Sambal Ulek /Oelek

[liuzhou]

Over this weeks’ 5 day public holiday, I met three of my ex-students from Jakarta who were revisiting their old overseas university here in Liuzhou. With their help, I think I got to the bottom of the sambal oelek controversy. They confirmed the name is Indonesian but in the old spelling introduced by the Dutch. In Modern Indonesian it is ‘ulek’ or ‘ulekan’.

 

It refers to the pestle in the mortar and pestle combo. Cobek is the mortar and ulek is the pestle. It also refers to both the grinding action and the resulting ground stuff. It is basically chillies ground with salt. So chilli paste. The results are used in Indonesia as the basis for other sambals or in other dishes by itself.

 

One student told me her grandmother was known as ’Mother Ulek’ in her village for her skills with the sambal making.

 

Some industrial producers use the old spelling oelek in the same way many do with Chinese by using the outdated transliteration system which refers to what is known as gongbao chicken in China by the name kung po or similar in the west.

 

 

American Sambal Oelek.

 

 

Edited yesterday at 09:06 AM by liuzhou (log)

[KennethT]

Interesting.  Thank you.  I knew that the pestle was called an ulek but I never made the connection to that and oelek.

[liuzhou]

27 minutes ago, KennethT said:

Interesting.  Thank you.  I knew that the pestle was called an ulek but I never made the connection to that and oelek.

 

Me neither.

 

[KennethT]

3 hours ago, liuzhou said:

It also refers to both the grinding action and the resulting ground stuff. It is basically chillies ground with salt. So chilli paste. The results are used in Indonesia as the basis for other sambals or in other dishes by itself.

Did they mention how common it was for people to use the raw paste as a condiment by itself?  I think I've seen something like it as a condiment to soto ayam (chicken soup) - I strongly remember a nuclear hot orange ground chilli in Jogjakarta.  I didn't think about it at the time (it was one of our first trips to Indonesia) but I couldn't tell you if it was just chillies and salt or if there were other ingredients.  It definitely wasn't fried, but I wouldn't know if the chillies had been blanched prior to grinding.  I'm curious as to how popular it is when compared with other sambal.  Is it mainly used at home because it's not a lot of work like other sambals can be?

[Duvel]

38 minutes ago, KennethT said:

Interesting.  Thank you.  I knew that the pestle was called an ulek but I never made the connection to that and oelek.

The dutch pronunciation of „oe“ is what you would pronounce „oo“ (like in the word school) or „u“ in Bahasa (or German 🙃)…

[KennethT]

Just now, Duvel said:

The dutch pronunciation of „oe“ is what you would pronounce „oo“ (like in the word school) or „u“ in Bahasa (or German 🙃)…

Thanks!  I'm laughing like a loon right now.  If I had known that, it could have saved a lot of trouble!!!!

[liuzhou]

1 hour ago, KennethT said:

Did they mention how common it was for people to use the raw paste as a condiment by itself?  I think I've seen something like it as a condiment to soto ayam (chicken soup) - I strongly remember a nuclear hot orange ground chilli in Jogjakarta.  I didn't think about it at the time (it was one of our first trips to Indonesia) but I couldn't tell you if it was just chillies and salt or if there were other ingredients.  It definitely wasn't fried, but I wouldn't know if the chillies had been blanched prior to grinding.  I'm curious as to how popular it is when compared with other sambal.  Is it mainly used at home because it's not a lot of work like other sambals can be?

 

Not in any detail - just that it is used that way. I got the impression it's used more at home. yes.

I'd ask but they are on a plane heading back to Jakarta right now.

 

 

Edited 23 hours ago by liuzhou (log)

[KennethT]

Upon further reflection, I'm thinking about the language.  From what I understand from when I was looking to get one while in Indonesia, the mortar/pestle combination was called cobek/ulekan.  Ulek meaning to grind or ground, and adding the "an" at the end makes it the noun - the thing doing the grinding.  Similar to the word goreng which means fried (ayam goreng = fried chicken) and gorengan is "fried food".

Edited yesterday at 12:40 PM by KennethT (log)

[liuzhou]

57 minutes ago, KennethT said:

Ulek meaning to grind or ground, and adding the "an" at the end makes it the noun

 

Yes. That is a common feature of several languages. In Mandarin 子 (zi) is added to many words to nominalize them. We do the same in English. For example we add -ness to adjectives to make words like laziness.

 

 

Edited 23 hours ago by liuzhou (log)