Southeast Asia’s Last Culinary Frontier: The 17,000 Islands of Indonesia

Southeast Asia’s Last Culinary Frontier: The 17,000 Islands of Indonesia

Alright, if I asked you to name the 
three most populous countries on Earth,   that would be pretty easy- China, India, 
and the United States. But who comes fourth? Well, believe it or not it’s Indonesia. 
Home to more people than the entirety of   Western Europe. A land of secrets and ancient 
mystery- and that applies to the food, too. Indonesian cuisine is one of the last great 
culinary frontiers; packed with bold flavors and fascinating techniques and some of the 
best ingredients anywhere on the planet. It’s influenced other cultures, inspired 
famous dishes, but the food itself- well somehow it’s stayed off the international radar.
So today we’re diving in. From everyday essentials to the legendary feasts, we’re on a mission to 
understand not just the cuisine itself but why it’s so unknown, and if that’s starting to change.
It’s the story Indonesian food…today on OTR. This is Indonesia. The home to some 
280 million people, spread across a vast territory wider than the continental US.
It’s home to Jakarta, the planet’s second-largest city, and the island of Bali, a top-ten global 
destination for travel. But after that- well on the tourism map it’s a giant blank spot.
Somehow in an era where we’re exploring the deepest regions of space, we know so little 
about Indonesia that we don’t even have an   official count of the islands. The best 
guess is around 17,000, but the number seems to change with every new estimate.
And on those islands, well we don’t know   who’s actually living there, either; 
the Indonesian government recognizes 1,331 different ethnic groups, but even 
they acknowledge the list is incomplete. It’s probably better to think of 
Indonesia less as a single country,   which it’s been only since the 1940s, and more 
as a collection of the countless kingdoms, sultanates, and tribal polities that have waxed 
and waned since the beginning of recorded history. The Indonesian islands were home to 
empires as vast as the Sriwijaya and   the mighty Majapahit, to trading cities 
that changed the world’s agriculture, and to feared tribes of headhunters said to 
still live in the jungles of Papua and Borneo. It’s the world’s largest Muslim country, 
but it’s also in the top 20 for Hindus, Buddhists, and Christians, and that doesn’t 
even include the tens of millions who   still follow ancient traditional beliefs.
And every single tribe, every culture and ethnic group has its own cuisine. From the 
Moluccas- once known as the Spice Islands, to the population centers of Java and Sumatra, 
all of it together makes up the food of Indonesia, so let’s get started and find our first meal.
Ok, so we’re not shy about taking on big subjects on OTR. But this is one of the biggest and hardest 
that we’ve ever tried to tackle. What is the food of Indonesia? This is a country with 17,000 
islands, there’s a thousand islands that have   people that live there permanently, and obviously 
when you have the fourth-largest country in the world, and geographically a place that stretches 
all the way from close to where we live in   Thailand all the way almost to Australia, there’s 
going to be a lot of diversity in the cuisine, and trying to figure out not only how to tell the 
story in one video, but even for us to understand if there’s anything that ties it all together- 
we’re not going to be lazy and just get some Nasi Goreng, although we will have that today 
most likely…we want to try to understand what is Indonesian food? Is there anything that bonds it 
all together, and most importantly, why does the world not know about it? Why is Indonesian 
food considering how big the country is, as anonymous as it seems to be overseas? So it’s 
a big topic, but we’re going to do our best. And since that’s a hard thing to start, I called 
a good friend of mine, Ahmad here in Medan,   and said hey, can we start the day- you just 
take us to your favorite restaurant? Where do you like to eat? So if we’re going to start 
somewhere, that seems to be the most logical path. Alright while we’re on the way to the restaurant 
I need to talk a little bit about where we are-   because in a video about food, this is the 
most important thing to know about Indonesia. This is a country that goes hard. Whatever 
you might expect when you travel somewhere,   you need to turn it up to 11. Here, the heat is 
hotter, the sounds are louder, and the smells are stronger…it’s constant sensory overload in every 
possible way. And so if someone invites you for breakfast, assume you’re in for something big.
