The Unofficial Cook

I ran out of Filipino cooking staples, fish sauce (patis) and soy sauce (toyo) and went to my local Filipino Store on South Academy Boulevard here in the Springs.? Since I am determined to start cooking  more Indonesian recipes, the plan was to stop by another Asian grocery in the area to pick up the essential ABC Kecap Manis.

Well, lo and behold….the Filipino Sari-Sari Store had it right there in their shelves and I didn’t have to go around looking!

Here’s a photo of two important Indonesian ingredients. Kecap Manis and Fried Red Onions.

I also saw Kue Lapis (Indonesian Layer Cake) and different sambal sauces at the store but didn’t get any.  I use the Chinese Chili Garlic sauce for spicy Asian recipes and I think this will do for my Indonesian dishes.

Kecap Manis is the all-essential ingredient in various Indonesian recipes like the popular Sate, Bakar (grills) and Nasi Goreng.  Kecap can be sweet or salty.  The ingredient Indonesians call Kecap Asin  is actually fish sauce that is popular all over Southeast Asia.  From my past experience shopping around Indonesian wet markets, Indonesian cooking does not use it as much as kecap manis. It was always a Chinese-Indonesian vendor who kept it in stock.

Kecap is actually of Chinese origin.  The theory is the Chinese brought it over to Malaysia and Indonesia. I do find some similarities between kecap manis and the Chinese oyster sauce.  The Western “ketchup” is said to have derived from this Oriental sauce through Europe.  Interestingly, a Cantonese translation of tomato ketchup would be fan kae-jup.  For the longest time, ketchup was always associated as an all-American sauce….how amazing that it’s roots go back to China.

The Fried Red Onions is a common topping for almost every Indonesian dish.  This one I got is from Thailand.  I think it’s deep-fried cause it’s always nice and crisp.  However, I’ve never seen any Indonesian cook actually doing that.  Crisp, fried onions seemed to be commercially available anywhere and this is what Indonesians use.

It was exciting to get these ingredients so far away from exotic Indonesia, right here in the eastern plains of Colorado.  You’ll see a post on Nasi Goreng and Sate Ayam here really soon.  I can’t wait to get cooking!