The Betawi cuisine developed and evolved with influences from various cuisine traditions brought by waves of newcomers to the port-city on the north coast of Western Java. From the small port of Sunda Kalapa, it grew into an active hub of international trade, primarily involving Indonesian, Chinese, Indian and Arab traders. By early 16th century, drawn by the spice trade, the Portuguese were the first Europeans to arrive, followed by the Dutch later in the same century. During colonial VOC era, foreign communities were kept in enclaves under Dutch colonial rule, as the result the culinary concentration grew in each area: Tanah Abang for Arab cuisine, the Glodok and Kuningan area for Chinese food and Tugu in North Jakarta for Portuguese.[1]
Betawi cuisine is in fact really similar to Peranakan cuisine, as both are hybrid cuisine heavily influenced by Chinese and Malay, as well as Arab and European cuisine, to neighboring Sundanese and Javanese cuisine. Nasi uduk for example, which is a savory rice cooked in coconut milk and served with several side dishes, may be a local version of the Malay dish nasi lemak.[1] On the other hand, asinan, cured and brined pickled vegetables, and rujak juhi, vegetables served with shredded dried squid and peanut sauce, demonstrate Chinese influences. Because of this common heritage, some of Betawi cuisines, such as asinan and lontong cap go meh, are shared with Chinese Indonesian. Betawi cuisine also shares some recipes and dishes with neighboring Sundanese, such as both of them are familiar with sayur asem, gado-gado (lotek) and semurjengkol.[3] Another examples are nasi kebuli and soto betawi that uses minyak samin (ghee), which indicates Arab or Muslim Indian influences.[4][5]
A gastronomy expert suggests that some Betawi dishes can describes the past condition of Betawi people reside in Batavia. For example, kerak telor was created due to the low quality of local glutinous rice, with the egg and other toppings added to make it more tasty and satisfying. Soto tangkar, which today is a meat soup, was mostly made from the broth of goat rib-cage bones in the past because meat was expensive, or the common population of Batavia were too poor to afford some meat back then.[1][6]
Today, many authentic Betawi dishes are hard to find even in its native land. This is partly because as a cosmopolitan city, Jakarta also features dishes from many far-flung parts of Indonesia, as well as international cuisines — which is a myriad dishes for Betawi cuisine to compete with. Moreover, Betawi community were pushed out of the inner city to the marginal suburbs in and around Greater Jakarta in the wave of development.[1] Nevertheless, some Betawi restaurants are striving to preserve their heritage cuisine, such as rare gabus pucung,[3] and pecak gabus, snakehead fish (Channa striata) in pecak sauce.[7]
Betawi cuisine uses rice as staples, numbers of its dishes are revolved around rice, either steamed, cooked in coconut milk as nasi uduk (coconut rice), or compressed as ketupat sayur or lontong sayur rice cakes in vegetables soup. As a Muslim-majority community, Betawi people favour beef, mutton and goat meat, as they adhere to Islamic halal dietary-law which forbid pork consumption. Fishes are consumed too. Unusual for a coastal city, there are hardly any seafood dishes in Betawi cuisine. But there are plenty of freshwater fish dishes, using local varieties of snakehead fish and carp.
Popular Betawi dishes include soto betawi (beef offals in milky broth), sayur asem (sweet and sour vegetable soup), sop iga sapi (beef rib soup) and kerak telor (spiced coconut omelette). Most of Betawi dishes are cooked in deep-fried, stir-fried, barbecued or braised methods, and feature a delicate balance of sweet, sour and salty flavours.[2]
Asinan betawi, a salad made from a mix of pickled vegetables, yellow noodles and sweet, sour and spicy peanut sauce, topped with a handful of rice crackers.[2]
Bakcang, glutinous rice stuffed with meat and wrapped in bamboo leaf in triangular (more precisely, tetrahedral) form.
Laksa betawi, a Betawi laksa—the thick yellowish coconut milk based soup is a mixture of spices contains ground rebon or ebi (dried small shrimp), ketupat, vegetables, boiled egg, sprinkled with bawang goreng and often topped with emping cracker.
Nasi mandi, rice dish served with either roasted chicken, lamb or other meat.[9]
Nasi tim, steamed chicken rice served with chicken broth soup.
Nasi uduk, rice cooked in coconut milk, served with assortment of side dishes according to customer's choice; from eggs (hard boiled or omelette), tempeh, anchovy, to fried empal beef and fried chicken.
Roti gambang (lit. xylophone bread), rectangular shaped brown bread with sesame seeds, flavored with cinnamon and palm sugar. Usually served during Ramadan and other Betawi occasion.
Bubur cha cha, dessert or breakfast dish made of pearled sago, sweet potatoes, yams, bananas, coconut milk, pandan leaves, sugar and salt. The ingredients are cooked in coconut milk, and the dish can be served hot or cold.
Bubur sumsum, white congee made from rice flour and eaten with brown sugar sauce.
Cakwe, cruller or fried long bread, served with sweet, sour and spicy dipping sauce.
Dodol, a sticky confectionery made of coconut, glutinous rice and brown sugar
Emping, bite-size snack kripik cracker, made of Gnetum gnemon nuts (which are seeds). Emping crackers have a slightly bitter taste.
Geplak, sweets made from sugar and grated coconut.
Kembang goyang (lit. shaking flower), traditional snack made of rice flour which is mixed with eggs, sugar, a pinch of salt and coconut milk. The dough can be fried after heating the oil and the kembang goyang mold.
Kue ape, a soft-centered cake with a flimsy but crisp crust.
Kue cubit (lit. pinch cake), traditional pancake that uses flour, baking powder, sugar and milk as its primary ingredients. This cake is related to poffertjes.
Kue cucur, a pancake made of fried rice flour batter and coconut sugar.
Kue gemblong, a rice flour dough covered in sticky brown coconut sugar.
Kue ku, a small round or oval-shaped pastry with soft sticky glutinous rice flour skin wrapped around a sweet filling in the centre.
Kue pepe, a sticky, sweet layered cake made of glutinous rice flour.
Kue putu, traditional cylindrical-shaped and green-colored steamed cake.
Kue putu mayang, idiyappam-like rice noodles with a mixture of coconut milk and served with liquid palm sugar.
Kue rangi, coconut waffle served with thick brown coconut sugar.
Kue talam (lit. tray cake), traditional cake made of rice flour, coconut milk and sugar steamed in cake mold or cups.
Lumpia jakarta, lumpia that usually being deep fried. Unlike Semarang lumpia that uses rebung (bamboo shoots), Jakarta lumpia uses jicama and served with spicy peanut sauce as a dipping sauce.
Bir pletok, a non-alcoholic drink made from the bark of the secang tree.
Cendol, an iced sweet dessert that contains droplets of green rice flour jelly, coconut milk and palm sugar syrup.
Es cincau, grass jelly drink served with shaved ice, coconut milk and sugar.
Es selendang mayang, a sweet iced dessert made of kinca or liquid palm sugar, coconut milk, pandan leaf for aroma, ice and cakes made of glutinous rice flour or hunkwe (mung beans starch powder).
Sekoteng, a warm beverage made of ginger and milk, poured with peanut, cubed bread, and pacar cina (tapioca pearls).
