Lotek (food)

Lotek, also spelled lothek, is a Javanese vegetable salad dressed in peanut sauce. Its sauce uses the same ingredients as that of pecel but is usually much sweeter, which the source links to the sweet taste preferred in the classic Matraman cooking of the Mataram Sultanate. It is popular in the south of Central Java and in Yogyakarta, where it may be served with lontong, krupuk and fried snacks, which is why it is sometimes called lontong pecel. In Yogyakarta it combines raw and steamed vegetables with tempeh, fried batter and fried tofu, while in Surakarta steamed or boiled vegetables are served with egg noodles. It is also eaten elsewhere in Indonesia through Javanese migration; in Bandung it is described as a cross between gado-gado and pecel, and it should not be confused with the Sundanese karedok, which uses only raw vegetables. The name comes from a Javanese word for a wooden or bamboo spatula used to scoop sambal or paste from the grinding bowl.