Conimex from the Netherlands makes all the different Indonesian sambals - you can buy them in many specialty grocery stores. Various levels of heat and different types: baked, sweet, very hot, raw, etc. Lots of complexity in these sambals.
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i once worked a french restaurant owned by a dutch couple who had lived in indonesia. we had satay babi and sate ajam on the menu way before it got trendy in the u.s. there was dried shrimp paste in the marinade, and every single time he made it, the lunch chef would pinch a bit off and hold it under his nose and yell, Uggh, that smells just like dirty socks!
Growing up my grandma would cook sambal chills at our HDB corridor every Monday. My mom would start closing the door and windows when the paste hits the pot, but I definitely remember coughing and feeling like the air is stinging my eyes. Thank you for bringing back such fond memories for me. I would have my parents bring me a bottle of sambal whenever they visit.
Your depiction of your mother was beautiful. I was also pleasantly surprised to learn we have a couple of things in common: West Texas and sambal. I was born in Alpine and I always have a jar of sambal on hand, thanks to my son who introduced us to it after a year in Southeast Asia. A bowl of frijoles de la olla is especially delicious when topped with sambal.
I am lucky enough to be able to attest that your mom is an incredible cook, Natalie. I wish I’d had the opportunity to try her sambal—maybe it was too hot even for West Texas? Thank you for sharing this, and for putting it into cultural context. I can’t wait to try the recipes, and was thrilled to open up my favorite food section and see a picture of Rosni.
Some of the best sambal you can get in the US comes from this woman: https://www.samtanskitchen.com/
Thank you for this article, as well as for all the humanity it contains, and all the comments it brought up. Culture and history are contained in food, right?! In its own way, this is certainly a welcome antidote to the narrow-minded chauvinism emanating from you-know-where.
Mix sambal oelek with apricot jam, garlic, soy sauce and a splash of rice vinegar over low heat. Awesome wing glaze.
I'm excited that Indonesian/Malay food is getting more attention as of recent. The sambal I'd eat most often was very basic and made pungent with shrimp paste like a funkier and sharper sambal olek. But my favorite over the years has always been Dabu-Dabu, which has lots of fresh shallots and tomatoes, I first tried it in West-Timor and have sought it out in Indonesian warungs whenever possible. It's kind of a regional sambal and doesn't keep very well like the fermented kinds do, so it's not easy to find.
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Thank you for this article embracing the familial memories associated with the making of this delicious condiment from Southeast Asia.
But I would like to express my disappointment in the author for choosing one of the most ubiquitous and unoriginal dishes from the region to pair with the Sambal Tumis recipe. Mee Goreng is a prime example of the frequent and poor generalization of Southeast Asian cuisine, especially in Indonesia.
It is the persistent and ill-considered affiliation of dishes like Mee Goreng and Nasi Goreng to represent Southeast Asian cuisine that continue to stifle the true scope of the region's food. Because of this, traditional foods from the same villages referenced in this article cannot win the palates of Westerners and tourists in the region who have been conditioned to expect the expected — fried noodles and fried rice. As a result, these truly original dishes, often more healthy and using indigenous ingredients, will be lost because no one is interested, locals and foreigners alike.
Take Bose from Flores, Indonesia, a stew made with corn, beans, moringa and coconut milk. Or Kopu from Central Kalimantan, Indonesia, a rice-substitute made from cassava and grated coconut. Two dishes that sambal would complement perfectly.
If "there are more than 300 varieties of the spicy chile paste," then there would certainly be an equally (if not more) varied amount of Southeast Asian dish options to partner with sambal. Please consider them in the future.
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@Asli Food Project Hi! I'm the author of the NYT sambal piece. Thank you very much for reading and for your criticism. I chose "mee goreng" for a few reasons:
1) This is my mom's recipe and because she lives in rural West Texas, she has had to adapt to the ingredients that are available to her, which are very limited. She can't drive to bigger cities either because she doesn't have a DL. Her resourcefulness is emblematic of the immigrant experience.
2) Because of my mom's illiteracy, it can be incredibly challenging for us to recreate the more complicated dishes via phone calls. I'm currently dealing with a high-risk pregnant/living in NYC so I couldn't make a trip to Texas, bring ingredients, and watch her make a more elaborate dish. I wish I could've! (Next time.)
3) We're Singaporean (Malay by race), not Indonesian. As I'm sure you know, while the two countries' cuisines are closely related, there are quite a few nuances that set them apart as well. I know sambal has incredibly strong roots in Indonesia so I totally understand where you're coming from too.
4) Mee goreng is one of the dishes I miss the most from hawker centers in Singapore.
Please always feel free to reach out. I welcome your questions and critical lens. Thanks again for taking the time to read.
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@Asli Food Project There are a near infinite number of recipes that could have been paired with the recipe, but I'd say the vice-versa equivalent would be if a foreigner taught people about American food with a hot-dog recipe. I'd be disappointed because there's such greater things, but it wouldn't be far off the mark. Besides I love Mie Goreng... and hot dogs.
@Ed@Natalie Thank you for your words. The more discussion, the better.
My vantage point stems from my extended time in the region, particularly Indonesia, and concentrated effort to seek traditional dishes. Through this process, I have seen evidence of how ethnic cuisines across the country have been wiped out and replaced by Mie (and Nasi) Goreng. It is not to say that fried noodles are not representative of SE Asia; it is its over-representation that is doing damage to specific cultures.