So I guess it wasn’t the least bit surprising when Ahmad steered us into a place the size of a 
football field- with a thousand woks and grills going in the open air kitchens and this…well 
this is how you start a day in Indonesia. (Music Playing)
Alright, well, our first meal of the day on day two of our 
shoot in Medan, but the day that we’re making our “What is Indonesian Food” video- I think this is 
a home run from our friend Ahmad. So the server already talked us through the food on the table, 
but lontong, which is pressed rice cakes served   with chicken rendang in what looks like a curry- 
some kind of a curry sauce that I can’t wait to try. Tempeh, so that’s fermented soy beans, crispy 
fried with kecap manis, which is the ubiquitous Indonesian condiment; it’s sweetened soy sauce 
with chili in it. Mie Aceh, so from the very northern tip of Sumatra, Aceh province is famous 
for their noodles, this is the seafood version of it. Bubur, which is what we’d call “zhou”, 
which is spread all across Asia. The Indonesian   version is the Jakarta breakfast staple. This one 
with shredded chicken. Some quail eggs and offal from chicken that was brought to us just as 
a welcome gift, because new people come in, you welcome them with some intestines on a 
stick. And satay, which you don’t need me to describe because you know what it is, but this is 
chicken skewers in peanut sauce with crispy fried   (shallots) on top. You know, one thing before we 
start eating that always sort of drives me crazy, is when you see a lot of content or magazine 
articles about “what is a certain cuisine”, and all that’s represented is the stuff that’s 
from the tourist districts; you go somewhere   that has a fancy version of something. But to me, 
you want to understand a culture, you go where the people go, and apparently all the people go here, 
because this is unbelievably popular. They’ve just opened their second location in two years, which 
is a little bit further out from the city center,   but yeah- famous for their coffee, snacks, 
it’s a Sunday so the whole city’s out, and let’s dive in. Our first pan-Indonesian meal 
of the day. Carol, let’s trade these around, because I know that you want the satay 
next to you. This is not our first shoot, so I’m going to put this somewhere you can reach 
it. And alright, guys, please dive in, let’s eat. (Music Playing)
Mmm. Mmm! That’s amazing. That’s   a really good version of Mie Aceh.
(Music Playing) The dishes on the table at Kilat 
Coffee are crowd pleasers. This   is not the stuff from some long-lost jungle tribe, these are the dishes everyone in the country 
knows. And when you look at this table,   well you start to understand why describing 
Indonesian food is such a difficult task. In just these five dishes we see stuff with 
wildly different backgrounds and flavors. Chinese Zhou or congee, lontong- or rice cakes cooked in 
banana leaves and served in a broth of coconut, these skewers of offal that look exactly like the 
same thing you’d see in the Philippines and satay, or grilled chicken topped with peanut sauce.
Usually when we make these videos about some kind of cuisine there’s some common thread- some 
flavor or concept that forms the foundation of everything we’re going to discuss, but there is no 
one taste of Indonesia…in fact the entire category of mainstream cuisine just makes it clear how 
hard this story is going to be to unravel. To show you what I mean in 2012 the Indonesian 
government decided to name a national dish. But when they couldn’t agree on one, they 
narrowed it down to thirty. Here’s the list. (Music Playing)
V/O And that’s nothing.
In 1902 when the Dutch were   in control of what would become Indonesia, they 
decided they wanted to summarize the native food for the people back home. So they commissioned 
a woman named Catenius van der Mayden to travel across the islands and compile a list of recipes. 
In the end she’d wind up collecting more than 1,300 when her publisher told her, enough’s 
enough, time to cut it off. The book would be published at a length of 862 pages and Mrs. 
van der Mayden hadn’t even visited a fraction of the ethnic groups when she stopped her work.
In other words, this is not a cuisine best   explained by listing a few popular dishes. It’s 
barely explainable at all- as those foods we just showed on the surface have nothing in common, 
with each other or in some cases, with anything. But if the rest of this video is going to have any 
purpose, well we need to try; to at least attempt to find some way to explain what is Indonesian 
food. So let’s dive in and start at the beginning. Alright, now telling a cohesive story 
of 1300 tribes with thousands of unique   recipes is impossible, as Mrs. Van 
Der Meyden learned the hard way. But what about just two? That’s a lot more 
manageable. And pretty much everything at the core of Indonesian cuisine comes 
back to two original ethnic groups.  The Melanesians were here first. The 
indigenous people of the south Pacific Islands. And their food in the earliest days 
of history would form the foundation of the   cuisine of not just Indonesia, but Fiji, 
the Solomon Islands and Papua New Guinea. Their meals were based around fish, and beef- 
or water buffalo- grilled or cooked into soups, and served alongside root vegetables like taro, 
and the native species of yam. They’d rely on bananas- native to the island of New Guinea. 
And once it arrived, coconut would feature   prominently in food and traditional medicine.
The coconut would show up around 2000 BC when a second group arrived, on boats from the 
Philippines. These people were called the   Austronesians. And they brought their own 
ingredients, like domesticated pigs, citrus, and most of all, rice…which would 
soon spread throughout the islands.  They also brought their own techniques, 
like pickling and fermenting, and grilling meat on skewers- a proto-form of satay.
Anyway in the beginning the tribes co-existed, the natural landscape creating a buffer, but 
over time they would separate- the Melanesians occupying the islands to the East, where 
they’d divide into groups that would become   the Makassar, the Papuans and the Moluccans.
