Street food of Indonesia

[2] In 2015, the Cooperatives, Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises and Trade Agency recorded that Jakarta has around 56,000 street vendors and the spaces available for them reached just 18,000.

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.

The inscriptions dated from Majapahit period circa 14th century also describes food and drink vendor as one of line of works in Javanese society.

Satay for example, is believed started as a street food in the early 19th century, as a local Javanese adaptation of Indian kebabs.

The current proliferation of Indonesia's vigorous street food culture, is also contributed by its demographic condition; the massive urbanisation in recent decades.

This took place especially in the country's rapidly expanding urban agglomerations in Greater Jakarta, Surabaya, Bandung, Medan, Palembang, Denpasar, and Makassar.

Today, it is easy to find a diverse collection of street food selling dishes from all over Indonesian archipelago; from Madura to Padang satays, from bakso Malang to siomay Bandung.

For example, today it is common to find hamburger, hot dog and sosis bakar (grilled Bratwurst sausages) food carts next to traditional bakso meatball pushcart in marketplaces.

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 as bakmie or mie ayam (chicken noodles) and bakso (meatballs) sold by street vendors and food stalls, often adapted to become Indonesian-Chinese cuisine.

[18][3] Hygiene remains a problem for pavement dining as clean dish washing is seldom practised due to a lack of running water.

Today, it is easy to find large numbers of tarp tented warung food stalls and gerobak foodcarts occupying and clogging the kaki lima pedestrian pavements in Indonesian cities.

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.

That is why in urban centers like Greater Jakarta, one easily discovers various dishes, traditional food and delicacies coming from all over the Indonesian archipelago.

[15] Nevertheless, the tremendous occupation of pavements by the kaki lima vendors, including street food sellers, has led to other urban and societal problems.