Our second stop in "Around the World in 80 Meals" is to JAVA (Indonesia) via Djakarta Restaurant.
Java is one of the main islands of Indonesia and the site of its capital city, Jakarta. It is the most populous Indonesian island, and one of the most densely-populated regions in the world. The former site of powerful Hindu kingdoms and the core of the colonial Dutch East Indies, Java now plays a dominant role in the economic and political life of Indonesia.
Javanese food has a sweet taste, without many spices. They don’t like to mix spices and when they cook a meal they will use specific spices. For example Javanese cuisine often says ‘this dish should have onion, but not garlic, this other dish should have garlic but not onion’, whereas Balinese food often contains a mixture of many hot and powerful spices.
Whilst Sumatran food is spicier, Javanese food is known for its sweetness. West Java is famous for raw vegetables.
Often items containing fried fish, tofu, tempe etc, can be cooked and served cold. The rice that accompanies it is usually served hot, whether it be plain rice, yellow rice or rice with coconut milk. In Java it is popular to use a wajan (wok) for cooking, over a gas burner.
The most popular methods of cooking are goreng (deep frying) in the wajan, rebus (boiling) is used for eggs, noodles, tofu, tempe. Bakar (grilling) is used for fish.
Javanese love using coconut milk. This is applied to dishes after cooking the meat and vegetables in a wajan with hot oil. Once the ingredients are ready, they are transfered to another pan/wajan and the coconut milk is added with particular spices.
Javanese cuisine doesn’t really have the 'starter-main course-dessert' set up of western cuisines. Javanese often prefer to get straight into the main meal with various dishes, accompanied by a sweet drink.
From Central Java the most popular meal is called Gudeg - made from Jackfruit boiled in a pot with spices. People say the brown colored vegetable, actually tastes better a couple of days aftercooking.
Restaurants serving Javanese food give a fork and spoon, but many Javanese people prefer to use hands. Many westerners appreciate Javanese food as it is not overly spicy, but still interesting, colorful and complex.
Common spice ingredients:
bawang putih - garlic
bawang merah - red garlic
tumeric
merica - pepper
pala - black pepper
Usually use coconut oil for cooking
Vegetables:
wortel - carrot
kacang panjang - long beans
buncis - green beans
jangung - corn
sawi kankung - green vegetables
kentang - potato
terong - sour vegetable
taro - root vegetable
cabbage
kacang - peanuts
Meats:
ayam - chicken
sapi - beef
kambing - goat
burung - bird
Fish:
udang - prawn
bandeng - boney white fish
cumi-cumi - squid
kepiting - crab
tuna
gurame - flat white fish
tongkol - barracuda
info from http://www.baliblog.com/travel-tips/javanese-cuisine-explained.html and http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Java
1 comment:
Although I had it in Sumatera, I can highly recommend Gudeg, it is great. Eaten fresh by itself, the fruit is slightly reminiscent of mild pineapple, or pineapple flavoured lollies. It is truly addictive, althopugh sticky and difficult to get in to. But in Gudeg it takes on more of the flavour of the sauce. It is great :)
From your Indonesian correspondant!
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