Nasi Liwet Solo, the People’s Food Favored by the Nobility

People in Indonesia have a lot of traditional foods or culinary specialties in each region. One of the traditional foods in Indonesia that is still widely consumed is liwet rice. The dish in the form of fragrant seasoned rice is widely found in the Central Java and West Java regions.

In West Java, there is Sundanese liwet rice which is served on banana leaves and eaten together. Usually liwet rice is served with various side dishes such as fish to petai. Meanwhile, in Central Java, the characteristic of Solo liwet rice is rice with savory spices and doused with chayote vegetable sauce.

However, nasi liwet dishes also sometimes consist of savory rice served with chayote lodeh vegetables, shredded chicken, steamed eggs, and eaten with krupuk rambak. In addition, this dish is usually served with side dishes such as shredded chicken, tempeh tofu and chili sauce. Each region has its own signature liwet rice. For example, Sundanese liwet rice certainly tastes different from Solo liwet rice. Check out the history of liwet rice below.

Liwet rice is written in Serat Centhini

Nasi liwet is one of the traditional dishes whose method of preparation is written in Serat Centhini. Serat Centhini itself is one of the largest literary works using Javanese script in its writing in the world.

This work belongs to the New Javanese literature which is also often called Suluk Tambanglaras or Suluk Tambangraras-Amongraga and was written in 1814-1823 AD.