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Indonesian street food is a collection of ready-to-eat meals,snacks,fruits anddrinks sold byhawkers orvendors atwarung food stalls orfood carts.Street food inIndonesia is a diverse mix oflocal Indonesian,Chinese, andDutch influences.[1] Indonesian street food is usually cheap, offers a great variety of food of different tastes, and can be found at every corner of thecity.[2]
Most Indonesian street food is affordable, with prices usually less than 1 US dollar (around 15,000.00 rupiah). However, there are also some street foods that are priced more than 20,000 rupiah (1.30 US dollar). Indonesian street food is often colloquially called askaki lima (Indonesian for "five-feet") orjajanan kaki lima ("five-feet buys"), which refer tofive foot way pedestrian pavements along the street that are often occupied by street hawkers selling food.[2]
In 2015, the Cooperatives, Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises and Trade Agency recorded thatJakarta has around 56,000 street vendors and the spaces available for them reached just 18,000. The rest occupies the city'skaki lima pedestrian's pavements. The agency noted that the actual number is a lot bigger.[3]
Indonesian street food often tastes rather strong and spicy.[4] Much of the street food in Indonesia isfried, such as assortedgorengan (fritters),nasi goreng (fried rice),mie goreng (fried noodles), andayam goreng (fried chicken), whilebakso (meatballsoup),[5] traditionalsoto soups and fruitrujak are also popular.[6] Most of Indonesian street food has something to do withpeanut sauce;steamedsiomay (fish dumplings), skewered andgrilledchickensatay,asinan,ketoprak, andgado-gado (vegetablesalad) are all served inpeanut sauce.[7] Some Indonesian street foods are often considered unhealthy due to heavy usage ofdeep frying techniques. Examples of such oily treats aregorengan fritters,telur gulung (rolled deep-fried egg),ayam goreng (fried chicken), andpecel lele (deep-friedcatfish). However, with the recent development of Jakarta's street food scene, there have been efforts by vendors to offer more healthier options to cater to a more health-conscious clientèle.[8]
Street vendors are a common sight in Indonesian streets, in addition to hawkers peddling their goods on bicycles or carts. These carts are known aspedagang kaki lima —named after the five-foot-wide pavements that they occupy. Another popular theory suggests that the termkaki lima is also named after the sum of the feet; pushcarts with three feet (two wheels and a stabiliser wooden foot) and the two-footed vendors who push them.[9]
There are two methods of street food selling in Indonesia: mobile (traveling) as afood cart and stationed, such as in afood booth. Food hawkers on pushcarts or bicycles might be travelling on streets, approaching potential buyers through frequenting residential areas whilst announcing their presence, or stationing themselves on the sides of packed and busy streets, setting up awarung (humble shop) under a smalltarp tent and waiting for customers. Vendors often line busy roads during rush hour to offer their wares to hungry passersby in need of a snack, such asbakpau vendors lining Jakarta's gridlock traffic.[5]
In Indonesia, there are many shapes and method of food peddlers, includingpikulan which is the seller carrying things using a rod;gerobak, a wheeled food pushcart; andsepeda using a bicycle or a tricycle; a hybrid between a cart and a bicycle. In Indonesia, traditionally there are several types and methods on selling street food, they are:
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These food peddlers may frequent residential areas to serve potential customers in households in the area. Many of them have their own distinctive call or songs to announce their wares. For example, a satay seller would have a distinctivetééé satééé yell, thebakso seller would hit woodenkentonganslit drum,bubur ayam seller would hit the side of a soup bowl, whereasmie ayam is announced by hitting a wood block.
Street food has a long history in Indonesian tradition. Some panels of bas-relief onBorobudur describes travelling food and drink vendor, suggesting that the small scale food entrepreneurship has been established in ancient Java as early as 9th century. The inscriptions dated fromMajapahit period circa 14th century also describes food and drink vendor as one of line of works in Javanese society.
The influences of Chinese street food culture is also visible in Indonesia as early asDutch colonial era. Numbers of Chinese origin dishes such as various noodles,bakso meatballs,lumpia spring rolls, dumplings and Chinese steamed buns (bakpao) are common in Indonesian urban areas.[10] Numbers of local Indonesian dishes has also become the source of street food variants, as well as foreign influences. Satay for example, is believed started as a street food in the early 19th century, as a local Javanese adaptation of Indian kebabs.[11][12][13] On the other hand, Dutch influence is also visible in Indonesian street food scene, especially in cakes, pastry and cookies. School kids' favouritekue cubit for example, is a local derivation of Dutchpoffertjes.
