nasi goreng (1938, 1939)

[lanang lanang]

I am Indonesian, to be more specific I am Javanese. What Mr. ZImmer wrote is correct about nasi goreng: there's no standard way of making nasi goreng and what ingredients are used. However, there are certain exact similarities among those differences: you must grind all ingredients (spices), like cabai, salt, onion, garlic, before you star frying the rice, and the result of grinding here is "sambel ulek" (not sambel ulik")  :). And most people will use soy sauce (kecap) and egg. Most chinese restaurants in Indonesia consider nasi goreng as their main food to sell. Besides all the ingredients I mentioned earlier,  the chinese in Indonesia will put (optionally) shrimp, sausage, meat balls (we call it here bakso), squid, ham, lamb, even petai or pete (small look-like-nut vegetable and can cause smell in your mouth and urine after consuming it; this is loved by many lower middle people[and some upper middle, but they wouldn't admit it  :p  ]). hopefully this info will benefit our
 understanding about fried rice...

A. Lanang

Benjamin Zimmer <bgzimmer at RCI.RUTGERS.EDU> wrote:

OED3 has 1958 for "nasi goreng" (Indonesian/Malaysian fried rice). I'm
sure Barry can do better, but here are LA Times cites from 1938 and
1939...


Los Angeles Times, May 23, 1938, p. III4/5
FRIED RICE (Nasi Goreng)
As its Malay name implies, this consists basically of rice fried until it
is brown. There is no uniform recipe by which other ingredients are
determined; individual taste and chance as to ingredients available are
determining factors, with the result that the dish is never the same in
any two households. Usually small cubes of meat, fish or chicken are fried
with the rice. Sliced onions and cocoanut may be included. Spices used
include paprika and "sambal ulik" (very hot red pepper).

Los Angeles Times, Sep 4, 1939, p. II2/8
At the Dutch East Indies restaurant I found a 21-course feast called
Rijstaffel.
"What," I inquired of the beturbaned brown man who brought the 16th
offering, "is this tasty dish?"
"Nasi goreng."
"Thank you," I said, "and tell me, do you Javanese fear a Japanese invasion?"
"Nasi goreng."

Los Angeles Times, Sep 24, 1939, p. I11/2
A great many Javanese dishes would not be practical for home cooking,
because so many spices are needed and must be so skilfully comibned. But
one of the chef's special dishes is entirely practical and very, very
good. He calls it fried rice nasi Goreng, and he has given us the
following recipe.


--Ben Zimmer


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