Whip Up a Storm

GADO GADO
Indonesian Vegetable and Egg Salad

When I visited Indonesia, I arrived when it was still Ramadan, a time when street vendors seem to be everywhere, selling all kinds of snacks and dishes to those who want to break their fast but don’t have the time to cook at home. I stopped at one food cart in Banda Aceh that had gado gado (gado means “mix” and gado gado means “mixes,” because this salad is made of so many different ingredients). The vendor had arranged his different ingredients in mounds inside the cart and had a wide mortar to one side, which he used to grind batch after batch of the peanut seasoning for the salad. You can have gado gado as a snack or it can be a full vegetarian meal. This version is served with a peanut-based dressing, but on some islands, the dr...