Restaurant and warung in Indonesia

Eating establishment

In Indonesia, dishes are served from a fine dining restaurant in five-star hotel, a simple restaurant downtown, humble street side warung under the tent, to street hawker peddling their gerobak (cart) or pikulan (carrying using rod).

Restaurant and warung

Floating warung boat attached to the bank of Musi river, Palembang, selling local favourite such as pempek.

In Indonesia rumah makan means restaurant, while warung means small and humble shop. From these eating establishments, a warteg (warung Tegal) and rumah makan Padang are particularly notable for their ubiquitousness in Indonesian cities and towns.

A warteg or warung tegal is a more specific warung nasi, established by Javanese people from the town Tegal in Central Java. They sells favourite Javanese dishes and rice, the wide array of pre-cooked dishes are arranged in glass windowed cupboard. They are well known on selling modestly-priced meals, popular among working class such as low-skilled labours in the cities. While rumah makan Padang is aPadang restaurant, a smaller scale Padang eateries might be called warung Padang.

Most of Indonesian restaurants are based upon specific regional cuisine tradition. For example rumah makan Padang are definitely Minangkabau cuisine. Sundanese saung restaurant or colloquically called as kuring restaurants are selling Sundanese dishes. This includes Bataks' lapo, Manado and Balinese restaurants. While other restaurants might specifically featuring their best specific dishes, for example Ayam goreng Mbok Berek, Bakmi Gajah Mada, Satay Senayan, Rawon Setan Surabaya, Pempek Pak Raden, etc.

Street food

Soto mie cart street vendor

Street and street-side vendors are common, in addition to hawkers peddling their goods on bicycles or carts. These carts are known aspedagang kaki lima — named after the 5-foot (1.5 m) wide footpaths in Indonesia. (However, numerous people say they are named 'five feet' after the three feet of the cart and the two feet of the vendor.) These food hawkers on carts or bicycles might be travelling on streets, approaching potential buyers through residential areas whilst announcing their presence, or stationing themselves on a packed and busy street side, setting simple seating under a small tent and waiting for customers. Many of these have their own distinctive call or songs to announce their wares. For example, the bakso seller will hit the side of a soup bowl, whereas mie ayam is announced by hitting a wood block.

Bakso (meatball) seller in Bandung

In most cities, it is common to see Chinese dishes such as bakpao (steamed buns with sweet and savoury fillings), bakmie (noodles), and bakso (meatballs) sold by street vendors and restaurants, 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 are siomay and batagor (abbreviated from Bakso Tahu Goreng), pempek (deep fried fish cake), bubur ayam (chicken congee), bubur kacang hijau (mung beans porridge), satay, nasi goreng (English: fried rice), soto mie(soto noodle), mie ayam (chicken noodle) and mie goreng (fried noodle), taoge goreng (mung bean sprouts and noodle salad), asinan(preserved vegetables or fruits salad), laksa, kerak telor (spicy omelette), gorengan (Indonesian assorted fritters) and Bakwan (fried dish of beansprouts and batter).

Indonesian street snacks include iced and sweet beverages, such as es cendol or es dawet, es teler, es cincau, es doger, es campur, es potong, and es puter. Indonesian cakes and cookies are often called jajanan pasar (market munchies).

source wikipedia