If you're wondering how maybe millions of people around the world love Asian cuisine the answer is in its valuable culture we put on every dishes.
Not that European Cuisine such as Duck Confit or Tarte Tartin aren't filled with love and respect for the culture... it's just that Asian cuisine are bold enough to throw a sandal to you, just like our Asian moms whenever they get angry.
From east to west, Asian's flavors have been manipulate our mind thru its magic. Playing with our tongues and slurping in every corner. The food are so good, it sparks all the basic senses. Till the last spoon, the brain has been blown away. "I want more!!!!!!!"
Well not that everything is so perfect, no flaws at all. Still sometimes I don't get the idea behind some weird dishes. I mean...why would anyone eat that? That looks disgusting, man!
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| Fried fish by my mom-in-law |
Even in my country, Indonesia...there are tons of weird food. I'm not talking about the weird (apparently popular) hipster food, I'm talking about the weird traditional food. Ain't gonna say what... it'll cause problems. It's enough we've been bean boozled by ridiculous political stuff. I don't wanna add more gasoline.
Speaking of Indonesia….I can't say much about other's country culinary cultures because am gonna talk about my beloved country instead. A country which represents the best Asian culinary arts. (I'm sorry Japan, you're delicious too but I'm defending my country first)
What's so special with our traditional food? Well Ladies and Gentlemen, it'll take forever to explain it so let me make it fast.
There are a lot of soup dishes in the world. Every country have one, the best one, the worst, -the side dish only-one and so on. In Indonesia, soup is more than anything. I know we're not like Korea, they also have a lot of soup's recipes passed on from generation to generation (kimchi jjigae, and another jjigae) but Indonesian eat soups like crrrrraaaaaayyyyzeeeehhh.
In some part of the world, you eat soups to warm up your body from the cold or chilly weather. Not here baby...from Sabang to Merauke, we eat soups for sweat whether it's during hot weather or thunderstorms. I have never read a scientific research about it but I can say...pretty...sure...that Indonesians are always looking for a hot juicy drip of sweat. I'm sorry if it sounds disgusting. I'm one of them maaaan, I said it...I eat a bowl of hot frickin soup in a day light and add few teaspoons of frickin hot chilly sambal on it.
Soup is always part of the entree dish in a fancy restaurant. Served in a small bowl with a small portion, idk why. Sometimes it's hot, warm and there are cold soup...I can'even....
Glad I can eat a big bowl of hot soup for my main dish here. As I said before Indonesian taking soup seriously and to the next level.
The variety of soups are incredibly much or maybe uncountable. We have Soto, a traditional dish which consists of stock (cooked separately usually with chicken bones or beef bones but not really thick) and meat (chicken/beef/innards).
Different city means different kind of soto. In Jakarta we have Soto Betawi. Instead of just a regular stock we also add coconut milk to create umami and to thickens the soup. Beef, tomato slices, fried potatoes and emping (traditional crackers) are the whole point of Soto Betawi.
In Lamongan, East Java, they have the most popular soto in this country which is Soto Lamongan. This is the most savory soto in my opinion. It consists of tasteful yellowish Chicken stock, shredded chicken meat (ayam kampung, this is what makes it gewwwwddd), leek, sometimes boiled egg and koya. Koya is the important ingredient in Soto Lamongan. It's actually a ground shrimp crackers and I had no idea that this heavenly powder could make such a huge impact on a dish. Thank you Lamongan, I love you…
In Sumatra they also have various of soto. Soto Padang, Soto Medan. Soto Banjar from Kalimantan. Coto Makassar from Sulawesi (this is my favorite thanks to my Husband. Damn now I'm craving for a bowl of Coto Makassar. It's too good I can't take it anymore!!).
I think the only area that has no soto is East Indonesia. They do have some sort of soups dishes but soto? I never heard of that. East Indonesia's dish are usually seafood because the regions are the wealthiest maritime. But I might have to visit East Indonesia to find out.
Woow 700+ words and I only talk about Soto? Of course our food isn't only a bowl of soto. This is actually proof of how rich our traditional food are that I can't even stop talking about soto. Oh and if we’re still on board with talking about soup, Indonesia also have bakso (meatball), how can you ever compete with that? Oh...you don’t wanna talk about soup again? Okay then, moving on!!!
Indonesians eat rice as the main source of nourishment. Tho too much nasi/rice isn't good for you, most of Indonesian are still believe that "You're not eating unless it's rice". No wonder our number one killer is diabetes...maybe..we should consider to think twice before we eat rice #rhymingbaby.
Nevertheless, rice is actually a common main dish in Asia. Japanese, Chinese, Malaysian, Koreans and so on. They too eat rice. That's why the variations of rice dish are uncanny.
We're not the inventor of Nasi Goreng (fried rice) but people from around the world knows the best kind is from Indonesia (THANK YOU CHINESE-INDONESIA ANCESTERS!!). Don’t be lazy, google it yourself about our nasi goreng. Even the youtubers tryna imitate our recipes.
Just like all the other food, nasi goreng recipes aren’t the same to each other. Almost any families here have their own recipe. Mine for example, I can’t make nasi goreng as good as my mother’s. She usually put only a tiny splash of sweet soy sauce whilst the nasi goreng seller in my block uses lots of it. Sometimes it can be too sweet because of the soy sauce. Sometimes it has no color, like a simple cooked white rice but the flavour is richer than the darker one.
The technique to make a good nasi goreng is not a joke. You need to stir it well otherwise you’ll received no flavor at all and you will definitely bite a tiny block of salt because of your lack of stirring. Please don’t be such a lazy donkey when it comes to making nasi goreng.
Some people are not taking nasi goreng seriously they treat this special dish as if it’s not the most delicious food in the world. The result is as you can guess, so bland even my sweat tastes better. (Just realized how disgusting it is to compare nasi goreng and sweat but please understand I’M WORRY SICK ABOUT THE FUTURE OF DELICIOUS NASI GORENG!!!!!)
The list didn’t stop there because our culture grows everyday. I see some shitty f&b business owners trying to create some weird stuff with our traditional food. Sometimes it works, sometimes it’s such a huge failure, I mean..c’mon….Ceker Cokelat Keju? WHY?
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| Sambal |
As a forever fan of Indonesian normal food, I hope we take a step back and educate ourselves on how the culture inside our traditional food has been formed in the first place. It’s important to prevent a case like where rendang actually came from in the future. We can also stop some of the rare dishes like Sayur Babanci (Batavian traditional Food) from disappearing completely.
Write the memoirs, read the legends. We need our traditional cuisine to shine forever because it's seriously MAGICAL.
Love,
ALLYSA