The Austronesians would settle in the west, across Bali, Java, and Sumatra, in time 
organizing into tribes like the Malays, the Javanese, Sundanese and the Bataks.
Each one of these and all the countless other groups would eventually chart 
their own courses through history,   their food changing thanks to contact and 
influence with outside kingdoms and empires. But at their core they were all 
connected by a shared ancestry- and   that’s not all that would bond them together.
The Indonesian archipelago was blessed with natural abundance, thanks to its tropical 
climate and rich volcanic soil. And while there’s massive diversity from east to west, 
by the time we see the first written records,   quite a few ingredients had spread across the 
region. Spices like cloves, nutmeg, and galangal, along with other aromatics less famous abroad 
like candlenut and the truffle-like Keluak. There were fruits like bananas, along with mangosteen, 
durian, and jackfruit. And other native plants would catch on as well, including lemongrass and 
pandan- both originally from what’s now Indonesia. Across almost all tribes and settlements 
rice would be the foundation of the diet, and to this day in Indonesia it’s more 
than just a staple. Curries, stir-fries,   even soups and stews are spooned on top of rice 
before consumption. Rice makes up the centerpiece of Indonesia’s holiday feast, the Javanese Nasi 
Tumpeng, and the country’s most iconic dinner, Nasi Padang, from Sumatra’s Minangkabau. And then 
of course there’s lontong, and its older relative Ketupat, which is so ancient it was probably 
already being made by the Austronesians when   they first left the Philippines.
The ingredients of the islands and techniques of the two original ethnic groups makes 
up the foundation of all of Indonesian food. But the fun part is exploring the tribes that would 
take shape over thousands of years, separated by ocean and jungle. Each group would follow its 
own path, meeting new cultures and taking on new religions and absorbing other foods- which 
makes any ethnic meal a path through history. So let’s keep eating.
(Music Playing) For our second meal we chose a place called 
Koki Sunda, mainly because it just happened   to be right down the street from Kilat 
Coffee. Here the regional specialty is the food of the Sundanese, the people native to 
West Java, centered around the city of Bandung. The Sundanese are Indonesia’s second-largest 
ethnic group, making up around 15 percent of the national population- 41 million in total.
They’re Austronesians, who nearly 2000 years ago became the first from the islands to establish 
ties to the Indian subcontinent, becoming Hindu as far back as the 4th century AD. Thanks to their 
strategic location along the Sunda Strait they’d play a role in the Maritime Silk Road, where 
they’d encounter Chinese traders and cooks, and during the Age of Exploration the Dutch would make 
Bandung their center of tea and coffee production, why today even abroad the latter is known as Java.
Their food, like every Indonesian ethnic group would become their own unique melting pot, 
ancient and modern, familiar and unfamiliar all at the same time.
(Music Playing)
Alright, Sundanese food. So,   the Sunda Strait is the little bit of water that 
separates Java from Sumatra, Sundanese people- the second biggest ethnic group in Indonesia, and 
mostly concentrated in West Java. Cuisine that is not much like what you’d find here in Medan for 
the local food, but it does have a lot in common with not just Javanese, but also Filipino food, 
because the Sundanese were Austronesians who came by way of the Philippines- I’m curious if Carol, 
who’s one of our directors, recognizes any of this stuff because she comes from the Philippines. 
Anyway, Sundanese food is based around this, which is Lalab- fresh fruits and vegetables served 
with spicy sambal. But in general, Sundanese food is not the spiciest of Indonesia’s cuisines. 
This is the signature dish of this restaurant, which is almost like a Gado Gado, but with fresh 
instead of cooked vegetables. We have cucumbers, I actually don’t know what’s in here, we’re going 
to dive in, but it’s tossed in a peanut sauce. We have rice wrapped in a banana leaf, which is 
classic for Sundanese food, we have sataw, as you’d call it in Thailand, or Petai here, we have 
a stir-fried water morning glory dish, and we have a different kind of satay, because in Indonesia 
wherever you are there’s going to be some form   of meat on sticks, in this case it’s beef served 
with kecap manis with chili. And the signature of Sundanese food is seafood, especially grilled 
fish, that’s going to be drenched in a really beautiful sweet sauce, and yeah, let’s start.
(Music Playing) The server- I almost didn’t order this, and she 
said I’d be making a gigantic mistake, this is our   signature and very important for Sunda cuisine, 
so…when the camera stops rolling I’m just going to be here munching on these, this is my absolute 
weakness. In fact, I’m going to make that my first bite, just a little grilled Petai. You’d see this, 
just like in Southern Thailand you’d see this by the side of the road, grilled like this. I should 
not have made this my first bite. Because now my palate is a mess. Hah- I just keep eating it.
