Indonesian could become my new favorite cuisine

Gado gado

Indonesian cuisine was never familiar to me. I might have heard about fried noodles (mie goreng) but that's all. After almost three weeks of traveling through Indonesia, I'm beginning to really like some of the local dishes, such as nasi campur and gado gado. What's most interesting about these dishes is that there isn't really a recipe for how to make them. Each time I order them, I get something different on my plate and that ensures that I can never get tired of eating the same food over and over.

Nasi campur is rice served with whatever sauces and condiments are on hand. The sauces typically include a meat curry containing either chicken or beef, a hard boiled egg in a spicy sauce, some steamed vegetables, tofu and/or tempeh, prawn chips or other types of chips and chili sauces (called sambal) on the side. Sometimes a stick or two of satay is included as well.

Gado gado is a salad with peanut sauce that can have many variations. The ingredients include vegetables such as green beans, carrots, Chinese cabbage, pak choi, tofu cubes, cucumbers, hard cooked eggs, potatoes or soybean sprouts. It could be served with the sauce on the side or with everything already mixed and usually comes with prawn chips or other chips.

It's interesting that tofu is almost always included in these dishes. I was never a fan of tofu, mostly because it doesn't have much of a taste. But in these combinations it is a welcome addition that adds variety to the textures of the ingredients.

Depending on whether I eat at a streetside stall or in a tourist restaurant the dishes come more or less elaborately decorated. I also like that the food is nicely spicy. Even in the tourist restaurants where they normally ask whether I want it spicy, they don't hold back or try to make the food gently spicy. A pair of fresh green chilies that they placed on the side of my plate were so hot that I had tears in my eyes when I ate them.