Nasi Rawon: A Javanese Grandma's 75-year Labour of Love
While we're asleep, Nyai Lasmi works hard to keep this recipe alive!
Pondok Wak Nah @ 16 Bedok S Rd, #01-11, Singapore 460016
Bedok South Nasi Jeganan Pondok Wak Nah
Mom was craving for some Nasi Jeganan!
And you can find them awesomely delicious at Block 16 Bedok South! ;)
Dont say I never share.
Nasi Rawon
Nasi Rawon is a popular Javanese dish usually sold at Malay stall.
It consists of Rice with the Rawon soup made from buah keluak which is the main spice. The buah keluak is grounded with shallots, garlic, ginger, candlenut, red chilli, turmeric and salt and sauteed with oil. The sauteed ingredients into boiled beef stock with diced beef slices. Lemongrass, galangal, bay leaves, kaffir lime leaves are added as seasonings.
The rice is usually eaten with sambal sotong, paru, begedil and fried chicken. Top 5 Places Serving Nasi Rawon:
The Halal Food Blog is at Pondok Wak Nah. 11 October 2022
The legendary Pondok Wak Nah has a storied history dating as far back as 1946! They started out at Lorong Engku Aman but I have been enjoying their food at their location in Bedok South for almost 3 decades! My parents used to buy from them when I was a kid and even as an adult, I make visits as often as I can to enjoy one of my favourite Nasi Jenganan (you've seen my posts and videos right!) I love it so much.
Their humble hawker stall is indeed famed for their Nasi Jenganan, Nasi Rawon and Lontong (always get extra Sambal Sotong trust me!). A few changes over the years but they are still as popular as ever. You will see queues forming as early as 6am when they roll up their shutters and on weekends, their dishes tend to sell out even faster than usual - a sign that this hawker has still got plenty of fans across the generations.
It has been an extra tough time these past few years, especially during the circuit breaker and
tightening of Safe Management Measures for Covid-19. Thankfully, NEA provided rental waivers and subsidies for stallholders in hawker centres and markets. We never did get to really celebrate the addition of Singapore's hawker culture to the UNESCO Representative List of the Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity but we have all been proudly celebrating and enjoying our hawkers all this while anyways and hopefully for a long long time to come! I hope Pondok Wak Nah and all our favourite hawkers continue their legacy for generations to come. Show our hawkers some love - tell me which are your favourite hawkers in the comments (including my fellow Pondok Wak Nah lovers!)
This Stall In Bedok Serves A Big Breakfast Malay-Style With Rawon, Tetelan And Chicken Wing
Pondok Wak Nah @ 16 Bedok S Rd, #01-11, Singapore 460016 since 1946
The BIG, BIG Breakfast we will always be looking forward to CHOMP down especially on weekends is NASI RAWON!
This one is from Pondok Wak Nah which is filled with a lot of tetelan and a must for me is to add on a Crispy Chicken Wing. Usually, before I order Nasi Rawon, I will always ask the makcik if their Rawon dish has any tetelan. I've realised in some shops, their tetelan is either given in too little amounts or none at all - which defeats the purpose of me having Nasi Rawon!
But at Pondok Wak Nah, the Makcik in full confidence declared their Rawon will always have tetelan unlike under shops and true enough, I am thrilled to see my plate full of tetelan and other yummy dishes! This dish is $5 + $1.60 for Chic Wing = $6.60
6 Makan Spotlight: Nasi Rawon
Growing up in a Malay home, there’s never a day that goes by without rice. Malay-style chicken rice, nasi lemak, nasi goreng – you name it, we have it. Rice is life. But there’s one rice dish that holds a special place in my heart: nasi rawon. Whether bought from a nasi padang hawker stall or cooked from scratch with my grandmother, I always look forward to indulging in this special dish.
Originating from Surabaya, rawon has been described as “one of the oldest historically identified dishes of ancient Java.” In Indonesia, it is served as a main course or as a soup with salty egg, small bean sprouts, shrimp crackers and sambal belacan (chilli paste). But in Singapore, it is served a little differently – steaming hot rice, paru goreng (fried beef lung), sambal sotong (squid in spicy relish), begedil (potato patty), serunding (spiced grated coconut), sambal belacan, and soaked in gravy seasoned with buah keluak, which gives its almost-black hue and earthy flavour.
