kerak telor — Jakarta, Indonesia

Kerak telor is a savory, spiced omelet built on a bed of glutinous rice rather than flour, cooked until the rice and egg fuse into a firm, crusted disc. It is treated as a snack rather than a main course, eaten hot off the pan with a scattering of toasted coconut, fried shallots, and dried shrimp on top. It is closely associated with Jakarta and the Betawi community native to the city, and is especially visible each year at the Jakarta Fair, where stalls selling it draw long queues. Outside the fair, it also appears at markets and street-food corners around the city. To prepare it, glutinous rice is soaked and partly cooked in a small amount of water in a heavy, often cast-iron pan set directly over coals or a flame. Once the rice has absorbed the water, an egg — chicken or duck — is cracked over it along with spices such as ginger, coriander seed, and pepper, and the mixture is left to set into a crust on the bottom of the pan. The pan is then tipped or flipped so the raw top faces the heat directly, browning it further before the disc is turned out. The finished omelet is topped with serundeng (fried shredded coconut), crisp fried shallots, and dried shrimp, with the seasoning and the crispness of the crust varying from one vendor to the next. Duck egg is generally considered to give a richer result than chicken egg, and cooks differ on how dark and firm they let the crust become before serving.