This week’s BEC challenge is about most favorite Indonesian food. As an Indonesian living abroad and a foodie, I think about food all the time. Sometimes I long for certain Indonesian dishes. I have twenty – thirty most favorite Indonesian food/dishes but it is impossible to share them all here. Hence I chose sate. Sate is the proper spelling of this delicacy in Bahasa Indonesia, not satay (handy for English speakers to pronounce it right) nor saté (handy for the Dutchies due to the same reason).
Sate comes actually from the South East Asian peninsula. Those who have been to Indonesia, Malaysia, Singapore and Thailand are familiar with or have even tried this dish. Sate is grilled cubes chicken, goat, lamb, pork, beef, prawns, mussels, fish, tempe or tofu on a skewer. Sate needs to be grilled on charcoal in order to get that characteristic intense smokey flavour. The cubes are marinated for a couple of hours, preferably overnight in a mix of garlic, shallot and spices with a dash of lemon/lime and soy sauce. Put the cubes on a skewer and grill it. The main rule to get a succulent sate is to keep it juicy during grilling.The secret is to keep drizzling the skewers with the marinade left on a grill.
This post is my guide to Indonesian sates. Most pics were taken during holiday in Indonesia, one was taken at my home.
Attention! Looking at the pics below can cause hunger. It is at your own risk.
This is chicken sate (sate ayam) from Warung Pulau Kelapa in Ubud, Bali. Only sate ayam is served with peanut sauce.
Other kind of sates are accompanied by a condiment or a simple soy sauce. Like this one. This is sate babi (pork sate) on a grill in my backyard. This is my signature dish together with sate ayam and urap (vegetable salad with desiccated coconut dressing) in the summer. My family and friends request this when the weather is nice. We will sit on our backyard and grill it!
This is how sate is served in Indonesian restaurant. This was taken in a restaurant in Magelang, Central Java. Buying sate from a street vendor, you will get it in banana leaves.
Sate ikan tuna or tuna fish sate. This is from a restaurant in Yogyakarta. Delicious!
This last one is beef sate from a restaurant in Yogyakarta.
Should you wonder how to make it yourself, just ask me the recipe. If you are interested in my food pics and recipes, look at my foodblog LoFoodie. It is in Bahasa Indonesia but those who want to try some recipes are welcome to ask by mail. After all, we need to eat every day and food connects people, right!
Selamat makan or have a nice sate meal!
My favourite sate is sate lilit Mbak. The taste of sate lilit brings back a lot of memory from my youth; how my friends and I used to make it for certain celebration. Ah how I miss it!
Balinese sate lilit made from fish or another version of sate lilit Ailtje? I love it too. The one I ate in Karangasem is the best.
The one made with fish Mbak. Some people mix it with Chicken too, but I am not really into sate lilit ayam.
Agree, sate lilit ikan is the best.
Uuuh, looks delicious! Yummy.
It is, right? 🙂
I love sate ayam, it is more chewable. I rarely find a good Sate Sapi, most of them are like rubber.
The beef sate on the pic was good Nadia 🙂
Yes, it looks good, too 🙂 Some people said we need to add some pineapple before it’s roasted to make them fluffy..
Yes, grated pineapple makes meat more succulent. This is mostly used in the marinade for lamb, goat and beef. Papaya leaves have the same effect too.
aah..succulent is the more proper word 🙂 oh, I just knew about the papaya leaves, won’t it be bitter? Because all I know that the leaves are bitter.
You only wrap the meat with Papaya leaves so it won’t taste bitter.
Just wrap? that’s awesome!
Me too, Mbak Yo (although I did not include it in my EF post). I like sate padang, but sate ayam with peanut sauce is also my favorite :).
Ah Sate Padang is delicious!
Once I tried a “sate” in a Dutch restaurant in Den Haag. And to me it was more like the Dutch version of a sate, lol 😆 . Still tasty though, but it tasted more like a European dish rather than a South East Asian dish 😛 .
Most sates here are sadly cooked not even grilled. Not to mention the cubes which are cut too big. The real sate ought to be grilled ok charcoal imo.
Ga sanggup liat gambarnya. Seriously! Ngiler abissss mba yo. I LOVE SATEEEE
Who doesn’t love sate Jo?
🙂 I am very hungry now.
I’ll feed you soon 🙂
Yay!
