The road journal · Indonesia stop
Thousands of islands and hundreds of peoples, yet one shared smell at night above the street carts: rice tossed in the wok, skewers on the embers, chilli pounded in the mortar.
Contents
Before we eat
Indonesia spans more than 17,000 islands and hundreds of peoples, so its cooking is really a set of regional cuisines. Rice is the common base, surrounded by shared dishes, krupuk and sambal.
Centuries of spice trade brought Chinese, Indian and Arab influences, giving a generous, fragrant, often spicy cuisine.
Bumbu is the pounded paste of shallot, garlic, chilli, galangal and turmeric that starts most dishes. Sambal is the chilli condiment served on the side, in dozens of versions.
Bumbu builds depth; sambal lets everyone set the heat. Taste the dish plain first, then add sambal little by little.
The pantry
A few ingredients shape almost every typical Indonesian dish.
Add palm sugar, tamarind, salam leaves and fried shallots, and you hold the archipelago's palette.
Eaten morning to night, nasi goreng is the emblem of Indonesian cooking. The traditional method:
The result is amber, sweet-salty and smoky. Unlike Chinese fried rice, it is darker, sweeter and spicier.
The street, morning to night
Vendors push their carts from street to street. Three specialities sum up this street food.
Marinated skewers grilled over charcoal, served with peanut sauce and pressed rice.
Springy beef meatballs in clear broth with noodles and fried tofu.
Nasi goreng, mie goreng, kwetiau and martabak, cooked fast over a roaring flame.
Indonesia is eaten by the roadside味わう道
From Minangkabau country in West Sumatra, rendang is meat simmered for hours in coconut milk and spices until the sauce almost disappears, leaving a dark, dry, fragrant coating.
Journal tip: real rendang is deep brown and nearly dry. If it swims in orange sauce, it's closer to a curry or kalio.
Broths, noodles and vegetables
Mie goreng is wok-fried wheat noodles with kecap manis. Soto is the family of turmeric-scented soups. Gado-gado is a vegetable, tofu and tempeh plate under peanut sauce.
A sweet ending
Sticky rice, coconut, pandan and palm sugar rule Indonesian sweets.
Share several dishes around rice, and respect the sides: fried shallots, krupuk, lime and sambal finish the dish.
And on the Asian Road route
Fire first, the rest follows.
Asian Road isn't an Indonesian restaurant: it's Southeast Asian street food with no fixed country, in central Aix-en-Provence.
From Indonesia the road brought back a gesture: rice tossed hard in the wok and fried shallots on top, served in minutes in a box you build yourself.
To see what the road keeps from this stop, head to the Indonesia stop.
Frequently asked questions
Going further
Indonesia is just one stop. Cambodia, the wok and Southeast Asian specialities await in the rest of the journal.
Keep on the road
