The Reasons Why Indonesians Love Spicy Food

Each countries and cultures have their own signature dish, it can be influenced by many factors, including the weather, plants, and even the colonization and trade.

For example, in Japan and Korea peninsula there is a signature dish which they called ‘cold noodle’, it usually eaten when summer come because the weather is hot and they need something to cool them off. In this article below contains the reasons why Indonesians love spicy food that much.

1. Chilies are Easy to Grow

Basically, the chili was not native to Indonesia. In the beginning of the colonization era, they brought chili from Southern America to Indonesia, as in Indonesia the chilies grows well, then the chili plants spread to around Indonesi.

It is caused the Indonesians use chili in most of their food, and it evolved as the most common ingredients in Indonesian cuisine. Indonesians even have different types of Indonesian sambal.

2. Love the Spicy Sensation

Since, the Indonesians love to add chili in their cooks, they became get used to the spicy food. Some of the Indonesians assume that non-spicy food is bland and tasteless.

However, it depends to each individual’s ability to overcome the spiciness in their food, some are thinking that one tbs of Sambal is already making the food burning and some are thinking that amount of Sambal is not enough.

3. Non-spicy Food is Considered Bland

Well, it can be a debatable topic whether the non-spicy food is tasteless, but for Indonesians who love spicy food they believe the spicy food is more tastier. Some Indonesians said that if you add sambal to your food, then your food became more delicious.

There are plenty of Indonesian spicy food from around the archipelago, each cultures have their own typical food. In this below article is the example of famous Indonesian spicy food.

• Rendang

Rendang is the most famous dish from West Sumatra, made of meat, coconut milk, spices, and of course chili! the unique thing about this dish is how long it made. In general, when you cook rendang it usually took about 7 hours or even more to make. Making it the must eat dish in Indonesia.

• Telur Balado

The word balado is actually the name of the type of the seasoning which famous in West Sumatra. Consists of chili and spices, it can be cooked to any food such as chicken, cassava chips, and chicken egg.

Telur balado is one of the side dishes in Indonesia, usually made of hard boiled chicken egg, even though the sunny side up egg version is also popular.

• Seblak

This dish is coming from West Java, seblak is one of the common street food in Indonesia. It is made from kerupuk or crackers which soaked in the water before cooking.

The spicy came from the broth, as it is used many chilies to make it spicy. However, there is type of seblak which does not include the broth, known as ‘seblak kering‘, but do not worry the taste is still spicy.