For a taste of the good stuff, we’ve listed the best places to get your nasi rawon fix. As it’s usually sold during breakfast time, so we recommend hitting up these stalls before the clock strikes noon, or you’ll miss out:
What is Nasi Rawon?
Rawon is a popular Indonesian beef soup that originated from Surabaya, East Java. Traditionally, rawon is characterized by its black color, which comes from one of its main ingredients: black keluak nut. In this recipe, the use of keluak is what brings out Rawon’s dark color and nutty flavor!
Nowadays, you can find several variations of Nasi Rawon all over Indonesia. For example, Balinese Rawon omits the use of keluak, which makes its soup a brown color rather than black. But the most popular version is still the traditional East Java version (which is the version we’ll make in this recipe).
Nasi Rawon Recipe:
Nasi jenganan and nasi rawon soaked in gravy at Bedok Corner
In this Makan Kakis installment, GOLD 905 DJ Denise Tan tries out Satay Solo’s two specialty rice dishes - nasi jenganan and nasi rawon - which are not just delicious, but rich in Singapore history with recipes that date back to 1939
As a Southeast Asian staple, there are few things as comforting and versatile as rice. It’s delicious as biryani or paired with other dishes ala economical “point-point” rice and nasi padang, as well as in the fried varieties of nasi goreng or yangzhou chao fan.
I thought I was familiar with them all, until my Gold 905 Makan Kaki, batik fashion designer Oniatta Effendi, told me about two rice dishes I’d never heard of before. The avid home cook and self-confessed rice-mad “nasi girl” said when she wanted something a little more extraordinary, she indulges in her favourite nasi jenganan and nasi rawon. Nasi what? A casual poll among friends and colleagues confirmed that these Javanese dishes are, indeed, little-known. Feeling slightly vindicated for my ignorance, I hurried over to Bedok Corner for a little rice re-education.
On a Sunday morning, a steady queue of hungry customers greeted me at the stall called Satay Solo, named for the city on Indonesia’s island of Java, and run by the affable Madam Aini and her daughters Naseehah and Ariana. Madam Aini told me the satay recipe was passed down through her grandfather, who started the stall in 1939. Her grandparents sold satay and other dishes by the beach and she still remembers her childhood at this seaside stall when her parents took over the family business.
Ol’Java serves bowls of homely comfort from Surabaya & East Java
The rawon is served with salted egg and sambal belacan on rice. Photo: Gary Lim/HungryGoWhere
Buah keluak, the black jewel of Peranakan cooking, is used in rawon (S$8.50) — the traditional Javanese beef buah keluak soup famous in places such as Surabaya and Malang.
The best rawon — boiled for hours until the beef is soft and the soup rich with buah keluak’s slight bitterness — should be black but not too thick.
And Ol’Java delivers.
Warong Java, Bedok North: “A masterclass in Nasi Padang.”
There’s the Nasi Rawon (S$5.80), an amalgamation of rice ladled with rawon gravy. Painstakingly simmered in beef tendon and buah keluak (pangium edule fruit), the rawon here is pleasantly bittersweet. There is a smokiness which it imparts to the rice, and believe me, it is much, much better for it.
Despite the name, perhaps the real show of skill here lies in its accompanying ingredients. Fried paru (beef lung) is a first for me, dressed in an ominous black that screams all things Halloween. Springy in texture with a beautifully clean offal flavour, this dish is addictive on all fronts. As my editor astutely notes, “It’s like chips. I can munch on them all day.”
Vital to any deserving plate of nasi padang is a mean sambal goreng. Warong Java’s rendition impresses with an enticing flavour mix of sweet and spicy that I’m certain would bring all the boys to the yard. Or warong, if you may. It cuts cleanly through the richness of the rawon, yet not too separate, a testament to the carefully thought out flavours amidst a glorious mess of a plate.
Nasi Rawon Recipe (Traditional East Java Beef Soup)
Rawon is a strong rich tasting beef black soup originated from Surabaya, Indonesia. It uses black nuts (buah keluak) as the main spice which gives the strong nutty flavor and dark color to the soup.
In Singapore, Nasi Rawon is sometimes sold during breakfast at Malay stalls. The best place to try this dish is at Geylang Serai hawker food centers or Haig Road.
