My beloved partner The Picky Eater has joined the crowd of exorbitant chilli lovers in Indonesia for her new love of Maicih chips.

What is Maicih?

Maicih is a hot new trend just recently happening, and by hot I don't mean figuratively, as the name itself implies a line of very hot snacks that includes crackers and chips, guaranteed to satisfy Indonesian appetite for super hot food.

I considers Maicih as a successful revival, especially of an old trend, the "kurupuk lada", or popularly known as "kurupuk bondon" snack that used to be popular in Bandung and its surrounding cities three decades ago.

Stringy crunchy and very hot, kurupuk lada/bondon usually incorporates the bright purplish pink coloring only attainable through artificial flavoring -- which many suspects were not even food-grade coloring. But we're young, it sold virtually everywhere in every warung and kios in Bandung, and health concern often took a back seat against monetary concerns, especially since for a good 25 rupiah we could get a plastic full of amazing treat from this highly addictive hot umami (and a bit bitter from the coloring) snack. As comparison, a plate of baso tahu costs about 150 rupiah back then, and it is 7K now; 1 USD equals with 200 IDR and it's about 9K now.

By the way, it's probably the only public-acceptable use of the word "bondon" outside of adult-only talks, for its negative connotation: it's the notorious alias for a hooker in those ages. The more decent name for the snack is "Gurilem". I'm not sure how the term came up but I can still remember the line-art drawings on the chip's label depicting a girl with overly make up and accessories -- which I believe was drawn with something beautiful in the artist's mind, but came out looking cartoon like with strange proportion. Perhaps the name itself mimics the brassy visualization both the profession and the snack shares.

Why Maicih?

At present, Maicih line of products does not contain only gurilem, but also other kind of cassava chips seasoned with dry chilli powder and other seasoning; interestingly Maicih also provide it at different level of hotness; 10 is the hottest, and only a few can actually enjoy that level of scorching.

As for the name itself, Reza Nurhilman, its creator reveal that "Maicih" emerges from his memory of an old lady who he often encountered back in his childhood upon accompanying his mother to the local traditional market.

At the time of the product launch, people queued for a kilometre long: it's roughly two thirds of a mile, but usually it's used as a general figure to describe "very long" since Indonesian are more familiar with metrics measurement. The product itself gain its popularity not by conventional marketing but through Twitter, isn't it amazing?

However, due to an internal family dispute, starting July 2011 there are two versions of Maicih available on the market, each with the exactly same name but with a different logo: the side-facing one are managed under Reza Nurhilman, while the front-facing one are managed under Dimas Ginanjar Merdeka, Reza's older brother.

To avoid the "original vs. fake" debate, for differencing I will refer to the first one as "Maicih-S" with the "S" stands for "Side-facing" or "Sisi" in its Bahasa Indonesia counterparts, and the other one as "Maicih-F" with the "F" stands for "Front-facing" or "Frontal" which is also used in Bahasa Indonesia.

Maicih-S

Maicih logo Reza Nurhilman version

With over 80 distributors over Indonesia, Maicih products under Reza Nurhilman management are also available outside Indonesia in Singapore and Japan, though distribution are still severely limited due to a very high delivery cost from Indonesia. However Reza also mentioned that his vision includes internationalizing Maicih, so perhaps you can expect it to reach Australian and US's shores sometimes in the near future.

With only after a year in operation, Reza already claimed an omzet (sales volume) of 4 billion IDR per-month. That's about 450.000 USD.

You can read Reza Nurhilman story on how he build his business in this article from Vivanews. It's in Indonesian but you can always relies on Google Translate to make it more understandable in English.

Maicih-S website is http://www.maicih.co.id, and he tweets under http://twitter.com/infomaicih.

Maicih-F

Maicih logo Dimas Merdeka version

Focusing more on quality and community support, Maicih products under Dimas Merdeka takes sales & distribution on a slower pace; focusing on Bandung as its baseline first, and actively participating in environmental, and art & culture programs, i.e.: sponsoring music tour of indie music groups.

Dimas believes that quality is of utmost importance hence they only produces what they can maintain good QC on, which is about 5,000 packages a day.

Dimas creates paper repackaging, provides clear product information including ingredients and nett weight, he also certifies Maicih products to have legal registration number from the government, as well as Halal certification from LPPOM-MUI.

Maicih-F website is http://www.maicih.com, and he tweets under http://twitter.com/maicih.

What's in the name of Maicih?

The term "Maicih" itself can be further dissected into "Ma" and "Icih", where Ma is short for "Ema" or mother in Sundanese, and Icih is among the common old traditional women name in Sundanese, along with Odah, Ucu, Enok, Eneng, Euis, etc.

Eating Maicih

If you have a fire-resistant mouth and strong stomach, Maicih might be an ideal snack for you. As for myself, even with two years eating Balinese very spicy foods, I still lacked way behind in capcaisin resistance -- the thing in chilli peppers that causes the burn -- compared with most of my eating buddies hence I only dare to eat Maicih along with my rice meal, or it will causes an upset stomach.

Else, have a glass of cold milk ready by your side, or yoghurt, as they both contain casein that binds the capcaisin better than your mouth's walls, quickly relieves you from the pain.

Alternatively you could also try rich in fat desserts and drinks, e.g.: banana split, avocado juice, es cendol, bajigur, or es goyobod, as capcaisin dissolves in fat instead of water; for the same reason, ice cold water won't help much as it would only numb your nerves for a while without really removing the hazardous capcaisin. (byms)

Yesterday we had a lunch at Nasi Ayam Ibu Oki in Uluwatu, Southern Bali. For those of you not quite familiar, Nasi Ayam is a local Balinese dish consisted of rice and chicken cooked in various types; betutu style, fried, as satay, and as satay lilit to say the least. Accompanied by the hot and refreshing sambal matah, it's a dish that will hold respect and love in the heart of hot food lovers.

