Traditional Foods Indonesia

                                            Traditional Food "Pempek Palembang"

 

      Pempek is the best-known of Palembang's dishes.  Its origin is undoubtly Palembang, however the history behind the creation of this savoury dish is unclear.

According to local tradition, around the 16th century there was an old Chinese immigrant who lived near the Musi river. He noticed an abundance of fish caught by the local fishermen. In the Sumatran tropical climate, before the invention of refrigeration technology, most of these unsold leftover fish decayed and were wasted.

            The indigenous people, however had limited knowledge and techniques for processing fish. During that period, most of the indigenous people simply grilled, fried or boiled their fish instead of adding other ingredients to make new dishes. The old Chinese man mixed in some tapioca and other spices, which he then sold around the village on his cart. The people referred to this old man as 'pek-apek, where apek is a Chinese slang word to call an old man. The food is known today as empek-empek or pempek.

            Another theory suggests that pempek was a Palembang adaptation of Southern Chinese ngo hiang or kekkian (fish slice) as a surimi  based food. But instead of being served in soup or plainly fried, pempek is notable for its spicy palm sugar-vinegar based sauce.

                                                         Traditional Food

                                                                            Gado - gado

          

             Gado-gado (Indonesian or Betawi), also known as Lotek (Sundanese and Javanese) is an Indonesian salad of boiled vegetables served with a peanut sauce dressing.

Gado-gado is different from lotek atah or karedok which uses raw vegetables. Another similar dish is the Javanese pecel.

            Gado-gado is thought to have originally been a Sundanese dish. It is widely available from hawkers carts, stalls (warung) and restaurants and hotels in Indonesia; it is also served in Indonesian-style restaurants worldwide. Though it is customarily called a salad, the sauce is a larger component of gado-gado than is usual in Western-style salads; the vegetables should be well coated with it.

            Formerly, gado-gado sauce was generally made to order, sometimes in front of the customers to suit their personal preference for the amount of chili pepper included. However, particularly in the West, gado-gado sauce is often prepared ahead of time and in bulk, Gado-gado sauce is also available in dried form, which simply needs to be rehydrated by adding hot water.

Gado-gado sauce is not to be confused with satay sauce, which is also a peanut sauce.

                                                           Fried Rice

 

          Favorite food is fried rice, because fried rice is a dish of steamed rice stir-fried in a wok, often mixed with other ingredients, such as eggs, vegetables, and meat. It is sometimes served as the penultimate dish in Chinese banquets, just before dessert. As a homemade dish, fried rice is typically made with leftover ingredients (including vegetables, meat) from other dishes, leading to countless variations.

Usually I cook fried rice to breakfast. Fried rice is favorite food my family. Fried rice is very delicious.                                                                             

                                                                                     Amplang 

            My favorite food is amplang. While trying to pronounce the strange sounding word correctly several times, I reached out for the amplang on the table.

Biting into the crunchy snack, my taste buds began to digest its intense burst of flavour.

“It’s different, isn’t it?”

Amplang is a traditional fish snack served in Samarinda, Indonesia and in the coastal area of Sandakan and Tawau in the states of Sabah in East Malaysia.

“Ah…I see,” I reached for another one of the amplang fish crackers.

Hollow, yellow and puffed up just about sums up these small, squarish crackers.

            The amplang fish cracker is made from mackerel mixed with tapioca flour, starch, garlic, egg, sugar and salt. It is then deep-fried until crispy.

Unique in size and taste, these delightful deep-fried fish crackers are commonly made and found in the East Coast of Sabah, especially in Tawau.

            When cooled, it is packed in plastic, and sold in several sizes such as 250 grams to 1 kilogram.  It is later sold to other parts of Sabah including Sandakan and Kota Kinabalu.yummy!

Traditionally a local snack eaten by families during afternoon tea, it can now be eaten anytime throughout the day.

If you know of anyone visiting Sabah or Samarinda, do ask them to bring back a pack (or two) of delicious amplang fish crackers!