Pisang Goreng
Bananas coated in a light batter and fried until golden crispy: soft and sweet inside, crunchy outside. The quintessential street snack, eaten piping hot in a paper cone.
Bananas coated in a light batter and fried until golden crispy: soft and sweet inside, crunchy outside. The quintessential street snack, eaten piping hot in a paper cone.
You come out of rehearsal, you're hungry, and there's always that little stall on the corner making hot pisang goreng. The banana melts inside, the crust crunches when you bite into it, and you eat them straight from the paper while walking. It's nothing fancy, but it's so Jakarta. Ask any Indonesian: we all grew up on this.
- •Cooking bananas (pisang kepok/raja) — a few (base)
- •Rice flour and wheat flour — in parts (batter)
- •Water — enough to bind (batter)
- •Pinch of salt — a pinch (balance)
- •Coconut or palm oil — for deep-frying (cooking)
Pisang Goreng
Bananas coated in a light batter and fried until golden crispy: soft and sweet inside, crunchy outside. The quintessential street snack, eaten piping hot in a paper cone.
Why this dish? Between two rehearsals at Istora Senayan or strolling through Jakarta, pisang goreng is the snack every Indonesian grabs from the corner kaki lima. Hot crispy banana sold on the fly: the street madeleine of a Jakarta-born child who became a star.
You come out of rehearsal, you're hungry, and there's always that little stall on the corner making hot pisang goreng. The banana melts inside, the crust crunches when you bite into it, and you eat them straight from the paper while walking. It's nothing fancy, but it's so Jakarta. Ask any Indonesian: we all grew up on this.
Ingredients (period version)
- Cooking bananas (pisang kepok/raja) — a few (base)
- Rice flour and wheat flour — in parts (batter)
- Water — enough to bind (batter)
- Pinch of salt — a pinch (balance)
- Coconut or palm oil — for deep-frying (cooking)
Ingredients
- Ripe plantains or firm bananas — 4 (base)
- Wheat flour — 100 g (batter)
- Rice flour — 40 g (crispness)
- Ice-cold water — about 150 ml (thin batter)
- Sugar — 1 tbsp (sweetness in batter)
- Salt — 1 pinch (balance)
- Frying oil — 1 bath (cooking)
Method
- Mix flours, sugar, salt and ice-cold water into a smooth, thin batter.
- Peel bananas and cut them in half lengthwise if large.
- Heat oil to 170-180 °C.
- Dip each banana into the batter, coating completely.
- Fry 3-4 min, turning, until evenly golden and crispy.
- Drain on paper towel and eat piping hot.
How it was made : The banana, native to Southeast Asia, is one of the oldest cultivated fruits in the archipelago. Frying in batter, popularized with the arrival of wheat flour, made pisang goreng the king of gorengan — those fritters sold at all hours by street vendors (kaki lima) on Indonesian sidewalks.
The contemporary twist : Today's street-food twist: a drizzle of melted chocolate and a sprinkle of grated cheese (pisang goreng coklat keju), the sweet-salty combination that Indonesian youth love on social media.
Agnez Mo · Charactorium
