Cuisine Of Indonesia

Sayur Asem (sour dish or tamarind dish) is a very popular vegetable soup dish in Indonesia. Several variations exist including Sayur Asem Jakarta (a version from the Betawi people of Jakarta), Sayur Asem Kangkung (a version which includes water spinach [kangkung]), Sayur Asem Ikan Asin (includes salted fish, usually snakehead murrel [ikan gabus]), etc.

Common ingredients of this cuisine are peanuts (kacang tanah), young jackfruit (nangka muda), Gnetum gnemon (melinjo), bilimbi (belimbing sayur), chayote (labu siam), long beans (kacang panjang), and tamarind (asem jawa). Quite often, the recipe also includes corn.

The sweet and sour flavour of this dish is considered refreshing and very compatible with fried dishes (like fried fish) and lalapan (a kind of vegetable salad, raw or cooked, usually raw), and in almost every occasion, usually eaten with sambal terasi.

This dish a little bit resemble Tom yam of Thai cuisine except that it uses vegetables rather than seafood.