(Music Playing) See, that to me- everything’s amazing- that to 
me is the signature flavor of Sundanese food. It’s smoke. Like, you have the sweetness, you have 
the brightness, you have the fresh vegetables, and maybe somebody who’s actually from West Java would 
tell me that I’m incorrect, but I always associate this kind of food primarily with smoke. Fish or 
chicken that’s grilled over wood. You taste smoke before you taste any other flavor. That’s amazing.
(Music Playing) The point of coming here isn’t that Sundanese 
food is critical to this story- even though I guess it is as one of the country’s biggest 
ethnic groups. No, the idea is that you could repeat this 1,331 times from one side of the 
islands to the other- everywhere with its own specialties and flavors and this- well this is 
what I mean about the scope of Indonesian food. The vastness of the diversity actually caused 
a problem when the country gained independence.   See the first president, Soekarno, found himself 
governing a massive group of islands with huge differences in culture. From the beginning there 
was tension- and Soekarno knew he’d need to show the people that they belonged to the same society. 
So sixty years after Mrs. Van Der Mayden he too set out to document the nation’s recipes. 
And he would make this his highest priority. Now the president had three goals with this 
work. First, to foster a sense of national identity. To make sure old dishes wouldn’t 
be forgotten, and to show the world the pride   of the brand-new country: its amazing cuisine.
He’d assign the task to his highest ministers, and they’d spend five years compiling 
all they learned into a massive volume   called Mustika Rasa, or the gems of flavor.
This was to be the global coming out party for Indonesian food and the country itself- a 
masterpiece of 1200 pages showcasing not only foods but ethnic history, ancient techniques and 
guides to ingredients. But before the book was finished, a failed coup in 1965 threw Indonesia 
into chaos, and all Soekarno was able to print was a few copies of an incomplete manuscript- just 
in time before he was arrested, put into house arrest and the country would collapse in violence. 
And this brings us to the next part of this story. Alright- we’ll start in 1967, after 
two years of massacres left as many   as two million people dead; a genocide 
almost ignored by history. In the end, power would be seized by one of the men behind 
the slaughter- known as Suharto, who would take   his place along the region’s autocrats in the 
troubled years after the end of colonization. Nearly all of Southeast Asia saw crisis and 
tragedy throughout the following decade,   but when things would improve- in Malaysia, 
Vietnam and Cambodia- well in Indonesia, things went from bad to worse. At the same time 
as tourists and backpackers were discovering the region, exploring the tropics and the 
old historic cities…well here there was mass oppression. Political violence and thanks to 
corruption, well a fifth of the country’s jungle was burned to plant palm oil and rubber trees.
Only Bali, the tiny Hindu island east of Java,   would be presented to the outside world- its 
tourism industry providing Suharto with foreign currency to prop up his regime.
When Suharto finally fell, in 1998, well Bali was going to be the starting 
point- the building block to catch up with   the neighboring countries and finally open up to 
the world. But then came the bombings, ordered in 2002 by Osama bin Laden, targeting Bali’s 
tourists as punishment for the War on Terror. 2002 was the same year Anthony Bourdain would 
debut his first TV show, travel culture would change and the world would fall in love 
with Asian cuisine. Everyone was suddenly   racing to try the nearest Thai restaurant 
or Vietnamese place but Indonesia- well that didn’t exist- at least in public perception.
And at home, well things were about to take   an even more tragic turn. On Boxing Day 
2004 an earthquake off the coast of Aceh caused a tsunami- killing 200,000 
people all at once in Sumatra alone. By the end of the 2010s, Indonesia had a 
reputation as a dangerous place. A failing country with broken down roads and the world’s 
worst domestic airlines. And that reputation would be hard to shake. To this day the world’s 
fourth-largest country ranks just 27th in foreign arrivals, and if you took out Bali it would 
come in 60th- one spot after Iraq. Indonesian food would never reach the outside world- 
and adding insult to injury the few dishes   that did break through did so as part of other 
cuisines. Like Satay- which you probably know, of all things, as Thai peanut sauce!
But the one thing that never changed throughout   all the tragedy and turmoil was Indonesia’s love 
for food. The cuisine- or cuisines themselves never missed a beat, even if no one else was 
paying attention. And that book once assembled by the country’s first president- well even though 
it was never completed, one of its missions would finally be fulfilled, as in 2016 it would be 
reprinted, and a new generation of chefs bought up copies to make sure old traditions never fade.
(Ambient Sound) On the western edge of Medan, there’s a restaurant 
called Mustika Rasa- the 10th F&B venue throughout the country to open just within the last few 
years recreating the recipes from Soekarno’s famous cookbook. Out of all of them, this is 
the newest, serving its takes on Indonesian classics for just three months before we arrived 
to film. So since unlike most of our other stops today I’ve never been here before, I invited 
a guest to help talk us through the food. This is Anca, short for Herdiansyah; 
like many in his tribe, the Minangkabau,   he has only one name. Anca’s a legend in the 
Medan culinary scene- in fact he was my business partner way back in 2013 when we launched the 
first food tours ever on the island of Sumatra. And I figured this would be a good chance to 
get a local take on both this restaurant and the   broader concept of Indonesian food in general.
