Chinese Indonesian cuisine

Chinese Indonesians, mostly descendant of Han ethnic Hokkien and Hakka speakers, brought their legacy of Chinese cuisine, and modified some of the dishes with the addition of Indonesian ingredients, such as kecap manis (sweet soy sauce), palm sugar, peanut sauce, chili, santan (coconut milk) and local spices to form a hybrid Chinese-Indonesian cuisine.

Most of these loanwords for food dishes and their ingredients are Hokkien in origin and are used throughout the Indonesian language and vernacular speech of large cities.

[1] Because they have become an integral part of the local language, many Indonesians and ethnic Chinese do not recognize their Hokkien origins.

To a certain extent, Javanese in Semarang, Solo, and Surabaya also willingly absorbs Chinese culinary influences, as the result they also considered Chinese-influenced dishes such as mie goreng, lumpia, bakso, and tahu gunting as theirs.

Areas such as Glodok, Pecenongan, and Kelapa Gading in Jakarta, Kesawan, Pusat Pasar, Jalan Semarang, Asia Mega Mas, Cemara Asri and Sunggal in Medan, Cibadak and Gardujati / Gardu Jati in Bandung, Kya-kya Kembang Jepun in Surabaya, and Pecinans in Cirebon, Semarang and Solo teem with many warungs, shops and restaurants, not only offering Chinese Indonesian dishes, but also local and international cuisines.

For example, it is common to have sambal chili sauce, acar pickles and sprinkle of bawang goreng crispy fried shallot as condiment.

However, sometimes the name are derived from the translation of its meanings, ingredients or process in Indonesian (e.g. babi kecap, kakap asam manis, kembang tahu, nasi tim).