I think asam payak is no stranger to the locals but I was so wrong. Apparently many don’t know what is asam payak. I tried to find details in Google and got many unrelated results. I can’t seem to find any details for it even wiki didn’t turn up in the result, that’s so odd. I blogged about it years back, now… I’ll blog about it again.
If you’re wondering how’s the taste, it’s sour, very sour but I LOVE it! ;p
In fact this “fruit” (I don’t know which category should it be) is used in many food in Malaysia such as asam laksa or umai. I don’t have much details to share with you. All I can tell you is that it’s sour, only available during its season, June and July(I think… Since I saw it a lot last month and mom bought it this month ;p).
The dish you see here is asam payak served with mixture of belacan, chili, anchovies, sugar and salt. The taste? Sour, salty, and spicy hahaha… Not sweet because less sugar was added and if you have too much sugar for it, it will not taste nice. The main thing to savour is the sourness. It can be served in other way as well but this is the usual way I eat my asam payak.
One word of advise, do not eat too much and when you have empty stomach, you’ll get stomachache.
do they have another name, salak fruit?
or in chinese, she pi guo?
annant, salak fruit is another type of fruit. The skin almost look alike but the shape is different and they taste different too.
I just loveee asam payak. I heard it can only be found in Sarawak. Dunno if its true,…
Irene, the pic makes me hungry la. cheer makan asam payak?
cyril, that’s what I heard too but not so sure.
wa….first time i see kch chinese ppl know how to eat asam payak + belacan + anchovy.
hahahah..its real nice actually this food, it can give you appetite when eating wif rice.
you can add more thing to the asam payak to mek it taste nicer its onion, put it in and mixed it together wifh belacan, asam payak, anchovy, salt and sugar.
kuchingmarket, I hate onions LOL… In fact anything can be added to suit one’s taste.
Eleiodoxa conferta is the scientific for asam payak. it is the fruit of a palm that grows in swamps.it is called asam kelubi in peninsular malaysia.the flesh is different from salak as it is soft and will stick to the seed.salak is from another species-salacca edulis. yellow skined asam payak is also called asam belalang by the iban people.it is named after the king cobra (ular belalang) which also has yellow skin. asasm payak plants are commonly used as landmarks to distinguish land boundries among longhouses.
yew yi, wow… thanks for sharing! Really couldn’t find these details online.
I think people in semenanjung called it buah kelubi… salak is another type of fruit…
nur, thanks for sharing.