So the topic is, what is Indonesian food? And this restaurant is a fascinating place 
to see a different side of that story.   Neither of us have ever been here before. 
What’s the concept of this restaurant? So it’s 1945 when Indonesia became an independent 
country, and to recapture a sense of national identity, they wanted to compile recipes 
that were Indonesian, not from the Dutch, not from colonists, but local Indonesian.
I’m going to ask you a really hard question, because what you said- again, there’s a 
thousand islands in Indonesia that have   people living there full time. There are even more 
that seasonally people live on. It’s easy to talk about differences in Indonesia. It’s harder 
to talk about similarities in food, but there are some. So that’s my hard question for you. Can 
you go- you’ve worked in other countries before, you’ve traveled to other countries before- if 
you were a foreigner…if you’re from Indonesia and you go to a foreign country, can you taste 
something and say, “that tastes Indonesian?” What is it? What makes food Indonesian?
What do we have on the table? There are four things we ordered for savory foods, and 
then later we’re going to get dessert here,   which is why we found this restaurant because 
that’s really special, we’ll talk about that later. But what are these four things?
But what does that mean? What’s in here? It’s a beef stew. Ok, it looks beautiful. Oh man, 
look at the color of this beef. I’ll show the camera later. Carol, if you want to get in here, 
look at the color of that beef. Ok, so this is the first thing. What else do we have?
It’s a chicken leg. And then what is this? I’m going to move the hat 
so you can see it. Every dish here has a hat. And the last thing- I see 
tofu in this dish as well? And is that a peanut sauce, or what do we have 
on top? Or we’re going to find out when we try it. Ok, we’ll try it and find out.
(Music Playing) The dishes on the table at this restaurant, just 
like the concept of Indonesian food in general,   on the surface don’t have much in common 
with each other; as broad and diverse as Rawon- a beef soup made with keluak seeds first 
recorded in the so-called Taji inscription, dating back to the early 900s AD. It would go on 
to be a royal favorite of the Majapahit Empire, beloved by the legendary Gajah Mada himself. 
Opor Ayam traces back to a different Indonesian kingdom, the 18th century Yogyakarta Sultanate 
where its method of braising in coconut milk pulls from Malay and Southern Indian traditions. 
And Tahu Telur Petis is more modern; a 20th century Surabaya street food staple combining 
Chinese tofu with a sauce that might be the oldest thing on the table, made from shrimp paste 
and dating back to the earliest Austronesians. These foods together represent just four of 
the 1600 recipes listed in the Mustika Rasa, but it paints a picture of 
a country with a food scene   unlike anywhere else.
(Music Playing) So let’s talk a little bit while we- you’re 
welcome to keep eating while we talk,   but the power went out, which is a good sign for 
us to talk about the truth of Indonesia. It’s not easy sometimes. Like, the infrastructure is still 
developing, I think that’s one of the reasons why tourism is lower, what is your theory as to why 
the world doesn’t know Indonesian food as well as you’d think it would, because this is the fourth 
biggest country in the entire world! There’s 280   million people here. Why is Indonesian food not 
as famous, as a cuisine, as Thai food, Vietnamese, Malaysian, Japanese, Chinese, Korean…there are 
so many other Asian countries that have less   people- China doesn’t- that have less people but 
the food is much more common. Why is Indonesian not on that list? It’s a complicated question.
When the outside world first discovered the Indonesian islands, in the first millennium 
BC with the arrival of Indian traders,   well it would be food that would put the region 
on the global map. As India built a monopoly on the international spice trade they coveted cloves, 
mace and nutmeg- and while a lot is made of the recipes that would arrive with the Indians, well 
influence went both ways, with Austronesians from Java introducing coconuts to Kerala and Tamil Nadu 
and teaching the technique of making coconut milk. The techniques of ancient Indonesia, like the 
country’s modern cuisine, gets overlooked by   history, but that’s where Asia learned about 
wrapping fish in banana leaves- which would become Thai Hor Mok, Cambodian fish Amok and Lao Mok Pa.
And it would be the Indonesians who would teach the Indian technique of making curry to mainland 
Southeast Asia, bringing recipes to the ancient Champa and Khmer, which would evolve into 
so much of what today is indispensable. The fascination with Indonesian flavors 
would take a dark turn in the early 1600s when the Dutch sought a monopoly on the 
famous spices, first pushing locals to   sign one-sided contracts and then in 1621, 
massacring the entire population of the Banda islands…killing three quarters of the residents 
and moving the rest to a Dutch fort in Java, the site of what would become known as Jakarta.
