Karedok facts for kids
Karedok served in a restaurant
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| Type | Salad |
|---|---|
| Course | Main course |
| Place of origin | Indonesia |
| Region or state | West Java |
| Serving temperature | Room temperature |
| Main ingredients | Raw vegetables, peanut sauce, krupuk |
| Variations | Gado-gado |
Karedok is a super fresh and tasty raw vegetable salad from West Java, Indonesia. It's a special dish of the Sundanese people, who live in that part of Indonesia. Imagine a mix of crisp, raw veggies covered in a yummy peanut sauce!
This popular Indonesian salad usually has long beans, cucumbers, bean sprouts, cabbage, and Thai basil. It might also include chayotes and small green eggplant. All these fresh ingredients are mixed with a rich peanut dressing. Karedok is a bit like another Indonesian salad called gado-gado. The main difference is that in karedok, all the vegetables are raw. Most gado-gado dishes use boiled vegetables. Karedok also uses special ingredients like kencur (a type of ginger) and Thai basil for its unique flavor. Sometimes, people call it lotek atah, which means "raw lotek" or "raw gado-gado."
Families in the Sundanese region often eat karedok as part of their daily meals. It's usually served with warm rice, tofu, tempeh, and crispy krupuk crackers. You can find karedok almost everywhere in Indonesia, from street food carts to fancy restaurants and hotels. It's even becoming popular in other parts of the world!
What Makes Karedok Special?
Karedok is one of many delicious Indonesian salads that use a special dressing. Other similar salads include lotek, pecel, and gado-gado. What makes karedok stand out is its fresh, raw vegetables and its amazing peanut sauce.
The Peanut Sauce Dressing
The most important part of karedok is its delicious peanut sauce dressing. This sauce is poured over the raw vegetables right before you eat it. The main ingredient for this sauce is usually kacang tanah, which is the Indonesian word for peanuts.
To make the peanut sauce, people often use a mix of ingredients. These can include red pepper, ginger, bird's eye chili, and galangal (another type of ginger). Fried peanuts are blended with these spices. Then, ingredients like palm sugar, salt, and terasi (a special paste made from fermented shrimp) are added. A little hot water helps to make the sauce smooth. Sometimes, a pinch of white pepper is also added for extra flavor. In many places, the peanut sauce is made fresh for each customer. This helps keep the flavors really authentic. However, in some busy restaurants, especially outside Indonesia, the sauce might be made in bigger batches ahead of time. You can even buy ready-made karedok seasoning in supermarkets now!
How Karedok is Served
Karedok is always served with something crunchy. The most common choice is krupuk, which are crispy crackers often made from tapioca. Another popular cracker is emping, made from the melinjo nut. In Indonesia, karedok is also usually eaten with rice or lontong. Lontong is a special kind of rice that is cooked and wrapped in banana leaf. Sometimes, people even add a salted duck egg to their karedok meal.
