The sprawling archipelago of Indonesia takes in almost 274 million people, somewhere between 700 and 800 languages and 6,000 populated (and over 17,000 in total) islands, from the tourism magnet of Bali and the bustling city of Jakarta to unspoilt, remote areas like Siau Island. It's a vibrant, varied cultural tapestry, which has only been diversified by the influence of countries like India, China, the Netherlands, Spain and Portugal throughout its history. Its cuisine is equally as multi-faceted, which might go some way to explain why, relatively speaking, Indonesian cooking is still underrepresented around the world; though most people in the UK have a good grasp of the food of other Southeast Asian countries, it's still much trickier to track down authentic Indonesian restaurants and cookbooks. We might be familiar with some of its national dishes – namely nasi goreng – but our collective lack of understanding means we know much less about others and, in some cases, even wrongly link them to Indonesia's neighbours.
The reasoning for that is complex, though can be put down in part to the size and spread of the country – after all, the cuisine's nuances make it more difficult to package it up neatly. ‘I don’t think a lot of people realise quite how vast the country is – people ask if Indonesia is in Bali,’ laughs Rahel Stephanie, an Indonesian-born chef who runs supper club and pop-up Spoons. ‘Naturally, that diversity is reflected in the nation's cuisine. You jump over from Java to North Sumatra to South Sumatra, and the cuisine changes completely.’ Petty Pandean-Elliott, chef and the author of The Indonesian Table cookbook, says that there are multiple factors that have led to Indonesian cooking being overlooked: a smaller Indonesian diaspora in the UK and around the world, fewer street food vendors and restaurants in UK cities, weaker trade links between the UK and Indonesia and a lack of direct promotion around the country's tourism, to name a few. ‘People ask me what Indonesian food is, but it’s very complex to describe,’ she says. ‘In one sentence it’s a cuisine which is influenced by other world cuisines. It's true fusion, starting many centuries ago. It's so varied, but undiscovered.'
While that makes typifying it impossible, there are common threads that run between the various regions. Rice, for example, is a staple (some areas rely on sago, a palm stem starch, instead), along with coconut milk, while turmeric, galangal, ginger, lemongrass, lime leaf and garlic are common flavours. Dishes range from salty and sweet to hot, sour and spicy, depending on the area; Sumatra is home to some of the country's spiciest cooking and Indian influences, for example, while Javan cuisine is known for being sweeter, thanks often to palm sugar and sweet soya. Here, we've taken a look at some of Indonesia's most loved ingredients and dishes.