karedok — West Java, Indonesia

Karedok is a Sundanese salad from West Java built from raw vegetables coated in a ground peanut sauce, and it is counted among the everyday dishes of Sundanese cooking. Vegetables reported in it include long beans, cucumber, bean sprouts, cabbage, legumes, lemon basil, chayote and small green eggplant, though the exact mix varies by cook. The dish is reported specifically from the Sundanese region of West Java and is widely served as daily food in Sundanese households, usually alongside hot rice, tofu, tempeh and krupuk crackers. It has since spread to hawker carts, warung stalls, restaurants and hotels in Indonesia and beyond. Its main point of difference from the closely related gado-gado is that every vegetable in karedok stays raw, while most vegetables in gado-gado are boiled first; karedok also uses kencur, lemon basil and eggplant, which gado-gado does not. The dressing is ground from red chili, sand ginger, bird's eye chili, galangal, fried peanuts, palm sugar, salt, shrimp paste and a little water, then tossed directly through the chopped raw vegetables. Because of this raw preparation, karedok is also known as lotek atah, meaning raw lotek, in reference to another peanut-dressed vegetable dish it resembles. In many places the peanut sauce is still ground to order in front of the customer, though pre-made peanut seasoning for karedok is now also sold in shops and supermarkets.