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| Nasi Goreng (Courtesy of www.cookinggallery.blogspot.com) |
By TA Vita Karnadi
My life for the past 9 months in Korea has been wonderful. Making new friends, visiting interesting places, trying Korean authentic cuisines and street snacks, and having fun with new experiences. Only one thing that bother me the most (besides missing my family and friends) which is I am badly craving for Indonesian food. First of all, Korean and Indonesian foods are like the north and south poles. They use certain spices, methods of cooking and has totally different taste.
Indonesian food might not be as globalized as Japanese or Western food so it is kind of a challenge to find a good restaurant in another country. Together with this reason, I want to introduce my country food to all of you.
Rendang
When talking about Indonesian food, I will remember Rendang which is basically beef cooked for hours with coconut milk and Indonesian Spices. Rendang has been stated as the best food in the world by CNNGo’s Readers List in September 2011. The beef is tender and the taste is so full of flavour. Spicy, a bit of sweet and salty, it is just heavenly good and best eaten with plain rice.
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| Rendang (Courtesy of www.blue-dolphinlovers.blogspot.com) |
Nasi Goreng
Next is Nasi Goreng which is literally translated into fried rice. This food is also stated as the second world best food within the same list. Indonesian fried rice is not the same with Korean Bokkeumbap and it has many versions. There are seafood, chicken, salted fish, pete (kind of a bean which smells unique) and even pineapple fried rice. The common nasi goreng will use a sweet fermented soybean sauce which give the appetizing brown colour. Nasi Goreng can be said as a popular daily food and we can find it in every restaurants and street vendors.
Indomie
If you have famous Shin Ramyeon, we also have our own version of famous instant noodle. It is called Indomie. Indomie has many various flavours (maybe over 50 variations) and are exported all over the world. These instant noodles are very tasty but the serving size per package is like half of the Korean ramyeon. So maybe you should eat two! My favourite is Mie Goreng Kriuk which is fried noodles with crunches.
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| Indomie (Courtesy of http://www.theramenrater.com/) |
Bakso
Let me apologize in advance as I cannot stop writing this blog. Next is Bakso which is beef meatballs. It is associated with street snacks. Besides the meatballs in the soup, there are vegetables, noodles and also vermicelli. Once you get your bowl, you can spice it up with your own preference. For me, I will add lots of grounded chilli, vinegar, chilli sauce and also sweet soya sauce. It is best eaten when it’s hot. Some meatballs contain ground meat or egg.
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| Bakso (Courtesy of Wikimedia Commons) |
Sate
Sate is another traditional dish of Indonesia. It is meat skewers eaten with peanut sauce, sweet soya sauce, a bit of lime juice and also lontong (compressed rice cake). The meat can be chicken, beef, muttons or even pork (but not all people are fancy of pork as our majority is Moslem). The meats will be put on the skewers and grilled to perfections. They will be served with the above mention with additional like tomatoes and also pickled shallots.
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| Sate (Courtesy of www.brendonnaomi.files.wordpress.com) |
Mpek-mpek
Another unique dish is Mpek-mpek which is a savoury fishcake delicacy from Palembang, Indonesia, made of fish and tapioca. It is merely similar with oden. Mpek-mpek is served with yellow noodles and a dark, rich sweet and sour sauce called kuah cuka (vinegar sauce) and also fresh cut cucumber. Pempek dough is made from a mixture of boneless ground fish meat, most commonly tenggiri (wahoo), with water, salt and tapioca. It will be molded into certain shapes. A type of mpek-mpek called kapal selam (submarine) is special as at the core will have an egg. The dough is boiled in hot water or steamed until hardened as partly cooked dumplings, and stored to be fried later just before serving.
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| Mpek-mpek (Courtesy of www.masakancantik.com) |
Finally, I am going to stop this review!! If you wanna try some of Indonesian food, you can visit Itaewon or Ansan. Though I cannot guarantee all these foods are available. Best if you can visit Indonesia and try the authentic food. 같이 가자!
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To know more about TA Vita check out her profile: here.
