Bakso

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From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Bakso

Bakso served with bihun (rice vermicelli) and fried wontons

Course Main
 Place of origin Indonesia, derived from the Chinese meatball

Region or state Nationwide

Serving Hot
temperature

Main ingredients Ground beef, tapioca, noodle, rice vermicelli,

beef broth, kailan, celery, salted vegetables, fried

shallots

Variations Bakwan Malang, phở bò viên (Vietnamese noodle

soup with meatballs), Chinese beef balls

Food energy
1 medium ball of bakso contains 21 mg
(per serving)
cholesterol, 134 mg sodium, and 57 calories.
[1]
kcal

 Media: Bakso

Bakso or baso is an Indonesian meatball,[2] or a meat paste made from beef surimi.[3] Its
texture is similar to the Chinese beef ball, fish ball, or pork ball. The word bakso may
refer to a single meatball or the complete dish of meatball soup. Mie bakso refers to
bakso served with yellow noodles and rice vermicelli, while bakso kuah refers to bakso
soup served without noodles.
Bakso can be found all across Indonesia, from street vendors to high-class restaurants.
Along with soto, satay, and siomay, bakso is one of the most popular street foods in
Indonesia.[4] Today, various types of ready-to-cook bakso are also available as frozen
foods sold in supermarkets in Indonesia. It is usually eaten with noodles.
Ingredients, contents, and serving[edit]
 Bakso with noodle and bean sprouts.
Bakso is commonly made from finely ground beef with a small quantity of tapioca
flour and salt, however, bakso can also be made from other ingredients, such as
chicken, pork, fish, or shrimp.[4] Unlike other meatball recipes, bakso has a consistent
firm, dense, homogeneous texture due to the polymerization of myosin in the beef
surimi.
As most Indonesians are Muslims and observe halal dietary laws, bakso usually is
made from beef, chicken, or a mixture of beef with chicken.[3] In non-Muslim majority
areas, such as in the Chinatowns of major cities and on the Hindu-majority island
of Bali, pork bakso might be found.[5]
Traditionally the beef surimi paste or dough is made into balls by hand and boiled in hot
water. After the meat is done, the meatballs are dried and served or refrigerated for later
use. Pre-cooked bakso are usually displayed in the windows of street vendor carts.
Bakso is usually served in a bowl of beef broth, with yellow noodles, bihun (rice
vermicelli), salted vegetables, tofu, egg (wrapped within bakso), Chinese broccoli, bean
sprout, siomay or steamed meat dumpling, and crisp wonton, sprinkled with
fried shallots and celery. Slices of bakso are often used and mixed as complements
in mie goreng, nasi goreng, or cap cai recipes.
Origin[edit]

Bakso Malang.
The name bakso originated from bak-so (肉酥, Pe̍ h-ōe-jī: bah-so͘),
the Hokkien pronunciation for "fluffy meat" or "minced meat".[6] This suggests that bakso
has Indonesian Chinese cuisine origin.[7] Chinese influences is apparent in Indonesian
food, such as bakmi, mie ayam, pangsit, mie goreng, kwetiau goreng, bakso,
and lumpia.[8] Indeed, bakso texture is quite similar to Chinese beef balls, which are
quite fluffy and have a homogenous texture. Although bakso has a Chinese Hokkien
origin name, culinary experts suggest that it is likely that bakso was a mixture of culinary
influences back in the colonial Dutch East Indies. Also in Indonesian, the term bola
daging often refers to the Western or European style of meatballs, which is different in
texture and elasticity compared to bakso. For example, Swedish meatballs are
translated as bola daging Swedia in Indonesian. The soup and the noodles probably
originated in China, but the meatball may have come from the Dutch, who colonized
Indonesia in the 19th century.[3]

Bakso cuanki from Bandung.

Despite its possible Chinese origin, bakso seems to have undergone localization,
especially into Chinese Indonesian and Javanese cuisine. Today, most of
the bakso vendors are native Javanese from Wonogiri (a town near Solo) and Malang.
[9]
Bakso Solo and Bakso Malang are the most popular variants; the name comes from
the city it comes from, Solo in Central Java and Malang in East Java. Bakso Solo is
usually served with yellow noodles and rice vermicelli in beef broth, while Bakso
Malang usually is enriched with tofu and crispy fried wonton. In Malang, bakso
bakar (roasted bakso) is also popular.
In Bandung, West Java, there is a type of bakso called bakso cuanki, which is similar to
bakso Malang. It can contain various types of bakso ingredients; such as bakso aci,
siomay dumpling, boiled wonton, fried wonton, and fried bakso, served with scallion and
broth soup.[10]
Variations[edit]
 Bakso bakar, grilled and skewered bakso.

Bakso beranak, small baksos inside a bigger bakso.