I love sate ayam and sate babi😋😋 Some of Indonesian or Malay restaurant in Perth use peanut butter for the bumbu sate….doooh!! I like the original one with real peanuts.
Yes very true. I don’t mind eating sate sauce made from peanut sauce from a jar, as long as it is mixed with spices and herbs, not pure peanut butter. It is almost tasteless.
I love sate also. And you are right Mba Yo, it has to be grilled with charcoal so the taste is awesome.
Have you taste rabbit or snake sate Mba?
Yes, the charred parts are delicious, although it is not really healthy. I have had rabbit sate but not snake sate yet Ryan. How does it taste?
Yes. It is not really healthy.
The meat is chewy. I just swallow it.
Ahh bener jadi lapar liat foto-fotonya mba Yo..haha. Py suka banget sate babi mba Yo, apalagi Ragey, lebih puas makannya. Sama Sate Padang, enak banget itu. Kuahnya pedes-pedes enak.
Sate Padang terus makannya pake kerupuk kulit ahhh enak Py.
Kangen sate Mbak..resep dong..resep..😘😘
Nanti muncul di Lo Foodie ya Za kalo cuaca makin anget 😉
Ditunggu Mbakk
My favourite sate is sate maranggi, umami yummy
Ah it is also good Yang. Banyak banget ya jenis sate.
The pictures are gorgeous.And yes, I agree with you, the pictures my me hungry….
Not related to food, a very technical question, what lens do you use to take those pictures?
Thank you Nin. Mostly I use Nikkor 50 mm 1.4 to shoot food pics.
To add some variations of sate mentioned above: sate kelopo (surabaya), sate klathak (bantul), sate buntel (solo), sate kerang (jogja), sate usus (every angkringan in jogja has this menu)…. Aaah who doesn’t love sate 😋😋
Ah Sate Kelopo is delish and Sate Kerang (Mussels), I remember I had that one once in Tegal, excellent taste Rosa. Thank you for the addition. Here in The Netherlands people are only familiar with sate ayam, babi & kambing. I will introduce sate Kelopo to my family.
I like Indonesian version of satay the best. The others just don’t taste as delicious as ours. I like any satay but I am adventurous enough to sample the exotic ones.
Agree. It can be something about taste or some people haven’t tasted Indonesian version, but some sate from other Asian countries are bland.
So true mbak.
I love sate too 😀
Who doesn’t? 🙂
That is what I call sate (or satay)! Here in Denmark satay is nothing like what we have in Indonesia. Once I was served with something that looked like a normal wok dish, with satay sauce. -_-
Mau resep satenya donk mba 😀
Cooked sate is bad, just bad. It doesn’t even presented as such. It is me the foodie talking 🙂 When the weather gets better, I will make some sates and share the recipe on my foodblog. Stay tuned there.
Yea. I was so disappointed when I saw it was cooked satay they served. Thank you! I will! (Y) 🙂
I also love sate maranggi, and sate Padang, sate danguang-danguang from Payakumbuh…, semuanya enyaaak
Sate danguang itu apa Mon? Penasaran 😉
Sates are vital part in Balinese Hindu’s offerings, too, Miss, if I may add. Many offerings request for different kinds of sates–each has its own name, for example sate tungguh, which usually used in Bebangkit or Pule Gembal–the most difficult banten. They are made from Babi Guling’s skin with various shapes :)).
Thank you for the insight Gara. Now I know more about it. Ah, from Babi guling’s skin, so Sate Tungguh is crispy crackling? And how do you eat it? Is it accompanied by urap or plain with rice?
Accompanied with rice and many dishes, and lots of sambals :hehe.
Aku sukaa semua sate, sate kambing Harris dan yang di stasiun Bandung Mbak Yo, kalau dikau suka kambing coba deh di sana kalo ke Bandung. Enaaaaaaak banget. Kalau dri Medan, sate padangnya juga enak banget sama sate kerangnya. Sampe sekarang aku belum ketemu sate kerang seenak sate kerang di Medan, yang dijual di jalanan pake sepeda aja enaknya banget banget
Aku catet semua rekomendasi kamu Ndang. Makasih eda. Ini jadi kebayang semuanya di kepala sekarang, waaa 😀
It all looks mouth-watering wonderful Lorraine.
And I can understand why you sometimes long for a dish like this!
Robert
Thank you Robert. And thank you for stopping by.