Nasi Campur

 

 Origin and variations

There is no exact rule, recipe or definition of what makes a nasi campur, since Indonesians and by large Southeast Asians commonly consume steamed rice surrounded with several side dishes consists of various kinds of vegetables and meat. As the result either the question of origin or recipe is obscure. Yet nasi campur is commonly perceived as steamed rice surrounded with various dishes that might consists of vegetables and meats, served in personal portion, in contrast of tumpeng that served in larger collective portion or Rijsttafel that setted in lavish colonial banquet. There are several local variations emerges throughout Indonesia; from Bali, Java and Indo colonial to Chinese Indonesian versions of nasi campur.

In Bali the tastes are often distinctly local, punctuated by basa genep, the typical Balinese spice mix used as the base for many curry and vegetable dishes.^[2] The Balinese version of mixed rice may have grilled tuna, fried tofu, cucumber, spinach, tempe, beef cubes, vegetable curry, corn, chili sauce on the bed of rice. Mixed rice is often sold by street vendors, wrapped in a banana leaf. In Java, nasi campur is often called nasi rames, and wide variations available across the island. One dish that always found in a Javanese nasi campur is fried noodle. A similar Minangkabau counterpart is called nasi padang.

The combination known as Nasi Rames is a dish created in West Java during WWII by the Indo (Eurasian) cook Truus van der Capellen, who ran the Bandung soup kitchens during (and after) the Japanese occupation. Later she opened a restaurant in the Netherlands and made the dish equally popular there.

Furthermore, some people who reside in Jakarta area use the term nasi campur loosely to refer to Nasi Campur Tionghoa^[3] (i.e. Chinese Style Nasi Campur), a dish of rice with an assortment of barbecued meats, such as char siew, crispy roast pork, sweet pork sausage and pork satay. This dish is usually served with simple Chinese chicken soup or sayur asin, an Indonesian clear broth of pork bones with fermented mustard greens. However, such name for similar dish does not exist in Mainland China, Singapore, Malaysia, or even most other areas of Indonesia outside of Jakarta.

In reality the usage of the name Nasi Campur here is only for marketing and convenience purposes for the locals and should not be included in the category of Nasi Campur. The categorization of Nasi Campur in this manner makes as much sense as categorizing all buffets with rice in them as Rijsttafel (or worse, nasi campur buffet) just because of the presence of any rice and assortment of dishes. The name Nasi Campur Tionghoa is only a shortened version of "nasi dengan daging campur cara Tionghoa" (i.e. "rice with assortment of Chinese style meats").

Furthermore, most Chinese vendors and food-court stalls in the region serve only one kind of meat with rice and a bowl of broth; patrons have to order different meats as separate dishes or add-ons. Hence, in most cases, those Chinese vendors' menu refers to the specific meat accompanying plain rice, for example, Char Siew Rice, or Roast Pork Rice.

In most cases, Nasi Campur refers specifically to the Indonesian and Malaysian versions of rice with assortments of side dishes