Exploring Indonesia Cuisines with Aruna & Her Palate

19 Jun 2021

Do you guys know that Indonesia has 5.300 foods around all of its provinces? This fact alone could obviously make us, Indonesians, have endless pride and love for the cuisines. The imagination of those delicious and tasty foods in our mind makes us crave for them. Foods are nostalgic as they leave traces in our mind. We realize our feeling for food is nostalgic, as we put it in our mouth, it stays in it as memories for our tongue and mind. The sentiment is the same as after we watch Aruna & Her Palate. How that movie represents the delicious Indonesian foods and influences the audience to travel to many cities in Indonesia and hunt for food. It also makes its viewers wish to find the ingredients in the market and cook the cuisines for themselves.

Foods are nostalgic as they leave traces in our mind. We realize our feeling for food is nostalgic, as we put it in our mouth, it stays in it as memories for our tongue and mind.

Now let me introduce you guys to Aruna, an epidemiologist investigating the avian flu case in Indonesia. At the same time, she uses this chance to find a sample taste of authentic Indonesian cuisines. Together with Bono, Nadezhda, and Farish, they do food hunting to find appetizing dishes while traveling around Indonesia. Aruna and her friends are going to take us to Surabaya, Pamekasan, Pontianak, and Singkawang to investigate, while at the same time doing culinary in those cities. Let me tell you of the uniqueness of all the Indonesian cuisines that have been eaten by Aruna and her friends, and get ready to be drool!

1. Rawon

If you are traveling to Surabaya, rawon should be on your bucket list! A bowl of meat with black gravy, scallion, sambal terasi (sambal that is made up from shrimp paste) and bean sprout. Rawon will warm your body when you explore Surabaya at night because the wind is too cold and chilly, compared to many cities in indonesia. If you wonder why the gravy color is black, it is because of pangium seeds , a spice that also makes rawon tasteful. People usually eat rawon with a side dish like rice, tempeh, salted egg, fried beef lungs, and sate-satean angkringan that rawon restaurant serves it. So, what are you waiting for?! Visit Surabaya and taste the local people’s comfort food right now!

2. Campor lorjuk

Next, I am going to introduce you all to locals’ favorite food in Pamekasan, Madura. Lorjuk is a sea clam that looks like bamboo and can be found on the coast of Madura. People use lorjuk to cook campor lorjuk as a soto (Indonesian soup that made up with broth and vegetable) consisting of the topping like lontong (Indonesian rice cake), rice noodles, rempeyek crumbs, beansprout, and oto peanut mix with madura sweet sauce. The reason campor lorjuk gravy is tasty and salty at the same time is because of petis lorjuk (A sweet paste for savory foods processed from the essence of lorjuk). I found these foods unique, and it makes me want to taste them in Pamekasan. So, do you all feel it too?!

3. Pengkang

Pontianak is our next stop with Pengkang as the food that will be spotlighted. Pengkang is a snack with steamed glutinous rice and coconut milk ingredients with a dried shrimp as the filling. Then form it into a triangle shape and with the help of a banana leaf, it can be wrapped into its final form. The next step is to grill it with a pair of bamboo to clamp the pengkang. This method also uses charcoal, so it will be tasteful and aromatic due to the grill smoke from banana leaf. Here are the tips for you; when you eat pengkang, dip it with sambal kepah (sambal that has been made from clams found in mangrove forest) and order some satay to make the taste more delicious!

4. Choi panYou guys must already know about this famous cuisine that originated from Singkawang, North Kalimantan! Choi pan is a steamed vegetable cake that looks like a dumpling. The soft dumpling skin, crunchiness of fried onion and dried shrimp, a sweet filling of jicama, and spiciness from Sambal bawang putih will make it taste more savory and tender on your mouth. You all can find this snack on the market, in a restaurant, and in a pitchman in Singkawang. It tastes simpler yet can fill our stomach, making Choi Pan the best snack to eat!

5. Mie Kepiting PontianakLast but not least is culinary from Pontianak, this time is a noodle with crab as the main star of the food! It tastes more delicious with a topping of meatloaf, shrimp fishcake, and fried dumplings (or you also can order boiled dumplings instead). For pork lovers, don’t worry! Some restaurants serve crab noodles with a slice of pork as the topping to make it tastier. Served it with hot gravy, and you all can taste the richness of this food! Definitely, a portion of food that we must try in Pontianak!

Interesting isn’t it to see the foods in Aruna & Her Palate! Thanks to the film, many viewers can gain a piece of knowledge about Indonesian cuisines. The foods that appeared in the movie became more famous in the world of food hunters. From now on, make your Indonesian food hunting list and start saving your money so you can travel around Indonesia to taste the nation’s exquisite cuisines! And don’t forget to watch Aruna & Her Palate on Netflix, guys!

Editor: Handiko Wijaya

References:

Nadia Salsabila