Could you tell the difference between gado-gado from a restaurant versus a kaki lima (food cart off the street)? And which one would you prefer?
If you’re not familiar with gado-gado in the first place, it’s basically an Indonesian-style salad that translates to ‘mix-mix’, with boiled veggies, a hard-boiled egg if you’re lucky, and a hearty peanut dressing dumped on top and then mixed in. We’re big fans and so are many Indonesians and bule alike.
To see which gado-gado was more of a crowd favorite, kaki lima gado-gado (just Rp 7k/portion) or restaurant gado-gado (a hefty Rp 35k/portion), the most famous bule on YouTube in Indonesia, Sacha Stevenson conducted a taste test in the streets of Bali.
From Aussies and Americans on holiday, to Indonesians doing their shopping at a Nirmala supermarket (and even a Nirmala employee), Stevenson and her friend handed out the samples to a variety of folks passing by.
And while we would have put our money the kaki lima gado-gado—which is known for presenting more flavor and spice—the results of Stevenson’s social experiment were more mixed than we would have guessed.
Had this taste test been conducted in Jakarta though, the kaki lima gado-gado would have won decisively, because they serve the best gado-gado in the country, according to Stevenson.
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