This authentic Nasi Rawon recipe is from Surabaya, Indonesia. It is served as a main course or soup in Indonesia together with salty egg, small beans sprout, shrimp crackers and sambal belacan. Nasi Rawon recipe from Surabaya:
Rawon
Rawon setan (devil's rawon), a variation served late at night
Rawon is an Indonesian beef soup. Originating from East Java, rawon utilizes the black keluak nut as the main seasoning, which gives a dark color and nutty flavor to the soup.
The soup is composed of a ground mixture of garlic, shallots, keluak, ginger, candlenut, turmeric, red chili, and salt, and is sautéed with oil. The sautéed mixture is then poured into boiled beef stock with diced beef slices. Lemongrass, galangal, bay leaves, kaffir lime leaves, and sugar are then added as seasonings. The special dark or black color of rawon comes from the keluak as the main spice. The soup is usually garnished with green onion and fried shallot and served with rice. Other toppings include bean sprouts, salted preserved egg, krupuk, and fried tolo beans (black-eyed pea).
Rawon is one of the oldest historically identified dishes of ancient Java. It was mentioned as rarawwan in an ancient Javanese Taji inscription (901 CE) from the era of the Mataram Kingdom. There are several variants of rawon, with the most popular being rawon from Surabaya. A version called rawon setan ("devil's rawon") is sold as a late-night meal at Indonesian food stalls open from midnight to dawn, supposedly the hours during which devils roam. In Balinese cuisine, rawon does not use any keluak—thus, the color is brown instead of black. Additionally, as the Balinese are mostly Hindu, they tend to favor pork over beef.
Peranakan Buah Keluak Inspired Food
Inky Buah Keluak Fried Rice
As Peranakans who aren’t super fond of buah keluak (criminal, we know), we are presently shovelling away spoonsful of rice coated in the black nut’s inky paste at an alarming speed. We pause only to stab at meltingly soft wagyu short ribs slathered with more of that unctuous mush. That’s saying something about chef Malcolm Lee’s cooking chops, deeply rooted in his Peranakan heritage, yet given a few modern flourishes where applicable.
It’s our second visit at the soft-spoken, intense, slightly adork-able 32-year-old’s one Michelin star restaurant Candlenut, which relocated from its humbler Dorsett Residences home to its larger designer-casual Dempsey digs a month ago. It’s now housed at COMO Dempsey, owned by the stylish Christina Ong behind Club 21 and the COMO hotel chain.
Buah Keluak Fried Rice ($28) is modestly sized for the price, a small heap of blackened rice almost engulfed by a lacy-edged sunny side up with a yolk that seeps luxuriously when broken. Each grain has a whiff of smoky wok’s breath and is densely coated with creamy buah keluak paste. The nut’s polarising characteristics — part bitter olives, part earthy mushrooms — are slightly offset by sambal so more umami notes sing harmoniously alongside its inherently robust flavours. So irresistible, we tapowed a packet for dinner later
The Peranakan Cuisine
Ayam buah keluak is arguably the most famous Peranakan dish
Food was often served at room temperature, because they ate with their hands, a Malay practice. "It's one of the first fusion cuisines," says Lloyd Matthew Tan, author of "Daily Nonya Dishes: Heritage Recipes for Everyday Meals." Being "Peranakan" means to be "locally born," a term used by the community to set themselves apart from the newer Chinese immigrants who arrived in Singapore and Malaysia in the 19th and early-20th centuries. Men were called "Babas" and women "Nonyas." There were also Peranakans not of Chinese ancestry, such as the Jawi Peranakans and Arab Peranakans, but the Chinese Peranakans were the largest group. By then, the Chinese Peranakan community had already established their own identity. Instead of speaking Mandarin, they spoke a mix of English, Malay and Hokkien. They were Anglicized and built good rapport with the colonial settlers. Many became bureaucrats or traders. Some became ultra-rich -- a stereotype that continues today, as seen in the movie "Crazy Rich Asians."
The Peranakans have been known to hold on to their family recipes tightly, especially in the past. They spent days preparing and perfecting their meals. And since Peranakan women who didn't work were in charge of the home, how a dish looked and was presented became a way to show their skills off. In Singapore, interest in Peranakan cuisine has been revived over the past two decades. You can find Peranakan food everywhere, from hawker centers to high-end restaurants. In 2016, it received international recognition when Candlenut became the first Peranakan restaurant to win a Michelin star.
