Bakso stalls could be found almost everywhere, from the city’s shanty areas to its glittering shopping malls.
The tinkling sound made by the bakso vendor as he strikes a ceramic bowl with a spoon while pushing his cart through the residential areas has become a sort of collective memory for the country’s children, including the boy who later grew to be the president of the United States of America.
As the number of stalls and vendors keeps increasing, competition has become tighter. Naturally, many vendors experiment with the old recipes to craft a new kind of bakso. Among the well-known innovations borne out of the experimentation is bakso granat, literally a grenade meatball, a ball of ground meat with a hefty quantity of chopped chili stuffed inside it. When the chili explodes inside a food lover’s mouth, he instantly realizes why the bakso is named after a fragmentary explosive. The most recent innovation in the bakso realm involves fresh mushrooms.