"the day is not complete if you don't let sambal teach you a lesson"

August 15, 2018 5:15 PM

When my mom cooked sambal from scratch, she moved with controlled haste. Her eyebrows would furrow as she used her index finger to mix belacan, a pungent shrimp paste, with water. “Open all the windows!” she would suddenly yell, her warning to my brother, father and me that fiery chiles would be hitting her oiled wok in a few minutes.

Sambal, a Pungent Reminder of Home and Hardship (SLNYT)
posted by Lexica (13 comments total)

I’ve been on a clear-liquids-only diet for the last few days, and I am so hungry, so reading this was torture! But I’ve bookmarked it to try making some once I’m back on solid food. Yum!
posted by MexicanYenta at 6:06 PM on August 15, 2018

If you want to try a genuine Southeast Asian side dish combo: sambal (whichever you like but I'm used to plain or sambal belacan which is with toasted shrimp paste, the one mentioned in the beginning) + durian (fresh or fermented lightly with salt). I can go multiple rounds of rice with that.

If you're thinking of making some, the opening anecdote might not underscore it sufficiently enough: make sure your kitchen is well-ventilated. Open the windows, leave the hood at max, and make sure you have your oil splatter guard well-prepared. Cooking styles like this is why modern houses tend to have a dry and wet kitchen area, where the wet one is outdoors (until most of us started living in apartments/flats, most had no idea what's the point of kitchen hoods. But older hoods really couldn't cope with the pungent oils generated)
posted by cendawanita at 6:28 PM on August 15, 2018 [7 favorites]

There was this time I toasted belacan outside my apartment in Pittsburgh, on a small grill. The looks I got from passersby was as if I was barbecuing a rotting carcass.
posted by destrius at 6:54 PM on August 15, 2018 [4 favorites]

Outdoor kitchens are where it is at. The best way to cook in the US is outdoors with a grill and the specialization to get a truly hot flame (250K BTU) for the wok. Any cooking with fermented seafood products should be done outdoors. You cannot get the smell from the kitchen and lord help you if you have one of those big open floor plans where aromas cannot be contained. All those beautiful photos of interiors do not include smell-o-vision.
posted by jadepearl at 7:24 PM on August 15, 2018 [5 favorites]

Mmmm... saya mau!
posted by ChuraChura at 9:48 PM on August 15, 2018 [2 favorites]

*reminds self to dig out the belacan from the top shelf*
posted by infini at 10:25 PM on August 15, 2018

If you want to try a genuine Southeast Asian side dish combo: sambal (whichever you like but I'm used to plain or sambal belacan which is with toasted shrimp paste, the one mentioned in the beginning) + durian (fresh or fermented lightly with salt)

Sambal and durian together?? Sambal petai tastes so good though, so, in theory..

I have fond memories of setting my gastrointestinal system on fire with the 30 over varieties of sambal and sambal dishes at Waroeng Special Sambal in Indonesia. Mindnumbingly delicious.
posted by hellopanda at 11:22 PM on August 15, 2018

I picked up a jar of sambal oelek a while back. This is my favorite thing to do with it.
posted by bunderful at 4:48 AM on August 16, 2018 [3 favorites]

Sambal and durian together??

Do with the following as you wish, but growing up with that combo led me to one day contemplate, what if I have a bit of sambal on my cheese sandwich?

Delicious, is what. Mild cheddars work best for now on my palate.
posted by cendawanita at 4:51 AM on August 16, 2018 [1 favorite]

Oh yes, a little bit of sambal in a grilled cheese.
posted by lucidium at 5:27 AM on August 16, 2018 [1 favorite]

Going to try sambal ASAP. And the thing about durian reminds me that I still regret not trying some when I was in NYC. I had vague plans to take it up to the roof of my brownstone, because my roommate held the lease and, while he was slow to anger, well...
posted by Halloween Jack at 6:21 AM on August 16, 2018

It's been sixteen years since I returned home to Canada after a year in Malaysia, but I still think about it probably every day. Reading about sambal filled me with such longing and nostalgia. I wish I could afford to go back.
posted by arcticwoman at 8:22 AM on August 16, 2018

I love sambal oolek, basically use it as a better sriracha sauce, had no idea of it's history, cultural importance, or that it had fish anything involved in it.
posted by GoblinHoney at 8:33 AM on August 16, 2018