Indonesian Cuisine

Indonesian cuisine reflects the vast variety of people that live on the 6,000 populated islands that make up Indonesia. Indonesian cuisine is as diverse as Indonesian culture, and has taken on culinary influences from many sources. It varies by region and is based on Chinese, European, Middle Eastern, and Indian precedents.

Throughout its history, Indonesia has been involved in trade due to its location and natural resources. Indonesia’s indigenous techniques and ingredients, at least in the Malay World parts, are influenced by India, the Middle East, China and finally Europe. Spanish and Portuguese traders brought New World produce even before the Dutch came to colonize most of Indonesia.

Indonesian island of Maluku is famed as "the Spice Island" also gave contribution on the introduction of native spices to Indonesian and global cuisine.The 'typical' Indonesian meal might be described as being based on rice, with several savoury side dishes of vegetable, fish or meat or poultry, accompanied by chilli-hot condiment or sambal, with peanuts, crackers (krupuk) or fried shallots to provide a crunchy contrast. While such a description might be valid for much of Java, Sumatra and Bali, in other areas of the archipelago, the staple might be sago, cassava or maize.

The most popular dishes that originated in Indonesia are common across most of Asia. Popular Indonesian dishes such as satay, beef rendang, and sambals also favoured in Malaysia and Singapore. Soy-based dishes, such as variations of tofu (tahu) and tempeh, are also very popular. In fact, tempeh is an adaptation of tofu to the tropical climates of Indonesia.

Meal Times

Meal times in every region is some­times dif­fer­ent. In west­ern and mid­dle part of Indone­sia, usu­ally main food is cooked in the morn­ing and con­sumed around mid day. Com­monly, Indone­sian kitchens only cook 1 or 2 meals a day. Then it is heated again for dinner.

It is dif­fer­ent from west­ern cul­ture where food is eaten con­sec­u­tively such as appe­tizer, main food, and dessert. Indone­sian cul­ture is eat­ing main food directly with­out any appe­tizer or dessert, whereas Indone­sia has many cakes, cook­ies, and snacks and they’re suit­able to become desserts. In fact, the cakes are often eaten any­time among break­fast, lunch, and din­ner. There’s no cer­tain time to eat cakes. And there are many serv­ings and fresh Indone­sian drink such as es cam­pur (mixed ice), es teler that can be served after main food.

Also, as a coun­try where most of the peo­ple are Moslems, rules of reli­gion has changed tra­di­tion. There­fore, pray­ing before eat­ing and using right hand when eat­ing seems oblig­ated and it is taught since in child­hood. So, gen­er­ally using a spoon is on right hand and fork is in left hand.