Nasi Kuning (literally means "yellow rice") is a traditional food of Indonesia. This food made of rice cooked with turmeric, coconut milk, and spices. With the coconut milk and the spices added, this rice taste better than the ordinary rice. This rice usually use as tumpeng and served with many kind of Indonesian dishes.

In Indonesian tradition, the color of nasi kuning (yellow) describe wealth, prosperity and glorious moralty. Therefore, nasi kuning usually serve on happy ceremony such as birth, wedding, and engagement. In Balinese tradition, yellow is one of four divine color.

Nasi kuning is found in few regions in Indonesia, such as Java, Bali, and Sulawesi
pic taken from: http://tentangadani.blogspot.com

Kupang Lontong is a typical coast food traditionally from East Java. This food consists of rice cake mixed with the kupang broth (a kind of oyster/the small shellfish), and it's served with petis (black fermented shrimp paste), fried onions, and squeeze of lime. Beside that, accordance with the customer taste, kupang lontong also served with the chili whim.
Two "good friends" of kupang lontong are sate kerang (one kind of satay which made of shellfish) and es degan or es kelapa muda (beverage made of young coconut). Why they called "good friends"? Because usually the seller of kupang lontong also sells them. Kupang lontong is incomplete without sate kerang. And es degan, beside as beverage, is useful for people who is allergic to kupang because the young coconut can neutralize the toxic in kupang's body.

pic taken from : http://seno.or.id/images/sate-kerang.jpg

Semanggi is another special food from East Java. It's usually served on the plate made from banana leaves (pincuk). In Surabaya, the seller is generally an old woman, carried to their back and peddled to whole of the city.
Semanggi consisted of boiled semanggi leaf, bean sprouts, and eat with hot delicious sambal. There are few kinds of sambal for semanggi. In Banyuwangi sambal made from chili, fragrant grass (serai), jack fruit and a little javanese sugar. It's different for another place such as Surabaya which use sambal made of more javanese sugar, petis (black fermented shrimp paste), and chili.
Beside the vegetables, semanggi also eat with kerupuk uli (chips made from the rice) with sauce made from yam (ketela rambat) and peanut.

pic taken from : http://www.sby.pphotels.com/images/sby/semanggi1%20small.jpg

Rujak cingur is one of Indonesian traditional food which easily found in East Java especially in Surabaya. Rujak cingur usually consist of sliced of fruits like cucumber, krai (similar like cucumber but it's special from East Java), bengkoang, young raw mango, pineapple, kedondong, glutinous rice cake, tofu, tempe, bendoyo and cingur. There are also some vegetables like bean sprouts, water spinach, and string bean. All of those ingredients mixed with black sauce made from petis (black fermented shrimp paste), chili, fried ground peanuts, fried onion and salt.

This food is called rujak cingur because the special part of this rujak is sliced of cingur (bufallo's or cow's lips. Cingur is literally means mouth in Javanese) which not available in other kind of rujak. Rujak cingur can be served with pincuk (banana leaf) or plate and it's topped with a sprinkle of fried shallots and kerupuk.

Pempek or Empek-Empek is a delicacy from Palembang which is made of fish and sago. Pempek is eaten together with a dark sauce called cuka or cuko (in bahasa Palembang). Cuko is produced from adding brown sugar, chili pepper, garlic, vinegar, and salt into hot boiling water.

There are different types of Empek-Empek, the one we ordered were Pempek Kapal Selam (Submarine) which comes with boiled egg wrapped inside the Pempek itself. Other types of Pempek are “pempek telur kecil”, “pempek keriting”, “pempek pistel (or pastel(?)”, “pempek kulit ikan”, “pempek adaan”, “pempek lenjer”, and “pempek tahu”.

The way most Indonesia eat them is by cutting the Pempek itself into small pieces, with the egg noodles, meehoon, and diced cucumber - top it with the cuka (vinegar) soup. It does taste and smells a little fishy, but again it is made of fish.

source : http://www.simplycraving.com/pempek-palembang-fish-cake-dish-from-indonesia-20080502/
pic taken from : http://farm1.static.flickr.com/166/418906010_7fd7d6a69a.jpg

It's named after the capital city of Central Java in Indonesia, Semarang. It was created by Chinese immigrants in the city of Semarang. It is filled with bamboo shoots, dried shrimp (ebi in Indonesian) chicken and/or prawn. It is served with lumpia sauce that is made from dried shrimp (optional), coconut sugar, red chillies, bird's eye chilies, water, ground white pepper, tapioca starch and water and can be served in either fried or unfried condition.


