Among other beaches in Yogyakarta, Depok Beach is apparently the only beach that is designed to become the center of culinary tourism to enjoy various seafood menus. Some of the warongs were intentionally designed to face the ocean so that visitors can enjoy the waves rushing to the shore while having delicious meals.
The warongs and the activities of the fishermen have been improving since 10 years ago. The story tells that around 1997 some fishermen from Cilacap area found Depok Beach to be a good place to put their catches ashore. The fishermen with good catches of fish inspired the local people who made their living as farmers to catch fish.
Some people of the coastal community began to become tekong, local term for fishermen. The tekongs go to sea with their motorboats. Catching fish is done almost throughout the year, except certain days that are considered sacred, namely Tuesday and Friday of Kliwon (one of the five Javanese days of the week). The tekongs make good catches except June to September when fish are rare.
With such big quantity of catches, local people opened a center for fish landing that later was completed with a center for fish trading called Mina Bahari 45. Fishermen from other areas can even sell their catches there. When YogYES paid a visit, this fish trading center was occupied by many visitors.
With the increasing number of visitors to the beach that is located 1.5 kilometers from Parangtritis Beach, seafood warongs were opened accordingly. Generally, the warongs offer traditional nuance. The buildings are simple with traditional shape of roofs called limasan, while the seating is arranged for cross-legged on mats with small tables for eating. Simple, they are clean and comfortable.
Various seafood cuisines are worth trying. The most popular fish dish at reasonable price is tuna, at IDR 8,000 per/kg, consisting of 5-6 fish. Other kinds of fish are white kakap and red kakap that sell around IDR 17,000 - IDR 25,000 per kilogram. Quite expensive fish is bawal that sells at IDR 27,000 - IDR 60,000 per kilogram. In addition to fish, there are also crabs, lobsters and squids.
Seafood is usually served grilled or fried. You can choose fresh fish, other catches yourself, and then you go to one of the warongs to have them cooked. YogYES tried to have half a kilogram of tuna fish cooked and had them with a glass of tea that totally cost IDR 22,000 only.
After having good meals, you may leave Depok Beach for Parangkusumo and Parangtritis Beaches by turning right when you get to the asphalted road. On the way, you will see the amazing sand dunes as the only such a view in South-East Asia and it is rarely found in tropical areas. The wide sandy area looks like desert.
It takes thousands of years for the formation of the sand dunes through unique process. Some forms of them are barchan dune, comb dune, parabolic dune and longitudinal dune. Now, only barchan and longitudinal ones are present. The wind of the sea and the steep mountain slope in the east caused the sands, resulted from the activity of Merapi Mountain, at the bank of the river to blow away to the shore to form the sand dunes.
In order to get the place where you can enjoy having seafood while admiring the sand dunes, you can take the same road leading you from Yogyakarta to Parangtritis. Just before arriving the ticket box to Parangtritis Beach, you turn right through small-asphalted road. The entrance ticket to Depok Beach is IDR 4,000 for two people and one motorcycle. If you go by a car, you pay IDR 5,000 for the car plus additional fare per person.