Indonesia as a multicultural country has been known for its beauty and diversity. Every province has its own culture from language to food, which might be the reason why Indonesian foods are full of variety and yummy! What's your favourite Indonesian food? Do you know where it is from? Here ours : arsik ikan mas from Sumatra and babi guling from Bali.
Even though Indonesian food has plenty of variety, one thing for sure is that the characteristic of Indonesian foods is the SPICE. We love some fiery hot spicy food! Yeah, we do have sweet foods but nothing beats the rich taste of Rendang and spicy level of sambal.
Sambal is very famous to the point it has its own fans. These days not only sambal ijo is in the spotlight. But also, sambal matah gets to the top 3 favorite sambals in Indonesia. It’s a traditional Balinese sambal that is made using Kecombrang. Sambal Matah uses kecicang to make the aroma more exquisite. FYI kecicang is a Balinese language for Kecombrang.
Kecombrang (Etlingera Elatior) is known as torch ginger, wild ginger or torch lily. Torch ginger has been used in the culinary world since a long time ago. It gives spice and colour to food such as curries, fish-soups, salads, or sambals. It has a tropical, vibrant pink colour which attracts florists to use it in their floral arrangement. This plant is endemic to Southeast Asia and has been growing wild since ancient times. It's also used for medicinal purposes because it has an antibacterial and anti-inflammatory agent, magnesium, vitamin K, calcium, which is good for the respiratory and immune system. Moreover, the flowers are a good source of fiber to stimulate the digestive tract. The buds also provide antioxidants such as vitamin C to protect the body.
As there is so much benefit this plant offers, Toya Salt incorporates torch ginger into our flavoured sea salt variants. Toya Salt - Torch Ginger Sea Salt can be used to cook Nasi goreng (Fried rice), grilled snapper, sambal matah kecombrang or even as simple as sprinkling it on your mango sorbet. Yes, sprinkle it on your sorbet and thank us later! ;)
Don't forget to leave a comment below on - what's your favourite Indonesian food- because we will tackle the recipes for you!
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