The Dish Everyone Thinks Is Gross, Until They Taste It: Paru Goreng

 By Akbar Putra Syarif on October 04, 2025

Hello everyone! we meet again, i hope you guys are having a great week!, now this week i will talk about the food that everyone think its gross and not edible, atleast that was what i think when i was a kid. I always thought that my parents were wierd to be eating beef inards everytime we go to this Sundanese restaurant we used to go to every month, but then i tried the dish and was blown away because how good it was, i always thought that they will be gamey, and bitter and overall nasty, but its the complete opposite, it was an amazing dish as it would turn out to be.

What is friend lungs? well just like it said its basically a fried beef innards, its usually eaten with a side of rice, vegetables, and like any other indonesian dish, its also eaten with sambal. Some people might get thrown off with the texture at first but the taste definitely cancels out the texture, plus the texture is not that bad, its a crispy, and abit chewy beef lungs, whats to not like about?.

Where did this unique dish come from? well its a dish originated from Java, but this dish is not mainly a javanese dish, u see when i first try this dish it was in a sundanese restaurant, well this this is often found in a sundanese and in padang restaurants they will always be served as a side dish of other dishes that comes with the place. Now like every other dish in indonesia people would use all part of the beef, even the innards like the lungs. This way, there is no part of the animal that goes to waste.

There are also many versions of paru goreng that depends on the region, but most of them will always involves these main herbs and spices: shallots, garlic, ginger, galanggal, tamarind, and coriander. These herbs and spices also plays a vital role to remove the gameyness that comes with the lungs. Not only that but the washing and cooking process like the temprature and time also plays a vital role on the overall smell and taste of the lungs. And the last thing that will make your paru goreng more amazing is the perfect amount salt and palm sugar that is added during the cooking process.

To let you in on the experience, i will tell you how to make the delicious dish and to prepare them correctly so they wont smell and taste bad. So here are the steps:

1. First you need to clean the lungs by washing the thoroughly and make sure to use running water and not washing it in a tub of water because the smell can still lingers around.

2. Secondly, you can smother the lungs in lime juice to totally remove the smell and let it sit for 30 minutes in the lime juice.

3. Next after you wash the lungs, you can boil the lungs with the aromatics like bay leaf, galangal, and the ginger to again make sure there is no smell on the final dish and to give it aromatic smell.

4. After you boil the lungs for about 30 minutes you can rinse the water and put it aside

5. Next you will have to saute the same aromatics and herbs and spices like tamarind, shallots and garlic, the aromatics, and salt and palm sugar. You need to saute it untill the aroma came through.

6. Put the lungs inside and saute it for a little bit and then you can put water in and let it simmer down for an hour or so.

7. Last, you can fry the lungs whenever you want to eat and enjoy.

Like i said before when i first tried it i was blown away by how completely delicious it is. The savory and sweet taste that i taste and the crispy and chewy texture from the lungs itself really blends well and just fits  well with my taste buds. Pairing it with a warm rice and a spicy sambal just elevate the dish even more making it more heavenly in my mouth. Eating it feels like ive grown up, i feel like ive aquired an adult taste bud at the time, it was a unique experience.

Now to get a paru goreng like a perfectly described there are several tips i can give you, first one is to make sure before you put your beef lungs in the frier the oil is hot but becareful it can sometimes spray hot oil when you put in the lugs so wear some extra protection. Next is to cut the lungs thin enough that it will get crispy but not so thin that it wont have that chewy texture. and lastly and most importantly is to not overcook it, you need to cook it just until the outside is golden brown and crispy and no more than that, otherwise it will be too crispy and hard.

Why should you try this paru goreng dish? well it can be a very unique experience that you can tell your friends and family. It can also be an apreciation towards the cow for utilizing and consuming its every part so to not waste it. And who knows? maybe you will actually like the dish? it can be your favourite dish and you will be able to try othe unique dishes that you would otherwise missed out on.

Well writing this has been fun, i was able to put out my experience and my feelings about this dish that i loved. i wish that you guys can also try and experienced it too because it is truly a unique and delicious experience. why dont you tell me in the comments if you have already tried it, or you havent and you would like to try it. thats it for me this week ill see you on the next week with another dish! thank you for reading my blog, Peace!

Akbar.