Indonesia comprises 17,508 islands and is the largest archipelago state in the world. It is the fourth most populous country in the world after China, India, and the United States, and the most populous Muslim-majority country.

Starting from 1602, the Dutch slowly settled in present-day Indonesia until World War II, first as a colony, then directly under the Dutch government.

During the Second World War, with the Netherlands occupied by Germany, Japan invaded the colony, and in 1945 independence was proclaimed.

In the 1960s, there were armed clashes with Malaysia and severe economic difficulties.

In 1965, with the support of the United States, General Suharto came to power, and during his 32 years in power (semi-dictatorship), he encouraged foreign investments that led to the country’s economic growth, making it the third largest democracy in the world and the most solid in Southeast Asia. However, the general also enriched himself personally and favored family members, thanks to widespread corruption.

In 1998, after large popular protests and due to a financial crisis, he was forced to resign.

In May 2019, Joko Widodo was re-elected for the second time as President of Indonesia. He is the first head of state not to have personal or political ties with General Suharto.

The Indonesian cuisine is very diverse due to its morphological nature, with many regional cuisines based on indigenous cultures and foreign influences.

There are five main cooking methods in Indonesia: goreng (frying), bakar or panggang (grilling), tumis (stir-frying), rebus (boiling), and the most common, kukus (steaming).

Indonesian cuisine is considered, on average, one of the most spicy and hot in the world, alongside Ethiopian cuisine.

Meals in Indonesia generally include rice, sambal (chili-based condiments that can be freshly made or bought packaged in stores) and pickles with small amounts of meat, fish, or vegetables, often in curry form.

One eats with the right hand or with a spoon and fork (the fork pushes the food into the spoon, and the spoon is brought to the mouth for eating).


Nasi means rice.

The most famous dish of Yogyakarta, on the island of Java, is probably the Nasi Gudeg, a dish of white rice accompanied by a stew of Jackfruit (known in Indonesia as Gori) cooked in coconut milk with hard-boiled eggs.

Each region has its typical rice dish, consider Nasi Padang (steamed rice accompanied by small portions of meat, fish, and vegetables) from Sumatra, or Nasi Goren (fried rice), or Nasi Uduk (rice in coconut milk), and so on…

I chose the Nasi gudeg (also called gudeg Jogja) attracted by Jackfruit.

The gudeg is traditionally cooked slowly in a clay pot for hours until all the liquid and spices are absorbed by the jackfruit.

A young unripe Jackfruit should be used, but one can opt for the canned version, which is easier to find as in my case, I indeed purchased it on the ITS Shop website, as well as the coconut sugar used for the recipe (see photo below).