ASPIDAY

The Food Of Hell From Indonesia

Famous as one of the best tropical countries, Indonesia provides tons of uniqueness and excitement. Its nature, culture, and art always bring millions of tourist each year. However, this time we are going to talk about one thing, Indonesia’s cuisine, in particular Sambal.

Sambal or sambel is infamous among tourist as the food of hell for its undeniable ability to make the consumer produces tears and sweat when eating. Produced using chili as its main ingredient, sambal is indeed taste extremely spicy.

Sambal is made by grinding ‘cabai’ or chili, along with several complements such as onion, cherry,  tomato, ‘terasi’, sugar, and salt. The ingredients are grinded using traditional tool made usually from wood or plastic. The texture is smooth with a vibrant color of green and red, depending on which chili you use.

Infamous among tourists for its spiciness, many tourists avoid it. However, some of them are challenged and try to eat it. Those who dare to try usually will get stomach ache or turn very red and sweaty in the face. Though super spicy, locals eat it in almost daily basis as their main meal.

In the Indonesian archipelago, there are as many as 300 varieties of sambal. The intensity ranges from
mild to very hot. Some varieties include:

Sambal andaliman
Similar to sambal lado mudo but with the addition of pepper.
Sambal asam
This is similar to sambal terasi with an addition of tamarind concentrate. Asam means tamarind or sour in
Indonesian.
Sambal bajak (badjak)
Banten sambal. Chili (or another kind of red pepper) fried with oil, shallot, garlic, terasi, candlenuts, palm
sugar and other condiments. This is darker and richer in flavor than sambal asam.
Sambal balad
Minangkabau style
sambal. Chili pepper or green chili is blended together with garlic, shallot,red or green tomato, salt and
lemon or lime juice, then sauteed with oil.
Sambal buah
(lit:fruit sambal) specialty of Palembang, made from the mixture of chili, shrimp paste, kemang (a type of 
mango) and pineapple.
Sambal cibiuk
a sambal recipe specialty of Cibiuk village, Garut Regency, West Java. It consist of coarsely chopped
and ground green bird's eye chili, green raw tomato, shallot, galangal, lemon basil, shrimp paste and salt.
Sambal colo-colo
From Ambon, it consists of Indonesian kecap manis (sweet soy sauce), chili, tomatoes bits, shallots and 
lime it has a chiefly sweet taste. It is suitable for barbecue dishes. Some variations will add butter or
vegetable oil to the sambal.
Sambal dabu-dabu
Dabu-dabu comes close to the Mexican salsa sauce, it is of Manado's origin.
It consists of coarsely chopped tomatoes, calamansi or known as lemon cui or jeruk kesturi, shallots,
chopped bird's eye chili, red chili, basil, poured with hot vegetable oil, salt.
Sambal durian or Sambal tempoyak
It is made from fermented durian called. The fermentation process takes 3 to 5 days.
The chili and the tempoyak may be readily mixed or served separately, to cater the individual preference
in ratio of chili to tempoyak to determine the scale of hotness. This sambal IS available in
two varieties: raw and cooked. In the cooked variety, pounded chilis, shallots and lemongrass are
stir-fried with anchovies, tempoyak and turmeric leaf (for aroma). Petai (Parkia speciosa) and tapioca
shoots are also frequently added. The sweet-sour-hot sambal can be found in Sumatra and Kalimantan
(Indonesian Borneo), especially in Palembang and Bengkulu, and also in Malay Peninsula.
Sambal gandaria
Freshly ground sambal terasi with shredded gandaria, a kind of tropical fruit native to Southeast Asia.