Chinese Indonesian cuisine is characterized by the mixture of Chinese with local Indonesian style. Chinese Indonesians, mostly descendant of Han ethnic Hokkien and Hakka speakers, brought their legacy of Chinese cuisine, and modified some of the dishes with the addition of Indonesian ingredients, such as kecap manis, palm sugar, peanut sauce, chili, santan and local spices to form a hybrid Chinese-Indonesian cuisine. Some of the dishes and cakes share the same style as in Malaysia and Singapore, known as Nyonya cuisine by the Peranakan.
Nasi goreng, Malay lit. 'fried rice', is a Southeast Asian rice dish with pieces of meat and vegetables added. It can refer simply to fried pre-cooked rice, a meal including stir fried rice in a small amount of cooking oil or margarine, typically spiced with kecap manis, shallot, garlic, ground shrimp paste, tamarind and chilli and accompanied by other ingredients, particularly egg, chicken and prawns. There is also another kind of nasi goreng which is made with ikan asin which is also popular across Indonesia. Nasi goreng is sometimes described as Indonesian stir-fried rice, although it is also popular in Southeast Asia. Beyond the Malay Archipelago, it has gained popularity through Indonesian influence in Sri Lanka and via Indonesian immigrant communities in Suriname and the Netherlands. It is distinguished from other Asian fried rice recipes by its aromatic, earthy and smoky flavor, owed to generous amount of caramelised sweet soy sauce and powdered shrimp paste, and the taste is stronger and spicier compared to Chinese fried rice.
Fried noodles are common throughout East Asia, Southeast Asia and South Asia. Many varieties, cooking styles, and ingredients exist.
Rice noodles are noodles made with rice flour and water as the principal ingredients. Sometimes ingredients such as tapioca or corn starch are added in order to improve the transparency or increase the gelatinous and chewy texture of the noodles. Rice noodles are most common in the cuisines of China, India and Southeast Asia. They are available fresh, frozen, or dried, in various shapes, thicknesses and textures. Fresh noodles are also highly perishable; their shelf life may be just several days.
Bakmi or bami is a type of wheat based noodles derived from Chinese cooking tradition. It was brought to Indonesia by Chinese immigrants from Southern Chinese provinces like Fujian. It is typically prepared seasoned in soy sauce and topped with pork products, which is often substituted for other protein sources in predominantly Muslim Indonesia. Chinese-style wheat noodles has become one of the most common noodle dishes, especially in Southeast Asian countries which have significant Chinese populations and known by various names.
Mie goreng, also known as bakmi goreng, is an Indonesian stir-fried noodle dish. It is made with thin yellow noodles stir-fried in cooking oil with garlic, onion or shallots, fried prawn, chicken, beef, or sliced bakso (meatballs), chili, Chinese cabbage, cabbages, tomatoes, egg, and other vegetables. Ubiquitous in Indonesia, it is sold by food vendors from street hawkers (warungs) to high-end restaurants.
Indomie is a brand of instant noodle produced by the Indonesian company Indofood, the largest instant noodle manufacturer in the world with 16 factories. Over 28 billion packets of Indomie are produced annually, which are exported to more than 90 countries around the world. Indomie has been produced mainly in Indonesia since it was first introduced in June 1972; it has also been produced in Nigeria since 1995, and in Turkey since 2010. Indomie has become increasingly popular in Nigeria and other African countries since its introduction in the region in the 1980s.
Bakso or baso is an Indonesian meatball, or a meat paste made from beef surimi. Its texture is similar to the Chinese beef ball, fish ball, or pork ball. The word bakso may refer to a single meatball or the complete dish of meatball soup. Mie bakso refers to bakso served with yellow noodles and rice vermicelli, while bakso kuah refers to bakso soup served without noodles.
Javanese cuisine is the cuisine of Javanese people, a major ethnic group in Indonesia, more precisely the province of Central Java, Yogyakarta and East Java.
Soto mie, Soto mi, or Mee soto is a spicy Indonesian noodle soup dish commonly found in Indonesia, Malaysia, and Singapore. Mie means noodle made of flour, salt and egg, while soto refers to Indonesian soup. In Indonesia, it is called soto mie and is considered one variant of soto, while in Malaysia and Singapore it is called mee soto.
Kwetiau goreng is an Indonesian style of stir fried flat rice noodle dish. It is made from noodles, locally known as kwetiau, which are stir-fried in cooking oil with garlic, onion or shallots, beef, chicken, fried prawn, crab or sliced bakso (meatballs), chili, Chinese cabbage, cabbages, tomatoes, egg, and other vegetables with an ample amount of kecap manis. In Asia, kwetiau is available in two forms, dried and fresh. Its recipe is quite similar to another Chinese Indonesian favourite, mie goreng, with the exception of replacing yellow wheat noodles for flat rice noodles.
Mie ayam, mi ayam, or bakmi ayam is a common Indonesian dish of seasoned yellow wheat noodles topped with diced chicken meat. It is derived from culinary techniques employed in Chinese cuisine. In Indonesia, the dish is recognized as a popular Chinese Indonesian dish, served from simple travelling vendor carts frequenting residential areas, humble street-side warung to restaurants.
Mie koclok, is an Indonesian chicken noodle soup, a specialty of Cirebon city, West Java. The noodles come with a white-colored extra-thick porridge-like soup, made of chicken broth and coconut milk soup, which is coagulated with corn starch or tapioca. Other ingredients include shredded chicken breast, cabbage, bean sprouts, hard boiled egg, kaffir lime juice, and sprinkled with sliced fresh celery, spring onion, and fried shallot.
Mie kangkung, is an Indonesian vegetable noodle soup with kangkung, usually served with bakso meatball and mushroom. It is a specialty of Betawi cuisine, Jakarta, Indonesia. The yellow egg noodles come with a brown-colored thick soup, made of chicken or beef broth, which is thickened with tapioca, spiced, and mixed with garlic and kecap manis. Other ingredients include bakso meatballs, bean sprouts, mushrooms, hard-boiled quail eggs and sprinkled with bawang goreng and added with a dash of kaffir lime juice and sambal.
Soto is a traditional Indonesian soup mainly composed of broth, meat, and vegetables. Many traditional soups are called soto, whereas foreign and Western influenced soups are called sop.
Beef kway teow or beef kwetiau is a Maritime Southeast Asian dish of flat rice noodles stir-fried and topped with slices of beef or sometimes beef offal, served either dry or with soup. The dish is commonly found in Southeast Asian countries, especially Singapore and Indonesia, and can trace its origin to Chinese tradition. It is a popular dish in Singaporean cuisine and among Chinese Indonesians, where it locally known in Indonesian as kwetiau sapi.
Indonesian noodles are a significant aspect of Indonesian cuisine which is itself very diverse. Indonesian cuisine recognizes many types of noodles, with each region of the country often developing its own distinct recipes.
Bihun goreng, bee hoon goreng or mee hoon goreng refers to a dish of fried noodles cooked with rice vermicelli in both the Indonesian and Malay languages. In certain countries, such as Singapore, the term goreng is occasionally substituted with its English equivalent for the name of the dish.
