There is no “right” way to make sambal. Although there are over 200 different varieties of this spicy hot sauce in Indonesia alone, the chile pepper has been the sole common key ingredient in every recipe for centuries . Or so we thought. There’s evidence of sambal hundreds of years before the chile pepper arrived in Asia. So what the heck did they put in sambal back then? Watch the latest episode of Beyond the Menu to find out.
Thanks to Siska Silitonga, owner of ChiliCali, for taking us on a delicious sambal journey.
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About Beyond The Menu:
The story of the food on your plate is more than just the recipe. Each ingredient and every cooking technique goes back hundreds if not thousands of years, traversing the globe on a wildly delicious cross-cultural adventure. In KQED’s new digital food series Beyond The Menu, host Cecilia Phillips interviews chefs, authors, and other experts to dig up surprising facts on the cultural pathways of today’s most popular dishes. It’s a history show, it’s a mystery series, it’s a celebration of multicultural cuisine, sometimes it’s even a science program, all set against the backdrop of mouth-watering food cinematography.