As the colony grew and more tribes were displaced, the Dutch justified their mass slaughters by 
publishing fantastic stories across Europe, describing Indonesians as savages…primitive 
headhunters and cannibals. And this would be the image accepted by the outside 
world until well into the 20th century. Even now, multinational companies paint a 
grim picture of Indonesia to cover their own exploitation of the land- with violence very much 
still ongoing wherever indigenous tribes refuse to give up their homes, in Aceh, Sulawesi, and New 
Guinea. Indonesia stays off the global map in part because that’s what a lot of people want- 
because when the world doesn’t pay attention,   it’s easier to get away with almost anything.
The end result of all of this is that because of how rich the Indonesian land is, the people stay 
poor. According to the IMF the country ranks 117th in the world in per capita GDP, but even that’s 
misleading as the four richest people have as much money as the poorest 100 million put together.
It’s ironic that if it wasn’t for the magic of Indonesian food, for the local fruits, 
vegetables and spices, well you could   make a strong argument that the country 
wouldn’t have been through so much tragedy. And it’s even more ironic that if outsiders came 
back now for the very same reason- to explore the flavors and incredible ingredients- well that 
might actually prove the solution to the problem. Or at the very least, well the rest of the world 
would finally get to taste this stuff fresh,   prepared in the same way that 
first drew traders to the islands. (Music Playing)
Ever since the first outsiders   arrived on the islands- well they’d have heard the 
sound of heavy stones grinding out a sauce meant to cover whatever might be fresh, straight 
from the fruit trees and vegetable gardens. Rujak first shows up in the written record on 
the same inscription that mentioned Rawon- dating back 1100 years to the Javanese Mataram Kingdom. 
But even then this was regarded as ancient, and variations had already spread far and wide. Today 
rujak in some form is beloved across Indonesia, in Singapore, Malaysia, and even India. And 
historians think this was the earliest ancestor of what would become Gado Gado, Sundanese 
Karedok, and the Tahu Telur from Surabaya. There are more than two dozen styles listed 
just on Wikipedia, all with different sauces and components but here, we get the version from North 
Sumatra. With the freshest ingredients topped with a sauce made from pounded peanut, tamarind, salt 
and chili, all made with the patience it takes to get everything just right.
(Music Playing)
(Music Playing) So we’ve talked so much today about Indonesian 
food and culture and the people, but what we haven’t really talked about is the abundant 
natural ingredients. The spice islands are in Indonesia. This is the home fruits and vegetables 
that are sold all over the world in grocery stores, but from here, or grown here. The volcanic 
soil obviously makes some of the best fruits in the world, the climate, the fact that we’re in the 
tropics- if we’re talking about Indonesian food,   we have to talk about fruits. What is this?
And that also includes, even in Malaysia it’s very popular, in Singapore too, but they also make 
it differently. It’s probably originally Javanese, because the word “Rujak” comes from Javanese, 
but a thousand years ago. By now, as you said, it’s popular everywhere. I like the version in 
Sumatra because I like the fruits in Sumatra,   and we’re very close to a place called Berestagi 
with the volcanoes where there are so many great fruits that grow. What’s in the sauce? You 
were telling me- it’s obviously based around peanut, palm sugar, a little bit of salt 
and sugar, but the secret ingredient, which I didn’t know until you just told me, 
is- give me the Indonesian name one more time? So what that is, is basically we’d call it the 
ancestor of the banana. It’s a primitive form   of the banana that’s closer to a plantain in 
the way it looks, it has seeds, and to use it as a binding agent to make the sauce nice and 
thick and sticky, the meat and the seeds of the Pisang Bitu are ground up in here.
It’s the texture. The funny thing is, do you remember the 
first time you took me to this street? The   mosque across the street was built in 1906, this 
street has been here since before you were born, the stone that they’re using to grind the sauce 
on is the same age as you, it’s 45, that stone. Remember, the first time you ever brought me here, 
this was something I wasn’t familiar with until I   tried it here the first time when I was in my 20s. 
You remember that night, I insisted we come back here two more times that night to get another 
portion. This is just so sweet, savory, sour, salty- it’s just every flavor profile all in one, 
it’s amazing, and it’s always a little bit of a surprise what’s going to be in it, because it’s 
what’s in season. When they go to the market,   what fruits are being sold. And in this case, 
what do you think we have? There’s almost always papaya, I can see that right away. Pineapple, for 
sure. Water apple. If you don’t know Water Apple, because that’s not something sold overseas 
it almost tastes like cinnamon. We have   cucumber today. The water apple is my 
favorite, but it’s a complicated flavor. This is so addictive. I’m going to 
apologize to Dennis and Carol, there   are more spoons over there, I’m going to claim 
this one. There’s only one in the bowl and I’m going to start eating the sauce.