Indonesia has developed numerous bakso variants, usually differing in shape, size,
texture, ingredients, and fillings.[11]

 Bakso aci: meatball with more tapioca content

 Bakso ayam: chicken bakso
 Bakso babi: pork meatball
 Bakso bakar: grilled and skewered bakso, prepared to satay
 Bakso beranak: big meatball filled with small meatballs
 Bakso bola tenis tennis ball-sized bakso, either filled with hard-boiled egg
as bakso telur or filled with tetelan which includes pieces of spare beef meat
and fat or urat (tendon).
 Bakso cuanki: a famous bakso in Bandung, West Java
 Bakso gepeng: flat beef bakso, usually has a finer and more homogenous
texture
 Bakso goreng: fried bakso with a rather hard texture, usually consumed
solely as a snack or mixed in one bowl as part of bakso Malang or bakso
cuanki
 Bakso ikan: fish bakso (fish ball). In Karimunjawa, there is a bakso dish
made of caesionidae meat and called bakso ikan ekor kuning.[12] In West
Lampung Regency, bakso ikan blue marlin made of marlin, is a common
bakso dish.[13] Bakso kakap or snapper bakso dish is scattered in the city
 of Semarang.[14][15] In Malingping District of Lebak Regency, bakso ikan is made
of skipjack tuna or mackerel.[16]
 Bakso jamur, mushroom bakso
 Bakso keju: a modern variant of bakso, filled with
either cheddar or mozzarella cheese
 Bakso kotak: cube-shaped bakso
 Bakso krikil: small meatballs like gravel have become a bakso dish
in Magelang.[17]
 Bakso lohoa: made from minced chicken meat and prawn mixed
with soun noodles, mushrooms, and vegetable pieces.[18]
 Bakso Malang: bakso dish from the city of Malang in East Java; complete
with noodles, tofu, siomay, and fried wontons
 Bakso mercon: lit. "firecracker bakso", refer to an extra hot and spicy bakso
filled with sambal made of chilli pepper and birds eye chili pepper
 Bakso nyuknyang: bakso dish from Makassar, South Sulawesi. It is eaten
with burasa and squeezed of calamansi.[19] The halal version using beef and
non-halal one using pork.
 Bakso rusa: venison meatball. A delicacy of Merauke Regency.[20]
 Bakso selimut: egg-wrapped bakso.[21]
 Bakso tahu: bakso meat dough filled into tofu
 Bakso taichan: bakso with sour and super spicy soup.[22]
 Bakso telur: a tennis ball-sized bakso with hard-boiled chicken egg wrapped
inside
 Bakso tumpeng: cone-shaped bakso
 Bakso udang: shrimp bakso with a slightly pink color
 Bakso urat: bakso filled with tendons and coarse meat
Condiments[edit]

Bakso garnished with bawang goreng fried shallot.

Bakso stalls usually served bottles of sauces, condiments, additions, and garnishing.
Clients may add these condiments according to their personal preferences. The
following condiments and accompaniments are often added to a bowl of bakso:

 Bawang goreng crisp fried shallot sprinkled upon bakso

 Kecap manis or sweet soy sauce, to add a mild sweetness
 Sambal chili paste to add spiciness
 Bottled hot sauce
 Ketchup tomato sauce
  Vinegar to add sourness
 Tongcay preserved salted vegetables
Popularity[edit]

Travelling bakso vendor on bike.

Bakso is one of the most popular street foods in Indonesian cities and villages alike.
[4]
Travelling street vendors, either by carts or bikes are often frequenting residential
areas in Indonesia, while bakso warung and humble tent food stalls are often sprung on
street sides in Indonesian cities. Bakso came to international attention when United
States President Barack Obama remembered it as one of his favourite foods from his
childhood in Indonesia, and mentioned it in his speech.[2][3] It was also part of a task
in The Amazing Race Asia 1, The Amazing Race Australia 1 and The Amazing Race
28 where teams had to either sell and/or eat bakso.
The traveling meatball vendor is often associated with intelligence undercover activity.
On social media, there are also many memes depicting meatball vendors
communicating through walkie-talkies. According to Ridlwan Habib, an intelligence
observer, the profession of mobile food traders such as meatball workers is often used
by members of the Detective or Densus 88 to spy on terrorist activities or other
suspicious criminal activities.[23][24]
Similar dishes[edit]
Similar meatball dishes can be found in other Southeast Asian cuisines, such as those
in Thailand, Vietnam, Malaysia, and Singapore, as well as Chinese-style meatballs.
The dish is also similar to Vietnamese noodle soup with meatballs, phở bò viên.[25]
[26]
In Vietnam, Phở means noodle soup while Bò Viên is meatballs.[27] Phở Bò Viên is one
of the versions of Pho dishes in Vietnam. It has been considered as the national dish
of Vietnam.[28]
In Malaysia and Singapore, there is a similar meatball soup called bebola daging, which
is a Malay translation of "meatball". Many recipes of bebola daging in Malaysia and
Singapore are derived from either Western (Indian or European) or Eastern (Chinese)
meatballs, such as bebola daging Masala which is derived from Indian cuisine influence.
[29]

In the Philippines, meatballs are called almondigas or bola-bola, and are usually served
in a misua noodle soup with toasted garlic, squash, and pork cracklings. Bola-bolas are
also stewed or pan-fried until golden brown.
Health issue[edit]

Bunch of pre-cooked bakso offered in supermarket refrigerator.

In the past, borax and formalin is often added to beef surimi mixture to preserve the
produced bakso, and also to make bakso more chewy (from borax induced
myosin cross-linking) with less usage of meat.[30] As a result, bakso is often listed by the
Indonesian Food and Drug Administration as an unhealthy foodstuff. The country's
Directorate of Consumer Protection warns of the risk of liver cancer caused by high
consumption over 5–10 years.[31] The government issued Sodium tripolyphosphate as
borax substitute. Today's bakso, frozen bakso being sold at supermarkets and
traditional markets in Indonesia are borax free.