Various culinary delights in Indonesia are getting more attention. You will easily find a wide variety of food at varying prices. You will find a variety of Indonesian culinary delights in each region with its distinctive taste. Even though they have the same culinary name, the flavors offered will be different in each area.

Sate or satay is one of Indonesia's mainstay dishes with more than one type, such as sate madura, sate padang, sate klatak, and many other types of satay. One of the satay that are currently in great demand is taichan satay or sate taichan, and this became one of the business opportunities that are pretty popular today.

Have you ever tried sate taichan? Sate Taichan is an ordinary chicken satay grilled without any sauces (only salt and lime as the seasoning). Sate Taichan is served with chili sauce and can be eaten with rice cake. The price range is around Rp2.500.00/skewer or Rp20.000,00/portion. If you go to the Senayan area, you will find many sate taichan stalls.

Do you know the origin of sate taichan?

If we see the name "taichan", of course, what comes to our mind that this satay comes from China or Japan. The origin of the sate taichan has not been adequately confirmed. According to some available information, sate taichan was created by the arrival of a young Japanese-Indonesian couple who wanted to buy satay at one of the sate madura stalls in the Senayan area, Indonesia. This man from Japan doesn't like satay seasoned with peanuts as is commonly found in Indonesia. Then, the man took the initiative to burn the skewered satay by simply adding salt and lime as a seasoning.

After being cooked as a side dish for satay, the man added sambal as a substitute for peanut sauce. When asked by the shop owner what the name of the satay was, the man immediately answered, "Taichan satay."

Starting from here, sate taichan began to develop in Indonesia. Initially, sate taichan was only sold by two satay traders in the Senayan area, namely Mr. Amir as the forerunner of sate taichan and a friend, but now sate taichan has grown throughout Indonesia.

Sate taichan began to overgrow in 2016 until now. Not only in Jakarta but sate taichan has also even snowballed throughout Indonesia. You can easily find sate taichan in all corners of Indonesia. The more innovative the sate taichan is, not only grilled, but you can also choose fried taichan satay as a menu of choice.

But do you know what the difference is between sate taichan and other satays?

This sate taichan is not much different from chicken satay in general. Sate taichan also uses chicken meat cut into small squares, just like chicken satay in general. However, there are some differences with ordinary chicken satay, such as:

The appearance

Taichan satay looks paler when compared to chicken satay in general. Chicken satay generally uses special spices with various ingredients and soy sauce to look more colorful, unlike the sate taichan, which is only grilled with salt and lime seasoning without soy sauce to look paler.

In its presentation, sate taichan is also different from chicken satay in general. Usually, chicken satay is covered with peanut sauce as a side dish, while sate taichan only uses chili sauce as a side dish. You can eat it with lontong or rice.

The taste

Because the spices used for this taichan satay are pretty simple, the taste offered is simple but no less delicious than ordinary chicken satay. Regular satay has various flavors and a mixture of sweet, spicy, savory from the multiple spices used, while sate taichan has a spicy taste from the salt and sour from the lime and tangy from the sauce used. For those who don't like peanut sauce, sate taichan can be the right choice for your meal.

The difference in satay seasoning

If the ordinary chicken satay seasoning is quite complicated, it is different from the sate taichan seasoning. Sate taichan seasoning is more straightforward, and the ingredients needed are also easy enough to find in the kitchen to make your own at home.

There are two variations of sate taichan that you can make, namely grilled sate taichan and fried sate taichan — the difference between the two lies in the cooking process. If the sate taichan is grilled over charcoal, the fried taichan satay is grilled or thinly fried. However, both are still served with their signature chili sauce.