Course | Main course |
---|---|
Place of origin | Indonesia[1] |
Region or state | Southeast Asia |
Associated cuisine | Indonesia, Malaysia and Singapore |
Serving temperature | Room temperature |
Main ingredients | Compressed rice cooked in banana leaf |
Variations | Various |
Similar dishes | Burasa, ketupat, lemang, lepet |
Lontong is an Indonesian dish made of compressed rice cake in the form of a cylinder wrapped inside a banana leaf,[1][2] commonly found in Indonesia, Malaysia, and Singapore. Rice is rolled inside a banana leaf and boiled, then cut into small cakes as a staple food replacement for steamed rice. The texture is similar to that of ketupat, with the difference being that the ketupat container is made from woven janur (young coconut leaf) fronds, while lontong uses banana leaf instead.
It is commonly called nasi himpit (lit. "pressed rice") in Malaysia, despite being created using other methods.[3]
Arem-arem is a smaller version of lontong, filled with vegetables and occasionally meat, eaten as a snack.
The dish is usually served hot or at room temperature with peanut sauce-based dishes such as gado-gado, karedok, ketoprak, other traditional salads, and satay.[2] It can be eaten as an accompaniment to coconut milk-based soups, such as lontong sayur, soto, gulai, and curries.[4] It is also used as an alternative to vermicelli noodles.