ON a recent Thursday afternoon, two men in suits, wearing badges from the Indonesian Consulate, pushed open the door of Upi Jaya, a restaurant in Elmhurst, Queens. The diplomats walked straight into the kitchen and ordered food for the president of Indonesia, Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono, and his delegation, who were in town for the United Nations General Assembly. The order filled an entire notebook page and included more than 50 portions of rendang daging, Indonesian-style brisket.

Since 2004, Upi Jaya has been serving such delicacies, even if the takeout is packed in Styrofoam rather than the traditional banana leaves. The restaurant helps anchor a loose collection of restaurants, churches, mosques, beauty salons and markets in Elmhurst that serve the city’s 7,000 or so Indonesians, a population the consulate says is centered here.

Inside, the scent of boiling coconut milk and lemon grass wafts from the kitchen. Small touches of Indonesia mark the otherwise nondescript dining room: dioramas of Indonesian landmarks, Indonesian newsletters, pamphlets describing legal services for new immigrants and a donation box for the Islamic charity Darul Uloom New York. A map of the archipelago stitched from batik fabric hangs on the wall.