source : http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lumpia#Lumpia_Semarang
pic taken from : http://www.sedap-sekejap.com/artikel/2001/edisi8/images/lsemarang.jpg

Gado-gado is a traditional dish in Indonesian cuisine and comprises a vegetable salad with a brown sauce dressing. This cuisine is very suitable for vegetarian (egg doesn't count) because it's contains no meat.
There are many different types of gado-gado. Surabayan gado-gado is one of them. It's ingredients are: rice cake, sliced hard-boiled egg, boiled potato, beansprouts, lettuce leaves, cucumber, cabbage, fried tofu, kerupuk, and emping. Sometimes it's served with other vegetables like tomato.
The brown sauce that mention above is made of peanut and coconut milk(santan) and the tastes is sweet.

pic taken from : http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/a/a2/Gado_gado.jpg/800px-Gado_gado.jpg

Soto is an Indonesian cuisine mainly comprised of broth and vegetables. The meats that most commonly used are beef and chicken, but there are also sotos with mutton and pork. There are many varieties of sotos in Indonesia, which vary by regions, class, and ethnicity. Some well known variations are soto Madura (from East Java), soto Betawi (from Jakarta), soto Padang (from West Sumatra), soto Bandung (from West Java), soto Banjar (from South Kalimantan), and coto Makassar (from South Sulawesi). All of these sotos have distinctive flavor.
Each soto has a unique/different style of serving. For example, some soto served with boiled egg, kerupuk, perkedel (mash potatoes with meat), sambal, etc. And as we know that a lot of Indonesian people eat rice, so it became a "best friend" of soto. Beside rice, sometimes people eat soto with rice cake or noodle.

Lontong balap is one of the famous culinary in Indonesia, especially in Surabaya, East Java. It's consist of rice cake (lontong), bean sprouts, crispy tofu, lentho (combination of tolo nuts, flour, cassava, turmeric, onion leaf, lime, and salt), fried onion, soy sauce and sambal. Lontong balap is usually dominated by bean sprouts.

Name history
Lontong balap literally means "racing rice cake". In the past, lontong balap seller carried their wares in a heavy tun. The heaviness caused them to walk really fast while carrying it, so they looked like they were "racing" (balapan, in Indonesia). That's why, nowadays, this food is well-known as Lontong Balap.

Rawon or rawon rice (because always serves with rice) is a menu consist of rice with dark beef soup. The dark colour of the soup comes from the spice which called kluwak (Pangium edule) nuts. And the beef inside the soup is in small pieces. It's usually served with rice, uncooked mung bean sprouts (kecambah), kerupuk, and ubiquitous sambal. Additional menu to eat rawon is salty duck eggs, empal (beef slices), or perkedel (mash potatoes with meat).
Rawon, originally from East Java, but it's also known by Central Java citizens.


picture taken from:http://www.ayambakarojolali.com/images/images_menu/rawon.jpg

Gudeg (usually called as gudeg Jogja) is one of the Indonesian cuisines. It's a traditional food from Central Java and Yogyakarta. It typically has a brown color and like many other foods come from Central Java, it tastes sweet. Gudeg is made from young jack fruit among other things, boiled for several hours with palm sugar, coconut milk. Additional spices include garlic, shallot, candlenut, coriander seed, galangal, bay leaves, and teak leaves.

Gudeg is usually served with white rice, chicken, hard-boiled egg, tofu and/or tempeh, and a stew made of crispy beef skins (krecek).









taken from : spices-corner.blogspot.com/2007/10/gudeg.html

Some culinary from Central Java:

Gudeg Yogya
Young jackfruit and hardboiled egg stew, very sweet. This is usually accompanied by a side of beef skin stew.

Bakso Solo
Bakso literally means meatballs, made of beef, and served in boiling hot soup with mung bean-thread noodles, green vegetables, shredded cabbage, and various sauces (chili, tomato). This version from Solo has super-sized meatballs, the size of tennis balls. Also known as Bakso Tenis. Bakso is a Chinese-influenced dish, but has become a popular snack throughout Indonesia.

Ayam Goreng Kalasan/Klaten
Local organic free-range chicken, stewed in spices (coriander, garlic, candlenut, and coconut water feature strongly) then deep-fried until crispy. Served with sambal and raw vegetable salad.

Timlo Solo
A beef and vegetable soup.

Soto Kudus
Soto is a common Indonesian soup infused with turmeric, and can be made with chicken, beef, or mutton. This version from Kudus, a Central Javanese town, is made of chicken.

Lumpia Semarang
Fried or steamed spring rolls. The filling varies, but it is mostly meat and bamboo shoots. It is served with sweet fermented soybean sauce (tauco).

