Indonesian snacks bear much resemblance of its neighbouring countries, such as Thailand, Malaysia and Vietnam. There are the usual ingredients found in Thai and Malaysian desserts such as palm sugar, coconut milk, sweetened condensed milk, beans just to mention some. And there are many many varieties of them! You can buy the little “cakes”/sweets from the food markets open early in the morning, from the street stalls scattered across the city or in front of schools, up until night at the street hawker stalls/tents. During Ramadhan season, “kolak”s make an appearance as well - they range from rice cakes to bananas in sweet palm sugar syrups.
I was very happy to be able to satisfy my cravings for these snacks I can’t find in Australia (or you can find them but they just don’t compare). Martabak is one of them. We have sweet and savoury martabaks. Malaysians have them too. They call them murtabak. The sweet varieties are basically round pancakes with thin crispy outer edges folded in half filled with toppings of your choice. Popular filings are chocolate, chocolate peanuts, chocolate cheese and cheese with sweetened condensed milk. They come in original and thin crispy variety. They’re so deliciously sinful =)
Half-half martabak (sweet cheese and choc nuts)
Original Choc nuts martabak
Thin crispy martabak
Savoury martabaks are made with eggs and minced meat and eaten with sweet and sour sauce with pickled cucumbers and carrots. They’re called martabak telur.
Martabak telur
Gorengan is also one of my favourites. Translated it means “fried stuff”. Street food. The usuals are banana fritters, fried tofu, fried tofu with vege and noodles fillings, fried tempe, fried cassava and fried sweet potatoes. They are everywhere. Mostly found outside schools or they do rounds around the residential areas.
Abang gorengan = gorengan man
Banana fritters and sweet red bean sesame balls
We call our “cakes” kue (similar to Malaysian’s kuih). The one on the left is kue pukis and the one on the right is kue lapis (layered cake). If you’ve tried malaysian cakes kue lapis taste similar to them - with the mung bean flour consistency with coconut milk and pandan flavours. Bought these in the markets. They’re so good - much better than the ones you get in Sydney.
The last few I will show you are typical snacks you find at night at street hawker tents/stalls. Usually each stall specialises in something. One with all the ice desserts - es teler (avocado, jackfruit, coconut), es alpukat (avocado juice with sweetened condensed milk and moccha syrup), es kelapa (young coconut), es kelapa puan (a different type of coconut, it’s soft with flaky and creamy texture), etc. All served with shaved ice and sweetened condensed milk.
Es teler
Another would have all the grilled snacks such as roti bakar (toast with chocolate flakes and sweetened condensed milk - maybe cheese), pisang bakar (grilled bananas with same toppings).
Grilled bananas
This one is also a favourite of mine - fried tofu with sweet sour syrup (spicy!) and acar (pickles).
Abang gorengan = gorengan man
Those were some of the many many wonderful yummy snacks you can find in Indo. As you can see, we have some combos people might find weird - cheese and chocolate, sweet avocado, cheese and condensed milk. But you should give them a go first before making any judgements! 