People often say that expensive food in a five-star restaurant is a prestige-filled meal. Made from selected ingredients and processed by the hands of chefs who have world-class licenses to make whatever food they serve that is considered good by the community but this opinion also applied to Indonesian street food. Because the diversity of Indonesian culture that provides us with various food availability.
As you may know and realize, the food speaks for itself. So here I am to present to you the top 21 (out of uncountable) Indonesian street food that you definitely have to try. You can also find them on the street provided by many stalls lining there. In fact, if you can be honest, the most suitable food for the people of Indonesia is not that served in the famous restaurant. For our people’s local tongues, a culinary paradise actually lies in a typical sidewalk food
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1. Nasi Goreng (Fried Rice)
Fried rice is truly one of Indonesia’s street food that available in all places of Indonesia province. Fried rice did not have the limits of social status. Whether it’s fried rice or fried rice five-star restaurant, fried rice can always be consumed by anyone.
This type of street food and the flavored have taken many people attention. In addition, everyone has tried this food at some moment in their life and it is the most flexible dish available there. You can combine it with vegetable, chicken part, beef, and other spices.
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On the other hand, what makes Fried Rice unique is the use of sweet, opulent soy sauce and mixed with pickled cucumber and tomatoes. Hence Fried Rice is regarded as Indonesia’s national food.
Price: Rp 20.000
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2. Sate (Satay)
Almost all ethnic groups in Indonesia have produced various types of satay. Satay is meat skewers that are cooked over coals. Satay can also be purchased by young people everywhere, ranging from satay vendors around the street, local vendors satay on the sidewalks, up to the hotel restaurant. Satay typical of Indonesia has a lot of variety. There are sate Madura, Satay Padang, satay java, and satay klathak.
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These juicy skewers are normally provided with ketupat by peanut sauce smeared all over the satay. It is a national dish created by street vendors and has been one of most famous local street food. It is literally everywhere and highly addictive.
Price: Rp 15.000
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3. Mie Ayam (Chicken Noodle)
Chicken noodles are one of Indonesian street food that is made from yellow noodles which are boiled and given meat and vegetables on top of it. Sometimes, chicken noodles are also often added with meatballs, dumplings, or mushrooms to add texture and flavor from chicken noodles.
These large chicken noodle vendors mostly also have special skills in making noodles for their wares, so these chicken noodle vendors also have the equipment to make noodles.
Although chicken noodles originated from China, now chicken noodle already one of Indonesia’s street food that is the most typical and most sought after by culinary lovers. The most popular chicken noodle in Indonesia comes from Wonogiri, Central Java.
Price: Rp 15.000
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4. Bakso (Meatball Soup)
Meatball or bakso is a type of meatball that is normally regarded as Indonesian cuisine.
Meatballs are usually created from a combined of cow beef and flour, but there are also meatballs made from chicken, fish, or shrimp and even cows meat.
Meatballs have always been popular for most people of Indonesia. Meatballs are normally provided by meatballs traders around or street stalls.
In the meals, meatballs are usually consumed hot with a nice gravy broth, combined with noodles, tofu, eggs and poured with fried onions and celery. Meatballs are very well-known and can be consumed from all over Indonesia, from street vendors to star restaurants.
Price: Rp 15.000
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5. Pempek (Deep Fried Fish Cakes)
Pempek has ingredients of fish and tapioca. It is a Palembang unique products in South Sumatra.
In addition, it is difficult to state that this food derived from Palembang due to wide availability in all regions in South Sumatra.
Pempek is sold in various shapes and sizes, incorporating an egg in the middle section. Usually, Pempek is smeared with shrimp flour and mixed with a dark dipping sauce made from vinegar, chilli, and sugar. The most widely consumed is known as pempek kapal selam, pempek lenjer, pempek round, pempek skin of fish, pempek pistel, pempek small egg, and pempek curly.
Price: Rp 25.000
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6. Wedang Ronde (Glutinous Rice Balls in Ginger Syrup)
Drinking warm water does our body good in the rainy season. Moreover, the ginger drink is one of the most common street food in Indonesia we meet on the sidewalks. Ginger drink has many kinds of the name in Indonesia. The famous one of course sekoteng and wedang ronde.
Both are very identical, especially since the main ingredient is ginger. But, the contents of these two drinks are different. Sekoteng generally contains green beans, slices of bread, roasted peanuts, and Chinese pearls. The wedang ronde usually contains pieces of bread, peanuts, fro, and of course round, white rounded spongy when bitten.
Price: Rp 20.000
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7. Gorengan (Fried Foods)
Fried food is a variety of foods dyed flour dough and then fried soak in a lot of hot cooking oil. In Indonesia fried food is a popular snack. Fryers can be found on the side of the road or around with a cart.
