Back in July 2024 I posted a Larb Gai thread with pics. That must have reminded Smokin Al of the Gado Gado he and his wife had many moons ago while traveling because he posted about Gado Gado the same day.
I vowed to make it some day and that took me down a huge rabbit hole. Gado Gado originated as an Indonesian street food and may be similar to other Asian street foods. I didn’t find a clear translation, but on a video of what was supposed to be an Indonesian chef, he said it means “Mix Mix”. Another translation from Wikipedia says in one region it means “without rice”…and one of the things Smokin’ Al distinctly remembered was what they ate, had warm brown rice.
I found no rice in probably dozens of recipes and videos I looked at, so I decided to go without the rice. What I got from that Indonesian chef showing how he makes this, is there is no set requirements for ingredients; authentically people use what’s available or what they happen to have in their fridge. I DID find a LOT of opinions on what a real Gado Gado should contain…bean sprouts, long beans, tofu/tempeh, potatoes, cucumber, boiled egg, etc.. The one constant in all Gado Gado is peanut sauce.
Recipes make the peanut sauce from fresh peanuts and is a coarse looking sauce. I just recently tweaked my own peanut sauce for Thai fresh rolls that I decided to use. I know it’s delicious but it’s smooth.
I had to decide on what MY Gado Gado would be. I’m not against tofu or bean curd, but I decided on using chicken marinated in a chicken satay style marinade. Marinated boneless chicken thighs, grilled, then sliced in to bite sized strips.
I happened to be at the Asian market last week and knowing I was going to do this dish, decided to grab some Shanghai bok choy…slightly larger than baby bok choy. Sautéed that with some black pepper, red pepper flakes, garlic powder, and something I saw another Asian cook do, sprinkled some chicken bouillon granules near the end of cooking time. Still had some crunch or bite to the texture.
I was about to build the bowl and realized I forgot to boil the baby potatoes! So I grabbed them real quick, washed them, left them wet and coated them with kosher salt and microwaved them in a plastic wrap covered glass bowl.
The way I built this, a final photo doesn’t reveal everything in the dish, so in the bowl went potatoes, the sautéed bok choy, cucumber with a light sprinkling of salt, halved flavor bomb tomatoes and the wife just happened to have some snow peas that needed eating.
Drizzled the peanut sauce, sprinkled some toasted sesame seeds, cilantro and some crunchy noodles in place of the rice/prawn crackers that are apparently traditional. These are the ones they used to call rice noodles, not the chow mein noodles. And supposedly traditional, is the boiled egg…I like a nice 9-10 minute egg with the yolk somewhat soft and creamy.
Wait! I forgot the chicken! Fortunately, I had reserved some peanut sauce…more toasted sesame seeds to gild the lily. Animal protein is not traditional, but neither am I!
A delicious bowl of food, but a bit much! The wife likes to mix salads and things like this before eating (mix mix!), while I like to eat around the bowl or plate sometimes eating a single type of food, combining some here and there to taste the flavors more individually.
So, there we go, 16 months in the making and I finally created my own Gado Gado inspired by Smokin’ Al. I said back then that it might take me years to get to it…stuff stays on my list for a ling time. I WILL eventually get to stuff!
I vowed to make it some day and that took me down a huge rabbit hole. Gado Gado originated as an Indonesian street food and may be similar to other Asian street foods. I didn’t find a clear translation, but on a video of what was supposed to be an Indonesian chef, he said it means “Mix Mix”. Another translation from Wikipedia says in one region it means “without rice”…and one of the things Smokin’ Al distinctly remembered was what they ate, had warm brown rice.
I found no rice in probably dozens of recipes and videos I looked at, so I decided to go without the rice. What I got from that Indonesian chef showing how he makes this, is there is no set requirements for ingredients; authentically people use what’s available or what they happen to have in their fridge. I DID find a LOT of opinions on what a real Gado Gado should contain…bean sprouts, long beans, tofu/tempeh, potatoes, cucumber, boiled egg, etc.. The one constant in all Gado Gado is peanut sauce.
Recipes make the peanut sauce from fresh peanuts and is a coarse looking sauce. I just recently tweaked my own peanut sauce for Thai fresh rolls that I decided to use. I know it’s delicious but it’s smooth.
I had to decide on what MY Gado Gado would be. I’m not against tofu or bean curd, but I decided on using chicken marinated in a chicken satay style marinade. Marinated boneless chicken thighs, grilled, then sliced in to bite sized strips.
I happened to be at the Asian market last week and knowing I was going to do this dish, decided to grab some Shanghai bok choy…slightly larger than baby bok choy. Sautéed that with some black pepper, red pepper flakes, garlic powder, and something I saw another Asian cook do, sprinkled some chicken bouillon granules near the end of cooking time. Still had some crunch or bite to the texture.
I was about to build the bowl and realized I forgot to boil the baby potatoes! So I grabbed them real quick, washed them, left them wet and coated them with kosher salt and microwaved them in a plastic wrap covered glass bowl.
The way I built this, a final photo doesn’t reveal everything in the dish, so in the bowl went potatoes, the sautéed bok choy, cucumber with a light sprinkling of salt, halved flavor bomb tomatoes and the wife just happened to have some snow peas that needed eating.
Drizzled the peanut sauce, sprinkled some toasted sesame seeds, cilantro and some crunchy noodles in place of the rice/prawn crackers that are apparently traditional. These are the ones they used to call rice noodles, not the chow mein noodles. And supposedly traditional, is the boiled egg…I like a nice 9-10 minute egg with the yolk somewhat soft and creamy.
Wait! I forgot the chicken! Fortunately, I had reserved some peanut sauce…more toasted sesame seeds to gild the lily. Animal protein is not traditional, but neither am I!
A delicious bowl of food, but a bit much! The wife likes to mix salads and things like this before eating (mix mix!), while I like to eat around the bowl or plate sometimes eating a single type of food, combining some here and there to taste the flavors more individually.
So, there we go, 16 months in the making and I finally created my own Gado Gado inspired by Smokin’ Al. I said back then that it might take me years to get to it…stuff stays on my list for a ling time. I WILL eventually get to stuff!
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