First timer in Indonesia? Try Nasi Goreng Jakarta. If Indonesians are asked any kinds of food to recommend to foreigners, no doubt the answer will be nasi goreng or fried rice. Fried rice peddlers are easily found in almost every part of Indonesia, usually at night. They will be pushing their cart around the neighborhood and waiting for to be called by customers to buy their fried rice. Aside from fried rice, they usually have other options like fried noodle and boiled noodle. As it is a very popular menu in Indonesia, it also can be easily found in restaurants.

There are countless types of fried rice in Indonesian, some of them are named based on the area they are residing, like Nasi Goreng Jawa, Nasi Goreng Aceh, or Nasi Goreng Jakarta. Some of them are named by the ingredients, like chicken fried rice, mutton fried rice, seafood fried rice, rendang fried rice, and many more.

While there is also fried rice in different parts of the world, Indonesian fried rice has their own uniqueness, which is using an ingredient that most of the other countries didn’t have, kecap manis or sweet soy sauce. The texture of sweet soy sauce is thicker than the ordinary soy sauce and has a sweet flavor from palm sugar. Sweet soy sauce is an essential ingredient to cook many other Indonesian food such as satay, tongseng, semur, and many more. However, there might be some versions that only use original soy sauce.

If you stay in Jakarta, of course you don’t want to miss finding the capital city version, which is Nasi Goreng Jakarta. Fried rice is a convenient choice to be eaten any time and anywhere in Jakarta. It is a perfect menu for dinner, lunch, or even breakfast. The key to having perfect fried rice is to use an overnight left-over rice as it will provide a crunchy texture. It also has a unique dark brown color from the sweet soy sauce.

While most of the populations are fond of spicy flavor, some sellers will naturally add chili to add some spiciness, so if you have a low tolerance of spiciness, you might need to request the chili to be left out in your fried rice. Now enough with the description, join our Jakarta Food Tour to try the authentic Nasi Goreng Jakarta firsthand. No need to be fancy, just prepare your tummy!