Real Gado-Gado

One of the reasons we went to Jakarta last month was to research gado-gado Betawi (Jakarta-style gado-gado). The result appears in today's Wall Street Journal Asia 'Weekend Journal'.

This is the fourth 'The Dish' article that we've done for the publication. These are short, focused pieces that hew to a pre-determined rubric. Nonetheless, I enjoy working on them because they offer an opportunity to delve into local history - culinary and otherwise - and to get out and talk to local 'experts' about the cuisines they grew up with. I always learn something, and I usually end up trying something new. In the course of research for these pieces our palates get 'educated'. While I wouldn't recommend eating three gado-gados in twelve hours, as we did in Jakarta, I returned home with a new appreciation for this stalwart of the overseas Indonesian restaurant menu.

What did I learn about gado-gado? Well, for one thing, it's not the super-sweet peanut-buttery, gloppily dressed poor excuse for a vegetable dish that it usually is outside of Indonesia. While gado-gado Betawi is on the sweet side (as many Javanese dishes are), a good version features a real balance of sweet (from ground nuts), sour (from jeruk, regular lime, tamarind, sometimes even white vinegar), salty (from trassi, Indonesian shrimp paste), and hot (from chilies).

And the sauce dresses a true salad, not just a token pile of potatoes and flabby cabbage and green beans. There's also blanched water spinach, sweet corn, blanched chayote, and sometimes bitter melon and young jack fruit as well. The vegetables, cooked only to crisp-tender, are toothsome. Many cooks fold in strips of curly lettuce right before the dish is served. There's deliciously nutty tempeh, steamed or deep-fried, or tofu - fried or not. Or both. As one of my interviewees told me, gado-gado varies cook to cook, and that's the beauty of it - you can include (or exclude) what you like, and make the sauce to your own taste.

Another something interesting - for this version of gado-gado (there are many, throughout Indonesia and especially on Java) a sauce made with cashews, rather than peanuts, is 'authentic'. Who knew? Cashews, as we found, make for a lighter, slightly less sweet sauce; with a less aggressive flavor than peanuts, they create 'room' for the flavors of the other ingredients to really come through.

Quite frankly I returned from that trip to Jakarta having had more than my fill of gado-gado. But this article's appearance has brought on cravings. I think I see a date with a pile of cashews and my Indonesian stone mortar and pestle in my near future.

A tip that didn't make it into print: one of Jakarta's best versions can be had at lunchtime at the Peacock Cafe in the upscale Sultan Hotel. But call ahead to ask if Aisha is in the kitchen; otherwise - says a local gourmand - don't bother.

Comments

[Ronny]

I eat Gado-gado at least once a week ever since I came back to Jakarta :-)

I would also recommend Pecel to the readers. It's not as commonly found as Gado-gado, but it's just as nice (if not better).

Other Indonesian style salads that are worth a try (if you haven't): Urap-urap, Rujak (both the fruit salad, and Rujak Pengantin), and Lawar (Balinese). There are several other similar dishes that are not quite salads per se: Ketoprak (Jakarta), Tahu Campur and Tahu Tek (Tahu Bumbu) (East Java).

[cyn]

i totally agree, crunchy veggies doth maketh the gado-gado. lol. the versions they make here are usually soggy and limp with an overdose of peanut sauce. it's terribly good with lontong too (compressed rice cake wrapped in banana leaves)

[luv0food]

Wow, I'm very impressed with your website, not only with the beautiful pictures and contents but with the fact that you've included the real inner parts of Jakarta and Indonesia that most tourists don't care to see. I'm from Indonesia and grew up in Jakarta so I recognized some of those places in the pictures, very nostalgic. Btw, I'm new with blogging and still collecting links to put on my blog and would like to ask for your permission to put a link to yours on my blog if you don't mind. Thanks:-)

[Pepy]

That is something that i don't have in my litchen right now. Indonesian style mortar and pestle. To get a better taste to make sambal for me :D

[chris]

What about Ketoprak? And your right about the cashews. Little know that. I'm impressed!