Unlike most western food which is must be eaten right after its cooked, gudeg is commonly served after being 'aged' for days. It's more delicious that way. After it's cooked, the dish will be reheated for several days and sometimes for weeks (!) in order to let the spices absorbed into the jackfruit to create stronger flavours. A gudeg dish which has been aged is more savoury, creamy, taste sweeter and the texture of the coconut milk is thicker. Most Javanese like these.
However, which is most people are not aware of, although gudeg can taste so good, it's actually not the kind of food that we can eat on a daily basis. It's not a nutritious food. According to Kompas newspaper, the daily reheating is the cause. So unless you wish to suffer from malnourishment, one should only eat gudeg once in a while. Don't visit an Indonesian restaurant and order for gudeg too often or don't let yourself eat the gudeg that your mother has cooked for you more than twice, eventhough that dish is the only dish which is available at your home for days.
In my last trip to Yogyakarta, when I was trying to figure out where I can find good gudeg dish, I ignored completely the acclaimed 'Gudeg Bu Citro'. This gudeg restaurant is no longer a treat exclusive to Jogja in my opinion. It has branches all over Indonesia, including in Jakarta. I found a street however, that is the Wijilan which located near the Keraton area. I think it's a unique street that can add more character to Yogyakarta.
The Wijilan street boasts numerous gudeg vendors which are lining along the street, open their doors for the many amused customers who confuse on choosing which vendor offers better gudeg and service compare to the others.
After a while scanning the street, I chose a gudeg vendor which offered the cleaneast seating area. Cleanliness always serves as a good clue in searching for good food as well as a good man. Hahaha!!! Clean and smells good, that's it.
Many humble food vendors in Yogyakarta offer 'lesehan' style seating, where guests sit on the floor --which is covered by a bamboo mat-- around a low-legged table where the dishes are served. The gudeg vendor that I chose also offered a lesehan area next to its regular dining area (with tall tables and chairs). Honestly, the idea of sitting on the floor to eat outside my own house is not something that I would find convenient. But what I like about the lesehan area in the gudeg vendor is that it wasn't actually a floor where I sat on. It was some sort of a stage made of wood which is set about 30cm taller from the actual floor. So the guests can leave their shoes on the floor and sit on the stage where the low table is being put.
The gudeg vendors in Wijilan are mostly serving the authentic version of Yogyakarta style gudeg. An authentic gudeg dish is supposed to be cooked using kendil (read as kuhn-deal), a round jar made of baked clay and a wood-fired clay stove. So you can taste the delightful smokey flavour from the dish, which you won't get from a gudeg dish which is cooked using pan and a modern stove.
As you can see, the dish plating is very simple. A banana leaf covers the plate. The rice, the gudeg and the side dish are arranged on it. The brown thing is the aged jackfruit stew and chicken stew covered with sweet brown areh sauce (made of coconut milk). Meanwhile the orange coloured thing is the side dish namely the sambal goreng krecek which is actually a beef rind chili stew.
It's a completely delicious dish. And if you like, you can have a cassava starch cracker from the tin cans, which the locals called as 'kerupuk kampung' (read as kuh-rub-puck kum-pong).
