What does “gorengan” mean as Indonesian slang?

Indonesian uses gorengan in two ways. Literally, a gorengan is any deep-fried street snack: pisang goreng, bakwan, tahu isi. Colloquially, calling a person gorengan means they look plain or unstyled, the way a homemade fried snack looks compared to a polished bakery item.

This clip plays on the double meaning by tracking a “gorengan” character’s glow-up into a Putri Salju (Snow White) figure. The slang is gentler than English equivalents like “frumpy” or “drab.” It’s affectionate, snack-shop-flavoured, and tied to everyday Indonesian street-food culture. Knowing gorengan both ways unlocks Indonesian beauty and lifestyle content where the metaphor lives.