Mie Aceh

General Information

This article will inform about one of the unique food and it is available from Indonesia. Specifically, it is from Aceh. There is a food called Mie Aceh where in English language, ‘Mie’ is actually ‘Noodle’. So, it is called as ‘Aceh Noodle’ in English language. So, basically Mie Aceh is a noodle cuisine type which is originally from Aceh in Indonesia. It is an unique and spicy noodle available in Aceh.

Contents and Ingredients

It is mainly containing thick yellow noodle. Generally served with beef slices, goat meat and even seafood such as shrimp or crab. Blended with rich, hot and spicy curry-like soup, it exist like that because of there are lot of spices combination inside of it. The curry-like soup consists of several spices mixtures. According to the Wikipedia link , it consists of black pepper, red chili pepper, shallot, garlic, cardamon, caraway, cumin and star anise. Furthermore, according to the Wikipedia link ,those noodle and spices are cooked with bean sprouts, tomato, cabbage and celery. The yellow noodles is quite thick and it has a similar size with the Japanese udon noodle. Most of the noodles in the restaurants in Aceh are home made noodles in order to ensure the authenticity.

History

Still from the information available in Wikipedia link , actually Mie Aceh itself describes the mixtures and combinations from lots of cultures. It starts from the main noodle which is the main component of the dish itself. Obviously, noodle as the main part of the dish name, ‘Mie’, it is actually an influence from Chinese. On the other hand, the curry-like based soup is definitely a major influence from the Indian region. Another influence is the usage of mutton, goat meat and beef which demonstrates the Islamic value that requires the food to be ‘halal’. The term ‘halal’ means that it is safe to be consumed in term of Islamic value and perspective. So, there are lots of cultural history influencing  Acehnese people from the foreign and neighboring area that formed the Aceh and its historic role as major port in the region including the food. Additionally, it is obvious that the  preference to seafood suggests Aceh geographic location surrounded by seas and straits. Not to mention the Malacca strait, Andaman Sea and the Indian Aceh. Moreover, the way of life from the majority of Acehnese population. They live their life as traders, farmers and fishermen. Not limited only to Aceh, currently Mie Aceh is available in  in most of Indonesian major cities, and also neighboring countries such as Malaysia and also Australia.

Variations

According to the information in Wikipedia link, there are two general variations of Mie Aceh available. The first one is the ‘Mie Aceh Goreng’. As it is suggested in part of the name, ‘Goreng’ means ‘stir-fried and fry’. It is a way to produce or to cook the cuisine. The second one is the ‘Mie Aceh Kuah’ which has a curry-like soup. Furthermore, it also has two options of ingredients available as additional. It can be either beef or mutton, or seafood either shrimp or crab. Generally, Mie Aceh will have a lot of shallotsprinkled, and served with Indonesian crackers called emping, peanuts, slices of shallots, cucumber and also dash of kaffir lime.