Cheap And Delicious Indonesian Ikan Penyet Siakap And Sambal

Since I live in Malaysia, there are so many opportunities to try Indonesian food. I can simply go to an Indonesian restaurant run by an Indonesian, or I can eat Indonesian food that is commonly found here as it has already naturally settled in the Malaysian food scenes. One of the most common foods is penyet(Ayam penyet or Ikan penyet). In Indonesian Javanese, “penyet” means “pressed”, so ayam penyet or fish penyet means “pressed chicken or pressed fish”. It is believed that this penyet dish originated in East Java, where the Indonesia’s second biggest city “Surabaya” is located.

It can’t be denied that the whole set of the penyet in a glance looks incredibly appetizing. The reason is that either chicken penyet or fish penyet is typically served with freshly made spicy sambal sauce, and daily meat broth soup, and some healthy vegetables such as long beans, cabbages, cucumber slices. It also comes with a fried tofu and my all time favorite indonesian food “tempeh“, which is made with fermented soybeans.

Crispy deep-fried chicken and fish are gently mashed in a mortar to make the meat soft and flavorful. The color of the fried fish is marinated in turmeric, a yellow spice, to make it deliciously yellow. In particular, when plating, a lot of crunchy deep-fried crumbs or broken batter pieces are piled up on top of the crispy fish.

Of course, the ayam penyet or Ikan penyet comes with some spicy sambal sauce and a daily soup. Sambal sauce is usually made by mixing the shrimp paste called “belacan“, spicy chillies, anchovy fish sauce, tomatoes, onions, garlic, and tamarind or lemon juice for a sour taste. If I taste the sambal sauce, I can tell whether it is made by hand at the restaurant by putting all these ingredients in a mortar and grinding it. As such, sambal sauce is a very important side dish in Indonesian food, and it is like kimchi to Koreans.

Last Christmas I went to a shopping mall called Curve Mall in Mutiara Damansara for Christmas shopping. At Tesco, which is adjacent to the shopping mall, I missed dinner time because I spent too much time trying to buy cheap and discounted products.

So I thought that it would be better to eat outside and go home than to go home late and have a very late dinner. So, after paying for the grocery, I went straight to the food court of the Tesco supermarket, which I usually go to after the grocery, without much thought.

The food court is lined with small booths selling about ten different kinds of food. For example, there are Malay food, Chinese food, Indian food, some typical western food, Indonesian food, Arabic food, asian noodles, Thai food, fish cakes, freshly chopped fruits and sweets, drinks, etc.

It’s past 8pm and the food in some shops is already sold out. So I decided to choose from a noodle shop, Indonesian food, or Chinese food.

In the end, I stopped in front of an Indonesian restaurant because I loved Indonesian food so much and I wanted to eat spicy sambal sauce. Foods such as nasi padang were also served on plates and placed in glass displays. The main dishes are fish or chicken items topped with spicy sambal sauce.

I can choose from the food displayed inside the glass partition, but the freshness was questionable because it was displayed all day. So I decided to choose from the menu. There are not many kinds of set menus on the separately prepared menu, but there are enough types that can be eaten warmly for one meal.

I decided to eat fish from among the items on the menu: beef, chicken and fish. But it was hard for me to decide whether to cook the fish in tomato sauce, coconut curry, or deep-fried. So I asked the Indonesian staff to choose the food they could make that was the most delicious to eat right now.

All three very cheerful and friendly Indonesian staff agreed and recommended Ikan penyet to me. As mentioned above, Indonesian fried fish is a popular dish that everyone loves in Malaysia.

Since it’s a food court, I can sit anywhere, but I sat right in front of the corner of an Indonesian restaurant because the table was empty. I put all my groceries on one chair and put the bag on it.

Then I took off the mask I had been wearing all day, stretched out, and took a deep breath. I looked at the time and it was already 8:30, and after waiting for about 15 minutes, a delicious set of fish dishes was placed in front of me.

In particular, the yellow, crispy batter is not thick, but very lightly coated. The local fish called siakap is fried quickly at high heat, so it doesn’t taste that greasy. Rather, I asked for more of those small, crispy fried pieces on top of the fish. And the back of the fish has three slits to ensure that the inside is cooked properly.

The aroma of yellow turmeric from fried fish delighted my nose. But what was more intense than the smell of fried fish was the smell of sour, fishy, and fermented sambal sauce that spreaded through my nose so strongly. The charm of sambal sauce, which I can’t resist even before tasting it, is because of its sharp smell.

It’s the scent of sambal sauce that I want to eat whenever I crave Indonesian food! Like the locals, I ate the fish head to tail using my hands.

It’s really hard to describe the taste of eating delicious fried fish penyet dipped in this pungent sambal sauce. The freshly fried siakap fish meat was so moist, flavorful and juicy without being greasy, and it was still warm until finished.

As always, I ran out of sambal sauce while eating, so I asked the staff for more and I was able to enjoy two bowls of sambal sauce. And when I had white rice, soup, cucumber, tofu, and tempeh that came with it, I was happy to be able to dip it all in my favorite sambal.

All of these dishes cost RM8, which is less than US$2. It was such a hearty dinner that I felt so good to be able to enjoy this authentic Indonesian fried fish “Ikan Penyet” made on the spot at this price. I’m already excited about going to get this delicious Indonesian food as soon as the coronavirus restrictions are lifted in Malaysia.

<Address>
Medan Selera Tesco Mutiara Damansara
1st floor, Tesco Extra, No. 8, Jalan PJU 7/4, Mutiara Damansara, 47800 Petaling Jaya, Selangor

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As proof of my love for Indonesian food, watch more food travel videos from Indonesia.