Komodo Kitchen is a pop-up paradise

Indonesian food hasn't been among the more well-represented fare in the generally diverse culinary world of metro Detroit. We ostensibly love our Asian cuisine — everything from spicy tuna hand rolls to Vietnamese soup with pineapple and okra — but Indonesian is hard to find.

That's changed a bit with the first installment of the Komodo Kitchen pop-up supper club.

Unfamiliar with the pop-up concept? Fortunately, it's pretty straightforward: Organizers announce a time and place, generally an off day for a borrowed bricks and mortar restaurant, and offer reservations for as many seats as they have available. Rinse and repeat.

Komodo isn't the first metro area pop-up, but it's among the most focused in terms of its offerings. Its operators — friends Gina Onyx, April Boyle and Deanne Iovan — are committed to bringing all the spice and subtlety of Indo-fusion to metro Detroiters.

Their first gathering took place on Sunday, Oct. 23, in the recently reopened space on West Nine Mile Road that houses the Red Hook coffee shop and Pinwheel Bakery.

All three members of the Komodo Kitchen team have a history in the food industry ranging from the front of the house to working over a wok, but it's the Indonesian-born Onyx who brings the cultural know-how to this particular endeavor. She'd catered for large groups before — including at Iovan's wedding — and the trio decided to find a way to offer this experience to others.

A pop-up without all the commitments of more traditional operations seemed like a perfect way to begin. They were right.

The first course was ketoprak, a rice noodle and tofu salad served over a slice of banana leaf attractively trimmed to fit the center of a plate. Cooked to a soft texture without becoming gummy, the noodles are tossed with peanut dressing and garnished with fresh, crunchy bean sprouts and shrimp crackers.

Both the peanut sauce and the crackers were homemade, and they could redefine people's expectations of what those ingredients can be in a dish. No one in our party could claim expertise in Indonesian fare, but the depth of flavor and richness of the sauce were unmatched by anything similar we'd ever tasted. And the shrimp crackers were notably starchier and more flavorful than the standard accompaniments of some Thai takeout.

Pacing for the meal was steady, with ample time to meet tablemates or chat with friends, but never so long as to feel slow. Between the first and second courses, they poured a pandan tea, which, despite a remarkably interesting grainy sweetness and an understated floral flavor, finishes crisp and dry — an ideal palate-cleanser. The tea was sweetened using syrup they made from palm sugar and pandan leaf, a common ingredient found fresh in Indonesia but available to Komodo in dried form here.

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