Growing up in Indonesia’s North Sumatra, Theresia recalls being spoiled for choice when it came to eating bakso in Medan. “There was a stall every 500 metres and each stall’s bakso was different,” she says. Bakso, the popular Indonesian meatball, is a ubiquitous street food, with 101 ways to consume it. Eaten on its own, bakso can be a snack—think grilled bakso, which goes well with kecap manis or sambal, or deep-fried bakso encased in wonton wrappers. But pair it with crunchy fritters or dunk it in soup with noodles and it can also be a hearty meal. So if someone offers you ‘bakso’, it is best to clarify what version they mean.
Bakso is a quintessential Indonesian food, sold by street vendors and featured in trendy restaurants, but the name indicates that it has Chinese origins as bak means meat (usually pork) in Hokkien, much like Nyonya tau yu bak or bak kwa. “In Indonesia, bakso just means meatballs and it can be any meat, like beef, chicken, prawn or fish,” says Theresia, who owns Hello Indo in Adelaide.
The secret to good bakso
What makes a good bakso? Alicia Martino, owner of Senduk Garpu in Brisbane, believes it starts with good quality meat. “We are very lucky in Australia to have good quality [beef] meat. The leaner the beef, the better because if there is too much fat, it becomes too soft and has a strong smell.” The next step is to pulverise the meat until the protein breaks down and it becomes a smooth paste, add tapioca flour, garlic, onion and white pepper and finally mould it into a variety of shapes, from spheres to oblongs. When cooked, bakso becomes spongy, springy and bouncy like a fish ball.
Bakso with fritters by Batavia Corner.
Bakso noodle soup is a hearty dish and a classic comfort food. While it is very customisable, there are five distinct components. The hero ingredient is the bakso while the other components are the flavourful and savoury soup, typically made with beef bones, noodles (e.g. vermicelli, egg noddle), vegetables (e.g. bok choy, bean sprouts) and a chilli-based condiment (with varying levels of spiciness).
Chicken noodle bakso with fried wantons.
Martino’s tip for a good bakso noodle soup is to incorporate elements with texture, like tofu puffs, crunchy fritters or fried shallots. “For me, these are not optional ingredients because it pulls the dish together.”
At Batavia Corner, Theng has Bakso Malang Bihun soup to pay homage to her hometown of Malang in East Java, which is also considered one of the iconic bakso cities. Her version includes deep fried chicken and prawn balls and rice noodles in beef soup, but each island or region will have its own version. The bakso in Hello Indo comes with beef ribs soup and served with tofu and boiled egg.
When it comes to Indonesian dishes in Australia, nasi goreng, satay and gado-gado are often the mainstays. So why isn’t bakso as well-known as other South East Asian noodle dishes like laksa and pho? Some suggest it could be because many Australians' first experience of Indonesian food tends to be Bali-centric, because of the tourism connection. Given that Bali is famed for its babi guling (spit-roast pig) and ayam betutu (Balinese spiced chicken), visitors do not make a beeline for bakso. “Bakso in not always featured on a Balinese hotel buffet table,” Theng says. At least not the beef-based Java and Sumatra versions that are increasingly available in Australia.
Those who are looking to sample bakso dishes should note that Indonesians pride themselves on being innovative, so there are new ways to eat bakso always emerging. Recent fillings in bakso include a hardboiled egg, sliced bird’s eye chilli and cheese. There’s even a 'pregnant bakso', which is a small bakso encased in a bigger bakso. So, while they are culinary guides on how to best enjoy the food, creativity is also celebrated.
