7 Most Recommended Indonesian Low-Priced Foods in Jakarta

Hello, food lovers! This is the first time we made an article about food. Jakarta is the capital city of Indonesia. Indeed, Jakarta is full of peoples. So, there are many kinds of foods. In this chance, we wanna share about 7 most recommended Indonesian low-priced foods in Jakarta according to our site (fnflife). If you go to Indonesia someday and want to be more sufficient, you may consider these foods to be your meal. Check it out, friends!

7. Gorengan

Gorengan means fried food. This food is made by frying it. There are many kinds of gorengan: tempe goreng (means fried tempe), tahu goreng (means fried tofu), bakwan goreng (means fried bakwan), cireng, lisol, pisang goreng (means fried banana), singkong goreng (means fried cassava), etc. A gorengan seller may not sell gorengans completely. This food is very popular for students in Jakarta. You can find gorengan near schools, offices, or traditional markets. However, there are some issues about this food, such as the use of plastic in the dough and repeatedly used oil.

Price: about Rp300-700,00/piece (about 1$ for 13-30 pieces)


6. Rujak and Buah Dingin

Rujak and buah dingin are foods which contain fruits, such as pineapple, melon, watermelon, sweet potato, cucumber, water apple, mango, kedondong, and papaya, which are mixed. Rujak is divided into 2 kinds, rujak serut (rujak) and rujak bebek. Rujak serut serves sliced fruits (notice that there are some fruits that can't be sliced, such as water apple and cucumber), while rujak bebek serves mashed fruits. The significant difference between rujak and buah dingin is that buah dingin mostly doesn't use nuts and shrimp paste as one of the sauce ingredients. Rujak and buah dingin is suitable to eat in the afternoon. The use of rotten matters and dye for shrimp paste is the only issue of rujak.

Price: about Rp3000-7000,00/portion (about 0.3-0.8$ a portion)


5. Chicken Porridge

Chicken porridge ("bubur ayam" in Indonesian) is usually made of porridge, fried onion, nuts, sliced chicken, crackers, chips, curry sauce, soysauce. It is very cheap and highly liked by the poor. The issue of this food is the use of dye for crackers.

Price: about Rp2000-5000,00/portion (about 0.2-0.6$ a portion)


4. Bakso

Bakso is a food which contains meatballs as its primary ingredient. Other ingredients include mihun, noodles, and vegetables. Meatballs used in bakso are made from beef but there is an issue saying that the sellers use rat flesh as the component to make the meatballs. Then, another issue says formalin and borax are used to preserve and make the meatballs more elastic. However, that is an old issue.

Price: about Rp4000-7000,00/portion (about 0.4-0.8$ a portion)


3. Ketoprak

Ketoprak is one of the most popular Jakarta traditional foods. Ketoprak is made of nuts, salt, garlic, brown sugar, soysauce, and chillies as the sauce, as well as rice cake/ketupat, angel hair, tofu, cucumber, fried onion, bean sprouts, and crackers as the content. You can find ketoprak sellers on many streets, especially in residential population area. The issues of this food are the use of formalin for tofu, the use of dye for crackers. Besides those, ketoprak is a healthy food based on its ingredients.

Price: about Rp6000-8000,00/portion (about 1$ a portion)


2. Chicken Noodles

Chicken noodles, a.k.a bakmi ayam (Indonesian), is one of the most popular foods in Jakarta. There are various prices for this food depending on the place where the seller sells. It contains noodles, chicken, vegetables, etc., based on the seller. The issue of this food the exceeding use of MSG. You can ask the seller not to give MSG too much or even not at all.

Price: about Rp6000-13000,00/portion (about 0.7-1.4$ a portion)


1. Mie Tek-Tek

Mie tek-tek is a kind of food which encompasses fried rice, fried mihun, fried noodles, fried kwetiauw, and telor sayur. This food is liked by most people because it is so delicious and can make you full up. Mie tek-tek is mostly sold at night. For Jakarta grassroots, mie tek-tek is preferred to be their dinner. The issues of this food are the use of dye for crackers and the use of MSG which is exceeding. But, don't be afraid, you can ask the seller not to give MSG too much or even not at all.

Price: about Rp7000-9000,00/portion (about 0.8-1$ a portion)


However, actually, there are still many Indonesian low-priced foods that are sold in Jakarta, such as nasi ulam, siomay, batagor, gado-gado, soto ayam and pempek. The foods we mentioned above are the foods which are widely distributed in Jakarta and we think the most favorite for all Jakarta people. Notice that the foods we recommend are sold by using carts on the side of streets, not in houses.

Pictures from Google