In 2018, Arief Yahya, Minister of tourism of Indonesia, announced that they had selected five officially recognized “Indonesian dishes” from more than 5000 Indonesian dishes. These five classic Indonesian dishes are Soto ayam, Rendang, satay, nasi goreng and gado gado, known as Indonesian salad. Interestingly, there are many versions of these five dishes in Indonesia, which shows the diversity and interest of Indonesian food culture.


1. Indonesian chicken soup (Soto ayam)
Soto ayam is a well-known national cuisine in Indonesia. “Soto” means soup, while “ayam” means chicken. In each different region, there are Soto ayam with different styles and characteristics. Moreover, from roadside snack stalls to high-end restaurants, this soup can be seen.
Although each region has different styles, the authentic Soto ayam contains a variety of spices, such as turmeric, ginger, citronella, garlic, lemon leaves and bay leaves. The common ingredients are boiled eggs, fried potato pieces, celery leaves and fried red onions. Soto ayam can be eaten with rice. When eating with rice, you can sprinkle soup on the rice, or add the rice to the soup to become “rice soup”. In addition, most Soto ayam will also add vermicelli or rice flour.
Interestingly, although Soto ayam is called chicken soup, there are also versions without chicken, such as Coto Makassar in Sulawesi. Zhuang Zuyi, the author of the anthropologist in the kitchen, once mentioned in her article that “when facing Soto, Indonesian people, on the one hand, seek differences in the same, support their home versions, and on the other hand, seek common ground in the different, insisting that Soto is unique and cannot be confused with other soups.”


2. Rendang
The delicious Rendang is a stewed meat dish, originating from Minangkabau, West Sumatra island, Indonesia. The most common Rendang is half stewed beef, but there are also Rendang with chicken and mutton. In the poll of world’s 50 best foods held by CNN’s tourism department, Rendang won the championship in 2011 and 2017 for its unique delicacy.
In Indonesia, the popularity of Rendang is high among many dishes. On various occasions, the delicious Rendang is always the focus of people’s taste. If you go to the line too late at a self-service banquet, you may not get the delicious Rendang, because it is always the first dish to be eaten up. Some Indonesian netizens even posted a video on the Internet. In the video, two women dressed in Chinese costumes quarreled over Ren Dang at a banquet!
The delicious secret of the fragrant and spicy Rendang is mainly the complex and diverse spices. Each chef has his own unique spice formula. Common spices in Rendang include garlic, ginger, green lemon, bay leaf, pepper, pepper, cardamom, onion and turmeric leaves.
Most of the colors of Rendang are very deep, and diners can only rely on their taste to guess the spices. In Indonesia, most wealthy families will add more kinds of spices to express their importance to visitors.


3. Sate
Satay, a kind of barbecue string, is common in the streets and lanes of Indonesia. When you eat it, you will eat it with satay sauce with unique flavor, which is very mouth watering! This delicious Satay is not only popular in Indonesia, but also conquers the taste buds of the Dutch. This is because the Netherlands once colonized Indonesia for about 300 years, and this historical process has made Satay one of the most favorite dishes for Dutch people.
Many kinds of meat and ingredients can be made into satay, including chicken, mutton, beef, pork, fish, scallops and tofu. Traditionally, satay’s barbecue skewers are made of coconut leaf stalks, but now bamboo skewers are also commonly used. Meat or other ingredients need to be pickled before being roasted on the fire, and the types of pickles are also very diverse. Some seafood will be pickled with tamarind juice, while meat will be pickled with various chili sauce, spices or sugarcane vinegar. In some areas, roast meat must be cooked with spices before being roasted.


4. Indonesian fried rice (nasi goreng)
If you want to know the level of an Indonesian restaurant, it is most important to observe the Indonesian fried rice they make, because a cook who knows Indonesian food must be able to make delicious Indonesian fried rice.

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Sweet soy sauce, tamarind, shrimp, pepper and shrimp sauce are usually added to Indonesian fried rice. However, Indonesians usually do not just eat fried rice. An Indonesian fried rice must be eaten with satay, shrimp cake, fried eggs, lettuce and cucumber. This is the authentic local Indonesian food.
If you also want to try to cook Indonesian dishes at home, you might as well try to cook Indonesian fried rice. You can buy the sauce bag of Indonesian fried rice and prepare other ingredients yourself, and you can easily make a full of Southeast Asian cuisine at home.


5. Gado gado
“Gado gado” is also known as Indonesian salad. There is no specific specification for the vegetables used in this dish. In different regions of Indonesia, people will use the vegetables of the season to make this meal. In addition to vegetables, beans, fried tofu, shrimp cakes and eggs will also be added to the “add more and more”.
No matter how many kinds of ingredients are added, an authentic “gado gado” must be topped with a delicious satay sauce before it can be called an authentic Indonesian salad.