It was my 3rd exposure to the same meal at ibu Oki, and I can say pleasingly that they had maintained the quality quite well over time. Well it's not surprising since they have been around for years, but I'm just glad that there are eateries who keep their consistency of quality thus live up to their legendary statuses.

This is due especially since our pick of nasi pedas, Bu Anik, which we usually held in high respect and we promote as better than bu Andika, has failed miserably last time we tried them, which was the night before our visit to Ibu Oki, hence the memory is still clear.

Though they now has (again) improve their business with providing permanent eating place renting the whole store they usually use only the front yard at nights, the food quality is badly amateurish:

1. The crispy chicken skin fries, which was the highlight of their place is now drenched in oil and has no more melting in your mouth consistency level, simply awful, you can go to Carrefour to have a much much better version of skin fries there
2. The crunchy salted fish, who was also a strong suite of the place, is now tasted dull and has zinc-plate consistency, hence eating it is like chewing a piece of thin metal and when you do able to bite them, they cracked with sharp points that pinches your mouth, it's almost like that they don't cook it
3. The shredded chicken is now as tough and rubbery as toughest and rubberiest chicken we ever tasted
4. The standard "campur" package now costs 15K instead of the regular 10K, but we didn't see any major difference nor both the chicken floss and the winter melon curry in our dishes
5. Hygiene related: I noticed one of the waiters (man) is carrying around a bowl (that I really hope is not filled with any food), coughing into it on the way to the back of the building, and continue smoking afterward

As I understand that glitches in both service and quality happens, in this case I think that Nasi Ayam Ibu Anik had degraded its level significantly that creates the "we wonder if we were eating at the same place" kind of confusion.

Discussing with peer diners, we're thinking that there are only two possible explanations for why this is happening:

1. The original cook resigned, they downgrade their quality to cut cost due to the increase in chilli pepper price, while at the same time increase their price to raise money for space rent (bad combo)
2. The brand has been hijacked 

Neither options, we'll stop recommending Nasi Pedas Ibu Anik until further notice, and would apply the status "eayor" or "Eat at your own risk". (byms)

Among Bali local tourists, there's this little hidden secret; if you wan't to eat something good and unique in Kuta, not to mention cheap, try the Nasi Pedas (Hot Rice).

Nasi Pedas is a fiery hot dish of rice and its variety side-dishes. In essence, Nasi Pedas is practically one of the common Balinese goodies known as Nasi Campur (mixed rice dish), but instead of consisting regular Balinese ingredients like Sate Ikan Laut or Ayam Betutu, they focuses on varieties of chicken cooking like the deep fried chicken skin, shredded chicken, chicken floss, and hard boiled egg in Balado style. The hotness is achieved through incorporating "cabai merah", the regular fresh red chili in the cooking; and also inclusion of "cabai rawit" or internationally known as the bird eye chili. While the red chili gives the warm sensation, it is usually the bird eye chili that pack the punch.

On the Scoville scale, bird eye chili measured to have about 50.000 to 100.000 scoville units, and once was listed in Guiness Book of World Records as the hottest chili in the world. Even though the record now is held by Indian Bhut Jolokia, it doesn't loose its potential.

But fear not, as the regular side dishes usually contains only a low to medium heat; comparably weak to local standards, especially those that are dried and don't have the chili eyes; the warm sensation will adds to your appetite instead. The serious pack will comes from the stand-alone sambal, which usually are designed to meet those crazy sharp pungent fetish standard. Now that will gave you a brushed wound sensation, not to mention upset stomach for those who are not familiar to "real" Indonesian food. Watch out for those sambals.

Without the sambal, the dish is suitable for general audience, though you got to have some liking for the hotness.


Places Option

Considered famous among the Nasi Pedas fans, are the Nasi Pedas Bu Andika stall, that located in Jl. Raya Kuta. Now lets not get confused here, as Jl. Raya Kuta is not near the Kuta beaches. It's a road parallel to the beach road, about two blocks away to the east, that stretches North to South and filled with eateries and shops, including the famous Joger shirt store; this is the place to hunt for local foods. Nasi Pedas Bu Andika located not far across from this Joger shop, just ask around and you wont miss it.

Another worth mentioning option, is the Nasi Pedas Bu Anik, located north most of the Jl. Raya Kuta, just befor the Pasar Kuta (Kuta traditional market).

Though smaller in place, the cooking is considerably better here, with considerably cheaper price also. A set of Nasi Pedas here will cost you about 10K, while at Bu Andika, around 15K or more to have the similar choices of variety included.

You may find both of the locations here at the Indonesia Food Map: http://tinyurl.com/petamakanbali

What's also a champion from Nasi Pedas Bu Anik is their kulit ayam goreng, or the deep fried chicken skin; it is crispy, crunchy and melt in your mouth kind, with just mild chicken aroma, unlike others that usually is thick, hard, and has no significant flavor or instead has strong unpleasant odor.

When you're eating in diverse group, then around Nasi Pedas Bu Andika there are little variety of food to choose from, but around Nasi Pedas Bu Anik there are several "warung" (roadside food stalls) available to choose from. But set your timing accordingly, as Bu Andika opens 24 hours, while Bu Anik opens only at night. Selamat menikmati! (bon appetite!) (bay)