Surabaya Street Cart · Racing Rice Cake
Lontong Balap
Photo: Lasthib / Wikimedia Commons · CC BY-SA 4.0
'Balap' literally means 'race' — the most common explanation says it nods to vendors who once hurried through Surabaya's streets balancing heavy woven baskets of the dish, though it may just describe how fast the toppings come together in the bowl.
Pressed rice cake is topped with bean sprouts, fried tofu, black-eyed pea fritters, and crisp shallots, all finished with a tangy sambal built from petis shrimp paste and sweet soy sauce. Surabaya street carts assemble it in seconds right in front of the customer.
Why it's made this way: The generous use of petis shrimp paste in the sambal is what marks it as distinctly East Javanese, setting it apart from lontong dishes served elsewhere in Indonesia.
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Part of World of Street Food — 3248 dishes from 118 countries.
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