Street hawker invents robot to help him fry rice after suffering arm injury

This is street food tech.

Oct. 20, 2021

Street hawker invents robot to help him fry rice after suffering arm injury

An Indonesian street food vendor in East Java has gone viral after his ingenious invention was shown off on TikTok – a robot that helps him fry rice.

Only recently, TikTok user @revan.z22 shared a clip of a street vendor preparing a serving of fried rice at night, with the one curious element being that he was being aided by a robotic assistant.

With one hand, the hawker held and rotated the wok while the robot helped him mix the rice and ingredients evenly.

@revan.z22
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The TikTok user (real name M. Soleh), who has been identified as a customer of the vendor shared the video on October 8, 2021, and has since gotten over 1.9 million views and over 86,500 likes.

After receiving attention for his clever device, the vendor – who was simply identified as Hatardi – explained that he'd been selling food along the streets of Malang with his wife for a while, until he was involved in an accident that seriously impaired the use of his left hand three years ago.

Of course, Hatardi became extremely worried about how his ricebowl would end up being affected, and became determined to find a way to fix his dilemma.

He ended up using his resourceful mind to build a machine that resembled a metallic arm with blades (for stirring) attached to a rotating end, and placed it above the wok.

To use the machine, all that's needed is to simply add the ingredients to the wok step-by-step and allow the blades to mix everything into a tasty serving of fried rice.

After coming up with the clever machine, Hatardi revealed that his invention has helped him grow his business even stronger than before.

Other than being a tool for him to fry rice efficiently, the machine also allows him to fry up more portions at a time – instead of the usual six to seven portions at a time, the machine now allows him to fry up to 10 servings of his fried rice at once.

Also, the machine blessed him with a different kind of advantage – the viral factor that has drawn more and more customers to his stall just to see the invention, and get a taste of fried rice cooked up by a robot.

"I think it's the first time in Malang that someone has sold fried rice using robots, that's why I was interested to come," said one customer while waiting for her food. "I was curious, it looks fun and creative, and I just want to see how it tastes. I'm sure it'll taste good."

Despite his newfound fame, Hatardi has continued to sell his delicious fried rice at the same price he always has – ranging from IDR10,000 (US$0.71) to IDR14,000 (US$0.99).