Gorengan, The Indonesian Tempura

Lastly, I've been watching Japanology videos on YouTube. It's a program originally broadcasted on NHK channel that tell about japanese culture. And there is an episode about tempura. Same with Japan, the process of deep fried was brought here and suddenly being loved by all Indonesian people until now.

Last night I bought these from a food stall near my house. Deep fried mushroom and chili stuffed with tofu. All just 7k IDR! So great to be eaten with white rice. All vegan plus very cheap.

In Indonesia, this type of dish is called gorengan. It's some ingredients that coated with flour mix and deep fried in palm oil. It can be tempeh, tofu, eggplant, mushroom, broccoli, beans, etc. The most popular gorengan is mendoan, a very thin tempeh that fried half-cooked, so it's crispy outside, soft and little bit chewy inside. The texture combination is so great. It's originated from my hometown and enjoyed by almost all Indonesian.

Usually gorengan is sold in the streets by street vendor. It's a commoner's food, enjoyed by lower class people. The oil quality usually is so bad, and sometimes they even add plastics to the oil to keep it crunchy all the time. I and my family only buy it in some spots where we sure they have good quality foods. Or we just make it at home. Gorengan in Indonesia is vegan, to keep it as cheap as possible. So making it at home is a good saving of money!

Sate Padang

We usually see sate or satay as chicken skewers with peanut sauce. The meat can be either chicken, duck, rabbit, goat, lamb, beef, horse, buffalo, deer, snake, dog, or pork. Altough 80% of Indonesian are muslims, there are some parts in Indonesia where muslim is minority. Or there are some region where many muslims don't do their religion rules and still follow indigenous beliefs, thus make them not consider some food as non halal. So we still see pork, snake, or even dog's meat to be eaten. Just be careful, B1 is Biang (dog, some call it as RW or sate jamu) and B2 is BaBi (pork), particularly when you visit Medan and Manado which famous with the exotic food (mice, bats, etc) or Solo, where there are many dog's meat, or Bali, Kupang, and Papua where pork is common.

Javanese cuisine notably using palm sugar and sweet soy sauce. But in minang cuisine (padang is actually the capital city of West Sumatera, the term padang cuisine in fact refers to minang cuisine)  they never use it and use spices and curry instead. So do the sate padang. Sate padang is beef and cow's innards skewers (most of it are innards, btw) doused with thick curry based gravy and served with chunks of rice cake (ketupat) and spicy cassava chips (keripik lado, lada or lado in minang is chili).

Unlike javanese satay, sate padang is not cooked when we order, all were already cooked and just warmed in the charcoal. The gravy constantly cooked to keep the thickness (when it's cold, the gravy become watery). So the skewers don't include the fats. In javanese satay, as the satay to be burned as order, fats are tucked between the meat to protect the skewers to get burnt, and also to intensify the flavor. Of course you can order to not include the fats if you worry about your health (just like me and my parents).

The taste is.... well, some people love it. It has the hot, spicy, salty, and savory flavor. Other people couldn't accept the taste, because it against their palate (especially javanese who accustomed with sweet satay). The one i took the picture is a well known sate padang in a padang restaurant in Semarang. The flavor is so intense and the hotness is maximum. I and my family quiet enjoy it. Yeah, it's all about our own taste. Some people like it (love it, or even crazy with it), some people don't. But if you like spicy curry, you may try this.

Martabak, The Indonesian Pancake

Recently, the young people in Indonesia has created many traditional desserts and sweets modernized by using ingredients imported from what is famous in the west.

When it comes to Indonesian pancake, we can think about surabi bandung, a sweet dish that processed like pancake (but instead of pan, it cooked in a tiny wok pan fired in charcoal). The traditional version don't add toppings, just plain or with sauce that made with coconut milk and palm sugar. The modern version adds various topping, both sweet and savory. You can find surabi with pizza flavour, cheese, banana, or strawberry ice cream.

Surabi that I had in Waroeng Setiabudi when I visited Bandung, back in 2014.

