Interview: Feasting At Selamat Pagi, Brooklyn's Best Indonesian Joint

A favorite haunt of many of Brooklyn’s big names in the food game (see Tara Norvell and Sara Conklin), Selamat Pagi is a Balinese restaurant that gives its visitors an education in the truest flavours of the cuisine without veering off the track too much. ‘We like to keep things as exciting as possible,’ Head chef Vinh Nguyen (who happens, incidentally, to be the nicest man on Earth), tells us as we stare out at the kaleidoscopic table of food before us, ‘But basically, these are traditional Balinese recipes that don’t need much change.’ Take their market fish curry, cooked in turmeric, lemongrass and coconut milk, or their mussels with lime, chilli, fennel and cilantro. Every dish fills the mouth with heat, texture and zest, churned out by a kitchen larger than the dining room itself, while their pantry is stacked with enough spices, powders, and jars of provisions to send any cook into a salivating spin.