Gado-Gado

Gado-gado is a traditional dish in Indonesian cuisine, and comprises a vegetable salad served with a peanut sauce dressing. It is widely served in hotels and restaurants in Indonesia, and in Indonesian restaurants in other countries, although some opine that the mass-production nature of commercial catering, where food is cooked in bulk at the beginning of the day, has ruined the quality of the dish. The main ingredients are vegetable salad and peanut sauce dressing. With the exceptions of the eggs and the potatoes, the salad may be served raw, although optionally one may blanch some of the vegetables such as the cabbage and the cauliflower. Some cooks prefer to steam the vegetables. The thing that distinguishes gado-gado from a plain vegetable salad is the peanut sauce dressing, which is poured on top of the vegetable salad before serving. The composition of this peanut sauce varies, as well. Some say to just use a commercial Indonesian peanut sauce or satay sauce. Others say to make the sauce oneself. The ingredients of sauce peanut are ground fried peanuts with most of the oil drained off (for which some substitute peanut butter and peanut oil), garlic, palm sugar, red chili sauce, lemon or lime juice.