The current proliferation of Indonesia's vigorous street food culture, is also contributed by its demographic condition; the massiveurbanisation in recent decades. This took place especially in the country's rapidly expanding urban agglomerations inGreater Jakarta,Surabaya,Bandung,Medan,Palembang,Denpasar, andMakassar.[14] The rapid urban growth in recent decades has opened opportunities in foodservice sectors. As large numbers of rural population flocked to Indonesia's urban centers, many of them established a street food business. Today, it is easy to find a diverse collection of street food selling dishes from all over Indonesian archipelago; from Madura to Padang satays, frombakso Malang tosiomay Bandung.[15]
In recent years, several new foreign influences also has enrichen Indonesian street food scene. They came from Western influences (especially United States), also from Japan and the Middle East. For example, today it is common to findhamburger,hot dog andsosis bakar (grilledBratwurst sausages) food carts next to traditionalbakso meatball pushcart in marketplaces.[16] Street side Turkishkebabs and Japanesetakoyaki food stalls also might be found, although they might not be authentic, because of the difficulties to acquire required imported ingredients, plus cheaper price range in Indonesian street food market.[17] The taste also might has been altered to suit local's preferences, such as the addition of hot and spicysambalchili sauce.
Many Indonesian street foods consist of a single meal, which is prepared, composed, mixed or heated in front of the customers per order. In most cities, it is common to see Chinese dishes such asbakmie ormie ayam (chicken noodles) andbakso (meatballs) sold by street vendors and food stalls, often adapted to become Indonesian-Chinese cuisine. One common adaptation is that pork is rarely used since the majority of Indonesians are Muslims. Other popular Indonesian street food and snacks aresiomay andbatagor (abbreviated from Bakso Tahu Goreng),pempek (deep fried fish cake),bubur ayam (chickencongee),bubur kacang hijau (mung beansporridge),satay,nasi goreng (English: fried rice),soto mie (soto noodle),mie ayam (chicken noodle) andmie goreng (fried noodle),tauge goreng (mung bean sprouts and noodle salad),asinan (preserved vegetables or fruits salad),laksa,kerak telor (spicy omelette) andseblak.
Indonesian traditional cakes and cookies are collectively called askue, and the assorted collection ofkue sold in marketplace are often calledjajanan pasar (market munchies). Other street snacks include selection of pancakes such askue ape andserabi. It is also common to find Chinese snack, such asbakpao (steamed buns with sweet and savoury fillings). Indonesian street side snacks includesgorengan (Indonesian assorted fritters) which includes friedtempeh andoncom,tahu goreng (fried tofu),pisang goreng (fried banana),ubi goreng (fried sweet potato) andbakwan (fried dish of beansprouts and batter).
The traditional drinkslahang (sugar palm sap) andtuak (palm wine), are among the oldest street drinks sold by street peddler using large bamboo tubes as liquid container. Indonesian street beverages include iced and sweet beverages, such asescendol ores dawet,es teler,es cincau,es doger,es campur,es potong, andes puter. These beverages are more adessert; a cocktail of fruit and snacks rather than a drink, since other than shaved ice it contains many ingredients including fruit bits, tapioca pearls, grass jelly, etc.
Fruit juices (jus) are very popular. Varieties includeorange (jus jeruk),guava (jus jambu),mango (jus mangga),soursop (jus sirsak) andavocado (jus alpokat), the last of these being commonly served with condensed milk and chocolate syrup as a dessert-like treat.Durian can be made into ice cream calledes durian.
While most of Indonesian food products served in mid to upperscale eating establishments maintainfood hygiene standard ranges from good to acceptable — regulated and supervised byBadan Pengawasan Obat dan Makanan (Indonesian Food and Drug Administration) — somewarung traditional foodstalls and street vendors might have poor hygiene and low nutritional value.[18][3] Hygiene remains a problem for pavement dining as clean dish washing is seldom practised due to a lack of running water.[9]
The tropical microbes also might contribute tofood poisoning cases, especially among foreigners during their stay in Indonesia. It is advisable to choose cooked hot food instead of uncooked room temperatured ones sold by street vendors. For example, when consuming food sold by street vendors, consuming hot cookedmie ayam or hotsoto soup is much safer than having cold and rawkaredok,gado-gado salad or fruitrujak.
Today, it is easy to find large numbers of tarp tentedwarung food stalls andgerobak foodcarts occupying and clogging thekaki lima pedestrian pavements in Indonesian cities. This might cause walking on the street, especially in Jakarta, is unpleasant and potentially dangerous, as pedestrians are forced to walk on the motorways as the pavements are occupied by street vendors.
Historically, the island of Java has been well populated; restaurant and street food businesses has been part of its society. Nevertheless, it was the massive urbanisation which started in the 1960s that shaped the street food culture of Indonesian cities. As more and more people flock from rural areas into urban centers, new jobs are required. Many of the rural-origin workforce are low-skilled and low-educated, thus most of them are absorbed in informal economic activities including street food business. Some of them try their luck to sell the delicacies from their hometown by establishing restaurants,warungs, foodstalls, or travelling foodcarts. That is why in urban centers like Greater Jakarta, one easily discovers various dishes, traditional food and delicacies coming from all over theIndonesian archipelago. Fromgado-gado Jakarta,asinan Bogor,bakso Malang,sate Madura,sate Padang,pempek Palembang tosiomay Bandung.[15]
Nevertheless, the tremendous occupation of pavements by thekaki lima vendors, including street food sellers, has led to other urban and societal problems. As municipal authorities try to free thepedestrian's pavements and ease the congestion on the street, numbers of disputes erupt between city authorities and street vendors (Indonesian:Pedagang Kaki Lima or PKL).[19] This led to the call for city administration to regulate street food vendors in their area.[3]
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