Swikee or Swike

Swikee or Swike is a Chinese Indonesian frog leg dish. The dish can be served as soup, deep fried or stir fried frog legs. Originally a Chinese dish, this dish is popular in Indonesia. "Swikee" is originated from Hokkian dialect sui (water) and ke (chicken), which probably an euphemism to refer frogs as "water chicken".

It is sometimes identified as a traditional food of Purwodadi, a city in Central Java. The main ingredient is frogs' legs (mainly from "green frogs") with the condiments of garlic, ginger and fermented soy paste (tauco), salt, and pepper. Once it is served, fried garlic and chopped celery may be added. Swikee is usually served with plain white rice.

The taste and texture of frog meat approximately between chicken and fish. They are often said to taste like chicken because of their mild flavor, with a texture most similar to chicken wings. However there was a slight fishiness that some might perceived that frog legs is also taste mildly like fish. Normally, the legs are the only part served in the soup, since the legs are the most meaty parts; the skin of the frogs may, however, also be dried under the sun, and fried as chips. The salted fried frogs skin has a unique taste incomparable with other types of chips.

Another type of frog cooking is "pepes kodok", frog cooked in pepes method, where the frog legs and different condiments are wrapped in banana leaves and put in a fire until cooked. The taste of the meat is enrichen with a distinct aroma of burned banana leaves.

Frog-cooking is ubiquitous in Purwodadi Grobogan, where it is the local delicacy. It can also be found in the large cities of Indonesia, such as Jakarta, Bandung (where the most popular swikee restaurant chain is "Swikee Jatiwangi"), Yogyakarta, Semarang or Surabaya. Normally, a restaurant will use the name "Swikee Purwodadi" or "Swikee Jatiwangi" on its restaurant sign and menu.

Indonesia is the world's largest exporter of frog meat, exporting more than 5000 tonnes of frog meat each year, mostly to France, Belgium and Luxemburg. In the past, the frogs could be obtained from the wild, especially during the rainy seasons. Lately, there are more and more farms, who, due to the increased demand of raised frogs, especially from France.