Tauge goreng facts for kids
Street-side tauge goreng
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| Alternative names | Taoge goreng, toge goreng |
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| Course | Main or snack |
| Place of origin | Indonesia |
| Region or state | Jakarta and Bogor, West Java |
| Serving temperature | Hot |
| Main ingredients | Tauge (bean sprouts) stir-fried with addition of slices of ketupat rice cake, tofu, and noodles, in oncom-based sauce. |
Tauge goreng is a tasty Indonesian dish. Its name means "fried bean sprouts" in Indonesian. It's a popular vegetarian meal made from stir-fried bean sprouts. It also includes slices of tofu, rice cakes like ketupat or lontong, and yellow noodles. All these ingredients are served with a special spicy sauce made from oncom.
This dish is a specialty from Jakarta and Bogor city in West Java, Indonesia. You can often find tauge goreng sold as street food. Street vendors usually sell it from carts called gerobak or carrying poles called pikulan. It's a very popular street food in Jakarta and nearby areas like Bogor, Depok, Tangerang, and Bekasi.
Contents
What is Tauge Goreng?
Tauge goreng is a vegetarian dish, meaning it doesn't contain any meat or animal products. The main part of the dish is tauge, which are mung bean sprouts. These sprouts are usually cooked right in front of you on a small stove. Instead of being stir-fried in oil, the bean sprouts are cooked in a little bit of boiling water.
How is Tauge Goreng Made?
After the bean sprouts are cooked, slices of tofu, yellow noodles, and pieces of ketupat or lontong rice cake are added. Everything is mixed and heated together. Then, a special savory and spicy sauce made from oncom is poured over the cooked ingredients.
The oncom sauce is made by cooking ground oncom with a small amount of vegetable oil and many spices. These spices include ground galangal, salam leaf (which is like an Indonesian bay leaf), slices of tomato, scallion, garlic chives, tauco (a fermented soybean paste), kecap manis (sweet soy sauce), key lime juice, and salt.
What is Oncom?
Oncom is a unique ingredient that looks bright orange. It's made from fermented crushed beans, similar to tempeh, but it uses different types of fungi. Oncom is a very popular ingredient, especially in Sundanese cuisine, which comes from West Java. The oncom sauce gives tauge goreng a rich, earthy, and nutty flavor. This same oncom sauce is also used in the Bogor version of laksa, so these two dishes can taste quite similar.
Different Kinds of Tauge Goreng
The most well-known tauge goreng in Indonesia is the West Javan version, which uses the oncom-based sauce we just talked about. However, there are other types of stir-fried bean sprout dishes found in different places.
Taugeh Goreng in Malaysia
In Malaysia, there's a dish called taugeh goreng, which has a similar name. But this Malaysian version is much simpler. It's just bean sprouts stir-fried with chopped shallots, garlic, and chili in soy sauce. This dish is usually made at home and is not commonly sold as street food.
Simpler Fried Bean Sprouts in Indonesia
In Indonesia, a simpler version of fried bean sprouts (without rice cake, noodles, oncom, or tauco sauce) is often mixed with diced tofu. This dish is sometimes called gehu, which is a short way of saying taoge (bean sprouts) and tahu (tofu). It's also a popular dish to cook at home, but it's not typically sold by street vendors.
Other Variations
Some other kinds of stir-fried bean sprouts use ikan asin (salted fish) or teri Medan (small anchovy fish from Medan) to add a savory and salty taste.
