Life Style

Get an Ultimate Taste of Pecel Semanggi, a Typical Salad of Surabaya

Saturday, 24 December 2022 - 09:40
Get an Ultimate Taste of Pecel Semanggi, a Typical Salad of Surabaya The ultimate look of Pecel Semanggi. (Photo: Webdisplay)

TIMES JAZIRAH, JAKARTA – When foreign countries have their ppoopular vegetables salad then Indonesia has its ultimate salad they called as pecel. Especially in Surabaya,  they have Pecel Semanggi. This dish will bring you to enjoy the local delectable food in certain way. 
however, you will need to go downs the street and set those fancy lifestyle aside. For this dish commonly will only be found around the alley food shop, those street food vendors, or even those uncles with bamboo basket carried on their shoulder.
though it was considered as one street food kind of dish, this local treat has become a favorite for the local community of Surabaya. To them, this food brings them a legitimate taste of childhood memories. 

The Nature of Semanggi for the Salad

The name of the plant literally means as clover. It commonly grows on water and could be easily found in Southeast Asia. You could find this plant growing on a pond, bayou, or creek, where there was a shallow water in it.
Nowadays, some people have taken it as a chance. They grow this plants on their farm and make it as their business. Some local community who fond of semanggi will also grow it in front of their yard with a bucket or made their own small pond for it. 
Back then, people have to struggle and find this vegetable on the side of the farm, growing wild across the irrigation system. As for now, you could easily get it in the local farmer market or those grocery store or local food shop. 
some people will occasionally just add these vegetables on their menu daily. Steamed or stirred, they just love to have a slight taste of this cutie clover which lives on water or humid area. 

The Ultimate Recipe of Pecel Semanggi and How It was Presented

So, how does this dish present by the locals? weel. the local community tend to serve this vegetable with pecel or peanut sauce along with some other vegetables after being simmered. Aside of the clover, you will find some bean sprout, cassava leaves, agati flower, and long yard beans. 
Grab your very own sweet and spicy peanut sauce, boil all the vegetables for 3 to 5 minutes. Take a 15 centimeter long of banana leaves, put some rice or any stapple food you want. Spread the vegetables including the semanggi you have on top of it. Pour the peanut sauce. 
Why it has to be banana leaves? Well, banana leaves left some nice fragance on the rice especially when the rice was served when it was hot. The fragance stimulate you to eat more and more and make enjoying your dishes more. 
Despite of the bitter taste of the vegetable, Pecel Semanggi has left a typical local taste to your palate. For your information, the local community of Surabaya will add some mashed potato and dried shrimp into the peanut sauce and some crackers for the condiment. (*)

Writer :
Editor : Khodijah Siti
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