Favorites on the Indonesian rice table
The rice table you order from that takeaway restaurant may be somewhat Dutchified, but you won’t hear us complaining. Although we prefer to eat it home made, preferably made by someone else because it’s a lot of work. But how delicious is it to be able to pile unlimited bowls of Indonesian treats onto your plate? As far as we’re concerned, these dishes should definitely not be missing from the rice table.
Gado gado
A classic bite of comfort food from Indonesian cuisine. Naturally with (blanched) bean sprouts, green beans, pointed or cauliflower cabbage and egg, but with plenty of peanut sauce in the starring role. Not satay sauce, but peanut sauce: a thin, homemade version with kecap manis and red chilli. Well, opinions differ on the exact ingredients. Some think you should make the sauce with coconut milk, while others consider that not done. But with or without coconut: a good sauce makes the gado gado.
Eating ramen: this is how it’s done
Tahoe telor
We can keep it short: this fluffy omelette with tahoe (tofu) inside and bean sprouts, prawn crackers and fried onion on top is absolutely perfect. And while we’re on the subject of tahoe: we also like to spoon on a few soft cubes of sambal goreng-tahoe.
Sate
Once you taste real Indonesian sate (not saté, which is Dutch), you’ll never want anything else. It’s made from thinly sliced strips of meat, which are grilled briefly so they become beautifully cooked but anything but tough. Sate ajam (chicken), babi (pork) or kambing (goat): everyone has their own favorite, but they all taste best with kecap or sambal sauce on top. And sweet-and-sour cucumber atjar on the side.
Rendang daging
The beef in this stew has simmered for hours in an aromatic boemboe and coconut milk, to which (at least, in the classic version) extras such as lemongrass and lime are added. And you can taste it: the rich, fresh and mildly spicy flavor of the ingredients has permeated the meat. The meat itself is so tender that it hardly needs chewing. So we keep piling it on endlessly. This is the recipe for the best rendang ever, although we also have a delicious vegetarian rendang on offer.
Lontong
White rice on the rice table is a must, even if only to neutralize the spicier food. If we get to choose, we go for lontong: pressed white sticky rice cut into cubes. The taste isn’t unusual or different; it’s simply the texture we love so much.
Perkedel jagung
FavorFlav’s Emma’s absolute favorite: a crispy corn fritter. In Indonesia, you’ll sometimes find it under the name frikadel djagoeng. Don’t worry, there’s no frikandel in this fritter. Want to make it yourself? Here’s the recipe!
Sambal goreng telor
A simple but oh-so-delicious dish of hard-boiled eggs that have simmered for a while in a mildly spicy boemboe with coconut milk. The eggs are only cut in half just before serving, allowing you to taste that real egg flavor too. Make them yourself with this recipe.
Pisang goreng
By that we mean fried banana. We admit it: without it, we don’t consider the rice table complete. A perfect pisang goreng is crispy on the outside, deliciously soft on the inside, and sweet but not too sweet. In short, the plantain with its deep-fried batter coating is the perfect counterpart to the spicy dishes on the table, as it should be. Eating it as ‘dessert’ is perfectly acceptable too. Here’s how to make it.
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