Sate Blora
A variant originating from the town of Blora, located in Central Java. This variant is made of chicken (meat and skin) pieces that are smaller compared to the other variants. It is normally eaten with peanut sauce, rice, and a traditional soup made of coconut milk and herbs. Unlike other variants, sate Blora is normally grilled in front of buyers as they are eating. The buyers tell the vendor to stop grilling when they are finished with their meal.

Tongseng
A strongly-spiced curry of bone-in mutton, which is quickly stir-fried at the point of sale with vegetables added.

Srabi Solo
A pancake made of mostly coconut milk, mixed with a little rice flour as thickener. Srabi can be served plain, or with toppings such as sliced banana, chopped jackfruit, chocolate sprinkle (muisjes), or cheese.

Wingko babat
A cake made largely of glutinous rice and desiccated coconut, toasted and sold warm.

Madu mongso
A sweetmeat made from fermented black glutinous rice, cooked in coconut milk and sugar. It is sticky and very sweet, and comes wrapped in corn husk.

Jenang Kudus
A sweetmeat made from rice flour, palm sugar and coconut milk.

Bakpia
A sweet pastry filled with sugared mung bean paste.

The most popular town-associated dishes are:

Pecel Madiun
A salad of boiled vegetables, dressed in a peanut-based spicy sauce. It is usually served as an accompaniment to rice. A peanut or dried fish/shrimp cracker (rempeyek) is served on the side.

Soto Lamongan
Chicken soto (an Indonesian cuisine mainly comprised of broth and vegetables) originated from the town of Lamongan. The soup is usually accompanied by rice or compressed rice

Soto Madura
A turmeric-based beef and offal soup, served with boiled egg, and sambal. It is usually accompanied by rice or compressed rice

Sate Madura
Originating on the island of Madura, near Java, is certainly the most famous variant among Indonesians. Most often made from mutton or chicken, the distinctive characteristic of the recipe is the black sauce made from soy sauce mixed with palm sugar (called gula jawa or "javanese sugar" in Indonesia), garlic, shallots, peanut paste, fermented "terasi" (a kind of shrimp paste), pecans, and salt. Sate Madura uses thinner chunks of meat than other varians of Satay. It is mainly eaten with rice and venison curry.

Sate Ponorogo
A variant of satay originating in Ponorogo, a town in East Java. It is made from whole sliced marinated chicken meat, and served with a sauce made of peanuts and chilli sauce. Garnished with shredded shallots, sambal (chili paste) and lime juice. The uniqueness of this varient is each skewer contains a whole chicken meat, not several slices. The meat also previously being marinated in spices and sweet soy sauce for quite some times (process called "bacem") to allow spice to soak into the meat. The grill is made from terracotta earthenware that have hole in one side to allow blowing the wind onto the burning coal. After use around 3 months, the earthenware grill would break apart, thus must be replaced to ensure the hygiene of the grill. The dish served with rice or lontong (glutinous rice cake).

Rawon
A dark beef soup, served with mung bean sprouts and the ubiquitous sambal. The dark (almost black) color comes from the kluwak (Pangium edule) nuts.

Rujak Cingur
A mixture of boiled and raw vegetable salad, with a special twist that is the boiled beef snout (cingur) mixed in. It is then dressed in a sauce made of caramelized fermented shrimp paste (petis), peanuts, chili, and spices. It is usually served with lontong, a boiled rice cake.

Semanggi
A salad made of boiled semanggi (M. crenata) leaves that grow in paddy fields. It is dressed in a spicy peanut sauce.

Lontong balap
Literally means "racing rice cake", which is a dish of rice cakes, fried tofu, and beansprouts, doused in kecap manis and sambal sauce. In the past, lontong balap hawkers carried their wares in a large, heavy metal urn. The heaviness caused them to have to walk really quickly while carrying it, so they looked like they were "racing".

Tahu campur
A beef meat and offal soup, mixed with fresh vegetables, potatoes, rice cake, and tofu. The secret ingredient is the caramelized fermented shrimp pasted (petis) which is mixed in just before serving.

Tahu tek
A dish containing cut-up fried tofu, boiled vegetables (mostly beansprouts), potatoes, drenched in a peanut-based sauce. The sauce has caramelized fermented shrimp pasted (petis), chili, and garlic.

Gado-gado
Similar to pecel, but includes different vegetables as well as boiled egg slices and a garnish of fish/shrimp crackers and emping (Gnetum gnemon L. nut, flattened, dried, and fried into small thin crackers).