Soto,
sroto,
tauto or
coto is a common dish, found in many regional variations of
Indonesian cuisine.
It is a traditional soup mainly composed of broth, meat and vegetables.
There is no clear definition of what makes a soto, but normally many
traditional soups are called
soto, whereas foreign and Western influenced soups are called
sop.
Soto is sometimes considered Indonesia's
national dish,
as it is served from Sumatra to Papua, in a wide range of variations.
Soto is omnipresent in Indonesia, available in many an open-air eateries
and on many street corners to fine dining restaurants and luxurious
hotels.
Soto, especially
soto ayam (chicken soto), is considered as Indonesian counterpart of
chicken soup. Soto is a comforting soup,
because it is always served warm with tender texture in most of Indonesian households, and naturally considered as Indonesian
comfort food.
Varieties
Mee soto (soto mi) with chicken sold in
Bukit Batok, Singapore
Many metropolitan areas have their own regional versions of soto, so sotos can be classified by regional style:
- Ambon
soto, It is made of chicken and broth, flavored and colored with
turmeric, ginger, galangal, garlic (the three g's), lemongrass and loads
of spices. Served with rice, the add-ins and toppings are blanched bean
sprouts, shredded chicken, glass noodles, chopped celery leaves, golden
fried shallots, fried potato sticks, kecap manis, hot sauce, and tiny
potato croquettes. A healthy squeeze of lemon china, a really fragrant citrus, really brightens up the soup.
- Bandung soto, a clear beef soto with daikon pieces.
- Banjar soto, spiced with star anise, clove, cassia and lemongrass and sour hot sambal, accompanied with potato cakes.
- Banyumas soto or sroto Banyumas or sroto Sokaraja, made special by its peanut sambal, usually eaten with ketupat.
- Betawi soto, made of beef or beef offal, cooked in a whitish cow milk or coconut milk broth, with fried potato and tomato.
- Kediri soto, a chicken soto in coconut milk.
- Kudus soto, made with water buffalo meat due to local taboos of the consumption of beef.
- Lamongan soto, a popular street food in various Indonesian metropolitan areas, a variation of the Madura soto.
- Madura soto or soto Sulung/soto Ambengan, made with either chicken, beef or offal, in a yellowish transparent broth.
- Makassar soto or coto Makassar, a beef and offal soto boiled in water used to wash rice, with fried peanut.
- Medan soto, a chicken/pork/beef/innards soto with added coconut milk and served with potato croqutte (perkedel). The meat pieces are fried before being served or mixed.
- Padang soto, a beef broth soto with slices of fried beef, bihun (rice vermicelli), and perkedel kentang (fried mashed potato).
- Pekalongan soto or tauto Pekalongan, spiced with tauco (a fermented miso-like bean paste).
- Semarang soto, a chicken soto spiced with candlenut and often eaten with sate kerang (cockles on a stick)
- Soto Bangkong, chicken soto in small personal serving; mixed with
rice, perkedel, tempe, and satay of cockles, tripes, and quail eggs.
Named after Bangkong crossroad in Semarang.
- Tegal soto or Sauto Tegal, almost same with Pekalongan soto spiced with tauco (a fermented miso-like bean paste). Sauto can be chicken soto, beef soto, or even beef offal.
Other sotos are named based on their chief ingredient:
- Soto ayam is chicken in a yellow spicy broth with lontong, nasi empit, ketupat (rice compressed by cooking wrapped tightly in a leaf, then sliced into small cakes), or vermicelli, commonly found in Indonesia, Singapore and Malaysia.
- Soto babat is a cow's or goat's tripe, served in yellow spicy coconut milk soup with vermicelli, potato, and vegetables, usually eaten with rice. It is commonly found throughout Indonesia.
- Soto kaki (lit. "foot soto") is made of beef tendon and cartilage taken from cow's feet, served in yellow spicy coconut milk soup with vermicelli, potato, vegetables, and krupuk, commonly eaten with rice. It is Betawi food and can found in Jakarta, Indonesia.
- Soto mi (spelled mee soto in Singapore and Malaysia), is a yellow spicy beef or chicken broth soup with noodles, commonly found in Indonesia, Singapore and Malaysia. Bogor, Indonesia, is famous for its soto mi made with beef broth, kikil (cow's cartilage), noodles, and sliced risoles spring rolls.
- Soto babi is pork soto from Hindu majority Bali island.
Common Condiments
Chicken soto with eggs and tripes
satay
The following accompaniments are often eaten alongside soto.
- Stewed quail eggs or chicken eggs
- Cockles on a stick (sate kerang)
- Skewered grilled tripes (sate babat)
- Skewered grilled chicken giblets, such as intestine, gizzard and liver satay (sate ati ampela dan usus)
- Fried chicken giblets
- Prawn crackers, sometimes crushed and mixed with crushed fried garlic as koya in Madura or Lamongan soto
- Gnetum seed crackers (emping)
- Fried tofu or tempeh
- Mashed potato patties (perkedel)
- Hot chili sauce (sambal)
- Sweet soy sauce
- Fried shallot (bawang goreng)
- Spicy fried grated coconut (serundeng)
- Lime juice, sometimes replaced with vinegar
Ingredients
The meats that are most commonly used are
chicken and
beef, but there are also variations with
offal,
mutton, and
water buffalo meat.
Pork is seldom used in traditional Indonesian soto, however in
Hindu majority
Bali,
soto babi (pork soto) can be found.
[5]. The soup is usually accompanied by
rice or compressed rice cakes (
lontong,
ketupat or
buras). Offal is a very common ingredient in soto, and is considered as a delicacy: the
rumen (blanket/flat/smooth tripe),
reticulum (honeycomb and pocket tripe),
omasum (book/bible/leaf tripe) and the intestines are all eaten.
Other ingredients of soto include
soon alternatively spelled as
sohun (rice vermicelli), mung
bean sprouts and
scallion.
Common soto spices include
shallots,
garlic,
turmeric,
galangal,
ginger,
coriander,
salt, candlenut and
pepper.
Soto can have a clear broth, a yellow transparent broth (coloured with turmeric) or a coconut milk or milk broth.
Soto in Malaysia and Singapore is the clear chicken broth type. Like
many dishes, it may have been brought into the country by the many
Javanese migrants in the early 20th century.
Gallery of soto variants
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Typical home made Indonesian soto ayam.
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Soto Bandung, beef in clear broth with daikon and fried soy nuts.
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Soto Kaki Mencos (cow's foot tendons soto), a Betawi specialty.
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Soto Kudus, a type of chicken soto.
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Sroto Sokaraja, Banyumas.
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Soto mie, soto with noodles.
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