Hello, friends especially foodies!
Talking about gado-gado, or you could say it Indonesian Veggie Salad, cannot be separated from our daily life as Indonesians. Because we could find it everywhere, I mean it could be found on the street as it was one of our authentic hawker’s food (yup they sold it in a seliing wagon), but you could also find it in the high class restaurant here, or even food courts, and it could be found in any levels of food courts.
In my country there were some on the street food court which were usually totally modest with no air conditioners, and there were some that were really cool and usually located in the shopping center. Well, actually the place like in marketing function would increase the degree of the food sold, I mean the food which placed well in the nice mall food court could raise their price and also increase their customers. And brand, is always important factor for customers to buy. So i think place and brand would be dominant things for customers to buy.
Eating gado-gado or Indonesian Veggie Salad also could be a new way of healthy eating because it contained vegetables which you could enjoy with the peanut paste, and they had no meat inside. Anyway without anymore prologue I would like to explain about the gado-gado I found in the modest food court on the street versus the one I found in the brand new food court. Let’s check it out!
The food stall which was located in the modest food court was really modest. The owner was controlling her waitress who helped her by making the peanut paste, while she cut the veggie for the gado-gado.
While, the food court which was located in the shopping center had clean neat and stylish stall. Once I even confused of what food should I chose. Here were some of the choices..
And then my eye looked the specialist gado-gado seller stall, named Gado-gado Boplo. It had many branches in my city and it was popular of the gado-gado. They made a different that their peanut paste made from cashew, not from regular peanut it usually made from. As a well known brand, they never don’t have any customers in all of their branches.
The menu from the modest food stall were just gado-gado, ketoprak and ketupat sayur. While gado-gado is a veggie salad, ketoprak also had peanut paste but it had more garlic in the composition, and in this ketoprak only had beansprouts and cucumber as the veggie, it only had rice cake, rice vermicelli, and fried tofu. While ketupat sayur, is also my city authentic dish, contained rice cake with some veggie in coconut soup.
While the menu of the shopping center food stall were vary. They had gado-gado, gado-gado lontong (with rice cake), ketoprak, ketoprak lontong, rujak juhi (squid rojak), tahu telor (egg tofu). They also had rames rice (mixed rice) with egg or beef or chicken or complete. They sold Yogyakartanese gudeg like egg, chicken and complete one. And no worries if you want it to be put in packages, they also offered rice with fried chicken, gado-gado in small portion and white chip, while the other package, rice, empal (traditionally cooked beef), gado-gado in small portion and white chip.
Beside the main dishes above, they also sold side dishes like fried chicken or opor or rendang, empal beef or rendang, gudeg or opor or rendang egg, rice, rice cake, shrimp chip, belinjo chip, and white chip. They also sold gado-gado paste and rojak paste too. Plus not many kind of drink they had.
The owner of the food stall also helped the waitress, she prepared the veggies, while the waitress made the peanut paste. So whether the modest and this famous brand one, the owner also took part in preparing the food for their customers.
For the dining room in the modest food stall, they had a modest one with long large table with long chairs and also plastic chairs. It had no air conditioners and so modest and just the way it is. Actually there were some other choices of hawker's food like noodle soto, mixed ice and others sold by the other stalls there too.
While the dining room in the shopping center was great. No wonder they made it brand new. It had just finished made up so it was great with cool air conditioners. The chairs were many and tables were many too. The chairs were soft. It had batik floor and the interior was nice, like in old style of Jakarta style, my city. It could be seen from the turquoise wooden mould on their pillars.
The gado-gado from the modest stall on the street was in. This is it
Gado-gado had fresh vegetables like boiled spinach, beansprouts, corn, potato, chayote and cabbage. It also had fried tofu, fresh lettuce and fresh cucumber. Plus fried chips. The vegetables served with peanut paste which had savory, sweet and sour with a bit spicy flavour. It had lime pressed in its’ peanut paste. Tasty in peanut paste this was the authentic gado-gado from the street. One think that dominant somehow it was a bit too sour for me.
Anyway i ordered fresh sweet mixed ice too in the other food stall. Yummy!
While next the gado-gado from the food court was also had fresh veggie like lettuce and cucumber, while the boiled vegetables it had were boiled potato, cabbage, long bean, and spinach. It also had fried tofu, boiled egg, rice cake, belinjo chips and also shrimp chips.
The taste of their cashew paste was different from the peanut paste, it had somehow less fat than the original peanut paste, it had sweet, savory and a bit spicy flavour.
The price of the gado-gado without rice cake from the street was just 20K IDR or around 1.3 USD while the gado-gado with rice cake from the good food court spent me 45K IDR or around 2.91 USD.
In the modest place i paid cash with no any payment receipt, while in the shopping center food court i paid with qris, a cashless payment.
After finished with the taste of all let the battle between the two gado-gado!
The things that I would like to battle and compare between them were.. First the look, the look of the gado-gado from the good food court was much better than the one that was on the street. Look even they used different kind of plate.
Second, the price, gado-gado from the street only half of the gado-gado from the food court.
The place, of course, the food court in the shopping center is much better than the one on the street, right?
the taste and flavour be the king, I preferred less fat than full peanut paste cause it would be healthier. So I chose the second gado-gado. How do you think?
Now tell me which one would you like to try?
Business Information
Gado-gado Macan
Gang Macan Canteen
7th, B5 Gang Macan Street
West Jakarta
Open daily 7 am – 3 pm
Gado-gado Boplo
Food Court
2nd floor Gajah Mada Plaza
19-26th, Gajah Mada street
Central Jakarta
Open daily 10 am – 10 pm
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The photos were taken with Samsung A52 5G.
A bit about the author
She works in a bank but she interests in CRAFT (CRaft, Art, Food and Travel). To pursue her art passion she does the cross stitch, embroidery, handsewing, crafts, crochet and also draws. Find hers in https://www.de-creartique.redbubble.com and https://decreartique.threadless.com/designs. Also find her cute cats NFTs here https://opensea.io/collection/pixelcryptocat .