Indonesian cuisine consists of the various regional cuisines in parts of Indonesia; there are a wide variety of recipes and cuisines in part because Indonesia is composed of approximately 6,000 populated islands of the total 17,508 in the world's largest archipelago, with more than 300 ethnic groups calling Indonesia home. Many regional cuisines exist, often based upon indigenous culture with some foreign influences. Indonesia has around 5,350 traditional recipes, with 30 of them considered the most important. Indonesia's cuisine may include rice, noodle and soup dishes in modest local eateries to street-side snacks and top-dollar plates.
Pecel is a traditional Javanese salad, consisting of mixed vegetables in a peanut sauce dressing, usually served with steamed rice or sometimes with lontong or ketupat compressed rice cake. The peanut sauce used in pecel is also similar to gado-gado. Peanut sauce for pecel has no coconut milk. However pecel has been strongly associated with Javanese cuisine, while gado-gado is usually associated with Betawi and Sundanese cuisine. In Malaysia, it is called as pecal which is introduced by the Javanese immigrants. Pecel is also very popular in Suriname, where it was introduced by the Javanese Surinamese.
Peanut sauce, satay sauce, bumbu kacang, sambal kacang, or pecel is a sauce made from ground roasted or fried peanuts, widely used in cuisines worldwide.
Lontong is a Southeast Asian dish made of compressed rice cake in the form of a cylinder wrapped inside a banana leaf, commonly found in Indonesia; also to lesser extent in Malaysia and Singapore. The rice rolled inside banana leaf and boiled, then cut into small cakes as staple food replacement of steamed rice. The texture is similar to those of ketupat, with the difference that ketupat container was made from weaved janur fronds, while lontong uses banana leaf instead.
Satay bee hoon is a dish invented by the Teochew people who immigrated to Singapore. Satay bee hoon sauce is a chilli-based peanut sauce very similar to the one served with satay. The satay sauce is spread on top of rice vermicelli.
Ketoprak is a vegetarian dish from Jakarta, Indonesia, consists of tofu, vegetables and rice cake, rice vermicelli served in peanut sauce.
Urap is a salad dish of steamed vegetables mixed with seasoned and spiced grated coconut for dressing. It is commonly found in Indonesian cuisine, more precisely Javanese cuisine. Urap can be consumed on its own as a salad for vegetarian meals or as a side dish. Urap is usually found as a prerequisite side dish of Javanese tumpeng, a cone shaped rice mound surrounded with assorted dishes, as well as part of a nasi kuning dish. In Balinese cuisine it is known as Urab sayur.
Kuluban is a traditional salad of Central Java. Kuluban can be consumed on its own as a salad for vegetarian meals or as a side dish. Kuluban is one of ancient Javanese cuisine, as it was mentioned in inscription dated from Medang Mataram era circa 9th century CE.
Plecing kangkung is a Southeast Asian spicy water spinach dish made from Lombok island, Indonesia. Plecing kangkung made from blanched kangkung leaf served cold with plecing sambal, made from ground red chili pepper, shallots, garlic, burned bird's eye chili, candlenut, kaffir lime, burned shrimp paste, a pinch of salt and sugar. As a side dish for Lombok Ayam taliwang dish, plecing kangkung usually also served with additional vegetables such as bean sprouts, string beans, fried peanuts and urap's grated spicy coconut dressing. Outside Lombok, plecing kangkung is also commonly served in neighboring island Bali.
Betawi cuisine is rich, diverse and eclectic, in part because the Betawi people that create them were composed from numbers of regional immigrants that coming from various places in the archipelago, as well as Chinese, Indian, Arab, and European traders, visitors and immigrants that were attracted to the port-city of Batavia since centuries ago.
Ketupat, Kupat or Tipat is a type of dumpling made from rice packed inside a diamond-shaped container of woven palm leaf pouch, originating in Maritime Southeast Asia, specifically, what is today modern-day Indonesia. It is commonly found in Indonesia, Brunei, Malaysia, and Singapore. It is commonly described as "packed rice", although there are other types of similar packed rices such as lontong and bakchang.
Lawar is a Southeast Asian dish created from a mixture of vegetables, coconut and minced meat mixed with rich herbs and spices, originating from Bali, Indonesia. This dish is commonly found in restaurants and warungs in Bali. Despite its rich vegetables mixture, lawar is not a vegetarian dish, since most often it is mixed with minced meat or even blood.
Rojak or Rujak is a traditional fruit and vegetable salad dish from Southeast Asia, commonly found in Indonesia, Malaysia and Singapore. Other than referring to this fruit salad dish, the term rojak also means "mixture" or "eclectic mix" in colloquial Malay.
Karedok is a raw vegetable salad in peanut sauce from West Java, Indonesia. It is one of the Sundanese signature dish. It originally included cucumbers, bean sprouts, cabbage, legumes, Thai basil, and small green eggplant, covered in peanut sauce dressing, but there are now many variations. It is very similar to gado-gado, except all the vegetables are raw, while most of gado-gado vegetables are boiled, and it uses kencur, Thai basil and eggplant. Karedok is also known as lotek atah for its fresh and raw version of the vegetable covered with peanut sauce. Karedok is widely served as daily food in the Sundanese family, usually eaten with hot rice, tofu, tempeh, and krupuk. Nowadays karedok can be found in many variation from hawkers carts, stalls (warung) as well as in restaurants and hotels both in Indonesia and worldwide.
Gado-gado, also known as Lotek, is an Indonesian salad of slightly boiled, blanched or steamed vegetables and hard-boiled eggs, boiled potato, fried tofu and tempeh, and lontong, served with a peanut sauce dressing. In 2018, gado-gado is promoted as one of 5 national dishes of Indonesia.
Tauge goreng is an Indonesian savoury vegetarian dish made of stir fried tauge with slices of tofu, ketupat or lontong rice cake and yellow noodle, served in spicy oncom-based sauce. Tauge goreng is a specialty of Jakarta and Bogor city, West Java, Indonesia. It usually sold as street food using pikulan or gerobak (cart) street vendors. It is one of popular street food in Indonesia especially in Jakarta, and Greater Jakarta areas, including Bogor, Depok, Tangerang and Bekasi.
Indonesian street food is a collection of ready-to-eat meals, snacks, fruits and drinks sold by hawkers or vendors at warung food stalls or food carts. Street food in Indonesia is a diverse mix of local Indonesian, Chinese, and Dutch influences. Indonesian street food are usually cheap, offer a great variety of food of different tastes, and can be found on every corner of the city.
It is quite difficult to define Indonesian art, since the country is immensely diverse. The sprawling archipelago nation consists of 13,466 islands. Around 922 of those permanently inhabited, by over 300 ethnic groups, which speaking more than 700 living languages.
