Asam Sunti: Acehnese Dried Sour Carambola
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Origin
Not yet written for this entry.
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Description
Asam sunti — salted, sun-dried miniature carambola (starfruit) — is unique to Acehnese (North Sumatran) cooking. Wongso identifies it as an exceptional ingredient that is virtually unknown outside Aceh. The small carambola are salted, dried in the sun until they are shrunken, dark, and intensely concentrated, then used as a souring agent in Acehnese curries and sambals — providing a fruitier, more complex acid than tamarind.
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The Thread
—Dried lime (loomi) in Persian/Iraqi cooking (same concept of drying a sour fruit to concentrate its acid), kokum in South Indian cooking (same dried-fruit souring agent)
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Flavour Context
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