Gado Gado, the Low Down and a Recipe

This isn't a food blog! Though it probably looks like one. It's just that Gado Gado is such a fun and funny sounding word, and a food many people probably haven't heard of or eaten before, that I wanted to include a visual, and a little info.

Gado Gado is a mixed veg plate which often includes big chopped pieces of potatoes, cucumber, tomato, tofu, and cabbage, as well as bean sprouts, egg, carrots, green beans, and whatever else the warung might have hanging around.

Warung basically means restaurant in Bahasa Indonesian. Often you'll also be able to find gado gado at a little street stall.. or at night, places by the river, or on the main drag of Jogjakarta, a street called Marlioborough, you can find vendors who have laid down big blankets on the sidewalk and you can sit and order gado-gado and a jahe (sweet ginger tea), among many other things. For midnight snacks, hot watery chocolate milk and instant noodles, like Ramen, whether fried or in a soup, are also favorites.

All for less than a dollar, always.

I became very choosy about my gado gado, having sampled it from many places from around the city. The ibu on the corner near where I lived- she made it in a small cart which she ran with her daughter, open only for lunch, and the favorite among local becak drivers. Hers had a spicy sauce and always fresh crunchy veggies, though I was also partial to the warung outside my school whose gado gado included packed clumps of steamed rice called lontong, which had been wrapped and soaked overnight in banana leaves. YUM.

Much of the success or failure of the dish depended on the consistency and flavor of the sauce, a peanut sauce with a lot of ingredients in it. I loved to watch the ibus make the sauce, grinding and mixing all the ingredients up with mortar and pestle, pinching a bit of this, tossing in a splash of that... I'm salivating just thinking about it.

I am on a mission to find the best Gado Gado in San Francisco, but the mission hasn't begun yet. It's a mission I just decided upon right now. I think there are less than five restaurants even in the running, based on a quick and cursory search on Yelp for Indo food in the area. I will report back on my findings. In the meantime, here's a recipe so you can make gado-gado at home!

Sambal Kacang (Peanut Sauce)

Makes about 280 ml / 1/2 pint / 1-1/4 cups of sauce

This is the best-known, most popular sauce for satay. It is also used for gado-gado, and goes well with any grilled meat.

If you like your satay sauce chilli-hot, there are several quite passable powdered instant sauces on the market. For making it yourself, there are various so-called short cuts, most of them involving crunchy peanut butter. Avoid these; the method described below is as easy, cheaper and much nicer.

112 ml / 4 fl oz / 1/2 cup vegetable oil
225 g / 8 oz / 1-1/3 cups raw peanuts
2 cloves garlic, chopped
4 shallots, chopped
A thin slice of shrimp paste (optional)
Salt to taste
1/2 tsp chilli powder
1/2 tsp brown sugar
1 tbsp dark soy sauce
450 ml / 16 fl oz / 2 cups water
1 tbsp tamarind water or juice of a lemon

Stir-fry the peanuts for 4 minutes. Remove with a slotted spoon to drain in a colander, and leave to cool. Then pound or grind the nuts into a fine powder, using a blender, coffee grinder, or pestle and mortar. Discard the oil, except for 1 tablespoonful.

Crush the garlic, shallots and shrimp paste in a mortar with a little salt, and fry in the remaining oil for 1 minute. Add the chilli powder, sugar, soy sauce and water. Bring this to the boil, then add the ground peanuts. Simmer, stirring occasionally, until the sauce becomes thick; this should take about 8-10 minutes. Add the tamarind water or lemon juice and more salt if needed.

When cool, keep in a jar in the fridge. Reheat as required for use with satay or as a dip for lalab (crudites) or savoury snacks. The sauce will keep in the fridge for up to 1 week.

The vegetables:

112 g / 4 oz / l cup cabbage or spring greens, shredded
225 g / 8 oz / 2 cups French beans, cut into 1-cm / 1/2-inch lengths
4 medium carrots, peeled and sliced thinly
112 g / 4 oz /1 cup cauliflower florets
112 g / 4 oz / 1 cup beansprouts, washed

For the garnish:

Some lettuce leaves and watercress
2 hard-boiled eggs, quartered
1 medium-size potato, boiled in its skin, then peeled and sliced;
or 225 g / 8 oz of slices of lontong (optional)
1/2 cucumber, thinly sliced
1 tbsp crisp-fried onions
2 large krupuk, or a handful of fried emping, broken up into small pieces (optional)

Boil the vegetables separately in slightly salted water, for 3-4 minutes, except the beansprouts which only need 2 minutes. Drain each vegetable separately in a colander.

To serve, arrange the lettuce and watercress around the edge of a serving dish. Then pile the vegetables in the middle of the dish. Arrange the eggs, sliced potatoes or lontong, and sliced cucumber on top.

Heat the peanut sauce in a small saucepan until hot; add more water if it is too thick. Adjust the seasoning, and pour the sauce over the vegetables. Sprinkle the fried onions on top. Serve warm or cold. If you want to serve hot gado-gado, it can be reheated in a microwave oven. When reheating, however, do not include the lettuce and watercress, cucumber slices, fried onions, krupuk or emping. Add these garnishes immediately before serving.

