Sambal

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 a spicy, chili based sauce or relish that is popular in many countries across Southeast Asia, especially Indonesia and Malaysia. The sauce consists of ground or pureed chilies and may include small amounts of other ingredients such as citrus juice, shallots, fruit, salt, sugar, or other spices. Making this spicy chili paste is a way to preserve chilies and is often used when fresh chilies are not available.

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.

 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, Sambal asam, Sambal bajak (badjak), Sambal balado, Sambal buah, Sambal cibiuk, Sambal colo-colo, Sambal dabu-dabu, etc.

Traditionally sambal is used as an all-purpose condiment. It may be added to noodle dishes, soups, stews, meat, rice, and even eggs. Sambal can also be used to add heat and flavor to marinades, dips, sauces, and spreads.

The texture of sambal ranges from a coarse relish to a smooth puree. Traditionally, sambal is made using a stone mortal and pestle to grind the chilies and other ingredients into a paste.

The main use of chili is as a food supplement. Of course, the flavor is none other than spicy. However, for those who add a lot of mixture, will cause a reduction of the spicy taste itself. Some people use chili sauce just to add flavor when the dish they eat will not have the dominant taste.

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.

Incorrect Information:

1. Sambal isnt indeed taste extremely spicy, because i think there are many kind of sambal and every kind of sambal has a different taste.

2. Sambal isnt made by cherry, because it will taste sweeter. If you want to make a sweet sambal, you can put many tomatoes inside.

Source:
1. https://www.thespruce.com/what-is-sambal-1328449
2. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sambal