Sundanese cuisine facts for kids

Indonesian Sundanese meal with grilled fish, rice wrapped in banana leaf, fried chicken, chili sauce, fried tempeh, fried tofu, and sour vegetable soup. The bowl of water with lime is for hand washing, called kobokan.

Sundanese cuisine is the traditional food of the Sundanese people. They live in Western Java and Banten, Indonesia. It is one of the most loved foods in Indonesia!

Sundanese food is known for being very fresh. People often eat fresh raw vegetables called lalab with a spicy chili sauce called sambal. Another popular dish is karedok, which is a salad made with raw vegetables.

Unlike some other Indonesian foods that are rich and spicy with coconut milk, Sundanese food has a simpler, clearer taste. It can be savory and salty, fresh and sour, mildly sweet, or hot and spicy.

Sambal terasi is a very important and common sauce in Sundanese cooking. It is eaten with lalab or fried tofu and tempeh. Sayur asem (sour vegetable soup) is probably the most famous vegetable soup. Other popular soups include Soto Bandung, which is a beef and radish soup, and mie kocok, a noodle soup with beef and kikil (a type of beef tendon).

Tasty Ingredients

Oncom, a popular fermented ingredient in Sundanese cuisine.

Sundanese people love fresh water fish like carp, gourami, tilapia, and catfish. These fish are usually grilled (bakar) or deep-fried (goreng). They are often served with sambal or sweet soy sauce.

People in Sunda also enjoy salted seafood. You'll find many fried salted fish, anchovy, and salted cuttlefish in their daily meals. A special cooking method called pais or pepes uses banana leafs to wrap food. This helps to steam the food and give it a unique flavor. Pais lauk emas, which is carp fish cooked this way, is a favorite.

Chicken is often fried or grilled and served with sambal or sweet soy sauce. Bakakak hayam is a special Sundanese grilled chicken dish. Sometimes, chicken is also cooked as pepes or in soups.

Meats like beef, water buffalo, and goat can be marinated with spices and coconut sugar. Then they are fried to make empal gepuk, a sweet fried meat dish. This is often topped with fried shallots. Beef and potatoes are sometimes cooked together in a sweet soy sauce stew called semur daging. Goat meat can also be made into satay (meat on skewers) in the Sundanese style, like sate maranggi. Gulai kambing (lamb curry) is another popular soup.

While people in Java love tempeh, Sundanese people really like oncom. Both are fermented foods, but they are made from different beans. Tempeh comes from soybeans, while oncom is made from peanuts. Sundanese people also use fermentation to make other foods like tauco (a fermented soybean paste) and sweet snacks like peuyeum, which is a fermented rice or cassava snack.

Sundanese Restaurants

A Sundanese warung (food stall) showing food on a table.

When you eat at a Sundanese restaurant, it's common to eat with your hands! They usually give you a bowl of tap water with a slice of lime in it. This is called kobokan. It's not for drinking, but for washing your hands before and after your meal.

Some traditional Sundanese restaurants have a special dining style called lesehan. This means you sit on the floor, often on a straw or bamboo mat, while you eat. The food might be served on a low table or directly on the mat. It's a bit like the traditional Japanese tatami dining style.

In rural villages, you might find saung style restaurants. These have small eating pavilions built near or even over fresh water fish ponds. You can sometimes choose live fish like carp or gourami from the pond, and they will cook it fresh for you right away!

Sundanese saung bamboo pavilion restaurant.

An example of Sundanese dishes in lesehan style, including mutton satay, grilled gourami, karedok, steamed rice, lalab, and sambal.

Many Sundanese restaurants in Indonesia have the word "Kuring" in their name. This might seem confusing, but in the Sundanese language, "Kuring" means "I" or "my". This trend started because of a famous restaurant called Lembur Kuring, which means "My Home Village".

Popular Dishes

Nasi timbel dara goreng, rice wrapped in banana leaf with fried pigeon, tempeh, tofu, and vegetables.

• Nasi timbel: Hot steamed rice wrapped in a banana leaf. The leaf gives the rice a special smell. It's often served with fried chicken, duck, or pigeon, empal gepuk, tahu, tempeh, sayur asem, lalab, and sambal.
• Nasi liwet Sunda: Rice cooked in one pot with spices like galangal, lemon grass, and Indonesian bay leaves. Sometimes, salted fish is added for more flavor.
• Nasi tutug oncom: Hot steamed rice mixed with roasted oncom, shallots, and kencur (a type of ginger). It's usually served with krupuk (crackers), sambal terasi, and anchovies.