The ingredients covered with flour and fried dough are among others; Fried banana, tempeh, tofu, oncom, yam, cassava, cireng, namely cassava fried powder, breadfruit, and bakwan that is mixed dough mixed cabbage and carrot. One of the popular types of fried food is Tahu Sumedang. Corncakes and potato cakes are also included in the category of fried foods. This fried is usually eaten with cayenne pepper.
Price: Rp 20.000
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8. Rendang (Seasoned Beef)
Rendang is a spicy flavored meat dish that uses a mixture of various herbs and spices. This cuisine is produced from a heated cooking process over and over again with coconut milk.
The cooking process takes hours (usually about four hours) to become dry and solid black. At room temperature, rendang can last for weeks. Rendang is cooked in a shorter time and the coconut milk that has not dried up is called kalio, a light brown golden color.
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This food comes from Padang, Sumatra. Various food from this places is well known for its spiciness and richness in taste. You definitely have to try this beef. It is somewhat the same as to Beef Curry but without the added broth. We get to know this dish because it takes a long time to cook to get that tenderness out of the beef.
Price: Rp 20.000
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9. Nasi Rawon (Black Soup Rice)
Nasi Rawon is a dish made of beef stew from East Java. Rawon has this nutty flavor and a deep, black color from the use of keluak nut. Rawon is Indonesian cuisine in the form of black soup as a mixture of typical seasonings containing kluwek. It is rich in flavor. This dish is best enjoyed with a bowl of rice. Yummy and delicious at the same time. Rawon, though known as East Java specialties, is also known by the people of Central Java in the east (Surakarta area).
Meat for rawon is generally a small beef cut. The soup is very typical Indonesian, which is a mixture of turmeric, salt, onion, garlic, galangal, coriander, lemongrass, and vegetable oil.
All these ingredients are smoothed, then pan-fried until fragrant. This spice mixture is then put in a meat stew broth along with the meat. Dark color typical rawon comes from kluwek. Abroad, rawon is referred to as black soup.
Price: Rp 25.000
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10. Sop Buntut (Oxtail Soup)
The title says it all. It is a soup with Oxtail as its main ingredients. Oxtail soup is delicious and the results become even more special when enjoyed with all the beloved family. Fresh sauce from the soup is very tasty because the marinade is perfectly flavored. It is a healthy and hearty soup loved by many people. The oxtail is usually fried or barbecued and combined with a soup base. Very tasty and yummy.
This Oxtail soup cow could be one alternative to warm up the body during the cold weather.
Moreover, the level of protein with the addition of carrots plus potatoes make this dish into a delicious dish and healthy nourishments for achieving great health
Price: Rp 35.000
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11. Siomay (Indonesian Dim Sum)
Most of the Indonesian street food has relation with the servings of peanut sauce. The food right here is called Siomay. Siomay is sold in every Indonesian city. It can be seen and consumed in street-side food stalls, traveling carts, bicycle vendors, and some restaurants.
This dish contains steamed fish dumplings. The segment comes with steamed potato, cabbage, egg and served with peanut sauce. If you want to go all local, the best way to enjoy Siomay is from a bicycle vendor, who carts his large steamer at the back of his bike. Street food at its finest.
Price: Rp 20.000
12. Indomie (Indonesian Noodle)
This food is so delicious that we always are seduced by it. Setting you back around 50 cents a pack and you get a fast and fulfilling snack. It is a uniquely Indonesian Instant Noodles. With so many tastes to pick from, you’ll feel with more than adequate options.
I think everyone has tried every single flavor that is available out there. The choices are limitless and so much to pick from that you’d wish they would start discovering more taste. Give it a try and your tongue will be uniquely Indonesian.
Price: Rp 20.000
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13. Nasi Uduk (Steamed Rice Cooked)
This nice dish is also one of Indonesia’s unique dish. The meal is mixed around rice steamed in coconut milk. It is adequately the same to Nasi Lemak from Malaysia.
Only that nasi uduk is normally consumed with fried chicken, tempe (soybean cake), omelet, fried onion and combined with sambal and emping. You should also consume sambal for Nasi Uduk. This dish is famous among lunchtime crowds. This dish is normally served often in the morning for breakfast and evening for dinner consumption.
At night, normally uduk rice is provided in pecel catfish vendors, the vendors that serve rice uduk along with other delicious dishes, such as catfish and grilled chicken.
Price: Rp 20.000
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14. Sweet Martabak (Sweet Stuffed Pancake)
This dish is among favorite desserts for Indonesian and is called Sweet Martabak. It is an Indonesian product similar to that of a pancake. The interesting facts are, Martabak is only provided in the evenings. You can opt for combined fillings from chocolate, cheese, peanuts, and strawberry.
