East Java Cuisine

Soto Madura

Cuisine From East Java, Indonesia

The East Javanese cuisine is largely influenced by Madurese cuisine - Madura being a major producer of salt, hence the omission of sugar in many dishes. Many of the East Javanese dishes are also typically Madurese, such as Soto Madura and Sate Madura, usually sold by Madurese settlers.

Although there are many dishes with town names attached to them, local versions of these are available in every town. 

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. Not to be confused with pecel lele, which is deep-fried local catfishserved with sambal.
• Soto Madura: A turmeric-based beef and offal soup, served with boiled egg slices, and sambal.
• Sate Madura: Chicken satay.
• Soto Lamongan: Chicken soto originated from the town of Lamongan.
• Bakso Malang : Bakso literally means meatball, different from Bakso Solo which comes from Solo, Central Java, Bakso Malang has more variety content beside the meatball (mostly beef) itself, like siomay (fried or steamed), tahu (tofu, fried or steamed, filled with meat), soun (mung bean threads), and yellow egg noodles. All of these are served in hot beef stock.

Other dishes that are not location-specific:

• 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 andsambal 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).
• Ronde (aka wedang ronde): A hot Javanese dessert containing glutinous rice balls stuffed with peanut paste, floating in a hot and sweet ginger and lemongrass tea.
• Angsle (aka wedang angsle): A hot soupy dessert of sago pearls, pre-cooked glutinous rice and mung beans, putu mayang (brightly-colored, noodle-shaped flour cakes), fried peanuts all drowned in hot, sweet coconut milk.
• Ayam penyet: fried chicken (see ayam goreng), lightly smashed using a pestle in a mortar laced with sambal.
• Bebek goreng: deep fried duck, similar to duck confit.
• Gule kambing: mutton cooked in a curry-like coconut milk soup.
• Klepon: A glutinous rice ball stuffed with palm sugar, colored green using pandanus leaf, and rolled in fresh grated coconut.
• Jajan pasar: Several types of shaped and colored flour, rice flour, and glutinous rice flour cakes, sprinkled with desiccated coconut and drizzled with melted palm sugar. Jajan literally means snack, and pasar means market, as this snack is usually only found in traditional markets.
• Cwie mie: A Chinese-influenced noodle dish, containing boiled and seasoned noodles, topped with pre-cooked minced meat (usually pork or chicken) and boiled wonton. Similar to the Chinese zhajiang mian.
• Nasi rames or nasi campur: Rice with accompaniments, usually some curried vegetable stew (sayur lodeh), a selection of cooked fish or chicken or meat and offal pieces, and a dollop of spicy sambal. (See similar dish Rijstaffel)
• Nasi kuning is similar to nasi rames or nasi campur, but the rice is cooked in coconut milk and colored bright yellow using turmeric and scented with lemongrass and kaffir lime leaves
• Sop buntut: Oxtail soup.
• Kripik tempe: Tempeh chips, made from thinly-sliced,lightly battered, then deep fried tempeh (soybean cake).
• Sego krawu: rice with sambal trasi and meat.