Lalab, raw vegetables with sambal.

• Lalab: A salad of raw vegetables, usually eaten with sambal.
• Sambal terasi: Chili sauce made by grinding chilies with shrimp paste.
• Karedok: A raw vegetable salad mixed with a delicious peanut sauce.
• Lotek: A boiled vegetable salad also served with peanut sauce.

Sayur asem, lalab, red rice, ikan asin, sambal, and karedok.

• Sayur asem: A sour vegetable soup made with tamarind.
• Oncom: A fermented food similar to tempeh. It can be fried, made into pepes, or stir-fried with vegetables.
• Various Pepes: Dishes cooked by wrapping ingredients in a banana leaf. Many things can be made into pepes, like carp fish, anchovies, tofu, or mushrooms. Pais Lauk Emas (carp fish pepes) is very famous.
• Various Ikan bakar: "Grilled fish" served with sweet soy sauce and chili dipping sauce. Fish like carp, gourami, or tilapia are often used.

Gurame goreng kipas.

• Various Ikan goreng: "Fried fish" served with sweet soy sauce and chili dipping sauce. Gurame goreng kipas is a famous deep-fried gourami dish where the fish is spread out like a fan.
• Bakakak hayam: Sundanese style grilled chicken.
• Soto Bandung: A type of soto (soup) with beef and daikon radish.
• Mie kocok: A noodle dish with beef and kikil (beef tendon).
• Sate Maranggi: A Sundanese style marinated satay, usually made with goat meat.
• Empal gepuk: Sweet and spicy fried beef.
• Kupat tahu: Ketupat (rice cakes), tofu, rice vermicelli, and bean sprouts in peanut sauce.
• Asinan: A dish of fermented vegetables or fruits, often with vinegar.
• Baso Tahu: Indonesian style dumplings with peanut sauce, also known as Siomay Bandung.
• Batagor: Fried bakso (meatballs) and tofu.
• Seblak: Stir-fried wet krupuk (crackers) with other ingredients.

Sweet Snacks

Tahu Sumedang.

• Surabi: A traditional rice flour pancake. It can be served with sweet coconut sugar syrup or a spicy oncom topping.
• Tahu Sumedang: A popular fried tofu snack.
• Tahu gejrot: Fried tofu with slices of shallots, chili, and garlic in a spicy-sweet sauce.
• Bala-bala: Fried dough snack made from chopped vegetables.
• Cireng: A fried dough snack made from sago or cassava flour. The name means "fried sago flour".
• Cilok: Flavored sago balls on skewers. The name means "poked sago balls".
• Cimol: Small, round sago ball snacks.
• Colenak: Roasted cassava with a sweet coconut dipping sauce. The name means "delicious dip".
• Peuyeum sampeu: Sweet fermented cassava.
• Peuyeum ketan: Sweet fermented sticky rice, often wrapped in a guava leaf.
• Comro: A fried dough made from shredded cassava with a spicy oncom filling. The name means "oncom inside".
• Misro: Similar to comro, but filled with melted palm sugar instead. The name means "sweet inside".
• Odading: Fried sweet bread, sometimes filled with banana.
• Dodol Garut: Sweets made from sticky rice powder and palm sugar, sometimes with milk or sesame seeds.
• Kolontong: Roasted, cylinder-shaped rice crackers with a sugar coating.
• Opak: Roasted, disc-shaped rice crackers.
• Ranginang: Fried rice grain crackers seasoned with terasi.

Refreshing Drinks

Es doger.

• Bajigur: A traditional hot drink made from coconut milk, spices, pandan leaf, and coconut sugar.
• Bandrek: A traditional hot drink made from ginger, spices, and coconut sugar.
• Cendol: A traditional cold drink with coconut sugar, coconut milk, and green glutinous rice jelly.
• Es Doger: An ice cream-like dessert made from coconut flesh, coconut milk, peuyeum (sweet fermented cassava), and pink syrup.
• Es Goyobod: The Sundanese version of es campur (mixed ice). It has mixed jelly and mashed avocado in a rich coconut milk and jackfruit-flavored brown sugar syrup.
• Es Duren: An ice cream-like dessert made from durian fruit and milk.
• Lahang: A traditional sweet and cold drink made from the sap of the Arenga pinnata (sugar palm) tree.