Jeda Cafe and Diner
By Hiranmayii Awli Mohanan
Jeda Cafe and Diner is a cheerful, eponymous neighbourhood cafe helmed by a husband and wife team, Jessica (Je) and David (Da), doling out various renditions of the beloved fried chicken. Its interior embraces the minimalistic concept, livened by a fun mural featuring a poised, above-it- all llama with ‘No Drama Llama’ writing, a range of cacti, pastel-hued abstract art and plants in every nook and cranny.
Weekday lunch sets here cater to the working crowd, featuring interesting dishes such as What’s the Mattah — fired chicken fillet with Balinese sambal ‘matah’ on steamed rice, Obladi O Balado — eggplant cooked in sambal ‘balado’ a la Padang on rice, and Nanbanman — fried chicken fillet served with Japanese tartar sauce and steamed rice. The lunch sets come with a side of iced tea to battle some of the fiery dishes here.
The lunch offerings extend to our favourite, the Ayam Geprek Jeda which sees smashed fried chicken fillet with sambal bawang on steamed rice. It was the simplicity and the sweet yet spicy sambal that we appreciated in this dish. Dinner is when you can experience Jeda’s ode to the Nashville hot chicken through cayenne- spiced legs, breasts and wings slathered in degrees of fieriness the Tennesseans would approve.