Downtown Spartanburg boutique Dewi Maya may have closed, but its owner Dewi Mayasari isn’t leaving without starting a a new venture in the Spartanburg area.
Her boutique, featuring Mayasari’s made-in-store purses and accessories, closed earlier this year. Mayasari and her family are moving to Charleston this summer, and she is transitioning the business to operate online and as a mobile store in the Summerfield area.
In the meantime, she’s launched a new business that she is leaving in capable hands when she moves to the coast.
Tropic Asian Market, an Indonesian food delivery service, offers made-from-scratch dishes from Mayasari’s recipes, as well as a variety of pre-packaged Indonesian snacks and condiments. Mayasari strives to give her dishes an accurate taste, growing the less commercially available herbs in her garden instead of substituting seasonings.
“In the Spartanburg-Greenville area, we have a large Indonesian community, but we don’t have any Indonesian restaurants,” Mayasari said. “I want to offer authentic Indonesian dishes here in Spartanburg.”
For Mayasari, fashion and food are ways to both express her creativity and celebrate her culture.
“All the imagination I have comes back to my culture,” Mayasari said.
How does Tropic Asian Market operate?
Customers can order from Tropic Asian Market’s menu for delivery on the website, tropicasianmarket.com, Monday through Friday. Deliveries are made to customers in Spartanburg and Greenville counties on Sundays, but a $35 minimum order is required.
What can you order from Tropic Asian Market?
Tropic Asian market offers a rotating weekly menu of Indonesian dishes for delivery. Some of the popular dishes include Pepes Ikan, a dish featuring steamed salmon wrapped in banana leaves, Rendang, an Indonesian beef stew, and Gado-gado, a salad with mixed veggies, tofu and peanut sauce.
“Our grilled chicken is always a favorite,” Mayasari said of recommendations for first-time diners. “I use coriander, garlic and sweet soy sauce. I cook it with coconut water and then I grill it.”
What makes Indonesian food unique?
Mayasari says Indonesian food’s balance of flavors and slow cooking process makes it different from other Asian cuisines.
“Indonesian is more sweet and spicy,” Mayasari said. “And the cooking process takes a long time. When I make beef stew, it’s going to take me four hours. When I make sticky rice, it takes hours.”
Samantha Swann covers city news, development and culture in Spartanburg. She is a University of South Carolina Upstate and Greenville Technical College alumna. Contact her at[email protected] or on Instagram at @sam_on_spartanburg.