There is two version of martabak, namely salted martabak that is made from a combined of eggs and meat and sweet martabak that are normally filled with chocolate.
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Unlike the egg martabak, sweet martabak is a kind of cake or jam sandwich that is usually eaten in a relaxed time as a snack. Depending on the location, name, and composition of martabak may vary.
Price: Rp 40.000
15. Risoles
Those people who have the hobby of snacking must be familiar with this wet cake snacks that are an oval shape and light brown color and usually called Risoles cakes. It turns out there are several kinds of these types of cake, like a rissoles ragout which usually contains chicken or beef meat and vegetable risoles.
Cake risoles also filled with mayonnaise contents, bacon or even seafood. But certainly, that became one of the hallmark Recipe of risoles, either ragout or vegetables and pieces of carrots as the filling of risoles cake.
Price: Rp 20.000
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16. Gado-Gado (Indonesian Salad)
Literally “mix-mix,” the term gado-gado is often used to describe situations that are all mixed up. Gado-gado is an Indonesian salad of slightly boiled, blanched or steamed vegetables and hard-boiled eggs, boiled potato, fried tofu and tempeh, and lontong (rice wrapped in a banana leaf), served with a peanut sauce dressing.
As a meal, it’s one of Indonesia’s well-known dishes, mainly a vegetable salad served with the country’s peanut sauce. At its core are boiled long beans, spinach, potato, corn, egg and bean sprouts combined with cucumber, tofu and tempe.
Price: Rp 30.000
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17. Nasi Padang (Padang Steamed Rice)
Nasi Padang is a meal of steamed rice provided with many options of readily available dishes derived from Padang city and also combined with more than a dozen dishes.
Nasi Padang (Padang-style rice) is also a combination of meats, fish, vegetables, and spicy sambals consumed with plain white rice, it is Padang most well-known export and its people great gifts to many Indonesian cuisines. The best method is to put aside the cutlery and consumed with hands then wash the spice away with a sweetened cold tea.
Price: Rp 30.000
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18. Bakmi Goreng (Sweet Fried Noodle)
Noodles is a typical Chinese food brought by traders from there to Indonesia so that these foods already have different flavors from the original with the adaptation of Indonesian spices. Noodles shared the same carbohydrate levels as rice in Indonesia, ranging from broad and flat to scrawny one.
However, this noodle still has its own characteristics that are using a larger size noodles with noodles that exist generally in Indonesia. The best are noodles that are fried with egg, meat, and vegetables. Sellers combined their own special spices for uniqueness
Price: Rp 30.000
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19. Gudeg
Gudeg is a special food of Yogyakarta made from egg boiled with coconut milk. It takes hours to finish making this dish. The brown color is normally served by leaves cooked at the same times. Gudeg consumed with rice and provided with a thick coconut milk, chicken, eggs, tofu, and sambal.
There are various variants of gudeg, among others:
- Gudeg Dry: Gudeg which is served with thick coconut milk, much more viscous than coconut milk in padang cuisine.
- Gudeg Wet: Gudeg which is served with a watery soup and Gudeg Solo, namely gudeg which has white content.
Price: Rp 35.000
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20. Pecel Lele (Deep Fried Catfish)
Pecel Lele is the name of a typical Central Java food consisting of catfish and chili sauce (spice). Usually, that is meant catfish fried dry with oil and then served with tomato sauce and fresh vegetables. Ordinary the servings consist of basil, cabbage, cucumber, and long beans.
Served with rice and red and green salad, this is normal street food that fulfills the belly when going around in Indonesia.
Price: Rp 35.000
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21. Opor Ayam (Chicken Cooked in Coconut Milk)
Small vendors, called warungs, now provide this dish of boiled chicken in coconut milk. Still, it remains the main course on tables around the end of Ramadan during lebaran, when it’s provided with packed rice cakes (ketupat).
Slightly chalky curry with less prep time required, it’s filled with Indonesia’s signature spices that are garlic and ginger.
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Chicken opor cuisine is most delicious when using adult chicken because the fat in the content in the soup is abundant. With the addition of a few pieces of turmeric and water thick coconut milk, the taste of this chicken opor will be more steady and delicious. Chicken opor cuisine is usually the main menu at lunch with family.
Price: Rp 35.000
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Then, for you want to know the experience of tasting street food in Indonesia, here video for you by foreigner who already taste of Indonesian street food.
Nowadays street food in Indonesia is still highly sought after and becoming a favorite of people by all walks of life. In addition to the cheap cost, street food vendors are normally serving food that we ordered in front of us straight away. The sound of burned charcoal, the sound of cut vegetables, the sound of boiling broth, and the sound of steam coming out of the pan increased the pleasure as we ate the Indonesian street food. This is just an experience that is uniquely Indonesia.
