Seblak
Seblak is a Sundanese savoury and spicy dish, originating from the Sundanese people in Indonesia. Made of wet kurupuk cooked with protein sources in spicy sauce. Seblak is a specialty of Bandung city, West Java, Indonesia. Seblak can be acquired from restaurants, warungs or gerobak street vendors. It is one of the most popular street foods in Indonesia, especially in Bandung and Jakarta.
Etymology
The word seblak may have originated Sundanese that is Nyeblak or surprising, because it tastes spicy and rich in spices. Seblak also refers to ingredients of Sundanese cuisine, made from cikur or Galangal.Ingredients
At first glance, the ingredients and the cooking method of seblak is quite similar to other common Indonesian food, such as mie goreng or kwetiau goreng, however seblak differs with the chewy gelatin-like texture of wet kurupuk, and is mostly quite spicy, owed to the generous addition of sambal chili paste. A customer might order the degree of spiciness of their seblak beforehand, although the default taste is quite hot and spicy. Almost all kinds of kurupuk can be made as seblak, but the most savoury version uses kurupuk udang. The wet kurupuk is boiled or stir fried with scrambled egg, vegetables, and other protein sources; either chicken, seafood, or slices of beef sausages or bakso, stir-fried with spicy sauces including garlic, shallot, kencur, kecap manis, and sambal chili sauce.Moisted kurupuk would shrunk into smaller size compared to crispy fried ones, thus a lot of kurupuks are required to make a bowl of seblak. Since kurupuk — especially prawn and fish crackers, are quite costly, the cheaper street food version usually add other carbohydrate sources as a filler in order to lessen the use of wet kurupuk, and to make it more satisfying. These extra carbs are slices of kwetiau and/or macaroni. Another popular variant uses chicken feet as one of main ingredients.
Origin
In earlier days, the term seblak refer to hot and spicy spice mixture made from ground cikur and chili pepper. It is also refer to a traditional hot and spicy crispy kurupuk crackers originate from rural southern Cianjur area before the independence era, this food was an alternative food, which is now called as seblak kering or kurupuk seblak. However, today it is mostly refer to its wet and savoury version; the seblak basah.Seblak is relatively a recent invention in Bandung, this new street food appeared in Bandung circa 2000s. It is suggested that the dish was originally started as a method to avoid wasting uneaten old kurupuk; a way to safely consume stale old kurupuk by cooking it with other ingredients, to make it more satisfying. Nevertheless, the pleasantly soft and chewy texture, also its savoury, rich and spicy taste, has made seblak a street food favourite in Indonesia, especially the Sundanese people.