While your parallel of others identifying hot dogs as American cuisine is accurate, America is not in danger of losing their cultural identity—a privilege of a 1st-world country—like the ethnic groups here. It is difficult "defining a cuisine that was never considered a cuisine at all by Western conquerors," as Ligaya Mishan wrote in her NYT Mag piece on Polynesian cuisine. So if media continues to define SE Asian cuisine as Mie Goreng, it is throwing away opportunities to elaborate on what more it is.
As a result, foreigners expecting Mie Goreng in this region adds to the lack of pride villages have regarding their true cuisine. I cannot tell you how many times I have squatted around wood-fire stoves with women in village kitchens, asking why they no longer make traditional food. "No one wants to eat them."
One way to create demand is if the media prompted their readership to realize what other options there are. The value added by this representation would have a profound impact here.
Thank you so much for the sambal tumis recipe. I grow ten different varieties of chilies and I'am always looking for a new recipe for a hot condiment. So far, despite the rain in central New jersey it's been a banner year for our chilies. We pickle a lot of our crop and use our Scotch bonnets for jerk. This many sound crazy but next time I grill a frankfurter besides the mustard and homemade sauerkraut I'm going to lace the top with this sambal tumis. Might use it on some grilled bluefish or in a jumbo shrimp cocktail too.
My absolute pleasure, @Jay Amberg. Yum, sambal tumis on a frankfurter sounds heavenly.
Azalina's is a must do when in SF
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My mother had a friend from the Punjab region of India, named Sorinda. She taught my mother to make "date sambal (sambar?), a hot spicy side dish that went well with lamb curry and chapatti. I have never found a recipe for this concoction. But I can taste it now, 50 years later. It was heaven on a plate.
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Just for the record, not only in Southeast Asia is Sambal a treasured gem, but in South Asia, too. I don't know about Myanamar, but Sri Lanka is famous for many kinds of stomach burning Sambals eaten with everything from rice to bread to string hoppers to iddli and dosai. I don't know if Tamil Sri Lankans brought it back from Malaysia to Lanka or what, b/c if that were the case then they would also have it in Tamil Nadu where they don't. Maybe the Sri Lankan Malays introduced. In any case, Sambal unites Tamils, Muslims, and Sinhalese Sri Lankans. Why its not called Chutney in S.L., I dont get, as its basically a kind of chutney, similar to the dish they do call chutney.
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Right on!!! Seeni Sambol changed my life. The unique addition of Maldive Fish (a tiny fish caught in Sri Lanka and dried) lends a flavor I have encountered nowhere else. I still dream of it.
PS Tempered potatoes. Am I right?
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"Most immigrants I know desperately miss their mother or grandmother’s cooking, and yearn for recipes that were never documented."
My mother made 100's of dishes all from scratch and never used a measuring cup or spoon.
I miss her dearly.
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'Sambal' is one of my favorite among other dishes such as 'maalu thiyal ( fish curry) , 'polos curry'. I miss these foods so much and I realized there are no any other foods to compare my home foods. probably you might know there are different types of sambal around South Asian countries. However in Sri Lanka we have this special ' pol(coconut) sambal' that most of people eat almost every days.Of course my mom also didn't attend to any cooking school to learn how to make sambal but i can't make it as same as her though i learned from her. I think it's really something wonderful that we all have this connection with some special foods. i wish it will be great if our future generations also get a chance to taste these kinds of foods that come from the past.
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I am surprised that the author makes no mention of sambal - popular with foods in South India - especially Madras or Tamil Nadu and even Kerala.
Sambal is a liquid curry that is offered with idlis, medu vadas and even dosas.
These saambals are liquid concoction with unbelievable spices and cooked with vegetables.
I still remember my mother's saambals when she made idlis at home.
I wish this author had made a connection to where sambals really originated.
I lived in Indonesia for ten years - my cooks never made sambals like they have in India - with no disrespect to this authors mother.
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@Neil: I think you are getting mixed up with sambar, the south Indian staple. You would think that the two share a common history, but googling did not turn up a simple common history. In fact, sambar itself might be a rather recent concoction of the Marathas according to some. This shook me up - growing in a home where sambar was eaten twice a day, I believed that it existed among the Tamils since time immemorial.
Does anybody know more about the historical connections between sambal and sambar? The foods are too similar to not share some history at some point...
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As a Srilankan Tamil, having grown up with both sambal and sambaar, I can't see any connection between the two. But I think there is probably a connection between sambal and the light green, almost white chutney that south Indians eat with dosa, idli, vadai, etc. That chutney to me, basically swaps the coconut with a type of roasted lentil, and adds water and/or yogurt to make it liquidy.
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Nice article, thank you. Sambal's use goes beyond Southeast Asian cooking: you can spread sambal oelek on a peanut butter sandwich and even add sliced cucumber, if you like. However, I am not sure ikan bilis and nasi lemak are known in Indonesia.
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Both are much appreciated throughout the archipelago; nasi uduk is primarily associated with Javanese cuisine.
A wonderfully written praise to all the varieties of chili. I envy those who love and easily digest these very hot spices and wonder of the biological advantage, if any, to the humans of eating them in the course of their evolution.
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Some scientists believe that chilies provoke an endorphin rush, which is why they become addictive. Evidence for them protecting people against food that has gone off is not convincing. Chilies came to Asia from South America via Portuguese sailors but Asians have made them their own. Malay sambals are wonderful.
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@ Daniel Hudson Paris
Thank you! "So spake a person from the gastronomic capital of the world". :--))