Bakmoy is a comforting Chinese-Indonesian dish made from meat soup served in rice topped with boiled egg and youtiao. It’s a dish made from a result of acculturation between two different cultures that even when you look for its equivalent around, nothing really is similar to a hearty bowl of Bakmoy.

This dish is commonly found where Chinese-Indonesians are predominant in Indonesia such as Surabaya, Solo, Semarang, Jakarta or Yogyakarta. My family loves this recipe and they always make them during special occasions and celebrations. So, I wanted to learn how it was made and it was also the dish we serve during our dad's 40th day memorial.

The other day, my mom taught me how to prepare this dish and I was teaching her how to fold dumplings (pot stickers) and how to make a simple chili oil.

There are a lot of preparations to make this bowl as there are various components that will be mixed together to create a hearty warm bowl of Bakmoy. It’s probably the reason why most people don’t really serve or make it anymore.

First, to make this bowl, we have to make the soup base which can use pork/chicken depending on your liking.

Then, you have to make the youtiao. Unlike regular youtiao, we use minced shrimp and chicken base with added flour to make churro-like shape through frying it. Then, we have to cut it into tiny pieces that will be used as the garnish later on.

The next step is making the chicken with added tofu and mushroom for the side dishes of the bowl. The spice is made using sweet soy sauce, soy sauce, and sesame seed oil. You have to bathe the chicken, tofu and mushroom in the sauce and let it simmer.

The other important component is boiled egg and a condiment called Petis.

Petis is a dark gooey paste made from fermented shrimp. This has such a distinct smell that probably smells like rotten fish. But I promise, it’s not yucky. For Bakmoy,you also have to add blended bird’s eye chili to give it a little bit of kick.

After you have all the ingredients together, it’s time to assemble and a bowl/plate of them will look like this plate below.

It’s such a hearty meal that could never fail to impress a guest. It is savory, filling and with a very good broth, it makes you crave more of it.

Having to finally learn how to do it, I know why it’s not often served daily or even when we ask for it. To make this dish, it takes quite a bit of time and effort. My grandmother and mother save this dish for special occasions only,maybe to remind us that there are things in life worth waiting for, just like a hearty bowl of Bakmoy.

Chicken pot stickers

Since we still have chicken side dish leftovers from Bakmoy, I decided to turn them into pot stickers. These potstickers were so delicious and I couldn’t stop eating them. It's even better than store bought or even those that are normally sold in hawkers.

If you thought that it’s difficult to make, it’s actually as easy as 1,2,3.

It turned into a whole affair where my mom finally learned how to make dumplings and the chili oil that was giving it more kick. I bought the dumpling wrappers for convenience and I was pretty surprised, it tasted pretty good.

There are some shapes that you can do but we stick to the easiest one. It’s just folding, pinch and turning it around. Anyone can really do it and they would have this gnocchi like shape ready to steam.

For our chili oil, we only use dried chili, garlic and a really friggin hot oil for the pour. It already gives the fragrant aroma that was pleasant.

It’s called pot stickers for a reason and in my experience, before you are scooping them out to serve, make sure it’s properly cooled down. Once it’s properly cooled down, serve it with chili oil or you can make Rose Korean Sauce to eat with it.

So, let me just show you my Rose Korean Sauce style.

For home cooked meals, you can always modify anything and even make things to your liking . Korean Rose sauce typically has some cheese in it and this time, in my style, I am skipping the cheese. To make this sauce all you need is gochujang, milk, a bit of gochugaru, soy sauce, and minced garlic.

This sauce is easy to make and you can combine them with the potstickers. In my case, there were a few pot stickers that we forgot to steam and it turned mushy. So, another lesson learned is that you have to directly steam them. Since they are pretty shapeless, I decided to steam and simmer them into Korean Rose Sauce.

This dish makes a great late night snack 😀and if you have sausages, tteok, or fish cakes, just toss them together.

As a side note, all the condiments and ingredients purchased are also a part of my A Weekly Meal Prep That Doesn't Suck and Broke Adult Friendly. The thing is, I haven’t really done any groceries this week and tried to empty my fridge so I can make room for ingredients to make Southern Style Cooking. Think of things like Apple Cobbler, Fried Chicken, Sweet Pie Casseroles, Shrimp and Grits, and Homemade Biscuits. I once made hushpuppies and I loved it. So, I want to actually learn how to properly remake it and also learn how to make good casseroles.

See you in my next budget bites and meal ideas.