Cirebon Culinary

Empal Gentong
Empal gentong is a kind of gule (curry)
cuisine that contains chopped beef chunks
that are given coconut milk soup. Empal
Gentong is usually eaten with rice cake or
rice and served with chili powder.
● Empal Gentong was not a pure Cirebon Culinary. Empal gentong was came from
Middle East. Empal gentong was brought by the sultan of Cirebon to Indonesia and
become popular in Cirebon since 18 century.
● The name of Empal Gentong came from the ‘Empal’ (Chopped meat) that cooked on the
‘gentong’ (barrel). At that time people in Cirebon didn’t know about pot (panci). So
they use a small barrel from clay to cooked it.
Petis Udang
Petis are made from small shrimp,
also known as rebon. Shrimp based
paste is called shrimp paste. But
there are also petis made from fish,
and in other places petis are also
made from beef.
one of the Chronicle of Cirebon literature, explains that petis existed since the days of the
Padjajaran kingdom. Exactly when the Prince Walangsungsang or known as the prince
Cakrabuana enthroned. Raja Padjajaran who is the son of King Siliwangi came to power
around the 14th century AD, that means the existence of petis has been around for 600
years.

At that time the Kuwu Cairebon (the name of Cirebon in the past) offered the catch of the
fishermen in the northern area of Cirebon to the king, as a form of tribute to the country.
The tribute is in the form of boiled shrimp stew boiled. The remaining water from the stew
is then processed into petis.
Mie Koclok
Mie Koclok is an abbreviation of the Mie
Khasnya Orang Cirebon yang Lebih OKey.
Baeklah. Basically, Koclok Noodle is a wet
noodle that is given chicken broth that has
been given cornstarch and thick coconut
milk so that the sauce is milky white.
Complete with leeks, bean sprouts,
cabbage leaves, and sliced ​boiled eggs.
Added also shredded chicken and a
sprinkling of fried onions.
Koclok noodles look very similar to celor noodles from Palembang. According to residents
of Cirebon, this noodle is a food that is influenced by Chinese culture. China is famous for a
variety of noodles, it is estimated the presence of these noodles when there are a lot of
immigrants from China who settled in Cirebon.
Docang
Docang is a traditional food from Cirebon, a port town in West
Java, Indonesia. It is made of sliced of rice cake, cassava leaves,
sprouts, and krupuk, served in thick vegetable sauce called dage,
which is made of mashed tempeh mixed with grated coconut.
This food has a distinctive savoury flavor and usually served
warm for breakfast
Based on the story from Docang seller, docang is food that accidentally found. Long time
ago in palace there us a prince that hate the wali songo and want to give poisoned dish to
them. He created a food from leftover food from the sultans. Then served it with poison
(oncom). But, the wali wasn’t poisoned instead they all love the food. Then, from that time
docang known as the food of the wali songo.

Docang also looks like food from betawi, Lontong Sayur, that makes people get wrong
sometimes about docang and Lontong Sayur.