17 Popular Foods in Indonesia That You Should Taste

Travelling to Indonesia is the best option you have, because in here, there are so any things to try starting from the culture of its special and unique traditions up to all kinds of foods that availale for you to try them all.

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Talking about foods again, there are some popular foods that you need to know, especially if you’re coming to Indonesia for doing a culinary vacation. Inside this list, there’s one brand that maybe you already knew. So, without further do, let’s go for the top 17 popular foods in Indonesia :

1. Gudeg

The first meal we want to talk about is Gudeg. In Indonesia, especially the Java island, you can find variants about Gudeg, which are many different from the sweetness, and the thickness of the spices. But, if you want to find the original Gudeg, you should go for Yogyakarta to get its original gudeg.

There’s the thing, in Yogyakarta, the Gudeg will be much sweeter. Much and much sweeter than the other Gudegs in Indonesia. The reason is, the people do like the sweet stuff. And because of that, they add the sweet flavor into this Gudeg.

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2. Indomie

The next one is not considered as the traditional food of Indonesia, but rather than the popular foods in Indonesia, which everyone knows, the Indomie. Not only the people of Indoesia who undoubtedly so familiar with this product, even the people in foreign countries are falling in love witht this.

As you can see on the internet, the market of Indomie is keep growing and even reaching Europe. That’s considered really amazing though, because it also bring an Indonesian identity on it. Beside it’s easy to make, the price of it also very affordable.

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3. Gado-gado

And then there’s this Gado-Gado.These days, it’s a little bit hard to find Gado-gadi especially the one that sold in a cart that the seller always bring on their bike or motorcycle. With the price less than Rp10.000,- you can get this deliciosu meal per plate.

But now, beside buying it in the actual Gado-gado sellers, you can order or buy one at the Gado-gado stores in the city. Maybe the price is a little bit higher, but all come with much better packaging than the original.

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4. Tempeh

As for the next one, this product is actually getting on in the other countries, especially in the European countries, where people really get antusiast with this tempeh. While in Indonesia, you can have your own tempeh even from buying it at the vendors right in your neighborhood.

In Indonesia, people really getting creative of processing a tempeh. Beside eating it raw (which is also good), the people use the base ingredient of tempeh to be another kind of food, like crackers, tempeh penyet, and even cake.

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5. Sate or Satay

Satay or in Indonesian Sate, is a form of meats that stabbed right in the center with some kind of wooden stick, or any other stick you want. Usually to buy a sate, you need to looking for sate vemdor, which is also can easily be found.

There are some kinds of Sate in Indonesia. Basically their name is based on the meat. For the chicken meat, it’s called Sate Ayam. And for the goat meat, the name of the Sate is Sate Kambing. And there are many other meats that used in this process, like rabbits, and horses.

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6. Nasi Goreng

Next one on the list of popular foods in Indonesia is Nasi Goreng, which is also very famous, even for foreigners. If they ever visited Indonesia, the foods they will remember is usually consisting this Nasi Goreng.

Beside serving the best flavor, Nasi Goreng also has many variants. And all of them are good, especially they use more toppings now. Another reason to buy this Nasi Goreng is because of its very friendly price.

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7. Nasi Padang

The brother and the king of all foods in Indonesia, based on the writer interest, is Nasi Padang. Originated in the area that has the same name, Padang of Sumatra island Indonesia, Nasi Padang becoming  a trending even from years before now.

It’s proved with the existence of the Nasi Padang restaurants in almost every city in Indonesia, and thanks to that, the people can easily buy them without having much trouble looking. And even though the price is more than Rp10.000,-, which is considered understandable, Nasi Padang is always worth the price.

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8. Aceh Noodle

Another form of food that camed from the land of Sumatra. But this one is not the processed rice like Nasi Padang, but this is the noodle of Aceh. The different things between this noodle and the other noodles in Indonesia, is actually the things that completed it.

Not only serve with the chilli spices, the noodel also added with unique soup containing many kind of spices and then the noodle itself completed with some more toppings. The price is also increasing, but it’s very good and recommended.

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9. Gulai Ikan Patin Jambi

Gulai is another processed food, wich takes a little more time to make, but with the satisfying result in the end. This one is another form of the usual Gulai, called Gulai Ikan Patin Jambi. This Gulai is not using the chicken or cows inners anymore, but using the catfish instead.

The fresh taste of catfish then combined with the sauce that made of fermented durian flesh. The smell is also so strong because of that. But for the people who hate that smell,  they can use the coconut milk instead.

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10. Gulai Belacan Riau

Then, another kind of Gulai is found in Riau, which has the name of Gulai Belacan Riau. So what is the difference between this Gulai and another gulai? In this gulai balacan, the special ingredient that used in the process is Balacan, which this kind of soup that added with shrimp taste.

And for the meats, the Balacan Gulai used all kind of meat, starting to the chicken or cow meats, and the sea foods like shrimps. But the usage of shrimp is better, becaus it will match the shrimp taste. You can always use another meat though.

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11. Pempek Palembang

Another noticable popular food in Indonesia is Pempek. Pempek is considered as snack, not the heavy meals for breakfast. People usually eat this during break time, or when they boring. Becaue of the sellers of it are so many, you can get one easily.

Usually the price of Pempek is less than Rp10.000,-, per plastic pack. The price of one pempek is only about Rp1.500,- rupiah, it’s very cheap. Also, there are so many variants of Pempek, like the one that really famous is Pempek Kapal Selam.

Not stopping there, we also want to introduce you to the next amazing foods that Indonesia has. To complete the 17 foods, we just add some foods in here that the list is consisting the food from Aceh up to the foods in Java islands. So here they are :

1. Sop Buntut
2. Bangka Noodle
3. Seruit Lampung
4. Kerak Telor Jakarta
5. Semarang Bandeng Presto
6. Soto Rawon

That’s our list for today, the popular foods in Indonesia, which you can get so easily by visiting the nearest stalls or maybe restaurants for the best one. All of them are basically just great and having their own unique specifications that very different from the others. Thanks to that, many tourists can pick their own favorite popular foods Indonesia that they like the most.

And the good things is, the price of them. Usually, to get one sample of food from this list, you just need to pay at least Rp10.000,-, some snacks even have way cheaper price. So that’s absolutely great, because the tourists especially the foreign tourists don’t need to spend much money anymore for eating. They can switch to eat the Indonesian foods, rather than the usual meals or fast foods that they usually get in their country easily.