Indonesian street vendor invents 'robot' to help him cook fried rice after suffering an injury

Thermomix but street food.

Faris Alfiq | October 20, 2021, 09:59 AM

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An Indonesian street food vendor went viral on Tiktok after his invention caught people's attention -- an automated fried rice robot.

Tiktok user @revan.z22 posted a video of the street vendor cooking fried rice from his stall by stir-frying the rice using his right hand, while a robot that he supposedly invented assisted him to evenly mix the rice.

@revan.z22##nasigoreng ##fyp ##xd ##malang ##kuliner ##kulinermalang♬ π™π™€π™™π™€π™ π™Žπ™–π™§π™ͺ⚣︎ - ᴳᡂ々𝓒π“ͺπ“­π“«π“Έπ”‚Γ—ΝœαΦŸΓ—

As of Oct. 18, the video that was posted on Oct. 8 has garnered over 1.9 million views, with more than 86,000 likes and 4,000 comments.

According to Tribun News, the 21-year-old Tiktok user, identified as one M Soleh, said that he has been patronising the stall.

The stall owner, Dartadi, works at the stall selling fried rice together with his wife, along the streets of Malang, East Java.

Left hand hurt in an accident

According to Merdeka, Dartadi shared that three years ago, he injured his left hand.

As a result, he was not able to move his hand around much, let alone cooking big portions of fried rice.

@revan.z22Balas @revan.z22 ##kulinermalang ##bcx ##malang♬ Dinda - Masdo

He added that it was impossible for him to continue cooking as making fried rice requires two hands -- one to stir fry and the other to man the wok.

Hence, he shared that he took the initiative to find ways to continue cooking, which drove him to put together the machine which looks like a metal hand with blades attached, above the wok.

The only thing Dartadi has to do is to add in the ingredients, and let the machine stir fry the food.

@revan.z22Balas @mutawallie.sy (bersihkok terbuat dari baja juga)##malang ##nasigorengmodern ##viral♬ suara asli - revan.z

Able to cook more portions

Dartadi came up with the solution to ease his difficulties in cooking and serving fried rice to his customers due to his injury.

The invention has also paid off in other ways.

According to Merdeka, he has seen more traffic to his stall as it's now more widely-known as "robot fried rice", with customers recognising him from social media posts.

Dartadi also said that at one go, he is able to cook about six to seven portions of fried rice. With a bigger wok, he can easily cook up to 10 portions of fried rice for his customers.

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Top images via @revan.z22/Tiktok