Pecel Lele

Jakarta and Central Java, Indonesia (warung street food tradition)

Pecel lele is one of Indonesia's most popular and affordable street foods: deep-fried catfish (lele = catfish) served with a distinctive sambal made from ground raw bird's eye chillies, shallots, and tomatoes, accompanied by steamed rice, raw vegetables (cucumber, kemangi basil), and sometimes tempeh or tofu. The catfish is marinated in coriander, garlic, and salt, then fried whole in palm oil at 175°C until the skin is crackling crisp and the meat at the bone flakes easily. The sambal for pecel lele is notably different from other sambals — made fresh, uncooked, with a bright, aggressive raw chilli heat and the clean acid of tomato that has not been concentrated by cooking. It is made to order at the warung's stone mortar.

The combination of crisp-skin fish, raw chilli sambal, and kemangi is one of the most vivid flavour memories in Indonesian street food; steamed white rice absorbs the sambal's oil and chilli.