More krupuk!

Mrs K has been going to the enormous Wembley Sunday Market for the last couple of weeks, mainly because one of the stalls is run by an acquaintance of our daughter. She hails from Wolverhampton and used to run an online Indonesian store tied to her real store, but that seems to have disappeared. But most Sundays she sets up stall flogging hard-to-find Indonesian treats, such as the krupuk pictured below.

The ones in the blue bag are a special treat - emping. These are crisps made from ground belinjau fruits (melinjau, belinjo) - there appears to be no English common name, but there's some botanical info on Wikipedia. Whatever they are, the result is delicious - not as hard as crisps, and with a slight bitter flavour.



Fried emping © Midori

  As for the other snacks in the picture, the best ones are those in the front centre - these are made to look like slices of tempeh, complete with bits of soya beans, and are Mr K's favourites.

The packet at the far right was a disappointment - they're large fish crackers, but tasted awful. During the cooking, Mrs K remembered another tip: before cooking krupuk, they should be dried. Mrs K usually puts them on a tray and leaves them outside for a few hours (if it's sunny). An airing cupboard would be just as good. Drying seems to make them a lot crispier.

Midlle left are some Srikandi brand krupuk, which are similar to the Sidoarjo ones mentioned in our earlier krupuk post. They taste very good and are enormous, and can be bought online at Wai Yee Hong.

At the rear left are some ready-made rice crackers. These are nice too, and save the hassle of cooking. All the products are imported from Holland, where there is a large Indonesian community (it was part of the Dutch empire for several centuries). One of these days we must to take a trip there...