Indonesian Food Quiz

Day-old rice stir-fried with shallots, garlic, chili, shrimp paste, and sweet soy sauce, topped with a fried egg and crackers.

Nasi goreng is Indonesia's de facto national dish. In CNN's 2011 reader poll of the world's most delicious foods it placed second — beaten only by another Indonesian dish, rendang.

Beef simmered for hours in coconut milk with galangal, lemongrass, turmeric leaf, and chili until the liquid is gone and the meat is dark and caramelized.

Rendang began as a preservation method of the Minangkabau people of West Sumatra. Cooked until completely dry, it keeps for weeks without refrigeration in the tropical heat — ideal for long journeys.

Small skewers of marinated chicken grilled over charcoal and smothered in peanut sauce with sweet soy and shallots.

Satay is believed to have originated in Java in the 19th century as a local adaptation of kebabs brought by Arab and Indian traders. Vendors from the island of Madura are so associated with it that 'sate Madura' is a genre of its own.

Blanched vegetables, tofu, tempeh, boiled egg, and rice cakes dressed in a thick peanut sauce and topped with crackers.

'Gado-gado' simply means 'mix-mix' in the Betawi dialect of Jakarta. Street vendors traditionally grind the peanut sauce to order in a stone mortar, adjusting chili to each customer.

A fragrant yellow chicken soup colored with turmeric, served with glass noodles, shredded chicken, boiled egg, and fried shallots.

Nearly every city has its own soto. Soto Betawi in Jakarta is enriched with coconut milk, while Soto Lamongan in East Java is finished with koya — a powder of crushed prawn crackers and fried garlic.

Bouncy beef meatballs served in clear broth with noodles, bok choy, fried shallots, and a spoon of sambal.

Barack Obama, who lived in Jakarta as a boy, opened a 2010 speech there with 'Bakso! Sate!' to roars from the crowd. The meatballs get their springy texture from tapioca starch and vigorous pounding.

Egg noodles stir-fried with sweet soy sauce, garlic, chili, egg, and vegetables, often finished with fried shallots.

The instant version, Indomie Mi Goreng, has a cult following worldwide. Indonesia is the second-largest consumer of instant noodles on Earth, behind only China.

Slices of fermented soybean cake marinated in garlic and coriander, then fried until the edges crisp.

Tempeh is the only major soy food that did not originate in China or Japan. It was invented in Java, and its earliest written mention is in the Serat Centhini, a Javanese manuscript from 1815.

Chicken first simmered in spiced coconut water with galangal, turmeric, and coriander, then deep-fried without batter until golden.

The famous Kalasan style from near Yogyakarta poaches the chicken in coconut water and palm sugar before frying, and serves it with 'kremes' — crunchy fried crumbs made from the leftover braising liquid.

Young unripe jackfruit stewed for hours in coconut milk and palm sugar until sweet, dark, and meltingly soft.

Yogyakarta is nicknamed 'Kota Gudeg' — Gudeg City. The stew's deep brown color comes from teak leaves added to the pot, and it is traditionally cooked overnight.

A jet-black beef soup flavored and colored by keluak nuts, served with bean sprouts, salted egg, and rice.

Keluak seeds are poisonous raw — they contain hydrogen cyanide. They must be boiled and then buried in ash and earth for weeks to ferment before they are safe to eat.

Springy fish and tapioca cakes, boiled then fried, served in a dark, sweet-sour-spicy vinegar sauce called cuko.

Pempek is the signature dish of Palembang in South Sumatra. The best-known shape, 'kapal selam' (submarine), is a large dumpling with a whole egg sealed inside.

Rice steamed in coconut milk with pandan, lemongrass, and bay leaf, served with fried shallots, egg, tempeh, and sambal.

Nasi uduk is a Betawi (native Jakartan) breakfast staple and a close cousin of Malaysia's nasi lemak. Vendors set up before dawn and often sell out by mid-morning.

A thick, honeycombed pancake cooked in a heavy pan, slathered with butter and folded over chocolate sprinkles, cheese, and crushed peanuts.

In parts of Indonesia it is called 'terang bulan' — 'bright moon' — for its round golden shape. Its savory sibling, martabak telur, descends from the Indian mutabbaq brought by Tamil Muslim traders.

Green pandan rice-flour jellies in iced coconut milk, sweetened with dark palm sugar syrup.

The green jellies are made by pressing pandan-flavored batter through a sieve into ice water. In Central Java the drink is called 'dawet,' and both Indonesia and Malaysia claim it as their own.

Pandan-green glutinous rice balls filled with palm sugar, boiled and rolled in grated coconut.

Klepon must be eaten whole. The palm sugar inside melts during boiling, so biting one in half sends a burst of hot liquid sugar everywhere.

Whole fish rubbed with spice paste, grilled over coconut husks or charcoal, and basted with sweet soy sauce, served with sambal.

With more than 17,000 islands, Indonesia grills fish everywhere, but Jimbaran Bay in Bali is the most famous spot — dozens of open-air restaurants grill the day's catch right on the beach at sunset.

Chicken simmered in a pale, mild coconut-milk curry with galangal, lemongrass, coriander, and candlenut.

Opor ayam is the centerpiece of Lebaran, the Indonesian celebration of Eid al-Fitr. It is served with ketupat — rice cakes steamed inside woven pouches of young coconut leaves.

A whole pig rubbed with turmeric and stuffed with Balinese spice paste, spit-roasted until the skin is glassy and crackling.

Babi guling is distinctly Balinese: Bali is Hindu-majority in a mostly Muslim country, making it the one major region where pork is central to the cuisine. The stuffing uses 'base genep,' the island's all-purpose spice paste.

Finely ground coffee and sugar steeped directly in hot water, unfiltered, and sipped once the grounds have settled.

Indonesia is the world's fourth-largest coffee producer. The word 'java' became slang for coffee because of the Dutch colonial plantations on the island of Java in the 18th century.

Rice porridge topped with shredded chicken, fried shallots, crackers, celery leaves, and a drizzle of soy sauce.

Bubur ayam descends from Chinese congee. Indonesians are famously split into two camps — 'diaduk' (stirred together) and 'tidak diaduk' (eaten in layers) — and the debate is a long-running national joke.