Why worry about extricating meat from bones when you can just eat an entire chicken leg itself, bones and all? Ayam goreng tulang lunak ($8.50) is fried chicken with soft bones you can eat. The secret lies in pressure-cooking the corn-fed chicken quarters overnight till they're ready for deep-frying the next day. The result? Earth-shattering batter, juicy flesh and brittle bones you can crunch on, from the ribs to the leg bone. The bones don't taste of much – as bland as the bones you find in a tin of salmon – but there's a sense of accomplishment involved in reducing a serve of chicken legs into nothing but a trail of stray crumbs.
The fried chicken can be ordered with a salted egg batter or generous daubs of chilli sauce in hot or mild, but we liked the original the best, which is topped with a crumbling coral of deep-fried batter shards.
Try the petai beans – their bitterness is best masked with fried anchovy, but they're also available with chilli prawns ($20) or served plain and fried ($6.50). Cleanse the palate with sayur asem ($7), a mild, sour tamarind soup and wash down everything with sweetened coconut milk drinks that double as desserts. Avocado ice ($6) and durian ice ($7) both come with chunks of fruit at the bottom.