The trend goes into martabak manis (literally means sweet martabak). In Indonesia, some call it kue bangka (because it is originally invented in Bangka, an Island in the east of Sumatera, before spread throughout the country), kue bandung (famous in Semarang, maybe because the dish firstly introduced there by Bandung people), or terang bulan (popular here in Yogyakarta). Basically it is a large pancake cooked in a pan with many holes that nested inside it, formed by the addition of baking soda. The standard cake just added with chocolate and chopped nuts, but lately people add some premium condiments like toblerone, ovomaltine, nutella, marshmallow, chopped kitkat, and anything else. Sure, those make it more delicious, but the prices rise very high. From the regular martabak costs about 20k IDR become more than 100k IDR! So... i never buy it. The regular martabak with chocolate topping is enough for me.

When i was visiting my sister a week ago, we decided to make martabak in home. My sister got the recipe from internet, and have tried successfully. Then we had crazy idea to buy many sweet treats to make the martabak even more premium than those sold outside. So I rushed to the convenience store to buy many things like matcha powder (to be mixed in the mixture), nutella, chunky bar (premium chocolate bar with cashew or almond, produced by delfi), cha-cha (a type of m&m-like candy coated chocolate), koko crunch (nestle's chocolate cereal), and many more. So here we go....

The mixture starts bubbling....

The first trial, matcha flavored martabak with chopped chocolate

Another variation, chocolate powder with crunch from chocolate cereal

Martabak four flavors made by my sister: Oreo, nutella, chocolate candy, and grated cheese, with the addition of condensed milk.

All of them taste sooooooo delicious!! No wonder, the toppings itself taste great. I take one plate back to Yogyakarta, the most beautiful and tastiest of all we made that day. I posted it in my instagram account (you can see the photos here).

So happy cooking together while gathered with families....

Soto

Soto, or sauto, or coto is traditional Indonesian soup. Every region has its own version with different taste.

In my hometown, the most popular soto is "Soto Sokaraja". Originally it came from Sokaraja region, Banyumas district,  in Central Java province. It has clear soup (other types of soto are given coconut milk) with shredded beef, bean sprouts, cabbage, and lots, lots of crackers. The thing that make it special from other Soto is the condiment, spicy peanut sauce. When it added, the flavor suddenly change. I and my family usually have it every our visit in Purwokerto, at Jalan Bank (the most famous Soto Sokaraja point where you can meet many Soto stall there).

In Yogyakarta (the city where I live now), soto is a popular breakfast dish (beside bubur ayam/chicken porridge). The taste and presentation is very different with Soto Sokaraja. It has clearer soup with refreshing sensation (due to more acidic broth). The Soto usually served with rice (differ from Soto Sokaraja that served with chunks of rice cakes) and accompanied with chicken innards' skewers (intestine, liver, and heart) and crispy tempeh. Preferably, I like it better. My mom usually make this type of Soto in my home since my childhood (she came from Solo, near Yogyakarta), and my palate grew with this taste.

There are many other tasty Sotos that you must try! Especially Soto Kudus and Coto Makassar!

Ayam Betutu (Men Tempeh Bali)

It is relatively hard to find a local restaurant that has halal certification in Bali. During my stay, mostly i eat at hotel or at javanese restaurants. That was one day when I met my friend that work in Denpasar, I tried one local dish named Ayam Betutu. I went with the recommendation of my friend, Ayam Betutu Men Tempeh, just across the Krisna souvenir shop (everyone here know where Krisna is). The most famous restaurant for this dish is Ayam Betutu Gilimanuk, not far from this restaurant. But we eat at Men Tempeh for a better dining atmosphere (but slightly more pricey).

They are using organic chicken (ayam kampung) as the ingredient, so it was safe for me (i'm allergic to the broilers). It was sold in package, about 50k-60k rupiah for a half body of chicken, rice, and plecing (water spinach and bean sprouts with spicy dressing, accompanied with fried peanut and sambal matah). You can choose the fried or saucy version. I found this dish quite tasty, but not so special according to my javanese palate. Nevertheless, you can't leave a place without trying their local cuisine, right?