Right now at this exact moment, I am eating Rujak by myself, so 
let’s stop talking, and start eating. Alright, I want these guys to get to try it 
too, so let’s have a couple bites for the   camera. Great as always.
(Music Playing) So what is Indonesian food? Well I guess the most 
basic explanation is it’s a combination of the ingredients, the people, and the history. 
And of course, it’s all about sharing. Everything is meant to be enjoyed with whoever’s 
around, regardless of someone’s ethnic group or   background. And that just makes it even 
more of a shame that so few people get to experience firsthand Indonesian hospitality.
But combining all of those elements that make up this cuisine might be the reason 
outside perception is starting to change. There is one reason for hope that one day 
Indonesian food might finally join the global pantheon, and the world’s fourth-largest 
country will stop being invisible.  And it’s because of a meal that takes 
everything we’ve talked about so far, and combines it all into a celebration 
of food, culture and family.  And it just happens to come from 
right here- on the island of Sumatra. In a country all about sensory overload, 
and with a cuisine less about individual   dishes than broad diversity, well it 
makes sense that Indonesia has given rise to what might be the world’s 
biggest and most exciting meal.  It’s called Nasi Padang- and maybe more 
than this video, more than the Mustika Rasa or Mrs. van der Meyden’s cookbook, this is 
Indonesian food. In full technicolor display. Nasi Padang began from the wet markets of Padang, 
in the west of Sumatra, where Minangkabau vendors would meet up at the end of a long day to share 
their foods with each other in a massive feast. Now Indonesian people have long been aware 
of their country’s broad culinary heritage-   celebrating holidays with Nasi Tumpeng, 
and toasting weddings with Prasmanan, not surprisingly Sukarno’s favorite meal.
These spreads of countless flavors and colors would inspire the Dutch rijsttafel, their 
own showcase of the food of the islands. But Nasi Padang would perfect the art 
form. When it arrived with Minangkabau   in Medan in the 1880s the tradition would 
expand, adding in dishes from the Malays, the Javanese, Acehnese and Nias Islanders. And 
as it slowly worked its way south across the archipelago well it became something of a vacuum, 
scooping up favorites from every town and city. Now Indonesia might have missed out on the tourism 
boom of the 1980s. The Food TV explosion of the 2000s and the foreign restaurant boom of the 
2010s but social media- well it’s starting to discover Nasi Padang. This is the meal that’s 
starting to attract influencers to the country. It’s eye-catching on Instagram, and while Michelin 
still hasn’t found Indonesia- well the guide at least pays tribute to this one delicacy.
There is no better showcase of what makes Indonesian food unique then seeing all of it laid 
out on one single table. So for our dinner…well it’s time to feast.
(Ambient Sound) For 53 years, Restaurant Sederhana in Medan’s 
downtown has serving some of the city’s best Nasi Padang; famous for their specialties like beef 
rendang and Sundanese galangal fried chicken, and a few dozen other favorites that rotate 
depending on the day and the mood of the cooks. The magic of Nasi Padang is that whatever you see, 
well that’s what you get. You sit down at a table, order a sweet iced tea and a pack of clove 
cigarettes and just let the rest of the night happen, as one by one small plates get filled 
up with miniature portions of everything,   from Sumatran curries to Malay-style 
Sambals to the slow-cooked stews of the ancient Melanesians…and you only 
pay for what you consume. Or at least   that’s what they tell me because when I’m 
here- well come on. I’m eating everything. (Music Playing)
Is it cool to you that   this is a Sumatran food, Padang is West Sumatra, 
the Medan version is famous all over the world, and that’s where I’m going with this- this is now 
famous all over the world! Everywhere in Indonesia   you eat Nasi Padang, some variation of it, this 
style of eating. How does that feel for you, as a guy who’s from North Sumatra who has family 
from Padang, is this cool that this has become such a sensation everywhere? I mean it’s amazing, 
why wouldn’t it? It’s always the same feeling,   every time going to a Padang restaurant like 
this. Only one feeling: I’m so hungry. (Laughing) (Music Playing)
Alright, the magic of Nasi Padang, this is the meal- the style of eating that made 
me fall in love with Medan, Sumatra, Indonesia, living in Asia, food in general…whatever 
you want to say, this is just unbelievable. We’re at a Nasi Padang restaurant that’s been 
open since 1972, tonight- it’s different everyday depending on what whoever’s cooking makes- we have 
21 plates on the table, Anca can you tell us what everything is, in rapid fire succession?
