Cycle 3 – Item 312

12 (Mon) November 2012

Indonesian Mee Goreng

1.0

by me

at home

-Oksu, Seongdong, Seoul, Republic of Korea-

solo

Project 30/30/30: 12 of 45 (see also 45/45/45)

Throughout this November, I am challenging myself to eat 30 dishes from 30 countries over the course of 30 consecutive days.

Indonesia is the 12th country.

Mee Goreng is an Indonesian dish.  Consists of noodles (e.g., yellow flour-based) + shredded vegetables (e.g., cabbage, carrots) + aromatics (e.g., garlic, scallions) + meats (e.g., chicken, shrimp) + seasonings (e.g., soy sauce, sambal), all stir-fried together.  Local adaptation of Chinese noodle stir-fries (e.g., chow mein, ho fun): “noodle (mee) + stir-fry (goreng).”  Ubiquitous in restaurants, homes, streets.

I thought about doing it all from scratch.   From the outset, the plan for Indonesia had been a by-me-at-home nasi goreng, from an actual recipe in an as-yet-untested Indonesian cookbook in my collection.  I was also keeping Costco’s ready-to-go nasi goreng in mind as an emergency backup.  But then, while cleaning out the fridge recently, I came across this instant spice packet for mee goreng, another product from Asian Home Gourmet.  With all the prep work involved, it still took a lot of effort.  Sadly, it wasn’t much good.

I vow to do goreng for real someday soon.

(See also GLOBAL FOOD GLOSSARY)

(See also RESTAURANTS IN KOREA)