(Enjoy your meal). This article is an original tribute written based on the public culinary legacy of the late William Wongso. For the exact recipes and detailed photographs, please refer to published works by PT Gramedia Pustaka Utama or the William Wongso Culinary Center.
William famously said, “Indonesian food is the original fusion food.” It is the result of centuries of trade winds bringing Indian curries, Middle Eastern kebabs, Chinese stir-fries, and Portuguese baking techniques to a land that absorbed them all and made them fiercely its own.
This article explores the foundational "wonders" that William dedicated his life to preserving and evolving. To understand William Wongso’s wonders, you must first understand the base camp of all Indonesian cooking: Rempah . (Enjoy your meal)
The true wonder is the texture of the sauce. He rejected smooth peanut butter. He insisted on grinding raw peanuts, frying them, then pounding them in a cobek until they are "sandy," not creamy. Then, he adds kencur (aromatic ginger) and gula jawa (palm sugar).
This is perhaps the most complex dish in the Indonesian repertoire. The PDF would dedicate three pages just to Keluak . The nut is toxic raw; it must be boiled, buried in ash, or fermented. William’s trick: Crack the nut, soak the flesh in water for three days, then roast it. William famously said, “Indonesian food is the original
William Wongso feared that modernization would kill Indonesian cuisine. He saw restaurants using instant bumbu (paste in a packet) and called it "the death of the grandmother." However, he was not a purist. He loved fusion when it was intelligent.
William Wongso taught us that Indonesian food is not simply spicy; it is . It is the sour shock of asam hitting the fatty cream of santan . It is the crunch of krupuk against the softness of nasi uduk . The true wonder is the texture of the sauce
Green rice cake balls filled with liquid palm sugar, rolled in grated coconut. William’s engineering wonder: How to keep the sugar liquid. His trick: Add a pinch of salt to the palm sugar while melting. It lowers the crystallization point, ensuring that "explosion" in your mouth.