indonesian restaurant to present excellent Indonesian home cooking to the capital of fine cuisine and introduce Indonesian culture to France. The restaurant opened in late 1984.

In both restaurants, traditional dishes feature with spices like ginger, lemon balm and galangal which are available in Paris, while other ingredients such as kemiri nuts, curcuma leaves, or kencur roots have to be ordered from Indonesia or Holland. In Restaurant Djakarta Bali the emphasis is on fine dining with a more sophisticated interior and presentation of dishes. In addition, Djakarta Bali forms part of the Wonderful Indonesia network founded by the Indonesian Ministry of Tourism to help promote Indonesia abroad and attract European visitors to Indonesia.
 

Franco-Indonesian Stephanie Dambron came to Paris at 18 and obtained her Master in Business. She began a catering service, then with injected capital, founded the first d’jawa-Montmartre eatery in September 2012. d’jawa-Micromesnil followed in 2015, d’jawa-Mathurins in 2016, d’jawa-Republique in 2017 and d’jawa-Valmy in 2018. At first these eateries were open for lunch or early dinner only, but later, d’jawa Mathurins, d’jawa-Republique and d’jawa Valmy, opened 7 days in the week.

The d’jawa menu is restricted to ten dishes of freshly cooked food, where all spices and vegetables are available in Paris. The taste is adjusted to suit European palettes with more use of sauce. For example d’jawa offers variations of traditional nasi goreng, here the fried rice dish is served with thinly sliced rump steak or marinated duck breast. Decor is very modern with teak furniture to remind customers of Indonesia. The restaurant’s logo, is simply the word d’jawa, Java spelt the old-fashioned way with a monkey pictured above it.