I asked him to be fast, he is racing. Young jackfruit curry. You might 
need to stand up to get to this side. And the plates that we didn’t point at are 
also beef rendang, we got some extras of those. (Music Playing)
Also by the way, one quick note,   if foreigners have never been to Indonesia 
before, you sit down at a Nasi Padang restaurant, they bring you these bowls- that’s not soup, don’t 
drink it, it’s water to wash your hands. Alright, so we start with- I’m going to be a savage and 
start with the rendang because it’s staring right at me, right in front of me. What else are we 
going to put in this first? This looks amazing, I’ve had this plenty of times with the tempeh 
and the small fried fish, but with eggplant it’s interesting. That’s a cool take on this. Oh, 
this one with Jengkol (both shout). Jengkol, mildly poisonous, don’t let that dissuade you. All 
the best foods have a slight risk involved. The room service at the hotel won’t be happy if you 
eat Jengkol too much (laughing). Remember- when   you came and joined us today, what was I doing? 
I was in the middle of eating sataw pods- I was eating the petai. The hotel’s already- and we’ve 
even had durian the last two nights! The hotel’s not loving me, no matter what.
(Music Playing) Indonesia is a country that 
deserves to be explored. I’m   not here to do a- yesterday was our 
day to do an infomercial for Medan, which is one of my favorite cities, but this 
is not about Medan, this is not about Sumatra,   it’s just the country of Indonesia- 99 percent of 
tourists who come here go to Bali. Maybe Lombok. That’s it! There’s thousands of- without 
exaggerating, thousands of other islands that should be explored. You guys again- how nice 
has everybody been? The smiles we get everywhere, right? Everywhere. How nice the 
people have been, people are honest,   right? You can generally- you land and you have 
a whole bunch of new friends, food’s incredible, I love this country and I wish more people took 
the time to explore it and not be intimidated   by how overwhelming it is, because you will 
adjust, and the reward is something like this. (Music Playing)
(Band Playing Batak Music)
I guess we set out today to   answer one question. What is Indonesian food?
Now I warned you right in the beginning that this was going to be a challenge. 
And even with five meals down,   God knows how many plates of food served we 
obviously haven’t even scratched the surface. Even trying to tell this story has 
been tough. Talking about Indonesian   food means confronting some grim 
parts of history. Making sense of a place that’s been treated as a 
commodity for more than 500 years.  But it’s also that history that made this place 
what it is now- somewhere everything is meant to be shared. And where at the end of a long day 
in the sensory overload, the heat and humidity, you somehow still don’t want to go home.
(Band Playing Batak Music) So what is Indonesian food? Well it’s fresh 
fruits and vegetables, cloves and nutmeg, peanut sauce and slow-cooked beef rendang.
It’s Aceh noodles, fish grilled in banana leaves and fresh rujak on the side of the road. 
Indonesian food is the cuisines of 1,331 different ethnic groups, with the influence of just 
about everyone who’s stopped by from the days   of the Silk Road to the age of Exploration.
It’s Austronesian and Melanesian. Batak and Malay. It’s the islands of Sulawesi and 
Borneo, Timor, Bali, Sumatra and Java. It’s 30 national dishes- and 21 
plates on the table at dinner. Indonesian food is the world’s biggest 
mystery- but it shouldn’t be. It isn’t hiding. It’s not trying to keep its secrets. 
The people here would love nothing more than   for the world to come here and enjoy 
it with them. Because this is a culture about sharing. And I mean as a traveler- 
where else is there this much to explore? (Band Playing Batak Music)
Subscribe to the channel for more from OTR. Thank you so much to everyone who supports 
us on Patreon, it really helps to keep us going. Find links below for our Patreon and 
social media, and we’ll see you soon.

Across the entire world, there are less than 1000 Indonesian restaurants. That’s fewer than Georgian- a country of 3 million people. And Indonesia has almost 100 times that number; the 4th largest nation on the planet. How is that possible? How has the cuisine of Southeast Asia’s most populous country gone unnoticed- and what is it, anyway?

There are 17,000 islands in the Indonesian archipelago and summarizing all of it in a single video is impossible; but that doesn’t mean there aren’t common threads, a shared history, and signature dishes worth attention. And anyway, Indonesia is more about a culture that’s unlike anywhere else on Earth.

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0:00 – Introduction
1:09 – What is Indonesia?
3:08 – The Mission
5:35 – Breakfast
9:30 – The Land of 30 National Dishes
12:07 – Basics
15:54 – Sundanese
17:43 – Lunch from the Sunda Strait
23:20 – Why is Indonesian Food Anonymous?
26:25 – Mustika Rasa
30:23 – Soekarno’s Lunch
34:03 – Challenges and Hope
36:55 – The Bad Years
39:57 – Rujak
48:31 – Nasi Padang
50:34 – Feast
57:20 – So What is Indonesian Food?

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Video Credits: