Indonesian

Masakan Indonesia

Pounded spice pastes, sweet soy, coconut and chilli over rice, from the sweet cooking of Java to the fiery curries of Sumatra.

Indonesian food grew from island staples of rice, coconut, fish and native spices, reshaped by a thousand years of trade. Indian merchants brought curry techniques, Arabs brought skewered meats, Chinese settlers brought noodles, soy, tofu and the wok, and the Dutch colonial era added bread and cakes. Javanese cooks fermented soybeans into tempeh and Chinese-Indonesian producers turned soy sauce into kecap manis. After 1945 regional dishes were adopted as national ones and carried across the archipelago by warungs and street carts.

A bumbu paste of shallot, garlic, chilli, turmeric, galangal, candlenut and shrimp paste begins most dishes, fried until the oil separates. Javanese food is sweet with palm sugar and kecap manis; Padang food from Sumatra is rich, hot and coconut-heavy; Balinese and Manadonese cooking are hotter still. Sambal, fried shallots and prawn crackers appear at every meal. Rice is eaten three times a day.