7 Indonesian Traditional Snacks – If you travel to Indonesia, make sure to spare your time to try their various traditional snack. It has a lot of range of snacks from sweet to savoury with very unique flavours but still acceptable for everyone’s taste. Don’t worry you can find these snacks even in big restaurants, especially restaurants with Indonesian food specialty.
Below is the list of Indonesian traditional snacks that you need to try!
Lemper
Lemper is a typical savoury snack from Indonesia made by stuffing glutinous rice with either seasoned shredded chicken, fish, or abon (meat floss) and rolled in a banana leaf or tinfoil. You can find this snack almost in every event that serves traditional snacks. There are other versions similar to this snack called semar mendem, which is also shredded chicken with glutinous rice, but it is wrapped in a thin omelet.
Klepon
If you love mochi, we recommend you to try klepon! Klepon is a small round cake filled with palm sugar and coated with grated coconut. It’s common to see klepon with green colour but there’s some places that sell klepon with other colours like red or blue. Please expect a very sweet sensation on your first bite when the palm sugar melted in your mouth.
Pisang Molen
If you’re a fan of bananas, and you ever tried pisang goreng or fried banana, then you’ll love this one. Pisang molen is actually a variation of pisang goreng, made from small bites of fried bananas covered with dough sheets. Originating from Bandung, it is actually called pisang molen, because it is shaped like a molen truck that’s used to mix massive volumes of cement. This snack is very easy to make and you can try it at home with a guide from a recipe on the internet.
Serabi
Serabi is small-sized Indonesian pancakes that are usually prepared with rice flour and a choice of coconut milk. The pancakes are incredibly versatile in sweet and savory versions. It usually comes with various toppings such as sugar, bananas, crushed peanuts, jackfruit, chocolate sprinkles, or fermented oncom. Some cafés even serve this snack with meat, sausages, or ice cream topping. They are typically accompanied by strawberry, durian, or coconut-based kinca syrup.
Kue Lumpur
Kue lumpur has been one of Indonesia’s favorite street snacks that are served in various community gatherings on all occasions. Literally translated as mud cake, this snack was made from flour, potatoes, and eggs, and is usually topped with raisins. The flavour is sweet despite the moist texture.
Onde Onde
Onde-onde, also known as jian dui in Chinese, is an Indonesian snack made with glutinous rice flour, filled with crushed mug beans, and coated with sesame seeds. This snack is actually an adaptation of the Chinese jian dui recipe. The sensation of savory taste of the outer coat and the sweet crushed mung beans inside will satisfy your palate.
Kue Cubit
Literally meaning “pinch cake,” this snack looks similar to a pancake, but smaller in size (around 4-cm in diameter) and tastes sweeter than a pancake. The name came from how you need to pinch it when you want to eat it thus, ‘kue cubit’. This snack kinda reminds us about poffertjes.
Now, you know these snacks, you can enjoy them while you’re working from home, watching a film on your laptop, or just chilling on the sofa or playing with your children! If you want to know more about traditional food in Indonesia, don’t forget to check our other articles!
