Pekalongan is popular for its beautiful batik cloths. Located on the northern coast of Central Java, the Regency also has a busy yet interesting beach area. However, it’s not just about location and cultural heritage as there are many Pekalongan traditional dishes. Pekalongan is also a great place to have a culinary adventure.
Pekalongan is one of the places that have a long history of acculturation in Java. As a result, you can find a lot of unique dishes in this regency. Here are some of the most delicious Pekalongan traditional dishes that you need to try.
Tauto Pekalongan
This dish is a combination of Javanese and Chinese cuisine. In a glance, it is a beef soup that uses a lot of tauco (a thick soybean sauce from Chinese cuisine). The soup is thick, almost look like a rawon. However, it is sweet and savory. It’s not only beef, sometimes tauto is made using innards, offals, and also rice vermicelli. This is a perfect complement for rice.
Nasi Megono
This is a really unique dish. It is almost like nasi campur but with Pekalongan’s twist. The side dish for the rice is processed young jackfruit with grated coconut sambal. It is a bit sweet and spicy. Sometimes, nasi megono is served with satay, petai bean, and fried fish. This is actually a simple dish and yet still really delicious.
Pindang Tetel
This is some sort of soto from Pekalongan, but it has its own twist. The dish uses a fruit call pucung to add a special flavor to the dish. It also uses kluwak so that it has its dark color. The meat is originally beef leftover taken from the bones. However, nowadays, the meat specially prepared with the best meat. This dish is very popular in Pekalongan and there are many pindang tetel sellers in the city.
Mie So
azmyra_kitchen
There is no other way to explain this dish but unique. It is basically a noodle dish but it has so many toppings and side dishes. Within a bowl of Mie So, you can find the noodle, mlinjo skin, sand cracker, crushed tempe cracker, meatball, leeks, and beef. You probably can already imagine that the taste can be a bit confusing due to the many ingredients put together there.
Garang Asem
This is a beef soup. Unlike some other soups which use lots of spices and becomes ‘thick’, this one is quite light. The soup doesn’t use coconut milk so that it is not quite strong. The use of tamarind also makes the dish rather fresh. However, kluwek make the soup dark and savory. This is great if you want a fresh beef dish.
Pekalongan, a city on the north coast of central Java is rich in many things, including culinary delights. There are several Pekalongan traditional dishes that you can try. The taste here is somewhat different compared to nearby regions.
