Regional Food Specialties in Indonesia

Each region of Indonesia has its own specialties and there is great variety in the cuisine available. One of the most famous is West Sumatran or Padang food, which uses a lot of chili, spices and santan. Padang dishes include rendang, kalio (similar to rendang but the sauce is not reduced and thickened), gulai(a spicy curry), kari (curry), dendeng balado (thin sliced and crisp fried beef with red chilies). Padang food is Indonesia’s version of fast food. All the food is cooked in advance and displayed on dishes stacked up in the window of the often distinctively decorated restaurants. When you come in and sit down at a table, waiters will immediately appear bearing 10 or 12 small plates of different dishes along their arms and a huge variety of food will be set down on your table, along with a plate of rice and a glass of hot tea for each person. You may choose whatever you like and at the end of the meal the headwaiter will check all of the dishes to count what has been consumed. Needless to say you pay only for what you have eaten. Some recommended Padang restaurants are those in the Sederhana chain, Natrabu, Nasi Kapau and Sari Bundo.

Central Javanese food tends to have a sweeter taste with palm sugar or the dark sweet type of soy sauce being added to most dishes. Traditional dishes from Central Java include ayam goreng (spiced fried chicken), ayam panggang (broiled chicken cooked with either soy sauce or santan and spices), semur daging (beef braised in soy sauce), empal daging (slices of beef cooked with spices then fried), opor ayam (chicken in mild white curry sauce), gudeg(jackfruit cooked in santan and served with chicken, egg and soybean cake) and sayur asem (tamarind flavored vegetable soup). One of the specialties of East Java is rawon (diced beef cooked in spicy black sauce). You can find Javanese fried chicken at Mbok Berek Ny Umi and gudeg at Gudeg Bu Tjitro.

In West Java, the Sundanese use fewer spices but some kind of sambal is always served with meals. Sambal is a hot and sometimes spicy sauce or relish served as an accompaniment to other dishes. Take only a tiny portion and taste with caution! Acar (pickled cucumbers and carrots with little green chilies – the hottest ones!) is also frequently served, along with krupuk (prawn crackers) or emping (nut crackers). Sundanese meals generally include lalab (a selection of raw or lightly cooked vegetables) with each mouthful being dipped first in sambal, as well as the Sundanese version of sayur asem or sayur lodeh(vegetables cooked in santan). In addition to nasi timbel mentioned above, Sundanese restaurants usually offer fried or barbecued fish or chicken as well aspepes ikan (marinated fish wrapped in banana leaf and grilled). In Jakarta you can find Sundanese food at Dapur Sunda, Padzzi Pondok Ulam, Ratu Kuring and the Sari Kuring chain.Pork is rarely consumed in Indonesia due to the Muslim teachings against its consumption by the faithful. However the Hindu people of Bali are well known for their pork dishes, such as babi kecap (pork braised in soy sauce) and sate pentul (minced pork sate) as well as ayam/daging bumbu Bali (chicken or beef in chili and tamarind sauce), lawar (raw vegetable salad) and duck dishes such as bebek bangor (crispy duck) and bebek betutu (smoked duck). For Balinese food try Ajengan, Bebek Bali or Bebek Bengil.Food from Manado, North Sulawesi is also very popular and focuses on seafood with many dishes being fiery hot. Manadonese specialties include ikan kuah asam (fish with tamarind sauce), ikan cakalang garo rica (fish with chili), ayam rica-rica (grilled chicken with chili), cumi/ayam woku belanga (sautéed squid or chicken with spicy green chili sauce), sayur Manado (hot and spicy mixed vegetables) and ayam isi di bulu (chicken cooked slowly inside a bamboo tube with green chili sauce). You can find these dishes at Cak Tu Ci, Waroeng Camoe-Camoe and Ikan Bakar Manado Rica-Rica.

In addition to the restaurants mentioned above serving regional cuisines, there are also numerous restaurants in Jakarta offering a general selection of Indonesian food from across the archipelago. Some recommended restaurants for starting off your culinary journey through Indonesia are: Sate Khas Senayan, Dapur Tempo Doeloe, Klub 45, Waroeng Podjok, Para Para, Kafe Foto, and the more upscale Bumbu, Kafe Museum and Oasis famous for its traditional presentation of rijstafel.

Many hotels, such as the Borobudur, Dharmawangsa, Sahid Jaya and Sheraton Bandara, also have special Indonesian restaurants or coffee shops which serve excellent Indonesian food in addition to international cuisine.

Enjoy tasting Indonesian food, and as they say in Indonesia: selamat makan! (enjoy your meal!)
Source: culinaryyounie