Seblak (Sundanese script: ᮞᮨᮘᮣᮊ᮪) is a Sundanese savoury and spicy dish, originating from the Parahyangan region in West Java, Indonesia. Made of wet krupuk (traditional Indonesian crackers) cooked with protein sources (egg, chicken, seafood or beef) in spicy sauce.
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 (
Kaempferia galanga).
Ingredients
At first glance, the ingredients and cooking method of
seblak is quite similar to other common Indonesian food, such as
mie goreng and
kwetiau goreng, however
seblak differ with the chewy gelatin-like texture of wet
krupuk, and mostly quite spicy, owed to generous addition of
sambal chili paste.
Customer might order the degree of spiciness of their
seblak priorly, although the default taste was quite hot and spicy. Almost all kinds of
krupuk can be made as
seblak, but the most savoury (and usually more costly) version uses
krupuk udang (
prawn crackers). The wet
krupuk is boiled or
stir fried with
scrambled egg, vegetables, and other protein sources; either chicken, seafood (prawn, fish and squid), or slices of
beef sausages or
bakso, stir-fried with spicy sauces including
garlic,
shallot,
kencur,
kecap manis (sweet soy sauce), and
sambal chili sauce.
Moisted krupuk would shrunk into smaller size compared to crispy fried ones, thus a lot of krupuks are required to make a bowl of seblak. Since krupuk — especially prawn and , are quite costly, the cheaper street food version usually add other carbohydrate sources as a filler in order to lessen the use of wet krupuk, and to make it more satisfying. These extra carbs are slices of shahe fen 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 (
Kaempferia galanga) 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 (dry
seblak) 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 krupuk; a way to safely (and pleasantly) consume stale old krupuk 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.
File:Seblak street vendor 1.jpg| Seblak cart street vendor
File:Seblak street vendor 3.jpg| Seblak ingredients
File:Seblak street vendor 4.jpg|Street vendor cooking seblak
File:Seblak street vendor 5.jpg|Cooking seblak
See also
External links
