Southeast Asian food in KL: Indonesia

To know Indonesian food is to know that rice is perpetually eaten at any time of the day. It’s the staple crop in a country of over 250 million – it’s no surprise then that the Indonesians have thought of hundreds of sides and condiments to eat it with. Flavours skirt around spicy and sweet notes and don’t stray too far off Malay food.

Possibly the most familiar variation of Indonesian food is Padang cuisine from the Minangkabau region in West Sumatra. Nasi Padang is a great start to sample a range of rich, meat-centred Padang dishes – most of which are cooked into curries, stir-fried with dried chillies and offal, or braised with coconut milk.

Sundanese cuisine is cleaner – which is where lalab belongs, raw vegetables and ulam served with sambal. Balinese cuisine is less lenient about beef (because of the large Hindu population) and is more accepting of pork, most gloriously demonstrated in babi guling, spit-roasted pig stuffed with turmeric, lemongrass and ginger.