The first bite of chicken satay explodes with flavor at Artha Rini, an Indonesian restaurant in Kensington opened in August by the chef and owner Artharini, who goes by one name. Artharini marinates the skewers overnight with a sweet and sour sauce flavored with ginger-like galangal, white pepper, garlic, onions, mushroom powder and lime leaf. She serves the grilled skewers with a sauce of ground fried peanuts cooked with brown sugar, chiles, garlic and lime leaves ($13). “I love lime leaves,” she says. “Everything here is made with them.” That explains the fragrant, citrusy tang to so many of the dishes at Artha Rini.
Artharini is Javanese. She immigrated to the United States in 2004 when her husband, Wirawan Ismudjatmiko, took a job at the Embassy of Burkina Faso, and they settled in Silver Spring. He later wound up at the Algerian Embassy, leaving that position to help his wife—he waits tables at the 24-seat restaurant while she prepares meals in its open kitchen.
When she was a child in Semarang, Indonesia, Artharini’s family ran a catering business, and her grandmother sold gudeg (jackfruit stew) in a food stall. Artharini was drawn to the kitchen early on, even winning a cooking competition in high school. She parlayed her home cooking skills into professional ones in Silver Spring when a client at her sister-in-law’s day care heard of her prowess and ordered some food. Word of Artharini’s talent spread in the Indonesian community, and she found herself cooking for several people who worked at the International Monetary Fund. That led to gigs for the Indonesian Embassy, making it necessary for Artharini to find commercial cooking space, which she did elsewhere in the commercial strip where Artha Rini is located now. When that landlord offered to rent her the brick-and-mortar spot she is currently in, she leapt at the opportunity, decorating the small space with a collection of Indonesian clay cooking pots, wayang golek (doll puppets) and an intricate Balinese wooden statue depicting the birdlike Hindu deity Garuda.
The flavor nexus of many of the all-halal dishes at Artha Rini are white or red spice pastes called bumbu, whose base is onions, garlic and candlenuts. (Red bumbu has red chile peppers and paprika in it.) Highlights are mendoan (batter-fried tempeh, $3 per slice); rawon (beef soup made with coconut milk, galangal, lime leaves, tomatoes, onions, celery and a salted hard-boiled egg) served with cassava chips, rice and a potato fritter ($16); and nasi padang, steamed rice platters offered with one to four tastings of Indonesian specialties: braised beef in spicy red curry sauce (rendang), jackfruit curry, egg in red bumbu, and grilled chicken ($9 to $18). It’s an excellent way to tour Indonesia in one meal.
Artha Rini, 10562 Metropolitan Ave., Kensington; 240-505-7203; artharini.com
This story appears in the May/June edition of Bethesda Magazine.