Recipe from:
Indonesian Regional Cooking
By Sri Owen
St. Martin's Press, 1995
$18.95 Hardcover

You can use whatever veggies you want- this recipe doesn't call for as many as I'd use- I'd also toss in chopped cucumbers and tomatoes (raw) shredded carrots, etc. Bon Appetit! Or rather, Selamat Makan!!

Just Go For It!

What would it be like to be that kid- to play the character of Max- in the upcoming film, Where the Wild Things? He's probably only 10 years old...and already, his life is taking on such magnificent proportions. I hope child actor fame doesn't mess him up.

I have never looked forward to a movie so much!!

I was sitting on the couch reading the NY Times magazine cover story about Spike Jonze, the director behind Where the Wild Things are, the movie. More specifically I was reading about him and Maurice Sendak, and the "leaky valve" they share.

John B. Carls (a Hollywood producer) said that despite their 42 yr age difference, Sendak and Jonze are "both still very much connected to that child self. There's a valve in all of us that shuts itself off between childhood and adolescence and adulthood. With Maurice, there's a leaky valve. Spike is the same way. He sees the world as a big playground."

I'm not saying that all life should be fun, or that we are only here to play. But what strikes me about this notion of the world being a big playground is that natural, effortless way we can perceive possibility. There is a mantra we hear as children, that Anything is Possible! It gives us so much reason for hope and so much to look forward to. Somewhere, reality starts becoming more evident, starker, with expectations, obligations, and failures with real consequences. Such is life, right? But it was amazing to read about people like Jonze and Sendak, who seem to operate outside this realm. They have an idea, they believe deeply in it, and do whatever it takes to see it come to fruition.

I have ideas. Tens, hundreds of them. Books I want to write, stain glass panels I want to create, entire collections of quilts I want to design; dances I want to choreograph, photographs to compose. At most, I make lists of these ideas for future projects. I am almost certain they will never get made. I worry about not having the skills, the resources, the time. My doubts and worry choke my creativity. My motivation wanes as I don't believe I have what it takes. What caused this Inability to Do?

I don't know what would ensue or result or splash off the page or canvas or bound in leaps across a stage, if I didn't feel this sense of needing to weigh the costs against the benefits, doing some kind of risk analysis (is it worth the time? the money?) Furthermore, I fear letting others down, letting myself down, embarrassing myself with bad decisions, asking for collaborative help for something that doesn't go anywhere.

A knotted tangle of reasons starts to build a strong case for Why Not To....the playground is more a labyrinth of tunnels with varying degrees of darkness, where things MAY be possible...At Your Own Risk.

In reading this article, I thought about my own childhood, and adolescence. I recalled feelings of being on the top of the world, and then a going through a period where I realized I was probably more mediocre than excellent, but unable to let go of ideas of greatness, and the dreams of forging my own path, but somehow too scared to take necessary risks that that kind of achievement and ambition require.

I am reminded of the importance to be brave. I remind myself that exploration and adventure are exhilarating- and it's overcoming the fear and seeing yourself do those things you didn't think you could do- that the same thing that makes it scary makes it exhilarating. And that's why I love to travel. And swim in the ocean even when it's rough, and struggle to write things that press beyond the bounds of what feels comfortable in my psyche.

And I'm not talking about verrry frightening things with really huge consequences either- yesterday I tried making lasagna for the first time, and I was mildly petrified it would turn out horribly. I was afraid I would've wasted $24 on ingredients, and two hours of time, only to humiliate myself in front of my friends, who had already begun salivating at the prospect of a meaty, cheesy, veggie-laden lasagna. By the way, just an important quick fact about me- the only cooking I do is heating up cans of soup.

I chopped carrots, celery, onion, a red pepper. I learned a smooth and efficient French technique for chopping, easy and effortless! Blanched the veggies, then sauteed the sauce- ground beef, stewed tomatoes, tomato sauce and paste, stirring in the vegetables... cooking the lasagna noodles, layering them, with the sauce, sliced zucchini, ricotta cheese, mozzarella, it became clear. There was no way this wasn't going to be success. And even if it didn't, I was having a great time. Cooking is creating, and I think it gets the endorphins flowing. Thirty minutes after baking, everyone dug in. Mouths stuffed, sounds of sumptious satisfaction came spilling out between mouthfulls of lasagna.

It was DELICIOUS! Somehow, I feel reborn. Breaking up the dams that keep me from trying things I am curious about. Letting the creative juices flow. Letting go of the fear! Cooking lasagna!

I had major help from a friend, which was essential. If it eases the transition into your new Go-Getter ways, I recommend a kind, patient and supportive hand-holder. If no one is around, I recommend reaching out to that part of yourself that forgives yourself easily, and holding your own hand, and then smiling, while you take the plunge.

Carpe Diem!