Satay is a very popular delicacy in Indonesia; Indonesia's diverse ethnic groups' culinary arts have produced a wide variety of satays. In Indonesia, satay can be obtained from a travelling satay vendor, from a street-side tent-restaurant, in an upper-class restaurant, or during traditional celebration feasts.
The famous satay of Indonesia is Sate Ayam Madura. It's translated as Madura Style Chicken Satay. It's served with peanut sauce and sprinkle with shallot slices over the sauce.
Pong or kopong or kosong means empty.The tahu (tofu) is cut into dice shapes and then deep fried. A bite into the crispy tofu reveals the pong (empty center), and it has become one of Semarang’s local Cuisine
Lumpia Semarang is known as a street hawker food in Indonesia that you can get everywhere and cheap. It is served with brown sauce and cucumber shallot pickle.
There are several version of Lumpia in Indonesia. Lumpia Semarang is one of the popular lumpia in the country. Semarang itself is a name after the capital city of Central Java province. In addition, lumpia's term derives from lunpia in the Hokien dialect of Chinese.
Bamboo shoots are always known as the filling of this lumpia, and my alteration version has been augmented by abalone sauce.
Gado-gado is a traditional dish in Indonesian cuisine, and comprises a vegetable salad served with a peanut sauce dressing. It is widely served from hawkers carts, stalls (warung), and small restaurants up to star hotels restaurants in Indonesia, and in Indonesian restaurants in other countries.
Gado-gado is part of a wider family of Indonesian peanut sauce - salad; with lotek, pecel and karedok. Some of salad's peanut sauce is made in individual batches, fresh in front of the customers (like the picture on the right - which should say the way lotek is prepared), however gado-gado sauce is made a head of time and cooked in bulk). Compare to Western salads, gado-gado has much more sauce in it (the vegetable should be well coated in the sauce)
For the convenience of modern world, both gado-gado and pecel sauce is available in block of dried sauce that can easily be made liquid by adding warm water.
Pempek, Mpek-mpek or Empek-empek is a delicacy from Palembang made of fish and sago. Pempek is served together with a dark, rich sauce called cuka (Baso Palembang: cuko, lit. vinegar). Cuka is produced by adding brown sugar, chili pepper, garlic, vinegar, and salt to boiling water.
There are many varieties of Pempek. The most famous[citation needed] Pempek is the Kapal Selam (Indonesian: "submarine"), which is made from a chicken egg wrapped within the Pempek dough and then deep-fried. Scientists[citation needed] says that the Kapal Selam, being high in vitamin, protein, mineral, and carbohydrate content, is the most nutritious variety. Other varieties include Pempek telur kecil (lit. small egg Pempek), Pempek keriting (lit. curly Pempek), Pempek pistel (lit. pistol Pempek), Pempek kulit ikan (lit. fish-skin Pempek), Pempek adaan, Pempek lenjer, and "Pempek tahu" (lit. tofu Pempek).
According to legend, at around 1617 there was an old Chinese Man who lived near Musi river. He noticed an abundance of fish caught by the local fishermen. The indigenous people, however did not know how to cook the fish properly. During that period, most of the indigenous people simply fried their fish instead of adding in other ingredients to make new dishes. The old Chinese Man mixed in some sago and other spices, which he then sold around the village on his bicycle. The people referred to this old man as 'pek-apek, where apek is a Chinese slang for an old man. The food is known today as Empek-empek or Pempek.
As a local staple, Pempek can be commonly found on every street in Palembang, although the most famous outlets[citation needed] can be found on Jalan Slamet Riyadi. Numerous Pempek sellers and producers in Palembang use a cheaper combination of fish, which has a strong scent. The best Pempek are made of Belido Ikan and are usually more expensive.
Cendol [pronounced 'chen-doll'] or es cendol is a traditional dessert originating from Java, Indonesia, but is also popular in Malaysia, Singapore, and Southern Thailand (where it is called lorkchorng singapore). The dessert's basic ingredients consist of shaved ice, coconut milk, starch noodles with green food coloring (usually sourced from the pandan leaf), and palm sugar. Red beans, glutinous rice, grass jelly, and creamed corn are optional additions. Cendol has become a quintessential part of cuisine among the multi-racial population in Southeast Asia and is often sold by vendors at roadsides, hawker centres and food courts.
Cendol vendors are also a common sight in Indonesian cities. In the Javanese language, cendol refers to the jelly-like part of the beverage, while the combination of cendol, palm sugar and coconut milk is called dawet.
Nasi uduk is one of the many varieties of spice infused rices, very common in Indonesia. The basic is rice, coconut milk, lemongrass, salam leaves, and a little salt. On top of the rice I put bawang goreng (deep-fried shallots) and slivered fried eggs. And then, I wrapped the rice with banana leaves. This is made of rice boiled in coconut milk spiced with corriander, salt and daun salam (similar to bay leave) and then steamed. Usually nasi uduk is served with fried chicken, empal or bacem and garnished with sliced cucumber and daun kemangi (a kind of parsley with certain aromatic smell).
