Hello guys, how are you today? I hope we are having a good day. Today is Tuesday, so it is TACO TUESDAYS time!!!
What Is Mendoan?
Mendoan is a traditional food comes from Central Java. Most people believe Mendoan comes from Banyumas, although some other region claim it comes from them or they have a better version of mendoan.
Mendoan itself comes from a javanese language which means HALF COOKED, or medium cook/done if we refer to steak doneness. It means we cook it and take it out before it is properly done or fully fried. The cook itself is a deep fried one.
Ok I have talked about where it comes and how it cook... So What is this Mendoan for real? Well they are deep fried SOY based food, mostly they are TEMPEH (soy cake) and some people use TOFU. In general if you talk about MENDOAN, most Indonesian will automatically refer it to TEMPEH.
In the past we separate these two food, TEMPE GORENG (Fried Tempeh, the well-done / fully cooked one) and MENDOAN (the half cooked one). However people nowadays tend to not differ them, young generation tend to say The Dried Mendoan (fully cooked) and the Wet Mendoan (half cooked)
I share above how Mendoan usually served as street food. People eat mendoan as snack and treat, only a few people eat Mendoan with rice. Most people prefer to have other Tempeh-based dish with rice, such as TEMPEH-orek , plain fried tempeh, or stir-fried tempeh, rather than a Mendoan.
MY MENDOAN ORDER
Its Ramadhan month right now, so getting a street food for snack and treats are very easy. 2 - 3 hours before Iftar or break fasting time, People are selling foods on street. Most of them are setting some table only and display their food above it... Making the passerby people who are fasting can't resist the temptation and drop by to buy some.
Sorry if I do not take any front view shots, during those hours people patient are the lowest, so I do not want to bug any people. Let take shots from behind. That dude was selling mendoan too, the top right one. But its not mendoan, its a deep fried tempeh, so I decided to skip this stall.
Ok I found a Mendoan Cart. It was pretty messy because those two people did not prepare well having a horde of people buying their food rapidly. Luckily I still got some Mendoan from them, the last batch.
Mendoan should be sold like this, when people come, they prepare and cook it right away. Because it is a half cooked one, you can not sell cold Mendoan or Mendoan that is cooked hours ago. Mendoan sellers know well about this so that's why they get messed up and panicked when a horde of orders come all at the same time.
So these are my Mendoan. They costed me around USD $0,21 each, its on budget which Mendoan usually cost us around $0,2 - $0.35 depend on their size and taste. Tempeh Goreng is sold a bit cheaper, usually around $0,15 because they are fully cooked, people can fry them earlier then sell them later.
How To Eat Mendoan
It is simple, you can eat them by hands, or you can use spoon or fork. There are no fix rule about them, however most people eat them by hands as snack or treats.
To add some flavors, I use this little green chili, or hot pepper? or Chili Pepper? I do not know the exact English name, but I believe it should be a chili pepper. In Indonesia, they are called as Cabe Rawit, or Thai Chili.
Another way to eat Mendoan is by adding some Sweet Soy Sauce. Most Javanese people love sweet food, so they tend to add sweet soy and sugar to all their food. For me, Its ok to go both way, my tongue can accept vast type of taste.
However one thing that make me sad is that Mendoan is not as famous as before, they are a bit declining right now. The reason is their half cooked form, which is mushy and soggy. Young generations tend to prefer Dried Crispy and Crunchy food above soggy one.
Well That's for my Taco Tuesday today, I hope you guys could get some opportunity to taste this old school Mendoan, not the Fried Tempeh or Tempe Goreng... Thank You for your time and see you next time
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