Indonesian Foods, I Love it !

The reason why I love Indonesia is because its food and beverages. Indonesian meals are commonly eaten with the combination of a spoon in the right hand and fork in the left hand (to push the food onto the spoon). Unlike European dining custom, knife however, is absent from dining table, thus most of the ingredients such as vegetables and meat are already cut into bite-size pieces prior of cooking. Although, in many parts of the country, such as West Java and West Sumatra, it is also common to eat with one's bare hands. In restaurants or households that commonly use bare hands to eat, like in seafood foodstalls, traditional Sundanese and Minangkabau restaurants, or East Javanese pecel lele (fried catfish with sambal) and ayam goreng (fried chicken) food stalls, they usually serve kobokan, a bowl of tap water with a slice of lime in it to give a fresh scent. This bowl of water should not be consumed, rather it is used to wash one's hand before and after eating.

Nasi Padang
 

Nasi Padang

Nasi Padang, named after its birth city in Sumatra, is 100 percent Indonesian.
Chose from among more than a dozen dishes -- goopy curries with floating fish heads or rubbery cow’s feet -- stacked up on your table. “It always looks sodead,” a friend once said.
Indeed, otak (brain) leaves little to the imagination. Chuck away the cutlery and dig in with your hands then wash the spice away with a sweet iced tea.

Nasi Goreng
 

Nasi Goreng

Considered Indonesia’s national dish, this take on Asian fried rice is often made with sweet, thick soy sauce called kecap (pronounced ketchup) and garnished with acar, pickled cucumber and carrots.
To add an element of fun to your dining experience, try nasi gila (literally :crazy rice") and see how many different kinds of meat you can find buried among the grains –- yes, those are hot dog slices.

Mie Ayam
 

Mie Ayam

For this dish, bakmie is boiled in stock and topped with succulent slices of gravy-braised chicken.
Chives and sambal add extra flavor -- but if it’s done right little else is needed. Unlike most Indonesian cuisine, where the secret is in the sauce, the clue to a good mie ayam is the perfect al dente noodle.

Bakso

Bakso

Bakso is Indonesian meat balls served in chicken broth soup, rice vermicelli or yellow noodles (depends on your liking), sprinkled with fried shallots, celery, and of course sambal.

Ketoprak

Ketoprak

Not to be confused with the theatrical drama of the same name that re-enacts Javanese legends, this Ketoprak is made from vermicelli, tofu, packed rice cake and bean sprouts.
It rounds out the quintet of pestle-and-mortar-based dishes that include gado-gado and pecel, and is a simple street dish that tastes mostly of peanuts and spice but is chockfull of carbohydrates.

Gado-gado

Gado-gado

Literally “mix-mix,” the term gado-gado is often used to describe situations that are all mixed up -– Jakarta, for instance, is a gado-gado city.
As a food, however, it is one of Indonesia’s best-known dishes, essentially a vegetable salad bathed in the country’s classic peanut sauce.
At its base are boiled long beans, spinach, potato, corn, egg and bean sprouts coupled with cucumber, tofu and tempe.

Martabak

Martabak Telur

Martabak Manis

Think of a spongy, thick crepe made with 10 times the lard and you’ll be somewhat close to imaging martabak.
The sweet version looks more like a pancake filled with gooey chocolate, peanuts or cheese, while the savory one is made from crispy pulled pastry like filo that is flattened in a wok as egg and minced meats are rapidly folded in.

Gorengan

Gorengan

Literally “fried foods,”gorengan are the most prolific snacks in all of Indonesia.
Street carts typically offer crispy golden nuggets of tempe, cassava and tofu, as well as fried bananas, sweet potatoes, vegetables fritters made from shredded carrot, cabbage and bean sprouts and fermented soybean cakes.

Siomay

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Think of it as Indonesia’s version of dim sum -- traditional steamed fish dumplings known in China as shaomai.
A complete portion comes with a steamed potato, cabbage, egg, and bitter gourd, and is served with a boiled peanut sauce similar to gado-gado.
Perhaps Indonesia’s most ubiquitous traveling street food, the best way to dine on siomay is from a bicycle vendor, who carts his large steamer around on the back of his bike.

Tahu Gejrot

Tahu Gejrot

These clouds of golden, fried tofu look like little packages behind the windows of the boxes from which they are sold.
Tofu is a poor man’s snack, but that also makes it prevalent. Keep an eye out for the vendors who cart stacks of the fluffy fried tofufrom devices slung across their shoulders.

Batagor

Batagor

Batagor is fried bakso and tofu with fish paste fillings. If you haven’t figured out yet, Indonesian dishes are similar to each other

Pempek

Pempek

This savory delicacy fish cake from Palembang in the south of Sumatra is normally served with yellow noodles, cucumber, and poured with sour sauce. You can also find ones that have eggs filling

Bajigur

Bajigur

Bajigur is one typical drink from the area of West Java. This drink has a sweet and savory taste because it is made from coconut milk and brown sugar. This drink is usually served in a relaxed moment and leisure, and is believed to increase appetite. Bajigur scent that mingled smell of pandan leaves presents its own sensation of this traditional beverage menu. Moreover as it flows through the esophagus and ending in the stomach. Warmth coursed through the body immediately. Bajigur usually served with boiled yam, boiled bananas or boiled peanuts.
Bajigur easily found in West Java, consumers were most people in the area. Including tourists from outside the region who are curious about this drink. This drink is safe to be consumed by small children to adults. Bajigur main ingredient is palm sugar, and coconut milk. To add flavor, also mixed a little ginger, salt and vanilla powder.

Sekoteng

Sekoteng

Sekoteng is drink native of Central Java with the ginger flavor that served hot. Other ingredients are usually mixed into a drink sekoteng are mung beans, peanuts, pacar cina, and chunks of bread. Sekoteng usually sold around by using a cart to carry. One side of ginger water in the pan along with the stove while the other side is a mixture of ingredients and place to prepare sekoteng.

Bir Pletok

Bir Pletok

It’s main ingredient is ginger, cardamom, lemongrass, cinnamon, kayu secang, and sugar.
This drink is perfect to drink at night to keep warm. Name pletok also unique origins. In the Dutch colonial period and the Japanese invaders often seen drinking beer in checkpoints.
Betawi people do not want to lose. They make their own beer that put into a bamboo tube and mixed with ice cubes. When the drinks in a bamboo tube shaken, will hear a pletok-pletok so that named pletok. Bir Pletok is believed to have various benefits, including relieving hot, prevent colds , and warm the stomach.

Es Cendol

Es Cendol

Cendol is typical of Indonesia beverage made from rice flour, served with grated ice, liquid palm sugar, and coconut milk. It was sweet and savory. In the area of Sunda, the drink is known as cendol while in Central Java known as es dawet.
Rice flour is processed in a way given the green dye then printed through a special filter, so the shape of grains. At first natural dyes from pandanus leaves are used, but now used artificial food colorings.
This drink is usually served as dessert or as a snack. Matches are presented in the daytime

Es Teler
 

Es Teler

Es Teler is a drink containing pieces of fresh avocado, young coconut, jackfruit, and dilute coconut milk. Then added sweetened condensed milk and syrup. Ice can be used shaved ice or ice cubes.
Another variation of es teler containing grass jelly, kolang-kaling, pacar cina, pieces of apple, papaya, sapodilla, melons, bread, and jelly. Until es teler to be difficult to distinguish from es campur.