What to eat INDONESIA 🇮🇩 Nasi goreng

Nasi goreng

Nasi goreng is similar to other fried rice dishes across Asia but distinguishes itself for its use of a condiment called kecap manis, a sweet soy sauce. “Nasi” means rice and “goreng” means fried in both Indonesian and Malay – where the dish is also popular, in addition to Singapore, which is home to migrants from both places. Nasi goreng is also popular in Brunei, Sri Lanka and Suriname for similar reasons, due to trade and commerce and in the Netherlands, the former colonial power in charge when Indonesia was known as the Dutch East Indies.

Typical ingredients in nasi goreng include pieces of meat and vegetables to which eggs, chicken and prawns are often added. In addition to cooking oil or margarine and the infamous kecap manis, additional spices might include shallots, garlic, ground shrimp paste, tamarind and chili, among many other possibilities. The combined ingredients give nasi goreng its unique feature and aromatic flavor. Often, it is topped off with a fried egg and served with a side salad of pickled ingredients and crispy, aerated shrimp crackers.

Dwi Larasatie Nur Fibri, and Indonesian culinary expert at Gadjah Mada University, was able to trace 104 distinct types of nasi goreng across the archipelago nation. Among these 140 varieties of the national dish, some nine include an additional grain including noodles, barley or corn.

The dish is believed to be heavily influenced by Chinese immigrants to Indonesia, though it is unclear when or where exactly the dish first originated. From the tenth century, trade between China and Indonesia flourished and increased significantly during the Majapahit era in the fifteenth century. Traditionally, the Chinese prefer hot food. Additionally, meager means of a great many traders and migrants make it a taboo to discard any leftovers, including rice, so remaining rice from the day before is often recooked the next day and served as fried rice.

For this reason, nasi goreng is an any-time-of-day food, often served at breakfast but also at lunch and dinner. As a street food, hawker stalls known as warung in Indonesian, generally begin their service in the evening, though as a street food, it can often be consumed throughout the day as well.

There is one compelling alternate theory however proposed by Fadly Rahman of Padjadjaran University. Rahman proposes that nasi goreng may be a cousin of pilaf, a popular dish across the Middle East, Central Asia and Silk Road nations. Perhaps nasi goreng may even be inspired by pilaf? Though there is little evidence to support his theory beyond a shared religious culture around Islam, similarities or perhaps a hybrid scenario resulting in a fusion food suggest it is a compelling thought at a minimum.

There is one type of nasi goreng, though, that may look similar to pilaf as it uses goat meat, which is known as Betawi-style nasi goreng kambing. In addition to goat meat or mutton, this variation includes rich spices and ghee, which are popular across the Middle East.

Nasi goreng is also a noteworthy dish in Indonesian history as it helped fuel the nation’s drive for independence from the Dutch. It was served as the sahur meal (the pre-dawn meal during Ramadan before a day of fasting begins until iftar in the evening) as Sukarno, Mohammad Hatta and Ahmad Soebardjo drafted the proclamation text in the early morning of August 17, 1945. 

In 1986, The New York Times Bangkok bureau chief Barbara Crossette pointed to the universal nature of nasi goreng’s popularity across Indonesia that transcended traditional social class barriers but also served to reinforce them, paradoxically enough.

“It can be enjoyed in its simplest manifestation from a tin plate at a roadside warung, or food stall, eaten on porcelain in fancy restaurants, or constructed at the ubiquitous buffet tables of Jakarta dinner parties,” she observed.

A Condé Nast Traveller writer who grew up in Indonesia as a child of expats enjoying a cloistered Western existence in a gated community and international schools until he was a teenager writes of the coming-of-age power of nasi goreng. Only when he could break free of such strictures, as if from a religious cult, could he have his moment of awakening and quintessential coming of age experience while eating nasi goreng in Jakarta at a food stall.

Almost more important than the drinking and the smoking of adolescence was the food, though he noted nasi goreng, and a special variety known as nasi goreng gila consisting of “a hodgepodge of whatever’s on hand… basically Jakarta on a plate. Chaotic, overwhelming, addictive.” He wrote it was “the kind of dish that cuts through booze like a cold shower.”

One area of Jakarta though, a neighborhood known as Menteng, comes up again and again as having some of the most popular stalls in the nation to feast on nasi goreng. With dozens of possible stalls to eat it at, including one named for the former American President Barack Obama due to its proximity to the school he once attended as a boy, it has gained some fame. The former American President is also said to be a fan of the national dish of the country where he spent part of his youth. 

In Indonesian political culture, former president Megawati Sukarnoputri, the country’s fifth president who was in power from 2001 until 2004, popularized the term “nasi goreng diplomacy” as a way to bridge the divide with her political opposition. It was a way to invite and persuade her opposition to the negotiating table, as if over a shared plate of nasi goreng that represented all interests.

While there are other contenders, after years of serving as the unofficial national dish of Indonesia, nasi goreng was named the official national dish of Indonesia in 2018, along with four other dishes chosen by the Indonesian government: soto, sate, rendang and gado-gado.

Recipe 

Ingredients: 

3 cups jasmine rice
4.5 cups water 
2 shallots or 4 cloves of garlic
50 grams of green onions
20 grams of cilantro
2-3 red and green chilis
700 grams of chicken breast (approximately three chicken breasts)
100 grams of shredded carrots
100 grams of shredded white cabbage
100 grams of baby shrimp
2 eggs
Sunflower or vegetable oil 

For the sauce:
2 limes
½ teaspoon shrimp paste
1 teaspoon chili paste
7 tablespoons of light soy sauce
2 tablespoons of fish sauce
1 tablespoon sesame oil
1 tablespoon chili oil 

For garnish:
2 Persian cucumbers
Shrimp chips

Step 1: Bring three cups of water to a boil, if cooking stovetop without a rice cooker. The rice to water ratio for jasmine rice is 1:1.5, so adjust accordingly.

Step 2: Rinse rise by placing in a strainer and running cold water over it until water runs clear. Add rice to boiling water, cover and cook for 15 minutes. Uncover, fluff with a fork and allow to cool.

Step 3: Dice shallots, green onions, cilantro and chilis. Set each aside separately.

Step 4: Cut chicken breasts into smaller pieces and set aside.

Step 5: Make the sauce, combining the ingredients and whisking with a fork.

Step 6: Add a few tablespoons of oil to a walk. Begin by frying the shallots and chilis. Add the chicken and two spoonfuls of the oil. Next add the vegetables and fry, adding more sauce as needed. Then the spring onions and shrimp. Finally, the cilantro.

Step 7: When the rice is almost ready, fry two eggs over easy. Add on top of rice when served. Garnish with cucumbers and shrimp chips.

Tips, tricks and notes:

Many will say day-old rice is best, but room temperature or cold rice is fine too, just do not use fresh or hot rice.

Learn where to eat Indonesian food in Switzerland.

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